Advertising/Recruiting Pains

[Jenesis]

This is a general thread for discussing suggestions for improvements to the site ad and the recruiting system.

As discussed in the Cbox recently, some of the pain points are:

-The ad is very wordy. People who might be interested might think "tl;dr" when reading the ad and lose interest.
-The recruitment incentives are unrealistic, especially the higher tiers (only one member in ZZ's history has a recruit total over 40) especially nowadays when there are less people interested in RP in general.

Suggestions:

-Make a new ad that is shorter. It should be one picture with the site name on it, links to the main site/rules board/advertising board underneath it, and a short paragraph explaining the premise of the site. A short blurb about the current event (if one is running) or about any incentive the individual recruiter wants to include can also be added. (This format draws inspiration from Hoenn.)
-Create new ways to get the recruit-only Pokemon (especially Riolu and Axew).

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Unrelated to the above but I would also like to clean up the main advertising board. There are a lot of old, dead sites on there from members who are no longer active.

[Pixel]

I agree with the points made above.

Even if the other prizes are locked behind other means to maintain rarity, it makes sense to offer them in an additional manner than just recruiting given how, as Jenesis pointed out, only 1 person ever in the history of the site recruited more than 40 people. An added mod point trade or special late game quest could feasibly be considered reasonable? Like with Iris (Axew) or Sir Aaron (Rilou).

[Lamont]

Just for a tidbit of insight into the staff discussions ;D
Multiple avenues for obtaining T5s and other hard-to-gets is something we do want to do and have plans for; it's just a matter of man-power & time as always ;D Like Bagon and Larvitar, these have been discussed as future additions for trading:

• Cynthia - Gible
  
• Diantha - Goomy
  
• Iris - Axew
  
• Leon - Dreepy
  
• Riley - Riolu
  
• Wallace - Feebas
  

None are set yet, but were proposed and on our minds. There are also quests half in the works for Deino & Goomy, and Mt. Mortar plans for some other big guys like another way to acquire Bagon, Gible, and Feebas :3




As for Recruiting Milestones, the target points could definitely do with adjusting given the lower popularity of forums compared to back in the day and our newer restrictions on where we're allowed to advertise.

I have some ideas, but if there was a complete revamp of the Recruiting Milestones, what would you all like to see? :3

[Jenesis]

I know we don't have a dedicated spriter right now, but it would be nice to have an exclusive Recruiting-themed alt sprite as the first reward!

[Tiki]

like what sprite?
we can have people try and see who had free time and idea bruh

[vartio]

So if we do push with a rework of recruiting, I have a suggestion for the Gen 6 starters that could spin off of this.

Make the Gen 6 Starters appear in areas up to Olivine City. These starters are special encounters catchable (and EXP gainable) once (and encounters can't repeat past the capture, and EXP again only gainable the once to prevent farming), and require the following + the proper Badge:

Flash (Dark Cave or Union Cave B1?) - Fennekin (Fire and Flash make Light - guide to each other)

Surf (Route 35 - The Lake here) - Froakie (Reach Lillypads on the Lake)

Cut (National Park) - Chespin (Cut down a Tree this hedgehog burrowed under that the staff want to clear for the next BCC)

Maybe a short quest would work too, but I feel there's enough starters on Quests that a simple Pre-designed Encounter that people can proc until they catch would be just as workable. (Maybe even require they be Costar'd so that could get people to do/practice modding).

To my knowledge unless I'm missing something (I likely am), there's no generation of starters specifically locked behind just HM use.

[antonius]

It never hurts to review\rework the ad. This probably should be done on a semi-regular basis IF the staff has time. As for the rewards namely the Gen 6 starters, I would say somewhere past Bugsy.