Interesting timing.
As
The Immortal said, the rule was created to prevent influence in the voting thread itself, aka when you're looking through the thread and maybe haven't fully decided yet, or when you were going to vote for something and read some message that might change your mind .
can you calm down?
i dont even know what your first paragraph is trying to address because it's literally just you misinterpreting what was said by TI and Chloe. They quite clearly said that the rule was made when the old method of voting for OMotM was still a thing, ie when people could post their vote and then say "everyone who votes for [x tier] should kill themselves" (which is why the rule was mostly made).
I have no idea what this sentence is trying to say either because well.... it does not make sense for how voting works. How would someone be influenced via advertisement of all things to vote/not vote for a metagame in a locked thread that only has posts thay quite literally say the metagame's name and then a description of said metagame. If someone doesn't like the description made for a meta, they can simply click on the link and read into it more or just not vote for it.
The spirit of the rule is to prevent influence for/against certain metagames among all metagames. The extension from only the thread would be to places where people from all metagames gather, such as the OM chat on PS and Discord, or more general chats on PS / Discord.
I'm using
bold to make this seem
more important.
And yeah. The spirit of the rule is to prevent influencing users to vote or not vote for a certain metagame so that another one wins....... which you quite literally are doing by constantly announcing in your server that OMotM voting is open and giving multiple heavy implications for the users who read your announcements to vote for 2v2 Doubles. It does not matter that you do not exactly say "Vote for 2v2 Doubles" or "Don't vote for Godly Gift", the fact of the matter is that you are still advertising a voting stage of something and in the same message saying only one of the options to vote for. This would be quite different if you had said "OMotM voting is open! The available options are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10! Don't forget to vote!" because you are not giving more of a name to one meta while completely ignoring the others.
And are you really trying to say that the rule only applies to places where all metagames gather while immediately saying beforehand that the rule only applied to the old voting method? It sounds like you don't even know what the rule is.
Which brings me to metagame specific Discords, that's where the spirit of the rule doesn't apply. A metagame specific Discord is a place for everything about the metagame it's for. Which includes info about the metagame being nominateable / votable for OMotM. The status of ladder / playability for a metagame is very much relevant information that should be posted in the place designated for the metagame's community. Almost everyone in a metagame specific server are already there for the metagame in question. The notion that posting a link to such a relevant event for the metagame in the metagame's own Discord is unfairly influencing the vote doesn't make sense. It's just info about a relevant event, and even in the case where people infer a message, it's in said metagames own space, not in a public / general place for OM's / PS etc. And as you can see in the screenshots you posted, it's just the link to the event, the info about the event, and the reason why the event is relevant, aka the minimum possible information about a very relevant event.
Name one metagame that isn't already implemented on PS as either a ladder or a rotational that doesn't already have a discord server and/or a room. STABmons doesn't really count because even though it has neither of the two things, it is ineligible anyways, and Camomons both doesn't have its own discord to
advertise in and is already on OMotM/LCotM cooldown.
I also don't really like your argument that meta-specific discords include all info about a metagame, including whether or not it can be nominated or voted for in the OMotM polls. Yeah, while the playable status of a metagame should be important, I don't see what argument you're trying to prove here. Who cares if 2v2 can be voted for? It is against the rules to advertise, yet I've constantly seen you break that rule. I also don't see why the play status of 2v2 is so important either? It already had a challenge mode on PS, which most meta owners would kill to give.
The fact of the matter is, 2v2 is the only non-ladder/rotational OM that I know of that has its own discord, which further helps you support your point when there is no other context being given. This entire paragraph is literally just you trying to give an excuse as to why you advertised your OM and why it should be fine. There is literally not a single other OM in these guidelines that has its own community like this.
Since your inspiration is from the 2v2 Doubles server, let's address that. 2v2 Doubles has one of the most, if not the most underrepresented playerbase on Smogon forums and much more so in the OM subforum.
Are you kidding? 2v2 Doubles literally has its own challenge format on PS every other month besides this one, it has a big enough playerbase that some people (you) might even consider it eligible for its own discord, and it's a format that consistently appears in the 1v1 Team Tours. Don't even say that my last point is a bad example either. We both know 1v1 almost has an equally as large playerbase independent from OMs in its entirety. The reason for 2v2 being underrepresented and whatever garbage your spewing isn't the fault of Smogon's and more specifically the OM community, it's because you aren't doing enough as a leader to get it discussed in places like the OM room (even though it is a topic in the 1v1 room a lot????).
Being against info about OMotM getting to some of its players is being for shutting it out and not giving it a chance.
You could just simply post the link to the voting thread in your announcements channel in the 2v2 Doubles discord and say "OMotM voting is up!" It's already heavily implied that since you're linking the OMotM voting in the 2v2 discord that 2v2 is almost inevitably going to be an option.
The only issue I can acknowledge is established metagames vs new metagames in OMotM. Established metagames might have an edge over new ones considering the playerbase, but the novelty of new ones is a strong balancing factor. However, regardless of the result of the vote, a decent amount of people will be dissatisfied because they wanted a new metagame for OMotM instead of "this again?" or vice versa, where people are dissatisfied because they can't play the metagame they've played before and want to play again. I brought this up in a
post in gen 6, where I suggested a new project which would be a different OMotM for new metagames.
Dude....2v2 is more established than pretty much every single non-ladder/rotational meta in this generation (except like Sketchmons or Camomons maybe). 2v2 would most likely have the edge over a lot of metas if you would give it a chance and tried to make it popular in other ways than just advertising that people vote for it even if they don't play it.
The sentiment was that LCotM already does that job sometimes. But that doesn't really solve the problem, established metagames are still pitted against new ones. The issue with this suggestion is that the pool of metagames for the regular OMotM would always be increasing, while the pool for the OMotM for new ones would always be decreasing unless new OM's come out every month. But maybe that's not an issue? Why approve a metagame if it's not going to ever see the light of day? And if adding more ladders to PS is an issue, maybe replace LCotM?
This is literally such a stupid idea that I'm not even going to comment on it. If anything, there should be two LCotM ladders so that nobody but the leaders has a choice, which would lead to less crybaby posts like this.
E: Yeah I know I came off as rude in this post as well as similarly crybabyish. I guess it's just something that happens to everyone when they make posts in an overzealous rage.