Smogon

What do you mean by "alternative forum"?

Simply as another place to talk about Pokémon? Or as somewhere to go instead of the official forum, replacing it entirely?

Generally I think it is good for fandoms to maintain multiple communities. If there is only one place to discuss things, there tends to be one dominant culture and narrative that develops around it. This can be at its worst on "official" or "approved" communities, where they have the veneer of authority, which is used to quash any opposing views or criticism of the franchise or its community leaders.

From what I have observed here the forums have been quite open and permissive, for the most part. My posts critical of Pokémon and Game Freak are approved and allowed to stay up, and disagreements between users are largely discussed civilly. If that were to change, it is good that alternatives like Smogon exist.

Beyond discussions and forums, I think Smogon's existence in general is a good thing as an alternative to the VGC format. All competitive games should ideally have alternative formats beyond the official one(s).

That way, when the format becomes stale or frustrating, or you simply get bored of playing the same old game, you have somewhere else to go and a different way to play the game with a different community.

In short, I have no problem with Smogon. Did you make that account and make this thread seeking to start a fight?

personally i think smogon bans too many things like kings rock and evasion and endless battle slowbro. otherwise the forums seem pretty similar to me