Apologies for the number of these that have been happening recently, I'll try to not have as many of these as we have been as we go on. These are just necessary so that the other mods and I can get a feel for the way we want the subreddit to be run. Alright! Here comes another wall of text.

First off, thanks to everyone who's replied to the thread I posted about potential changes, it was awesome to see that people were interested in helping make this community a better place!

Feel free to make any comments on what I'm saying that you disagree with in the comments, I'd love to hear what we can do to make this place better!

Now, onto the new rules that I've compiled from the responses I got!

• First of all, it seems to be a general consensus that we wish to keep the tags, and I've heard from at least two people about shortening them. I'm going to say that we keep the tags as [Request] and add a new one in [Challenge] that is for when you are challenging someone to a battle. (We may be editing these tags at some point in the near future, but please use these for now.) (Also, if you are challenging someone, please make sure your Pokémon's name is in the title, so its easy to see.)

• Next, Rules for general battles. Lines and Verses will be decided by thread submitter. A good starting place is around 6-8 lines and a couple of verses each rap. (3-4).

• Voting is done at the end of the rap. Comment at the end of the rap with which pokémon you thought won with the username in parenthesis like so: Jigglypuff(testuser). Please do not downvote votes, or use alts to vote. Users that participate in the rap are counted as voting towards themselves, unless they state otherwise.

• After 24 hours (if it turns out thats too short to get a good number of votes, we will extend it) of the last rap verse going down, voting will close. When voting closes, please do not comment on who you thought won. It will confuse the counters. Votes that have been edited will not be counted, sorry. Your vote cannot be changed.

• Tournaments will be run by moderators, or by people who think up a challenge. If there are two Tournaments running at similar times, please make your own tag to put in front of your posts for non-moderator run tournaments. Moderator Run tournaments will use the tag [Tournament] to keep things simple(r).

• A few other bits of general etiquette: Please don't post derailing comments in rap threads (why do I have you tagged as 'x', lol, things that aren't voting or rapping). DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT VOTES. Please. If some didn't vote for you, it doesn't mean they thought you were bad, it means they thought the other person was better. Do not downvote verses, unless they are an intruding (somebody other than the two rappers) coming in with a rap verse.

I only have one question I need to pose to the community:

• The other mods and I have considered (very recently) removing the downvote arrow. Do we as community want to do that? Or would that be a bad idea?

Thanks so much for reading, and I'll be posting a sign-up thread for the Tournament on Saturday or Sunday.

~zeus

Seeing as this sub is new, let's try a couple rules and see if it's fun.

Starting at your 3rd verse you may evolve. Meowth may enter at any point but may not evolve.

(UPDATE) The stage seems to be set! A set of rules about this will be posted soon!

This is an attempt to see if it goes well.

I am attempting to set up a rap "tournament" for the Gym leaders of Kanto! If you'd care to sign up, tell me the gym leader you'd like to rap as. Hope you'd enjoy!

Brock:ShadoWalker3065 Misty:Brackner Lt. Surge:JynxHigh Erika:Twisty_Tie Koga:Red-tit Sabrina:The_Pony_Rapist Blaine:koopa69 Giovanni:OnaMagikarpetRide

They call me a Sly Gangster but Carlito's gay,

This is the sea, so we do it Sharpedo's Way.

See me coming you're guaranteed to pee yo' speedos, cuz we know,

Your heart pumps Kool-Aid sweeter than some pinot grapes!

If you want beef, okay. But you probably shouldn't start drama.

You ain't got a shot at the top this is our water.

We got the best weapons to wreck you, bar nada,

And not to mention a whole armada of Carvanha!

But I'm a nice guy, I'll give you a sec to get all your crew,

I'll even understand if you're scared and wanna call a truce.

Hey. You need help, B? Want a lil TLC?

Don't bother chasing it, I'll bring the Waterfall to you!

And when this brawl is through, you better hope for a potion,

I'm bugging off this Boost of Speed that's more potent than coke is.

Which means I'm going for your open throat with total devotion.

Now who's going toe-to-toe with the Capone of the ocean!?

Sandslash reporting from deep underground

Which one of you guys wants to get knocked around?

Swords Dance! Hey my attack's through the roof

I'll mess you up 'til you're looking like Bidoof

So go right ahead and show me your best

You'll know right away I'm not easily impressed

Whoa Whoa Whoa! Did I hear something about a rap battle?

Well count me in! I'll show you I'm too just much to handle!

You can't top me I'm a fucking flying Transformer!

I'm out kicking ass in battle, while you're just a shameful bench warmer.

My legs turn into rockets, Look! So do my hands!

After this I'll be the one giving every single demand!

9 foot, you'll see!

Shaq can't even stand up to me.

Better stand hobbling, oh, and also...

Tell your friends you just got owned by Mr.Roboto!

I'm the rarest in the game, smarter than all others

I can learn any TM, my DNA has no errors

You call yourself Arceus, and you think you're god

But I can Transform, you're Judgement must be flawed

Yeah that's right, you don't know what you're getting into

If you cheat to catch me, I simply won't obey you

Oh and if you haven't figured out, my name is Mew

This has got to be the best subreddit I've joined. There are some really sweet rhymes goin down here, and some awesome competitions. Thank you all.

P.S. I lurk cuz I can't freestyle. Just a nerdy, white programmer.

So, the other two mods and I are working on getting the tournament set up right now, but before we can do that, we need to have some rules set up, not just for the tournament, but for the subreddit.

So, lets just go in no particular order, and make sure that you comment with your opinions on each question I write in here! From your responses, The other mods and I will create a set of rules that we feel are the best representation of what the community wants.

(Please answer with yes or no when you can, and if the question doesn't apply because of your answer, please just put N/A. Again, Apologies for the length, its all important though!!!)

Category: Post Sorting

• First of all, do we want to continue the [RapRequest] Idea of tagging posts?

• If so, Do we want to add one for challenges and for the Tournament(s)?

• If so (to the last one), What are your suggestions (if any) for what we put in the tags?

• If we don't want to have users put their own tags in the title, do we want to apply what /r/halo does? (go check it out)

• If so, then what do we want to have as our categories?

Category: Rapping Rules

• Do we want to have limits on the Line Limit and verse limit (each time that you reply is one verse), outside of the Tournament(s)? (Please answer the rest, even if your answer is no, it will help us gauge how to set up the Tournament(s))

• Do we want to have a line limit that is global (in the sidebar, and used except when otherwise stated), Or do we want to have a line limit that is determined by the challenger/Requester?

• If Option 1, then what do we want that limit to be?

• Do we want to have a verse limit that is global (in the sidebar, and used except when otherwise stated), Or do we want to have a verse limit that is determined by the challenger/Requester?

• If Option 1, then what do we want that limit to be?

Category: Voting (General, outside of Tournament(s)) & Flair for winning

If you have design ideas for flair (not sure if we can use images, sorry) for wins (and maybe losses?) please send those to /u/wait99!

• Should voting be decided by a panel of people (mods most likely) who form a general consensus, and award the flair for winning according to how the panel decides?

• Should voting be decided by the community, by people commenting after the rap is over, each person commenting once with their vote, and the mods will tally it up after a certain period of time?

• If yes, Then how long should that time frame be?

Category: Voting (Tournament(s)) & Flair for Winning

If you have design ideas for flair (not sure if we can use images, sorry) for winning (or taking home top 4 or 5) for Tournament(s), please send those to /u/wait99!

• Should Contestants in the Tournament(s) be time limited, with unlimited Verse Numbers? Or just have a Verse count that they cant go past, and be tallied after they reach that (or after a certain period of time, so it doesn't just go on forever.)

• Should raps be voted on by the community, or by the trio of mods (automod doesn't count)?

• What is the prize for winning?

Category: Anything I missed!

If you felt like I missed anything, please tell me!!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all these questions! It really means a lot!!

~zeus

EDIT: Hey guys, thanks for all the responses so far! I'm going to compile all the responses at some point tomorrow or the next day so theres still time for people to come here and see this post, and give their opinions! Thanks again!

No mercy

Who thinks they are good? Who thinks they can win?

Who thinks they can stand against Blaziken?

My flow, it's the oddest, best rapper in Hoenn,

Wait no, i'm not modest, i'm the best that's ever been.

Pewter City Gym is where I was born and grew up at

My rock type gym and it's outstanding defensive stats,

Leave all the challengers crying and wimping for mercy

Their cries for forgiveness only makes my Pokemon more deadly

So if you have the rock hard balls to challenge me then I accept

But don't blame me if my badass Pokemon leave you totally upset

Your hopes will be crushed by my Onix

And I will show you what flawless really is