Rule Update, Rule Reminder, and New Automod Function

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Hi all. We've had a few issues recently that have necessitated a slight rule clarification, and we've also noticed an increased frequency in violations of another long-standing rule.

First off is the updated Rule 8

Rule 8: Giveaways are ONLY Giveaways, no asking for anything in return, that defeats the purpose. This includes everything from pokemon to karma to favors. All giveaways must also take place within this sub. Trying to advertise by getting people to visit another site or take part in some task is not allowed. All contests should be done here.

Lately, there have been a number of people who have started pushing the limits of what a giveaway should entail. As the name implies, its simply to give something away with the expectation of nothing in return. One practice that has become more frequent as of late is people trying to advertise through giveaways by pointing you to another site or sub as part of the giveaway process. This is not allowed here. Giveaways are not to be used as advertisement. All parts of the giveaway need to occur here on this subreddit. All contest games need to take place within the thread itself.

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Next is a reminder on Rule 9

Rule 9: Full Disclosure is REQUIRED. All important information about the pokemon you are giving away must be stated. This includes information such as if it is RNG'ed, from a ROM, hacked, cloned, edited, etc. Any Giveaways of hacked or cloned Pokemon MUST STATE IN THE TITLE that they are. If you're caught trying to giveaway hacked Pokemon as legit, you will be banned.

There have been a LARGE number of threads that have been completely ignoring this rule lately. YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST DISCLOSE IF SOMETHING IS HACKED OR CLONED IN THE TITLE OF YOUR POST. If you see something that looks suspicious but is not marked, please report it and let the mods know immediately. If you forget to note it in the title but you say something in the body, your post will be removed and you'll be asked to resubmit, but if you leave it out completely, you will be banned per the rule.

*edit to include cloning

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Lastly, a function has been added to automod to search for friend codes of users that have been banned from r/pokemontrades or r/svexchange. When it finds a code, it will simply post a comment letting everyone know that they are banned there. A recent thread discussed the idea of simply banning them all here as well, however the conclusion was reached that they can still participate here as long as they follow our rules, however others should still be made aware of their past history elsewhere. The message will simply state

This user is currently banned from r/pokemontrades. He/She may still participate here, we simply advise you to interact with caution.

For this to work properly, you need to make sure people you are interacting with post their friend code publicly, either in their flair or in a comment in a "normal" format such as 1234-1234-1234 or 1234 1234 1234. If they try doing some werid formatting, they're likely attempting to avoid the filter, so that's something to watch out for.

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Update: Rule 2 Has been tweaked in its wording also.

Rule 2: Be reasonable. We shouldn't see any requests for shinies, foreign dittos, events, legendaries, or mega stones here. Pokemon cannot be requested to have any number of perfect IV's, hidden powers, egg moves, tutor moves, etc. Natures and Abilities can be suggested, but not demanded.

To clarify, if you're making a request, you can't request any special features. If someone chooses to give you something that's got competitive stats and egg moves and such, that's fine, but otherwise you'll just have to work on breeding that stuff yourself later. Its unreasonable to request fully competitive handouts.