Posted by On the Usenet Newgroup “alt.games.pokemon”, the first post was by user pokemon.fan – also known as Jonathan Drain. It explains many various aspects of the group, which he describes as regularly abbreviated amongst its regular users as “AGP”. He explains that the FAQ post was originally meant to solely explain the point system of the forum, which served as a joking way to have users give each other kudos for posts they liked. This then slowly expanded into its eventual form of a generalized explanation of the forum itself.
The forum describes itself as a friendly place for general Pokemon content in any medium. However, conversations concerning how to obtain the ROMs (Read-Only Memory) of the Pokemon games are ignored, with a note saying that piracy is not supported. The details given for this are vague, explaining that they are illegal versions of the game playable on the computer, and to “search around” if you wish to obtain them. The avoidance of the topic is likely meant to prevent any legal trouble from arising from having piracy be a constant topic on the forum. Additionally, it is discouraged to advertise selling Pokemon cards, with such users being asked to go to another forum dedicated to that instead. Presumably, this is to prevent cluttering the forum with content that is all of a similar nature.
There is a long guide dedicated to “Netiquette”. Summarized, it contains suggestions on how to make posts easier to understand, how to be respectful to others, and how to prevent becoming a nuisance. Holistically, the list seems to be for maintaining the forum’s ease of use and peacefulness. It tries to guide newer users into being more integrated with the forum’s peaceful atmosphere.
Some of the topics in the FAQ lean more heavily to the Pokemon subculture. For example, there is a section dedicated to “PokeGods” – these were rumored secret Pokemon that were supposedly incredibly powerful. The section explains that they are not real, and false rumors. Having these in the FAQ seems to double both as a means of removing often-repeated questions, while also creating a repository of important information. In a similar vein, there is a section dedicated to the glitch Pokemon MissingNo, describing what it was, how to encounter it, and potential errors that could arise from it. Notably – reflecting the time period of the forum’s existence – certain descriptions of Missingno are closer to theory or speculation than fact. It is described as potentially a debug creature, or a template for Pokemon – these are plausible, but inaccurate. It reflects the fact that the forum was made up of fans, and those fans did not entirely understand what was going on behind the scenes – they compiled all the knowledge they did have in order to explain things.
Users can be seen assisting in the regulation of the forum. For example, when a question from user Steve Brunton pertaining to the Anime Dragon Ball Z, user micpp informed them that the group was about Pokemon, and not that show. Additionally, when an argument broke out concerning Wessand7’s complaints about Foggles, multiple people came out to support Wessand7. Various people stated they had blocked Foggles, some discussed finding a way to kick him out, and one signed a complaint to the abuse Hotmail concerning them.
Overall, the forum seems successfully self-regulating. Dedicated to a friendly community about Pokemon, those who aren’t friendly or aren’t interested in the topic of Pokemon are directed elsewhere. The priority is productive, kind, and novel conversations. None of the rules seem particularly overbearing, and seem to serve as reasonable guidelines for a small internet community such as this.
Cultural History of the Internet 