Frequently Asked Questions

In the interest of honesty, I will note that not all of these questions are precisely "frequently" asked. Generally, the criterion for a question getting put on this page is that i) I've gotten it at least twice within a reasonably short timeframe, and ii) it is sufficiently annoying (either by virtue of having been asked very often, taking irritatingly long to answer, or simply being an extremely dumb question) that I do not want to get it again. That or I got it once and it was so amusing I just had to share.

Mistaken Error Reports

You can find the rest of the secret link clues easily after you've found one!

Yes, I know. And then what? If you're really clever enough to figure out anything at all from those bizarre clues of mine, you've done more than enough to deserve to find the Secret Link itself.

Finding the clues is more of a minigame than anything else, with tiny hints for the actual thing as a reward. You can still play the minigame even if you have read all the clues, since that does not tell you where all the clues were. There's no real harm.

Your Fun Facts are wrong! Dark, Psychic and Fighting form a type triangle, too!

@_@ NO, THEY DON'T! STOP REPORTING THAT! ARRGHETWETPJAERPOAMEF!

...now that I got that out of my system, the reason for that is that while Dark is super effective on Psychic which is super effective on Fighting which is super effective on Dark, it doesn't go the other way. With Fire, Water and Grass, Grass is not very effective on Fire which is not very effective on Water which is not very effective on Grass. With Dark, Psychic and Fighting, Dark is not very effective on Fighting which is not very effective on Psychic which is ineffective on Dark. It breaks the triangle.

Seriously, why have people been trying to "correct" me on Dark/Psychic/Fighting even though the section itself clearly states that it has to go for resistances too to qualify as a triangle? I've now put a special notice in parentheses to tell people specifically that Dark/Psychic/Fighting is not a type triangle into the section itself, but judging from my previous results with trying to make people read the FAQ before reporting errors so far, this will probably just make people e-mail me about Water/Ground/Electric instead (which has the same problem).

When I generate my Zodiac images, it displays two images of the same Pokémon!

Yes. They are not the same. Look carefully and you'll notice that the Pokémon sprites are different. To be precise, they're the male and female versions of the Pokémon (or at least presumably, since all other different forms look different enough that you would have realized that was it). It's made so that you can choose whichever one you prefer.

Your game sections are missing [insert Pokémon game(s) here]!

This site does not and will never contain sections about games I haven't played or games about which I don't feel I have anything noteworthy to say. Additionally, for some games I do plan to write content but haven't finished doing so for various reasons (such as not wanting to write a review until after finishing the game). When did any page of this site ever claim to contain all of the Pokémon games? Just like this is not a news site, this is not a catalogue of basic information about all the Pokémon games ever published. A lot of other sites have that, but The Cave of Dragonflies won't contain any mention of any game until I have something of worth to say about it.

Hey, in your Contact Me section you made a typo. You spelled 'evil' as 'ebil'!

That's not a typo. It's an intentional misspelling to indicate sarcasm. Yes, this is very frequently reported.

Hey, in your Ribbon Syndicate section, you spell 'story' as 'storey'!

'Storey' is a valid alternate spelling for the word that refers to floors in a building. I like 'storey' better, both because it was the one I originally learned (our English textbooks at school were British) and because I dislike ambiguity such as that created by using a word that also means 'narrative'.

Incidentally, this also applies to various other British words/spellings used on the site. I realize it would be prudent to decide on one dialect and stick with it, but I like to pick and choose. For the most part my English is more American than British, but there are various Britishisms that I prefer over the American equivalents, so don't be surprised when you stumble upon some of them.

In general, Americans would do well to remember that they are not the only English-speakers on the planet. Before correcting someone's spelling, it's wise to look it up.

Some affiliates are appearing more than once on your affiliate list!

Because the affiliate list is randomized with every pageview, it occasionally glitches up and displays the list with the same affiliate listed multiple times while others are missing. Generally this fixes itself; there is no need to report it.

Hey, in Sections that Suck, there's a <u> tag closed with an </i> tag!

Why do you think it's called "Sections that Suck"? That's an extreme example of a bad HTML guide. This and the many other facepalm-worthy HTML mistakes in that bit are all very deliberate, because this really is what these sections tend to be like. They have mistakes like closing the u tag with an i tag, and they use invalid HTML, and they copy-paste their image code containing "IMAGE URL" instead of an actual filename so that the example is a broken image. Everything in those example boxes is deliberately bad.

Obviously, if there's a tag closed with another tag on some other page that's not a deliberate example of bad HTML, it is a mistake and you should report it.

The Cave of Dragonflies

Hey, just a heads up, there are these new Pokémon games coming out called Black and White. They're the fifth generation games and have these new Pokémon called Reshiram and Zekrom, and the sprites are fully animated in battle! Just e-mail me/go to Serebii.net/PokéBeach for more info!

These are some of the most irritating e-mails I get. Why? Well, you see... it feels like, and I'm not saying it's intentional, but it feels like you think I'm stupid. Imagine you're somewhere out walking in the street, and suddenly this person walks up to you and says, "Hey, just a heads up, there are these things called sheep. They're animals with horns and hooves and wool and stuff. And then there are cows and horses too! Go to this farm to see them!" You'd find it rather ridiculous, mostly because this is a random person you don't know walking up to you and for some bizarre reason assuming that you don't know what sheep are and feeling the need to tell you about them. Yeah, that's approximately the way I feel when I get e-mails like that.

Yes, I know you're just trying to help. I'm sure the hypothetical sheep guy feels very generous to tell that innocent person on the street about sheep, too, and doesn't realize that it's generally rude and condescending to presuppose someone's ignorance about something that is common knowledge. But given the fact that I link to Serebii.net on my link menu it strikes me as extremely odd that so many people (because I have had MANY people e-mail me in order to make themselves look smart by informing me about things everybody has known for months already, believe me) seem to be convinced that I've been living under a rock. I mean, what is it about me that makes people feel confident in presupposing that I don't keep up with the times?

Well, actually, I do know what it is. It's because people come to this site and, dumbfounded, discover I actually don't have a poorly-written Serebii-ripoff "New Pokémon" section or an outdated section on the features of Diamond and Pearl like everybody else does (or whatever else happens to be in the Pokémon news at the moment). So clearly, it means I've never heard of any of it, right? I mean, what could possibly drive me NOT to put all the stuff I know about new game X on my website? And for that matter, what could possibly drive you not to wear a scarf with sheep facts written on it when you go out walking if you do know what sheep are, after all? It makes no sense! It has to be because you're ignorant about it!

You see, this is not a news site. This site focuses on being accurate, interesting and original - emphasis on 'accurate' and 'original'. Your scarf isn't the place where you exhibit your knowledge about sheep; The Cave of Dragonflies isn't where I talk about upcoming games. I have a policy of preferrably trying everything in person before putting it up here to make sure it is accurate, and obviously, since I don't have upcoming games, I'm not in any situation to tell people information about them as fact.

This is not even just me being eccentric. When it was revealed that Chatot was in fact a Normal/Flying type, I could lie back and say "I told you so" while watching every other Pokémon website on the net grudgingly withdraw their earlier newsflashy statements about how there was now for the first time ever a pure Flying-type Pokémon (not to mention that I could laugh at all the annoying people who had been e-mailing me with "OMG HEY YOUR FUN FACTS ARE WRONG BECAUSE THERE NOW IS A PURE FLYING-TYPE, IT'S CALLED CHATOT AND IT'S IN THESE NEW GAMES CALLED DIAMOND AND PEARL, GO TO SEREBII.NET FOR MORE INFO, JUST THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW, LOL!"). And as for originality - sorry, but everybody and their mom has a section about new games. If you want to see that, you can go to those websites, but I have no intentions of doing that on my own site; if I put something here about any Pokémon game, it's because I actually have something to say about that game. Bringing you news is not what this site is for. Just rest assured that I'm every bit as up-to-date on Pokémon information as you are unless you work for Game Freak. I do read Serebii.net and Bulbanews, you know.

(And you future people reading this after Black and White are out, no, you do not need to tell me that. I can't be bothered to update this question every time something is in the news. Just pretend all the references to specific games in this answer are about the latest scoop. Well, actually, I now think I'm going to update the actual question every time somebody fails to read this answer and e-mails me anyway, just to demonstrate that no matter how much I try to tell people to read my FAQ, people still e-mail me to notify me of every new Pokémon game that is announced.)

What's with all the polls having a "You suck" option?

It's a sort of a running gag on the site. Poll 7 is the first one to have an option in that general spirit, and soon after that the polls settled into usually including at least one extremely grouchy, negative option. In poll 13, these options were collectively referred to as "you suck" options, while a grouchy option with the literal wording of "You suck" was also included. Poll 15 then, while including several "grouchy options", was the first one to have an option called simply "You suck", which made sense in the context of that poll, and after this I included "You suck" options more systematically ("Anybody who wastes their time on something like that must really suck", "Your boyfriend sucks") until poll 23 finally cemented the last option in the poll as just being literally "You suck." It's been that way in the majority of the polls ever since, even (perhaps especially) when it is wildly irrelevant.

Some visitors have expressed serious alarm over the number of votes the "You suck" options regularly garner, so for the sake of these people, I should point out that "You suck" is a joke option. It's the funny answer, and there are lots and lots of people who will always vote for the funny answer in something like this. It's also essentially a dummy option you can vote for if you have no real opinion on the subject of the poll, and the effect of this is very visible when you compare the number of "You suck" votes in polls people are relatively likely to have some sort of an opinion on and polls a lot of people may be expected to not really care about. I don't take the number of "You suck" votes seriously as actual ill-will towards me (if that's what you want to express, be my guest, but the "You suck" option in the poll is just not the place to get it across), and neither should you.

So do you also own that veekun site?

No. "Sibling Site", at least as used here, does not mean I or anybody related to me owns said site. The owner of veekun is a guy who calls himself Eevee who is vastly better at just about everything than I am and is most definitely not me; we have very different writing styles, for one. He is not physically my brother, either. We are sibling sites because we talk pretty regularly and his Pokédex is underappreciated.

When are you going to update the site?

This is a silly question. I update when I have something to update with, which depends on how much time I've had to work on the site, how many ideas I've had, and what kind of mood I've been in. If it's been a while since I updated, it's generally because I've been in an unproductive mood or busy with some real-life stuff. I will not be able to tell you when I will update until I am actually posting that update.

Hey, this has changed, but you didn't update the front page!

This site is always changing; I get a ton of error reports that make me fix something, pointers that make me add something and questions that make me clarify something, and (sadly unlike some webmasters) I frequently read over my own sections and decide on my own that I want to tweak or add something. Affiliates also get added and removed without me noting so on the front page. Generally I only update the front page when I've added a new page, made some particularly noteworthy changes to a page (such as rewriting large portions of it or adding significant information to it) or have been making minor but somewhat noteworthy (i.e. not just fixing typos or the like) changes on a lot of different pages. So even in a stretch of no front page updates, I may very well have been doing stuff behind the scenes; I just don't consider it something my visitors should specifically be notified of.

What inspired you to make your site?

Two things, really. The first was Mew's Hangout, the first comparatively decent Pokémon website I ever visited, which convinced me that you can make a good Pokémon website with loyal visitors. The second, and probably more important in the end, was the plethora of horrid websites I had visited before I found Mew's Hangout and never came to again, which would give me the feeling that overall I find most inspiring of all inspiring things: "I could do much better than that." So thank all those badly-designed sites with horrible grammar.

How did you make your site?

For the most part the HTML and CSS are hand-written in Notepad; recently I've started using Notepad++, and some of the internal scripting is done in VisualStudio. The site uses the ASP.NET framework for server-side scripts written in C#; I also have some stand-alone pages such as the Pokémon List Generator that are written in JScript. No WYSIWYG has been involved in any part of the site at any stage of its creation.

The graphics used in the site's layouts are mostly created using Adobe Photoshop CS and ImageReady CS.

Then it just takes a lot of free time and "I could do much better than that" to drive me to write the content.

What's your host?

My dad's company has a dedicated server and we stuck my site on there too. If you're asking because you're looking for a host for your own website, it's pretty useless to ask me for help on that, since you'll probably be wanting shared hosting and my site has never used shared hosting at all.

Can I be staff on the site?

The short answer: No, not in a million years. Sorry.

The long answer: I get very emotionally attached to the things that I create, this website among them. I've spent years of my free time typing up all the content, often many times over, creating the layouts, thinking of original ideas for it, learning all sorts of coding and generally pouring my heart and dedication all over it. What I get out of that is something I can admire with the thought that I actually made that from the ground up through my own hard work and that others can benefit from it. Call it pride, call it a creator's love, but this is why I care deeply about The Cave of Dragonflies and why owning it means something to me.

Now... what should having somebody else's content on my site mean to me? That I can "share the glory"? That the site becomes more popular if it has more content and is updated more often? Well, that's all fine and dandy and probably true; in fact, I can't help strongly suspecting that this is deep down the motive that most people who want to be staff have - "sharing the glory", so to speak, of what The Cave of Dragonflies has already established, or that their content will gain much more publicity if it is posted at an already-established website. However, I really don't care in any significant way how popular my site is (I love it because I created it and people can benefit from it, remember, not because it gets me publicity), and it has always struck me as deeply wrong for any person's work to be attributed in any part to another person - if you were staff, I would insist that all content you write be marked with your name and my content with mine, specifically so that I will get no glory for your work or you for mine. There would be nothing in it for me at all - and not only that, but it would honestly feel rather like selling my soul.

If you want to feel like you own any share in what is already on this website, we have a fundamental philosophical disagreement which would make any working relationship between us impossible. If you wish your content could gain quick publicity, make your own website and then affiliate with me - if I wouldn't affiliate with your content, I sure as hell wouldn't want it on my site anyway.

Can you link to me?

Well. If you want to affiliate with me, you'll have to apply and link back - see this section for details. The "Links" part of my menu is links to other sites of note which cover a variety of different subjects, not necessarily affiliated with mine in any way, and those are picked when I myself happen to come across a noteworthy site offering something my site (and the sites I already link to) doesn't have; I'm afraid you can't apply to be on there. So yeah; stick with trying to affiliate.

Can I link to you?

You don't need to ask - linking to somebody's website can't do them any harm, so there's no reason anybody wouldn't want you to link to them. (Well, unless they have illegal content and don't want Nintendo to shut them down, but I don't.) So basically, yeah, feel free to link to me, as long as you know that affiliates are not the same as links. You can link to me under the title "Links", because then you're saying, "Hey, this is a cool site I wanted you to see!" You can not link to me under the title "Affiliates", because then you're saying, "Hey, this is a cool site I wanted you to see, and its owner wants his/her visitors to see my site too!" You can't do that if I don't want my visitors to see your site, i.e. have not agreed to put your link on my affiliate list, too.

Hey, your site is nice! But you haven't got anything on it other than Pokémon. You should make a Sonic section.

Umm... a Sonic section. Right. Okay, I'll go make a section with everything I know about Sonic. Umm, he's blue. And he's supposed to be a hedgehog although there's no way I can think of a hedgehog when I look at him. I find him cuter than Tails, who is some kind of a fox who apparently has two tails. And then there's a black one called Shadow, but I have no idea how he connects to them. And then there's some red one too. And yeah. Wouldn't that make a wonderful Sonic section?

For short, I don't know a first thing about Sonic and nothing has ever even vaguely implied that I do. Okay, it would be sensible to suggest expanding the site to something more than just Pokémon... but suggesting a specific subject? And to top it all, one I've never shown any signs of being capable of making a website about? Not very likely to be successful.

And yes, a few different people have actually e-mailed me individually to suggest I add a Sonic section to my site, despite that I have never played a Sonic game in my life.

Okay, but how about expanding the site to just anything other than Pokémon, then?

Theoretically possible, sure, but I find it a silly idea for a number of reasons.

Firstly, this has always been just a Pokémon site. Its established visitor base is composed of Pokémon fans. Suddenly adding content about other fandoms would only cater to those Pokémon fan visitors who happen to also be into whatever the content is about. This can work when the fandoms tend to overlap, like if I expanded the site to all Nintendo games, but as it happens the Pokémon games are the only Nintendo games I play to any degree. Putting random content about, say, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Harry Potter, Phoenix Wright, The Dresden Files, StarCraft or any of the other stuff I happen to like on here would bump into the rather awkward fact that a large majority of those interested in content about those are, well, not Pokémon fans, and thus would not come to this site and probably press the back button if they did stumble upon it. Additionally, at least a significant portion of my Pokémon fan visitors would either have no idea what I'm talking about or flat-out dislike it. Those pages would only appeal to a rather small cross-section of people - I would be far, far better off just making another website unconnected to this one that would spare fans of that subject matter the horror of having to read about it on a Pokémon-themed layout.

Secondly, this is further accentuated by the fact that I actually take considerable pride in the fact this is a pure Pokémon site. Every time a Pokémon webmaster caves in and converts their site into a general anime, gaming, graphic design or whatever website, I have this gleeful "Ha! I'm more dedicated than you!" internal reaction. I wouldn't want to be a hypocrite, now, would I? :P

Thirdly, Pokémon, as it happens, is a fandom that is unusually website-friendly, in that there is an awful lot of stuff you can write about to put on a website which somebody else hasn't done better already. It is an ongoing franchise, so there is always new stuff coming out to make content about. The games are the kind with a multitude of complex formulas and strategies that can be explained and plenty of room for tips, tricks, lists, guides, quizzes and so on. The world is full of intriguing mysteries that can be explored. Also importantly, owning a website is a trend in the Pokémon fandom, with everything full of smaller sites with whole subculture followings of their own instead of everybody just going to one or a few sites; this naturally makes it easier to rise to fame through owning a Pokémon website, particularly with everybody affiliating with one another. For just about everything else I enjoy, I don't really feel like I have much to say, at least that isn't already said at more popular websites - I've never really felt much of a drive to create a website or even individual pages about them.

Your site needs some color. It's boring when it's just white.

Uh, why the heck are you using something called "Minimal Dewgong style" if you don't want white and minimal?

I always thought I had put the style switcher in a very obvious place, so I'm always kind of puzzled when I get this question.

What Pokémon can you get on that "What Pokémon Are You?" quiz?

The possibilities are, in alphabetical order:

Absol
Alakazam
Banette
Butterfree
Charizard
Cubone
Dragonite
Gardevoir
Haunter
Houndoom
Lapras
Magikarp
Mew
Mewtwo
Misdreavus
Murkrow
Natu
Ninetales
Pachirisu
Pikachu
Poochyena
Porygon
Primeape
Ralts
Scyther
Shellder
Slaking
Slowking
Slowpoke
Snorlax
Spinda
Teddiursa
Togetic
Tyranitar
Tyrogue
Weavile

Hey, I like that "What Pokémon Are You?" quiz! Could you add [insert Pokémon here] as a possible result in it?

Sorry, but no.

Firstly, the way the script works is that there are exactly 36 possible outputs. Obviously each of them has a Pokémon assigned to it already. This would be a matter of either removing somebody else's favorite Pokémon to get yours in, which obviously won't help much overall, or completely recoding the entire quiz so that there can be 37 possible results, which is rather a lot of effort for a small gain.

Secondly, if I agree to add your favorite Pokémon as a possible result in the quiz, I obviously have to add everybody else's favorite Pokémon too if they ask; otherwise it wouldn't be fair. I'd end up having to make all 649 Pokémon possible results, for crying out loud.

Thirdly, why do you even want your favorite Pokémon to be a possible result in the quiz? So that you can put it in your signature somewhere? But what are the odds that you'll happen to actually get your favorite Pokémon when you take the test honestly? You'd have to basically submit with random answers until you got your favorite Pokémon, and then it defeats the entire point of a personality test, because it wouldn't be a description of you. If you really want a personality description of your favorite Pokémon, just make an image like that yourself and ditch the personality test detour.

Hey, I like your [insert section here]. Can I put it on my website? I'll give you credit.

Well. I wouldn't consider your using my content to be stealing if you're giving proper credit for it with a link to my site, no. But... what the heck is the point? Why on Earth would you want to have a section on your website that's just an acknowledged copy-paste of a section on some other website? If you think your visitors would be interested in one of my guides (what people usually ask this for), why don't you just link to my guide instead of pointlessly copy-pasting it? In fact, it is quite advantageous for your visitors if you just link, since they will then always have access to the most up-to-date version of the section, they have a more direct way to contact the actual author of the section if they have questions about it, and if they find it useful and want to see more in the same vein, they have direct access to my other sections as well. There is no good rationale for you to have a copy-pasted version of my stuff on your site; the only reason you would ever want to do this is so that your website can reap the benefits of my work without you having to do any, and that's really just kind of low.

You can technically do it if you want to, provided you attribute it properly with a link back to this site, but your website will be a far better one if you just link and then write some of your own content to attract visitors on your own terms. I am sure as heck not affiliating with you if your idea of adding content to your site is to go to another website and get permission to copy-paste what they have, whether it happens to be my website or not.

Hey, I like your [insert section here], and I own a Pokémon website in [insert non-English language here]. Can I translate that section and put it on my website with credit?

Now, this, on the other hand, does have a point, and I'm all for allowing people who don't speak English access to translations of my content. Yes, you can translate a section from this site and reproduce it on your website, as long as you make it extremely clear that it is a translation at the top of the section and provide a visible link to the original version of the page on this site.

Spriting

How do you make sprites?

There's a section on the site called "Spriting guide", which explains basically how I do it. Read that, then ask me if there's something you don't understand in it and I'll try to help. Please don't just say "I don't understand your guide"; tell me what exactly you don't understand in it.

What program do you use to make your sprites?

Adobe ImageReady, sometimes version 3.0 and sometimes CS. I use it mainly because it has layers, transparency and the ability to save good-quality web images, and it can animate if that's what I want to do, all in one program.

Oh, I only have Paint. Does that mean I can't make sprites?

Absolutely not. The only things ImageReady has over Paint when it comes to sprites are simply conveniences, like a long undo history, the ability to change all pixels of one particular color to another with a single click, and layers that allow you a little more messing-up without ruining your work and easier deletion of the original art when you're making a pixel-over. It all CAN be done on Paint, even though it's a little easier in better programs. That said, Paint is not a very good paint program in general and if you're going to be doing anything other than spriting, you need to get yourself a better one.

How do I make pictures transparent in Paint?

You can't. Find a program on the Internet that can (I hear GIMP is good, but I've never used it, so don't ask me for help with it).

Can I use some of your sprites for my site/RPG/ROM hack/etc.?

Read the Terms of Use in my sprite gallery. No, really, actually read them, not just skim over them. See at the bottom, where it says...

Also note that when getting permission for the according uses of sprites, you should tell me exactly what you are planning to do with them (which includes telling me what sort of role they will have in an RPG, etc.) and exactly which sprites you want to use. If you don't tell me when you initially ask me, I'll just reply back asking you for that information.

Yeah. Give me the details, man. I can't say yes to a request that doesn't give me any basis on which to make my decision.

From experience, people usually mean...

Hey, I love your fake Pokémon sprites! Can I use them in [insert anything here]?

*sigh*

From the Fake Pokémon page:

These Pokémon's designs and the artwork shown here are © Butterfree / Dragonfree / antialiasis and are NOT to be used in fan-games, RPGs, etc., even with full credit! You can create original artwork portraying them as long as you give full credit to me for creating the actual Pokémon, but you may not directly use my sprites of them in anything, and you may not use their designs for fan-games and so on, even if the actual artwork used is yours.

From the sprite Terms of Use:

You may not:

do anything with them whatsoever besides look at them. Really. I used to allow people to use them in ROM hacks and role-playing games with permission, but the people using them were just getting too many to keep track of (although of course, those I already gave permission will get to keep the sprites with proper credit attributed). Now they are for looking only and anyone caught doing anything with them who did not get permission to do so before I tweaked the rules will be impaled on an imaginary spear and most definitely put on my Wall of Shame. End of discussion.

I believe I should have made myself clear.

Wow, I love your sprites! Can you make a scratch sprite of [insert Pokémon here] for me?

Eh, I'm sorry, but no. I'm not good at making scratch sprites, contrary to some weird popular belief. I'm what I call a "lucky artist". I can NOT draw. Sometimes I miraculously get the shape approximately right, but that's a very rare occurrence and it's pure luck. I doodle practically all the time, but 99% of everything I draw turns out looking absolutely awful with anatomy problems that would put a three-year-old to shame. And I'm far too much of a perfectionist to fill a request with something that looks awful.

Hey, I love your sprites! Can you be a staff spriter for my fangame?

See above. I can't just make a good scratch sprite on demand, so I'd be a very hopeless worker for any sort of fake Pokémon project. Aside from that, my spriting mood comes in small bursts that are usually months apart, so I wouldn't be very productive even if I could actually miraculously get everything I attempted just right.

What do you think of these sprites I made? You can take credit for them and put them on your site if you like; I don't mind.

Well. I know this isn't your intent, but "You can take credit for my sprites" pretty much amounts to "I think you're a thief and a liar." By giving me "permission" to use your work in my name, you are implying that you think I would actually take credit for somebody else's work and pretend it's mine. Why on Earth would any halfway decent human being take your sprites and claim they made them if they didn't, permission or no? So no, I will not take credit for your sprites and put them on my site, because (surprise!) I am not an art thief. I would never claim somebody else's work as my own. Whether you would mind or not is frankly irrelevant.

I have had a number of people invite me to steal their work in this way, and all in all it feels a great deal more like a slap in the face than those occasional hatemails I get, which are generally pretty entertaining. Seriously, don't do this. Again, I know you didn't mean it that way, but think about what you're saying for a moment.

Websites

Where can I make a site?

On your computer. Just learn HTML and CSS, write some content and get a host. Don't ask me for hosting help (see What's your host?).

How do you make a style switcher?

I used ASP.NET with C# for it myself, but you can also use PHP or any other server-side language of your choice - or even just good old Javascript. Go here for a nice free Javascript (this is what I was using at the old Invisionfree forums). I might make a free server-side script sometime if I'm feeling like it.

"Can you rate/affiliate with my site?" "Can you rate/affiliate with my site now with the one new page I just added?" "Can you rate/affiliate with my site now after I changed my layout?"

I'm afraid I just don't have the time to inspect your whole site every other day. If I've already given you a site rating or responded to your affiliation request, I've most likely told you a boatload of things you could improve on. Don't ask me again until you've at least made some serious effort to fix all those things (barring maybe the more subjective complaints). If I turn down your affiliation request, it is not because you need to add one more page or create a new layout, unless I specifically tell you that I'd affiliate if it weren't for that. So just calm down, work on what I told you in the last rating and then you can ask again when you're really giving me something substantially different to look at.

Miscellaneous

I can't decide what my favorite Pokémon is, can you help me?

Uh, I can't decide what your favorite Pokémon is; if I pick it, it's not your favorite. It's sort of odd to ask somebody else what your own opinion is. However, if you want my take on it, it's that nobody says you need to have only one favorite Pokémon. Just name all the ones you can't decide between when you're asked. Problem solved.

Yes, I've actually gotten this question a few times.

What is that "Quest for the Legends" thing you keep talking about?

It's a long piece of Pokémon fanfiction (i.e. a story happening in the Pokémon world) that I've been writing since 2002 and stubbornly refuse to give up on. Go here to read it if you're curious.

Are you really Satoshi Tajiri?

Err... what do you mean, really? I never said I was, unless you actually took that one conspiracy theory seriously.

(Yes, I've gotten this one, too.)

Can I be your friend?

Eeargh. Friends do not work that way! People become friends by discovering, through talking or sharing other experiences together, that they enjoy one another's company on some level. We have not talked or shared any experiences together; therefore we are not "friends". You can't just ask "Can I be your friend?" and expect us to magically be friends if I say yes.

If you actually want to get to know me, I'm all for talking to you. I have made friends with random visitors to my site who just started talking to me out of the blue. However, what they all have in common is that they talked to me about something. They had thoughts on something I'd written, or asked for my thoughts on something they did, or just genuinely wanted to ask me about something, and that led to fun conversation. On the other hand, sometimes people start talking to me in a way that makes it painfully obvious they're only talking to me for the sake of talking to me, such as by asking a series of random, disconnected questions without appearing to have any real interest in what my answer is. That's not a conversation; it's extremely awkward, feels like a waste of time, and is just about guaranteed not to lead to a friendship. So please don't do that. If you're that interested in getting to know me personally, there has to be something of actual substance you'd want to talk to me about.

Do you think in Icelandic or English?

(This is a frequently-asked question, I swear! Don't ask me why.)

It depends on what I'm thinking about. If I'm thinking up something I'm planning to put on the Internet at some point (whether it's a post in some forum topic I read, a possible section for this website or just a LiveJournal entry), I think it in English - in other words, when I write the sections for this website, it is not some sort of a translation of Icelandic thoughts. If I'm thinking of random everyday concepts unrelated to video games or the Internet (basically, just thinking in general), I think in Icelandic. If I'm thinking about the Internet or Pokémon or something but not actually making up some text that I'm planning to post somewhere, it tends to become a hybrid - the general framework for the thoughts is in Icelandic, but various concepts I'm more used to talking about on the Internet (and thus in English) enter my thoughts under their English names.

Page last modified November 05 2011 at 01:48 GMT