Potential Merger

[HKim]

Greetings Everyone,

A few days ago, the popular Pokemon Sprite site PokeStadium (http://www.pokestadium.com/) closed the doors to its message board. While Johan, the site owner, will continue to support the PokeStadium site, there will no longer be a forum for the site.

As such, the members of the community are in transition, looking to figure out where they should settle roots and call home.

I’ve been in communication with some of the leadership of the PokeStadium community and one such idea we discussed was a potential merger. A joining of the two groups of Pokemon fans into a single family of friends.

Such an endeavor can bring the best of both worlds together, allowing us to share old and new traditions, events, and ideas together. And as always, we already are united by a common love for Pokemon.

This is, of course, not set in stone. I think a lot of discussion needs to take place, both between the leadership of our communities, and with the members within the communities themselves. Many details will need to be worked out if we want to move forward with this.

Regardless what happens, though, I think that this is a chance for us to make new friends. And that is always worthwhile.

[Dash]

Hello to all the people on the site. Right now, you can label me as Lightning Dash or by my former name, Heavenly. I am one of the admins and owners of the site that took hold of most of the active members on the old Pokestadium Forums, PokePavillion (http://w11.zetaboards.com/PokePavilion/index/). I was a former member of the site, and I wanted to bring our members together after we caught wind of when it was closing down. We have brought 150+ of them back, but that's besides the point right now. I came to explain some history of the place, some similarities, and our plans for the possible merging.

History:
Pokestadium, was as from what I could tell, like your guy's old site, PE2K. Both were known for their spriting communities and general overall attitude, whether being good or bad. We also had two infamous tools that perked up many people's attentions: The Pokecreator, a database for showing off your sprites and getting people's opinions on them. The other is a Catch system, where it would give you a random selection of Pokemon that you could catch and hold in a box, then have a Party to show off in your posts on the forum. Another important part of the community had been the Forums.

The Forums, were as to say, very warm. We treated everybody like family, and never gave up on each other. Many of us got close bonds, and I have 50 skype contacts all from them because we all talk to each other frequently. Some of the members are even better than some of my real life friends. But, of course, our Admin didn't want to keep it this way. He wanted to enforce more strictly about maturity, and eventually, after many members getting on him about the subject, he just gave up, admitted he didn't want to run the forums anymore, and shut it down. Most of us still talk to each other, and have been organized on my forum. It's still a discussing matter about them, and will be seen through the rest of these two weeks I've decided to set.

Similarities:
Well, from what I can tell, this place seems like a great fit to our old site. Basic same layout, fun activities to do, and a friendly community. Basically, I also see a lot of similar sections, and to get a feel for our community, this is basically a good list of it:

-Friendly and fairly communicative
-Treat each other like family. Even if we get mad at each other, we look for each other's backs.
-Have fairly advanced people in posting, roleplaying, and art alike. As they say, you can't make wheat without soil

This is just a modest look at it, I don't know how much more I can really say. It's all really just a homey place for me.

Plans for Merging:
If the idea goes through, we will try to bring as many possible people to the site as we can, including an ad per say to join this site, if we do have anybody join, although that is highly unlikely with PS being shut down. So, we'll do whatever we can that we believe is best for the community. Of course, we will probably still program the site and have it as a very casual place if people don't find it comfortable here, which is completely their choice, and I won't force them onto it.

Enjoy your day all, and I hope to speak to you about anything you would want to know.

[Death's Spook]

I think I speak for all of us when I say we'd be glad to have you.

*cough*Especially since I have an RP I'm posting over Thanksgiving weekend*cough*

[ShadowJay]

We'd be happy to welcome new members as long as they join ASB! I'm pretty sure the new members will like it here.

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Many of us are PE2K refugees, and know what it feels like to lose a beloved home. We would be happy to welcome anyone from PokeStadium who would like to join us. We're sure you guys have a lot of ideas we can discuss and implement here to make it better for everyone. :)

[shaymin]

Anyone who provides such a loving and welcoming atmosphere to any new member and staff alike is A-OK in my book.

[Atlas]

Hello everyone, this is Atlas (a.K.a. Water Master) from Pokestadium/PokePavillion. As Lightning Dash already said the group of active members at Pokestadium are staying in touch via PokePavillion since our forums closed yesterday. If HKim happens to agree with the merging I believe I speak for everyone at Pokestadium when I say "Thank you".

In Pokestadium we see every single member as a part of our big happy family, we ought to always stay together and support everyone in every situation they may have; I'd love to combine our two communities and make an even bigger and happier family :3

I've been lurking around for half an hour and I can see that our communities are really similar, I think everyone could get along just fine :3 If our forums do merge everything I can see are new bonds forging, the creation of countless friendships and overall happiness, rainbows, cookies and unicorns for everyone :3

Either way I think I'll become a member here, I really like the atmosphere and due the theme's color I feel like I'm on Pokestadium again :P

Well you can consider this as a friendly neighbor greeting, see you around everyone :3 (I apologize for the excessive use of the ":3" face during this message .3.)


~Atlas of Pokestadium

[ray_quazaa]

If I have anything to add to this idea, I'd like to vouch for HKim and his ability to create, understand, and manage a community like this. For those of you who are not familiar, Harry has helped restart his college's Anime Club and reinvigorate his college's LARP'ing group as well. He's a force of stability and vision that's still sorely missed by his former college groups (since, y'know, we graduated...).

I sincerely hope that PokePavillion and the greater PokeStadium community will consider coming to us. I know from my short on Pokemon fourms and my discussions with the admins (I'm EiC on the site side and help with some technical issues), senior mods and mods, everyone here is great and super friendly. We understand the aspects of a community, from its most serious moments to its most silly moments. I'm glad we can have fun while getting things done when we all get together. PXR itself is a testament of our ability to work and respect each other, coming together strong in no time at all. We understand each other's strengths (mine is not the forums!) and we understand community.

I personally look forward to the merger, or a better way to state it, a meeting of both community together under one roof. I personally look forward to meeting great new people who all share a love for Pokemon!

[BisharpBlade]

I'm a former Pokestadium member. Like Lightning was talking about, this is the very thing that drove many people to PS; heck, it even drew me in as well to join two and a half years ago :)

http://i41.tinypic.com/2llg46v.png

I have had many great memories from PS, and I hope to share some more with you guys pretty soon too.

[Symphonius]

Merger eh? Sounds like a good plan! It seems like both sides are in agreement, and the more activity there is between both groups, the more fun we can all have on the forum! I'm sure both, we here at PXR and you guys at PokePavillion will get along nicely. =)

[Homura]

Hey, we welcome all people who want to come, really. If you guys really do come, we will do our best to make you guys feel at home. :)

[Sir Batman VIII]

/////

[Genesis]

Personally, I'd be very glad to welcome all the people from PokeStadium. All of you guys are welcome here and we'll do our best to make you feel at ease here ^^

[legendary_addict]

Thank you for accepting us, Pokemon Crossroads community!

I am legendary_addict, you may call me Legend, Addict, etc. I've been spriting for about 5 years and had just stopped last September. I'm now more on competitive battling, so feel free to fite me in either Pokemon Showdown (a battle simulator for those who don't know) and in-game.

Now, IRL, I'm currently studying in high school, year 9, almost year 10 (oh yiss, near vacation!). I like art, A LOT. I draw these weird things once a while when I'm really bored, and sometimes I just express my feelings through pencil and paper. Although I love art, I suck at painting. Drawing, digital, and colored pencils are fine though. Now, other than art, I like math. People who are not good in math, I'm more than happy to help you. I find it surprising that you need math in becoming a pilot, my "want to become" job. Once I finish a day in school, I may drop by and browse the forums a bit. You will see me in the hidden list though, I like being hidden.

Now, after my intro, I say, thank you for accepting us once again, I hope we could be friends, fite me in-game or in Showdown, and have fun! :3

[Rival Max]

Im glad to see so many people coming over to the forum. We are working on a creating a sprite section to help get all the brand new sprite art work that you guys are bringing with you. Please if anyone needs help finding their way around please feel free to contact any staff member. Heck send me a message and I will gladly help out in anyway I can.
We also have a intro board that you guys and girls and can use to introduce yourselves. Click here (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?35-Welcome-Lobby) to got to intro boards !

[Grassy_Aggron]

Welcome, welcome! Apologies for missing this...College and work does not like granting me much time to visit during the weekday. I'm very happy to welcome all members of Pokestadium, and I hope both of our communities can grow into a large family that bolsters the Pokemon fandom as a whole and encourages much sharing of one of our greatest binding aspects :3

If any of you need any help, please, feel free to ask any of us! We're all a friendly lot (aside from a grumpy gills or two, nehehe) and would like nothing better than to get to know everyone and help out.

I look forward to seeing all of your potential, and encourage you all to grow without limits~

[akdude]

I know I'm new here and I don't carry much weight with my opinion but in my past experiences mergers have always been wonderful.

HKim has known me for many years from PE2K. Before then, the Pokemon URPG has done many mergers in it's time., Starting from the Yahoo Group to PE2K then expanding to PWN and BMGF and finally closing its doors on PE2K. Each merger has brought in new members and many new friends. And of course, the occasional rival or enemy but they have always been for the best of the community for both those looking for a new home and for those standing at the door with open arms.

I'm glad to see that this community as welcomed another and have been prepared to basically call them "family" because that's what a community such as this becomes in the long run.

I hope this forum becomes another place for me to call home too :)

Again. Welcome everyone from PokeStadium

[HKim]

Just wanted to everyone know that we're moving forward with the merger. Our talks have been proceeding smoothly and I think we're all excited to see the unity of our communities.

In the next few weeks, you'll be seeing a number of changes. We will be merging our staffs, which means you will be seeing more Moderators. They are experienced hands at their sections and I look forward to the fun traditions and activities that they bring with them.

There are a number of new sections, namely the Contests forum and Sprites sub-forum. I look forward the many exciting and wonderful threads we shall soon see in these sections.

I'd like to encourage everyone to take the time to get to know the members of our expanded family. We have come together as Pokemon fans and I believe that our future is bright indeed!

[kfrules777]

Hello everybody! I'm kfrules777, the owner of Pokepavilion.
Finding out the our beloved site, PS would be closing broke the heart of all of us. But we carried on, and survived! (Right? :O)
But, I decided to go on an old site I created back in March just for the fun of it to realize that there were members! I jumped with joy! I'd never knew people would actually join. Than, I saw that those members were the old ones from PS. The pressure was on me! Fixing glitches, making improvements, but in the end: It all turned out great.

When the idea of merging came to me, to be honest, I didn't like it. But as we got more into the details, I thought, than thought, until i finally came to the decision: "Lets Merge Baby!" So, we're finally in the process of merging, and I am so happy! I can;t wait to create an elite forum, with many members to join, and for all the best wishes to come.