Separate Servers for Smogon Tour

[Robo-Ky]

I'm sorry, but this just needs to be said - would someone PLEASE create one or two separate servers for the Smogon Tour. Allow me to give some reasons why.

In the most recent round, I had challenged my opponent. It seemed to not go through. Then he challenged me, I accepted, then later he withdrew the challenge, and I apparently lost (might have been a coin flip, but I was still ready to battle my opponent). After I got the withdrawal message, my Shoddy Battle just froze. It wouldn't do anything, not even quit. My Shoddy computer is old and kind of shitty, so I'm sure this isn't the case with everyone, but still - I was completely active on Shoddy, able to battle my opponent, and I couldn't do anything. And I'm sure the ridiculous lag still pisses off even people who have good computers.

I don't know shit about Java, and I don't have the time, so I am obviously unable to create a functioning server. It's a simple request - one or two servers, created especially for the tour, for those participating to use so we don't have to use the extremely laggy Smogon server. It would save those trying to participate a lot of frustration.

 

[Thorns]

just use cap, it never lags and I always play my tournament matches there

 

[Zach]

agreeing with thorns here

 

[Synre]

I was originally planning on posting a "yeah use CAP" post, but with more than one person kicked out of their own match for talking in today's tour while battling on CAP I'm pretty sure the moderating there isn't competent enough for this to work. It'd definitely be a good option to get a dedicated tour server, if we have someone reliable with an equally reliable connection for hosting the hundred people or whatever.

 

[jumpluff]

Setting up servers is easy. It requires your own installation of mysql (or on an external server, but you need to make sure the required mysql variables are set correctly, I couldn't do it myself so needed to use my own comp) and an ability to read instructions on shoddybattle.com This is presently being discussed among badgeholders.

 

[beej]

Speaking as the only mod who kicked a user in the middle of their tour match (the other user, Umbreon_Dan, is a driver), I think that calling the moderation on the CAP server incompetent is extremely unfair considering the actual circumstances of the situation.

I'm not entirely sure what happened the second time, so I can't comment about that. However, in my situation, I was the ONLY mod actively watching both the main chat and the individual battles during the tour. All of these chats were in relative chaos, and many people were telling me to kick the trolls and enforce silence in the battles. Earlier on, many people were spamming "gg" in battles that they were not playing, which is the point at which I started to actually moderate things (before then, I wasn't present). In the battle between Conflict and Makelith, there was plenty of talking in the chat, and so I enforced silence by /walling and kicking those who talked. Conflict himself said "this looks like gg" during this period, and so I acted impulsively and kicked him.

Let me stress first and foremost that I am NOT defending my actions in this situation. There is nothing wrong with talking in your own match, and I take full responsibility for making an irresponsible mistake that caused inconvenience for the tour. However, I would like to note that during tours on Smogon U, there are usually multiple mods actively watching the matches, along with the host, who is also a mod. I was left to watch these matches and the chat by myself, which is simply a situation that breeds chaos. To say that CAP mods are idiots and incompetent because they make mistakes in a difficult and pressure-filled environment is really unfair, and the idea that this may have an effect on Smogon tour policy really just seems like an excuse to punish and humiliate us for making a human mistake.

 

[Elevator Music]

yeah I'm gonna have to defend Beej here. Honestly I was lagging on CAP pretty badly (I was actually trying to moderate but between my shitty internet and an extra 120 users I wasnt able to kick anybody), and there were almost no active mods the whole time. Trying to moderate very busy discussions by yourself can be tricky and I can understand why Beej and UD accidentally kicked the battlers.

This of course doesn't make it right, but I don't appreciate being called incompetent, nor will I stand for other moderators being called incompetent. Yeah, they messed up, sorry. But it's understandable in the circumstances.


On topic, I think that a different server for tour would be nice. Alternatively I could try not to lag as much and the other CAP server moderators/drivers could be more active during tour (,or you could just not use CAP at all!)... but obviously another server won't hurt. There was a server for World Cup iirc...