Bulbagarden Staff AMA Thread

[skywaffles]

How active do you have to be to become a staff member?

 

[WyndonCalling]

How active do you have to be to become a staff member?

Active enough to demonstrate that you're a constructive presence on the forum and can help drive activity, but this is just a single part of the application/selection process (I hadn't been around for even a month when I applied and the fools still selected me). Applications aren't open at present and I don't know of any immediate plans to launch another drive, but I can tell you that the team often looks forward to particular members putting themselves forward when a drive is underway. Pillars of the community get noticed.

 

[Rainbow Cloud]

what are your favorite Second stage starters?

By Generation my favourites are:
Gen I - Charizard
Gen 2 - Typhlosion and Meganium (Can't choose between these two)
Gen 3 - Swampert
Gen 4 - Empoleon
Gen 5 - Samurott
Gen 6 - Delphox
Gen 7 - Primarina
Gen 8 - Inteleon

For everyone...What part of Pokemon would you like to get into more but can't because of time? For example manga, competitive, etc...

I'd quite like to get back into the anime again but I'm haven't really gotten round to catching up with all of the seasons I've missed, I caught up with all the movies I hadn't seen apart from Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution and Detective Pikachu over the last year, prior to that I'd only seen up to the 14th Movie.

What non-Pokemon media do you think it's underrated and why would you recommend it?

Quite hard to think of something but as other monster related media go I would recommend Digimon, I'm not sure whether the shows would fall under being overrated or underrated but I think some of the games are often underrated.

 

[Maniacal Engineer]

For everyone...What part of Pokemon would you like to get into more but can't because of time? For example manga, competitive, etc...

Competitive battling always intrigued me, but I don’t have the time or energy to breed competitive teams, learn strategies, or anything like that.
I tried Showdown for a little while, to cut out all of the work breeding and EV training, but I can’t put a solid team together worth a damn, and have no clue what I’m doing.

the fools still selected me

Wyndon, I was not only hired as a staff member in the first place, but, somehow, I ended up as forums Head Admin. Those were true lapses in judgement.

 

[Neo Blaze]

For everyone...What part of Pokemon would you like to get into more but can't because of time? For example manga, competitive, etc...

The manga would be one, more specifically Pokémon Adventures. I read a number of chapters a long time ago but stopped early Diamond and Pearl (I did read the HGSS chapter). Not sure why, just lost my interest I suppose. There's so many chapters now though, I'm not sure if I'll ever pick it up again.

What non-Pokemon media do you think it's underrated and why would you recommend it?

This is a good question. I don't have a specific franchise in mind. Though in general I would say slice-of-life anime. There are some slice-of-life anime shows that have become popular in the west, but it's nowhere near as respected as a genre as it is in Japan. I do understand that this is very cultural and personal; it either appeals to you or it doesn't. Some people find slice-of-life incredibly boring, but for me it's currently the type of anime I'm most interested in. It does a lot of things other genres have a harder time accomplishing.

I also recommmend Castle in the Sky, it's my favorite anime film. If you're at least a bit into anime or Studio Ghibli, you've probably heard of it, but it remains one of Studio Ghibli's more underrated films, as everyone is always talking about Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, etc. It's a great adventure film basically.

On a non-anime note, my favorite animated film in general is The Iron Giant, also a fairly underrated film. It's become beloved over the years, but it was a massive financial flop when it first came out and since it's not Disney or Pixar it goes under the radar for a lot of people.

How active do you have to be to become a staff member?

We absolutely don't expect anyone interested in becoming staff to be available 24/7. Just regularly participating in reports, discussions etc. is enough. It also depends on the section. Some sections require more attention than others.

 

[Maniacal Engineer]

Actually one other part of the Pokémon community that I had always wanted to try out was making a Let’s Play. For the longest time, I didn’t have the equipment or the ability to do that, but now, with help from my fellow Bulbastaff members, I was able to do that and created my Platinum Let’s Play.

Is it the best and most popular LP? No, and it’s probably past the heyday for LPs, but I fulfilled a dream of mine and I had fun doing it.

 

[skywaffles]

What is the most liked post ever, do you guys keep track of that stuff? Also I'm guessing mods watch their specific forum that they are co-in charge of, but do the Super mods and Admins watch all of the forums? If so, how many alerts do you get on average?

 

[Maniacal Engineer]

What is the most liked post ever, do you guys keep track of that stuff?

There *may* be a way to keep track of that, but I don’t know what post it would be. If I had to guess, though, I’d say it was one of MegaPod’s post. He’s a good guy.

Also I'm guessing mods watch their specific forum that they are co-in charge of, but do the Super mods and Admins watch all of the forums? If so, how many alerts do you get on average?

It’s up to individual section mods whether or not they want to watch their entire section. For myself, when I was Section Head of Fun and Games and The War Room, I watched both of those sections and got a lot of alerts all the time, since those sections were pretty active at the time.

Now, I certainly don’t watch every single section, though I do watch a lot of the staff sections, since, usually, if there’s something important that I need to know about, it’ll be mentioned there.

...oh. I suppose I should mention what a “Section Head” was. It’s a retired rank, and it represented someone who acted as the “boss” for any given section. (“Section” meaning things like Anime & Manga, Fun and Games, The Writer’s Workshop, Outside the Box, etc.)
The role of the Section Head was to coordinate sectional events and be the final word of authority on Reports from their section (though they could be overruled by admins.)
The rank was retired and the Super Mod rank was expanded upon in an effort to promote cooperation between the sections and intra-forum coordination.
I will say, were it not for the Section Head rank being retired, I never would have accepted a promotion to admin...so there’s an interesting bit of trivia for y’all.

 

[Neo Blaze]

What is the most liked post ever, do you guys keep track of that stuff?

Like ME, I don't actually know if we keep track of that. We do keep track of who has the most likes though. You can find that here:

Highest reaction score

forums.bulbagarden.net

Also I'm guessing mods watch their specific forum that they are co-in charge of, but do the Super mods and Admins watch all of the forums? If so, how many alerts do you get on average?

I definitely don't have all forums on watch. The alerts would drive me crazy. Just regularly checking in with reports and on the Staff Discord is just as efficient.

 

[Torchic W. Pip]

What music do you all listen to?

 

[TheCapsFan]

Also... asking everyone, if you guys were a Pokémon Type, which one (or two) would you be?

Personality-wise, probably like a Water/Ground type.

Ideally, a Flying type.

what are your favorite Second stage starters?

I don't really care for many of them, but Bayleef, Charmeleon, and Dewott are probably the ones I like the best.

For everyone...What part of Pokemon would you like to get into more but can't because of time? For example manga, competitive, etc...

Definitely the anime. I don't have a lot the same nostalgia that a lot of my friends in the community have for it, and I just recently started watching the first season for the first time with a friend of mine who also hasn't seen it. It's fun

What non-Pokemon media do you think it's underrated and why would you recommend it?

Xenoblade
Frickin
Chronicles

I absolutely ADORE the Xenoblade series and its world. I think the games have some of the most refined storylines in all of modern gaming, yet are often panned off as an anime-fanservicey RPG series which really really turns a lot of people off. The gameplay is...admittedly, nothing special - a somewhat clunky action-RPG-mixed-with-RTS combination - but one thing that it does is work important story elements into the gameplay in a way which I absolutely ADORE. (Think like Mega Evolutionn in Pokemon X/Y, but if the story of that game was actually good) If you have a Switch, give the Definitive Edition a shot. It's worth your while.

Oh, and the music is probably the best, cathartic, ambient environmental music I've ever heard in a game, and there are also some real banger tracks in there.

I could rant about how good Xenoblade is for days. I'll stop now.

What music do you all listen to?

Primarily alternative-indie, indie-pop, bedroom pop, indietronica, with a little bit of jam band/funk/modern jazz and even some alt-folk thrown in. That's evolved a lot from when I first started to really get into music, where I would listen to harder, alternative metal, post grunge, punk & pop punk, and progressive rock.

I've also been getting into hyperpop recently, which has been quite a trip; probably because it's like a really weird mixture of all the things I love about electronic music, with a clear punk/emo influence.

Paramore is and always has been my favorite band as you might be able to tell. Every time I say to myself "no they're not" I'll listen to them for like an hour and be like "who am I kidding." Their musical style has really evolved to fit the stuff I listen to as my music taste has evolved, if that makes sense. Even Hayley Williams' single albums are closer to what I'm listening to now moreso than After Laughter is.

My Last.fm is in my signature, if you're interested music is another thing I could talk about all day.

 

[Calvinッ]

We absolutely don't expect anyone interested in becoming staff to be available 24/7. Just regularly participating in reports, discussions etc. is enough. It also depends on the section. Some sections require more attention than others.

To add on to this, real life is obviously a thing and in the eyes of the higher ups and other staff (and rightly so), it's more important than some of the things we do, so the staff team are very understanding if any situations stop you from being as active as you'd like. Like Neo Blaze said as long as you're helping out when you can, you won't / don't need to be around 24/7.

EDIT: Pressed save a little too early.

What music do you all listen to?

I listen to a ton, i'm fairly easy when it comes to music. Here's a picture of some of my playlists, although I am in the process of making a couple more for specific other genres, as an example a lot of hip-hop falls into "Bit of everything", even though I would like to expand on them.

Spoiler

 

[Archaic]

For everyone...What part of Pokemon would you like to get into more but can't because of time? For example manga, competitive, etc...

I'd love it if I was able to get back into the competitive TCG scene. I won my local city and regional tournaments back in '07 and '06 respectively (and got a top 8 in my only showing at Nationals in '06, knocking out the 2005 champion), but ever since I started my post-graduate studies in 2007 I've just never had the time (or money) to be able to invest into the game at that level again.

What music do you all listen to?

Japanese Pop and Rock, for the most part. Right now, I'm particularly enjoying Wagakki Band (和楽器バンド), but I also listen to quite a bit of classic City Pop from artists like Mariya Takeuchi (竹内 まりや).

How active do you have to be to become a staff member?

The answer to that depends in part of what area of the site you're looking to get involved in. For example, there'd be a lot less in terms of daily commitment for someone hired on as a columnist for Bulbanews (writing something along the lines of the Origin of Species column) compared to someone hired on as a forum moderator.

 

[Beth Pavell]

What is the most liked post ever, do you guys keep track of that stuff? Also I'm guessing mods watch their specific forum that they are co-in charge of, but do the Super mods and Admins watch all of the forums? If so, how many alerts do you get on average?

Generally my domain is the Writers' Workshop, and has been ever since I've been a mod. But I do sometimes help out with other fora from time to time. I'd never actively set up any alerts in any case - they get on my nerves and I don't see them as necessary in any case

 

[Maniacal Engineer]

What music do you all listen to?

Mostly rock, or punk rock. 60s - early 2000s is usually where you'll find me. Bands like Billy Joel, Queen, Elton John, Styx, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, the Eagles, the Rolling Stones, Guns 'N Roses, Bowling for Soup, Barenaked Ladies, The Beach Boys, The B-52's, Ace of Base, Duran Duran, Green Day, Smash Mouth, Metallica, Black Sabbath (and Ozzy himself), are all on my iPhone.

But, if you want something unique and kinda hilarious, there was a small band that I got to know while I was in college. The genre is "technoklezmer," and it is glorious.
You can listen to the band's songs here, and yes, there is rapping in Yiddish in one of the songs.

View: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXPHt9JYbnDFQEe0u7Anf_ZL26uxVa-kx

 

[Torchic W. Pip]

Mostly rock, or punk rock. 60s - early 2000s is usually where you'll find me. Bands like Billy Joel, Queen, Elton John, Styx, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, the Eagles, the Rolling Stones, Guns 'N Roses, Bowling for Soup, Barenaked Ladies, The Beach Boys, The B-52's, Ace of Base, Duran Duran, Green Day, Smash Mouth, Metallica, Black Sabbath (and Ozzy himself), are all on my iPhone.

But, if you want something unique and kinda hilarious, there was a small band that I got to know while I was in college. The genre is "technoklezmer," and it is glorious.
You can listen to the band's songs here, and yes, there is rapping in Yiddish in one of the songs.

I got into Duran Duran during quarantine and I love them!! I also love the Beach Boys, B-52's, and Queen!
The song you shared is really cool! I'll be sure to check out the rest of the band's work!

 

[NMLewis]

what are your favorite Second stage starters?

Meganium!
And after that, Blaziken and Samurott!

What music do you all listen to?

Some of my fave artists are The Beatles, Florence + the Machine, Marina and the Diamonds / MARINA, Taylor Swift, Lily Allen and Kesha. I listen to a lot of Top 40 music generally too.

 

[Neo Blaze]

What music do you all listen to?

My taste in music is fairly basic, but also very varied. I'm not into one genre specifically. I'm big into classic rock (I'm a massive fan of both The Beatles and Queen especially), but I also listen to reggae, electronic music (old school stuff like Kraftwerk, but also modern like Daft Punk), classical music and also some metal when I feel like it. It's just whatever I'm in the mood for I guess, so it varies.

I also really love movie soundtracks, and listen to those as well from time to time.

I don't listen to a whole lot of contemporary music although I do go to music festivals (not anymore though, for obvious reasons...) which feature a lot of contemporary music.

 

[Enzap]

Just mentioning that I added my name to the mentionables in the OP, in case anyone's really curious about this frog.

What is the point of the following system? Just wondering, not complaining.

So we used to have a "friends" system that I think worked a bit better for the platform, following is similar but with the option of being more one-sided. Just because someone follows you doesn't obligate you to follow them back or anything. Overall it's a pretty minor feature, I'd say it's mostly symbolic.

Also... asking everyone, if you guys were a Pokémon Type, which one (or two) would you be?

Probably a Grass type. My secondary type would probably either be Water or Psychic. Or maybe Bug.

what are your favorite Second stage starters?

... I think I'm interpreting this question different from most people, I see "Second stage" as the middle one. So I'll just answer for all three stages.

Gen 1: Squirtle, Ivysaur, Blastoise
Gen 2: Chikorita, Bayleef, Meganium
Gen 3: Mudkip, Marshtomp, Blaziken
Gen 4: Turtwig, Prinplup, Empoleon
Gen 5: Oshawott, Dewott, Samurott
Gen 6: Chespin, Frogadier, Greninja
Gen 7: Rowlet, Brionne, Decidueye
Gen 8: Sobble, Thwackey, Cinderace

For everyone...What part of Pokemon would you like to get into more but can't because of time? For example manga, competitive, etc...

What non-Pokemon media do you think it's underrated and why would you recommend it?

Hm... see I have gotten pretty invested in the competitive scene before, but only from a purely theoretical standpoint. I get too competitive and frustrated actually playing against real people so I don't think I could actually do it for real lol. Idk if this counts, but I have a dream of designing a full region's worth of Pokémon some day, complete with stats, moves, and artwork. I've actually made some good progress on that, but I've only drawn a handful of them. If I had a lot more time I would love to make that a reality.

Now that one is a VERY good question. Here's a few that come to mind:

Video Games

• Undertale - Wyndon mentioned it earlier and while I know it is popular, it's getting older now so I feel a lot of younger folk haven't played it. I can't recommend this game enough.
• Kid Icarus Uprising - it was a big hit at its time but it was an early 3DS game so it's likely a lot of folks here haven't played it. If you get the opportunity, do yourself a favor and check it out. It has fun, innovative controls, delightful characters and dialogue, super diverse gameplay, and it's made by Masahiro Sakurai so you know he thought of everything.
• Paladins - ever wanted to play a game like Overwatch but didn't want to make the $60 investment? This may be the game for you. I'd say it's fairly accessible to new players, but has a ton of depth to explore. My favorite part about it is even within the very large roster of playable characters, there's so many ways to customize your playstyle. I've been playing consistently for about 4 years now and it keeps getting better.

Movies

• Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse - I don't care how many people have actually seen this movie, it's not enough. It's literally the best superhero movie I've ever seen. Not only that, as an animation fan it's one of the most creative pieces of art put to the big screen and is a nearly overwhelming sensory experience in the best way imaginable.
• The Prince of Egypt - this was a big deal at the time, but I don't know how many people these days have seen it. If you've never heard of it, it's an animated retelling of the story of Moses from the Bible, but it's not the least bit preachy or heavy-handed with religious symbolism. It's just a really powerful movie with one of the best scores and soundtracks I've heard.
• The Music Man - ok this one's kind of weird, but I'm a big musical fan, and my favorite non-animated movie musical has got to be this 1962 movie (not the 2003 version, avoid it at all costs). I get that it might not be for everyone, but this is legitimately one of my all time favorite movies. Even if you've seen a stage version of this production, I recommend the movie because I consider it the definitive version. First of all it's absolutely hilarious. Nearly every line, no matter how innocuous, is delivered in this bizarre way that not only makes me laugh but falls into this strange rhythm that pulls you into the wacky world. It is 2.5 hours long, but I've never noticed the runtime because I'm enjoying every second too much.

Television

• Invincible - this is an Amazon Prime show based on a comic book that's still airing now. What starts off as a seemingly standard, if not slightly edgy, superhero origin/parody story quickly becomes a complex dramatic mystery that really feels like it has something new to contribute to the already saturated canon of super stories. It's visceral and vulgar, so I can't recommend it to everyone, but if you like good action, comedy, and character writing then this might be for you.
• Over the Garden Wall - this is one of my all time favorite pieces of media. It's so sweet, funny, and quirky yet the emotional beats hit so hard. I still haven't figured out how to sell new viewers on this masterpiece since the concept sounds so bland (a modern fairytale about two boys lost in the woods.. ok and?), but everyone I've shown it to has found something in it to adore. This Fall you have to find a nice chilly evening to cozy up with a cup of hot chocolate and set aside two hours to watch this mini-series.

What music do you all listen to?

My playlists are... eclectic, but I'd say they're largely dominated by pop, 70s-80s rock, and showtunes. Though in the past year or so I've gotten really into KPop, so that's probably my most listened to genre as of late.

 

[Maniacal Engineer]

What non-Pokemon media do you think it's underrated and why would you recommend it?

Never actually answered this. Hmmmmm...outside of Pokémon, I don’t really “game” much anymore, but a couple of video games I would recommend:
The Civilization series, though I’m partial to Civilization III, myself.
The Henry Stickmin Collection
West of Loathing
Star Trek Armada...though this one might be difficult to find these days, since it’s a game from 2000 that was never ported over to Steam or anywhere else.

As for TV series, I loved the DCAU in the late 90s early 2000s. A lot of “Superhero” cartoons from that era were great. If you want a newer DC comics series that’s good, Young Justice is an excellent series, though I do feel like they’re getting a wee bit too convoluted.

Other Anime...I don’t really watch much, but Black Lagoon is great, so are Cowboy Bebop and Gurren Lagann...though I’m not sure if the latter two are “underrated.”

Board games, though. There are a lot of great board games out there, and I feel like those are very underrated in general.
Ticket to Ride (Europe)
Robo Rally
Eclipse
Settlers of Catan
Smallworld
Illuminati (get a lot of the expansion cards. Seriously a great game.)
Dominion (a great deck building game)