July News and Notices 2016

Hello, and welcome to the news and notices thread that contains any and all news and updates for the month of July 2016!

As mentioned in the May news thread, Solilo has planned to make this 'news update' format a regular thing on PMD. As before, we would like to encourage any and all readers to post in this thread if they have something to say or comment on! We like to know if you're reading this after all, and your opinions matter! The news format is made to also provoke some small discussions on the various site issues, and attempt to include a discussion topic at the end of each news thread.

Moving on to our general updates!


- General News & Updates -


Administration Nominations ^{AND Speech}
Our administration nominations have officially come to a close! Our site leader @Solilo had contacted me stating that they wanted to speak with me whenever I had been available. Shortly after I had responded, they had stated I had received nominations to become admin and was wondering if I was interested.

I had stated that I was there to help in any way, and with administrative powers, I would be able to help in ways others normally would not be able to. So, I had chosen to accept the responsibility of becoming an administrator of the site.

Now, here we are... a fresh new post for our monthly announcements from myself and the staff of the site to you all. I would like to say, I will always keep this site as my home. As a role-player of the site, as a board updater of the site, as a moderator of the site, and now finally... today, as an administrator of the site.

I have always found it important to treat everyone as fairly as possible and to listen to everyone’s concerns, even if those concerns were not part of the site. I find that everyone needs to have their opinion heard somehow. If I didn't agree with them, I would still listen even if I didn't agree with that point.

I would go on further, but I do not want to waste any more of everyone's time reading a long speech.


For those that were curious about the statistics over the nominations, your wait is over! Obviously before, we weren't going to say who or how many and just say that we had received some.

Now, that we have the nominations closed and the decision made for the new admin. We may now state those numbers.

............................................

The numbers are in, and we have received a total of 7 nominations and... wow, all seven went to me? Thank-you everyone, I honestly didn't think they were all going to be for to myself. Well,, even if I did think it was a possibility, I never really kept it in mind.

Anyways, let us move on to our current site wide event!




- Current Site wide Event -

There isn't particularly anything new to update about the current event and so the previous post has been copied. Hopefully by the next month, we will have some updates on the event.

As you may or may not be aware, the current site wide event 'The Wake of Destruction' is still ongoing. (Main thread located ->here<-)
Arceus and Giratina still both have one out of three recruits, whereas Zygarde has none.

How can you participate in this event? Now that's a good question! Here's how!:

• The battle for Mewtwo, Arceus's second recruit still rages on in Serene Cave and you can participate by rolling a Mewtwo encounter in that particular dungeon!
  
• Zygarde's first recruit, Shaymin has been located in Misty Mire, but requires rescuing! In order to participate in freeing Shaymin, you must work to defeat any Muk, Gourgeist, Malamar and Reuniclus that you encounter in Misty Mire.
  
• The clue for Giratina's second recruit can be found in the event thread, if you can work out what it is you need to do, you may just be rewarded...
  

Note that any who participate in dealing damage to Mewtwo, or defeating even a single opponent to help free Shaymin will be eligible to require the rewards offered for completing each section of the event! Similar is true for any other parts of the event; each user who actively participates and results in progression of the event will receive rewards.

If you happen to roll Mewtwo in Serene Cave, or defeat one of the above mentioned opponents in Misty Mire, please notify myself or another administrator so that we can update the event thread!

A quick reminder that the escort rule can be utilized in any event related threads, as long as said thread is specifically marked as an Event Thread by the user posting it. The escort rule allows a character with higher energy to escort up to two extra characters to a dungeon that they would not normally be able to access due to the constraints of the energy system. It costs 5 extra energy per pokemon being escorted for the higher energy character to enter that dungeon, and any character that is being escorted will have 0 energy upon entering the dungeon and will have to replenish their energy with berries or other items.

It is wise to confirm with a staff member before using the escort rule, just to be safe. But the rule was always intended to help us be inclusive of newer members of the site who might want to explore the areas linked to site events but who have characters with low energy.




- Staff Changes & Updates -


New Staff

This month, we have one promotion amongst our staff. As you probably have already guessed it by reading this far. @Coaster3000 has been promoted to the administration staff of the site! ^{Why am I talking in third person?}

Further more, The positions for Character Moderator, Board Updater, and Record Checker positions should all still be open and all can be applied for in -> this<- linked thread.

Please note that when applying to be staff, you must be of Member rank or higher (this means you have 250 posts or more on your account ^-^)


- Independent Organization News -

Just a reminder to all members that we have four Independent Organizations (IOs) on the site currently, and characters can apply for membership in any of these whilst their character is still being looked over for approval by Character Moderators. Some IOs have their own conditions for joining though, so you may have to wait until after your character is approved to finalize your IO signup for various reasons!

The list of current IOs on the site is located ->here<- and includes Steamrise Inn, The Tribe of Renewed Life, Blacktooth Kingdom and the Windrose Scouts.

This section will be used to report on various news in IOs and generate interest in the IOs on the site, and so if any IO founders have any news they would like me to include in this section, feel free to send an admin a message and we will fit it into the news!



- Other Notices -

Rules and Report Function

As per, here's your monthly reminder to keep yourself up to date with all of the site's rules! The rules board is located ->here<- and though we will usually notify when large rule changes take place, we do still make smaller edits without a big notice so it's worth re-reading them every now and again.

Finally i'd also like to remind everyone that in order to help staff and moderators do their jobs more easily, we encourage you to report any post in a thread that you see is breaking the site's rules by using the report button located on each post.

This little icon is located by the Quote, Edit and Delete buttons of each post and upon clicking you can select a reasoning for the report, and write why you are reporting that particular post.

By doing this, we can more quickly and easily deal with posts that are breaking the rules as staff are notified of posts that are reported!


Birthdays!

Last but not least, I'll conclude the news part of this month's news thread by wishing a very happy birthday to the following users, whose birthdays are all this month!

@Gengarzilla
@Tenshineko01
@Jax
@Oswald
@RenownedExplorer
@Nocive
@DestinyIntwined


Discussion Topic
As mentioned before, we will have discussion topics incorporated into our monthly news threads. We will start with an open topic for the thread.

There has been an update to the guild system! Please visit HERE for details!