RMT Rules.

Yes, the RMT forum has rules. Following certain behavior is necessary to keep things interesting; when things are interesting, you get your team rated and helped in a timely fashion. So that we are all on the same page, here are the rules:

1. Read all other threads with the words "Required Reading" in the title.

How To RMT contains a discussion on posting a team and what the raters should do to help out.

2. Do not post incomplete teams. If you are smart enough to pick five Pokemon, you can easily pick another one. If you are smart enough to pick nine, you can easily cut that down to six. Make sure to include natures, EV spreads and items. If you are unsure of your selections, make a note of this or simply add a question mark after them so team raters can help you focus on perceived problems first.

3. Have some actual words in your post beyond your six Pokemon and their moves. Not following this makes your post quite boring to read and rate. All Pokemon should have a good reason for being in your team anyway, so why not post that reason? If you are having trouble with this one, start by giving an explanation for each team member. Why are they there? What role do they serve? How do you get them in? Then, give an explanation of how you would open with the team and how you would go about using it. All of these things help people rate your team and allow us to offer more helpful advice. This does not mean add one sentence saying "Standard x" or "all-around awesome" after each Pokemon. If you put thought into making the team, you can put thought into posting it.

4. Avoid being repetitive. Making a new RMT thread is fine, but you should not be reposting your old team every few weeks. In the same vein, you should try to limit the number of threads you post. Even if your teams are different, you should not be posting a thread every few days.

5. Thread title. If your team is something other than the typical OU/Standard 1 v 1, it is a good idea to include this in the title. Some team raters focus on other metagames such as 2 v 2 or Ubers, so including something about this in your title helps to direct them to your thread.

6. Formatting. Make your post readable. If the format is messy and illegible you will not be likely to receive help and may have your thread locked. Adding pictures to your post can make it more visually appealing too, but pay attention to rule 11. Here is a guideline on how to post each Pokemon.

Pokemon @ Item
Ability:
EVs:
Nature:
- move
- move
- move
- move

*Detailed description of the Pokemon's purpose to the team*

This is not set in stone, but the above example or a slight variation thereof makes for a much "cleaner" post.

Alternately, you can use Shoddy's/PO's "Export to Text" feature under Tools/File, which gives you a simple, clean format similar to the one above with all the information already filled in for you. Again, though, make sure to add descriptions of each Pokemon.

7. Bumping. If your team is interesting enough to comment on, people will do it for you. If no one at all comments on your RMT for around 24 hours, feel free to bump it. After you have bumped your thread once, or after it has been inactive for two weeks, do not bump it again unless you are making significant changes. "Stealth Bumps" will not be tolerated. Moderators and Administrators can see your deleted posts, so do yourself and us a favor and do not even attempt this.

If your thread is locked/deleted, do not re-post it until you have corrected entirely what caused a moderator/administrator to lock/delete it in the first place.

8. When posting a team, do realize that you are posting it mainly for the purpose of people looking at it and criticizing it. If you cannot take that, do not post your team. It is fine if you explain why you are using your set and not the one they suggested, and of course you are always free not to take advice, but going all-out against offered help is not the way to do it.

9. Threat list. It is not required you post a threat list, a short summary of any threats you have identified and would like help covering is fine. However, if you are posting a threat list, complete it properly, as described in the announcement by Jumpman16.

If you want to post a threat list in a separate post or a team-building post, can you just post them all at once or edit in at a later time? It's quite stupid for you to post "Threat List : Updating Soon" following by "Team Building Process: Updating Soon" and then wait 48 hours (or you never do it as is commonly the case ...) to actually update it. Just save those posts in Notepad and copy+paste everything when you are ready. I can't create a thread and then make a post later that says "my response is coming soon" and this is essentially the same thing.

10. Custom Rules. If you are playing with a different ruleset from the standard, please gives details so team raters know what the limitations are. The standard rules for most battles are:

Species Clause: No more than one of the same Pokemon on a team.
Sleep Clause: No two Pokemon may be put to sleep at the same time.
No OHKOs: Fissure, Guillotine, Horn Drill and Sheer Cold are all banned.
No Evasion: Double Team and Minimize are banned.


Moves
All moves that increase Evasion only (e.g. Minimize)
All instant OHKO moves (e.g. Horn Drill)

11. Put some effort into the presentation of your RMT. Adding tasteful, reasonably sized pictures of your Pokemon is encouraged as it helps with legibility. Note that this is entirely up to the discretion of the mods.

If you are having trouble finding a source, pictures from this site or this site are of good quality and size.

12. Do not use annoying fonts, colors, etc. It will have a more negative impact than otherwise because it makes you look like an attention whore.

13. You are only permitted to have one active RMT thread open at any given time. Don't post a new team every 2 weeks, wait some time before posting another RMT.

14. This is a forum for the official Pokemon games, Pokemon Online being the only exception.

15. As a site dedicated to competitive battling, we request that your team is as competitive as possible within its given metagame. In-game teams and gimmick teams will be closed. Battle Tower teams are permitted. "Theme Teams" are also OK as long as they demonstrate an understanding of the competitive metagame they are to be used in.

16. Play with your team before putting it up for rate. We as a community cannot emphasize this enough. No one wants to rate the team that you freshly created while eating breakfast or the gimmick you randomly put together. We as a community want teams that have been battle tested so that the obvious flaws have been hammered out.

This is particularly because just by playing with a team, you yourself can figure out what is wrong with your team. You don't need other people to help you quite yet - and to be blunt, you're just being lazy or have the wrong idea of what the RMT forum is if you're posting teams you spent fifteen minutes creating.

17. It is expected that you know the game to a certain degree of proficiency before posting your team for a rate here. Recently there has been a surge of teams made by players obviously brand new to the competitive scene -- there is little that can be done to help you here I'm afraid. This is the 'rate' my team forum, not 'rebuild my team for me' forum. Best place to go to in that situation would be Battling 101, and the Introduction to Competitive Pokemon article on site. If your team is deemed to show a severe lack of the understanding of the metagame, it will be closed and possibly infracted. This is completely up to the discretion of the mods.

18. A new prefix has been added to both "OU teams" and "Others" subforum. The new prefix, named "Dream World" will serve the purpose to differentiate teams meant to be played into the "Dream World" tiers (for both OU and Ubers) from teams created for the "Standard" OU and Ubers metagame. For the above reasons, when you create a thread, you're required to add the "Dream World" prefix when your team is meant to be played into that metagame. This will make it easier for team raters to check for your team weaknesses and to help your team with the best possible fixes.

If you have a thread on page 5 that has not been posted in in a while and you want a completely different team rated, it is OK to post a new thread. If you are just making a few changes to your team, simply bump the old thread (you still should not be bumping if your thread has been inactive for a long time).


Note: If you're having troubles with the interpretation of any of the above rules, feel free to private message a RMT moderator.