State of TPT Address

It’s been quite a while since I updated my blog! In case you haven’t been here in a while or in case you are new, let me reintroduce myself and the idea of my blog. I am Jowy, one of the co-hosts of our Podcast, WTPT and founder of the site. Although it is less apparent, I also do much of the work on the backend of the website. This entails installing software, creating designs, posting and creating content and a whole lot more. My blog, Livro do Mestre is basically a log of my experiences as a webmaster for The Pallet Tribune.

I used to update this more frequently, but lately I’ve been focusing more attention on actually adding to the site, rather than talking about adding to the site. However, I feel like this is a great time to discuss all the fun stuff going on right now, both old and new. I didn’t necessarily intend for this to become so long, but it turned out to be sort of a “state of TPT address.”

Annie's Abnormal Gym

The first thing I want to bring up was implemented well before our recent “TPT 3.0″ site upgrade and is long overdue for front page recognition—the Pallet Frontier and the Tribune Gym League. These are essentially the revamped version of what we tried to start up back on the old website many moons ago. The Frontier consists of eight gyms, each with its own gym leader. Every gym has a theme and its own special rules. Defeat the gym leader and earn that gym’s badge. Defeat all the gym leaders and you earn a chance to become a gym leader yourself! Since its inception, 23 badges have been awarded and only one member has earned all the badges. Congratulations MeowthMix for this achievement (he is already a gym leader, in case you were wondering). The gyms have had a strong start but I’d like to see even more activity, so go check them out if you haven’t yet!

In the same vein as the gyms, we also have our ongoing battle ladders.  Currently, there are four cups with varying themes and rules. The Ho-oh cup is for our big-league battlers with level 100 Pokémon. The Pallet Cup is for the more casual battler, like myself, with a level 50 requirement.  Then there are the Sippy Cup and the Unown Cup, each with their own unique and fun rules. For all you battlers out there, these cannot be missed! You can earn tokens and other awards for holding the top spots.

Also relevant to battlers, but also non-battlers, is our brand new currency system on the forums. Users are able to earn “Pallets” in various ways. For example, you will earn Pallets for making a post or starting a thread or referring a friend or even just for logging at some point each week. The currency will also be the prize for various events and contests here on TPT.

Pallets can be spent in even more ways. First and foremost, you may spend them in the new Marketplace. Here, you can find a selection of PokéDolls which you can buy for your profile and postbit (that little section under your username when you make a post on the forums). The first of what we hope to be many collections of dolls was designed by staff artist, Rin. There are no specific plans yet, but we will eventually be adding other types of items to the shop.

The weekly lotteries also offer a fun way to spend and, if you’re lucky, gain Pallets. On Wednesdays, the raffle-style drawing takes place in which members buy tickets for ℙ25 and one winner is randomly chosen each week to win the jackpot.  On Fridays, the lotto-style drawing takes place. For this style, participants buy tickets and choose a number. On drawing day, anyone who picked the winning number will get to split the jackpot. If there are no winners (which is actually was the case this week), the jackpot will just be added to the next week’s drawing. So the jackpot will keep going up each week until there is a winner, making things potentially very interesting.

It is also possible to send Pallets to other users on the forums. This opens up tons of possibilities, some of which have already taken shape in the first few days of the currency system. Battlers have wagered Pallets on their matches, artists and other entrepreneurs have set up shops to sell their services, and others have simply given Pallets as gifts to their friends for their birthday. Already there is a noticeable buzz surrounding the currency system and it is really exciting!

A screen cap from the TPT Day Keynote

July 3rd marked The Pallet Tribune‘s second anniversary. Dubbed “TPT Day,” it was a huge event we put together to celebrate the site. To mention a few of the many functions: in the early afternoon our staffers held live video shows. In the late afternoon we had Pokémon and Smash Bros. Brawl tournaments. In the evening I gave my TPT 3.0 Keynote, announcing some of the upcoming features.  And at night we all hung out in the chat and listened to the second anniversary podcast as a group. Overall, it really made me feel part of a family and got me really excited for the future of the site. Thanks to everyone who helped put it together.

There was a lot of exciting new stuff added to the site with the TPT 3.0 update.  For example, our new site design added drop down menus, sleek look and improved sort pages. With the new design also came the feed of all our latest video content. Between our own videos and videos from staffers like Annie and Trogdor, WTPT-TV has been better than ever.

Aside from all the new site features, a steady stream of awesome new content has come along with TPT 3.0. BigRedLax’s The Tall Grass comics have been consistently awesome and have probably been the most consistently produced content on the site. For that, I applaud him! Also with the addition of our Features Editor, Ducky-Von-Karma, we’ve had more feature articles posted on the site than ever before. Plus with the work of our illustrators, like Rin, the articles look great too! Congratulations to all three of the aforementioned  individuals for becoming our latest staff members.

TPT 3.0 also included an update to our back end. Justin V, who has been essential to the whole process, worked with me to update the software we use for the site. The latest version of WordPress, the front page blogging software, allowed us to implement nested comments. The latest version of vBulletin, our forum software, opened up new possibilities for the Social Groups. In addition, the updated versions have helped make our experience putting together the site much easier! For example, I personally had to go through all the comments by new posters to weed out automated spam. Now though, I have a system in place that automatically blocks all spam! I’ve gone through over 9000 spam comments in the past several months (Vegeta knows how I feel), so this frees up a lot time for working adding to the site.

Another small update I should mention is the addition of Pokémon-themed emoticons in the chat room. Prior to this, the chat room didn’t really give off any vibe of being part of a Pokémon website. Despite being a very small addition, I think the new emotes have had a pretty substantial impact on making the chat a true part of the site. Thanks to everyone who helped me pick out the Pokémon!

All the main parts of TPT 3.0 are now rolled out. Even after all of this there are still a few new things we are working on for the site. Hopefully we will be seeing some of them soon. With the present being so bright, it’s hard to imagine it getting better! I’d like to thank everyone that helped out with the site and all of you who make The Pallet Tribune an awesome place to be everyday.