Purpose of This Guide

This guide complements [How to Spot Bots in PokeMMO (Part 1) – Responsible Detection and Reporting]. Read that first for detection tips before addressing community pushback.

In large gaming communities like PokeMMO, it’s natural for players to have different opinions on serious topics such as botting, reporting, and the integrity of the game. This guide is intended to help players:

• Navigate dismissive attitudes in a healthy and constructive way.

• Address common misconceptions that may discourage meaningful community involvement.

• Promote responsible reporting and fact-based discussion.

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Common Misconceptions

“Players can’t know anything, only staff can.”

Clarification:
It’s true that only staff can confirm botting with back-end access and internal data. However, this does not mean that players should ignore suspicious behavior. Player reports are often the starting point for staff investigations. Staff cannot monitor every corner of the game in real time, so community reporting remains essential.

“Reporting is a waste of time.”

Clarification:
Even when a report does not lead to immediate visible action, reporting still helps the staff track patterns and focus resources where problems seem most active. Community vigilance is part of maintaining a healthy game environment.

“Having a strange username or grinding for long hours means nothing.”

Clarification:
By themselves, these factors don’t prove anything. However, when combined with other signs such as perfect pathing, no chat response, and zero variation in behavior over long periods, they can provide useful context for staff to review. Reporting is about sharing observations, not about making final judgments.

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Dealing with Dismissive Responses

Stay Focused on the Issue

It’s common to encounter sarcastic or dismissive comments in public forums. Rather than reacting emotionally or getting pulled into unproductive exchanges, it’s more effective to calmly restate your point or choose to disengage altogether. Keeping your focus on the issue shows maturity and credibility.

Let Your Effort Speak for Itself

If you’ve spent time writing thoughtful guides, submitting reports, and offering constructive suggestions, your actions speak louder than any dismissive comment. Your long-term contribution will hold more weight than individual reactions.

Don’t Take It Personally

Dismissive attitudes often reflect a desire to avoid difficult topics, not a personal attack. It helps to remember that you’re not alone in caring about the game’s future. If players genuinely had no interest, they likely wouldn’t engage at all.

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Positive Steps Players Can Take

• Submit clear, factual reports of suspicious behavior.

• Share reliable information to help correct misconceptions.

• Encourage others to report responsibly and avoid false accusations.

• Contribute to community discussions in a respectful, evidence-based way.

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Final Thoughts

Maintaining a fair and enjoyable game requires both player involvement and staff action. While disagreements and dismissive reactions will happen, what truly matters is whether we contribute to the community in a way that helps it grow and stay healthy. Staying focused on the goal and choosing to lead by example can make a real difference.

A Note on Transparency
This guide uses AI-assisted writing (like ChatGPT) for clarity and structure—which is not against forum rules. However, every observation, tip, and example comes from:

• My firsthand experience tracking bots in PokeMMO.

• Community-confirmed patterns (threads, reports, staff statements).

Let’s be clear: AI organizing words ≠ botting. One helps communication; the other breaks ToS. Focus on the content, not the tool.

Edited June 14Jun 14 by Highonlife22

The irony of making a "dismissive" reply on your "anti-dismissive" post is not lost on me, but, uh, what exactly are you trying to achieve with this ChatGPT slop? Good on you for wanting to wage war on potential botting, but this is all common sense and doesn't require a "guide". I was down with you expressing your sentiments about reporting bots in the previous thread, but this one just feels like trolling and a personal jab at the people who replied to your other thread.

Your critique is noted but the purpose of this guide is not to troll or jab. It's to inform people on how to handle dismissive attitudes and clear some common misconceptions. Thanks for reading.

Edited June 12Jun 12 by Highonlife22
typo

On 6/11/2025 at 6:39 AM, Highonlife22 said:

Let Your Effort Speak for Itself

If you’ve spent time writing thoughtful guides, submitting reports, and offering constructive suggestions, your actions speak louder than any dismissive comment. Your long-term contribution will hold more weight than individual reactions.

Well that's wishful thinking isn't it? I wouldn't consider writing prompts on generative chatboxes thoughtful or effortful. I get the appeal of using those tools to assist on stuff but let's not kid ourselves here, ChatGPT does a lot of heavy lifting on your posts it's not simply assisting anymore. I lowkey kinda hate it. Putting your AI slop guides on par with genuine helpful guides is big slap in the face to anyone who actually took time and effort researching, experimenting, gathering data, translating and writing their guides. And by the way, in your "guides" you tell people to interact with suspected bots- You shouldn't. People should stick to reporting them if they have reason to believe someone is botting and let staff handle it. Meddling with bots you're causing more harm than not. I think your heart is in the right place, it's just that there nothing much to be said on the topic than has not already been said.

Edited June 13Jun 13 by Zenor

12 minutes ago, Zenor said:

Well that's wishful thinking isn't it? I wouldn't consider writing prompts on generative chatboxes thoughtful or effortful. I get the appeal of using those tools to assist on stuff but let's not kid ourselves here, ChatGPT does a lot of heavy lifting on your posts it's not simply assisting anymore. I lowkey kinda hate it. Putting your AI slop guides preaching the choir on par with genuine helpful guides is big slap in the face to anyone who actually took time and effort researching, experimenting, gathering data, translating and writing their guides. And by the way, in your "guides" you tell people to interact with suspected bots- You shouldn't. People should stick to reporting them if they have reason to believe someone is botting and let staff handle it. Meddling with bots you're causing more harm than not. I think your heart is in the right place, it's just that there nothing much to be said on the topic than has not already been said.

I use ChatGPT for research and organization my post are made with real effort and research into the issues I post about. I find it amusing that people are willing to attack chat gpt and not tackle the actual problem. I will also address my guide suggesting interaction with bots through messaging. There are many reasons a player or even staff can claim someone is not a bot and this is an extra step added to help with identifying bots as a bot will simple not respond and combined with other observations will contribute to identifying one. Again thanks for reading.

Edited June 12Jun 12 by Highonlife22
clarification

I don't disagree with what the "guide" is saying except for the part that this is absolutely not a guide.

A thread like this should be in General Discussion, not the Guide Tavern.

3 hours ago, gbwead said:

I don't disagree with what the "guide" is saying except for the part that this is absolutely not a guide.

A thread like this should be in General Discussion, not the Guide Tavern.

This is absolutely a guide. And it was posted as one to showcase important information some players may not be aware of.

Edited June 13Jun 13 by Highonlife22

You must take into account when the events arrive by season, for example: Halloween, Christmas, CNY or Chinese Lunar New Year, all players play all day, it is a lot of effort, if we take breaks, but be careful in details like that, on the other hand, the page where I extracted the anti-cheat article is from the game support, so that you could get an idea of what the staff does with the captcha systems when they realize that the player failed one regardless of the reason, they check the account to see if they have a bot or any software that automates the game, you can go there and check other articles for example "ban for client manipulation", it is similar but talks about the system added in 2023 after the Johto update if I remember correctly, and your guide is not that it is bad, it is good, but spending super close and hours next to someone at random without being part of the staff just because you are suspicious, it already goes to the harassment line, why even stalking and so on, why not Being a bot and being another player, you are risking your action being misinterpreted later, so, even if you have suspicions and have sent reports, it is better for the staff to take charge, the Game Masters exactly, to conclude, returning to the topic of the articles, the staff team has in its section "support knowledge base", there you can find more than one piece of information, as a new player, it would be good for you

Edit: I meant spending hours keeping a close eye on a random player without being part of the staff, including interacting, and this player notices in case he is not a bot, you risk having your actions misinterpreted as harassment, so it is advisable to let the staff do their job after making reports of suspected botting (the translator changed some words for me, I don't speak English 100%, sorry) haha

Edited June 13Jun 13 by xKimYoselynx
Translation problems

1 hour ago, xKimYoselynx said:

You must take into account when the events arrive by season, for example: Halloween, Christmas, CNY or Chinese Lunar New Year, all players play all day, it is a lot of effort, if we take breaks, but be careful in details like that, on the other hand, the page where I extracted the anti-cheat article is from the game support, so that you could get an idea of what the staff does with the captcha systems when they realize that the player failed one regardless of the reason, they check the account to see if they have a bot or any software that automates the game, you can go there and check other articles for example "ban for client manipulation", it is similar but talks about the system added in 2023 after the Johto update if I remember correctly, and your guide is not that it is bad, it is good, but spending super close and hours next to someone at random without being part of the staff just because you are suspicious, it already goes to the harassment line, why even stalking and so on, why not Being a bot and being another player, you are risking your action being misinterpreted later, so, even if you have suspicions and have sent reports, it is better for the staff to take charge, the Game Masters exactly, to conclude, returning to the topic of the articles, the staff team has in its section "support knowledge base", there you can find more than one piece of information, as a new player, it would be good for you

Edit: I meant spending hours keeping a close eye on a random player without being part of the staff, including interacting, and this player notices in case he is not a bot, you risk having your actions misinterpreted as harassment, so it is advisable to let the staff do their job after making reports of suspected botting (the translator changed some words for me, I don't speak English 100%, sorry) haha

So a player is expected to not follow someone they suspect is a bot? I have done this many times to confirm bots with as high of a percentage rate as possible, if the suspected player is not a bot he can simple change servers and end the exchange. The question becomes is it better to ignore or take action. Also this guide should not be interrupted as gospel. I am not staff and nothing I say has been confirmed by them, if they wish they can clarify such issues as it seems a player with long play time could be just good muscle memory and there would be a logic trap where you can't observe a player before reporting which seems far more harmful. If an answer comes I will update the guide appropriately. Thanks for your input.

Edited June 14Jun 14 by Highonlife22

jesus according to your post, I'm a bot

4 hours ago, RysPicz said:

jesus according to your post, I'm a bot

This post is not accusing anyone, but if you’ve came to that observation on your own it actually served its purpose. Thanks for reading.

Edited June 15Jun 15 by Highonlife22

9 hours ago, RysPicz said:

jesus according to your post, I'm a bot

Lock him up boys, its about time