Welcome to the Silph League!

We're excited to be expanding the Silph League to Telegram this month after over 2,000 Discord communities from around the world have already joined us.

This channel is intended for updating local Community Leads with significant League news and communications.

We look forward to working with you to make the Pokemon GO community even more awesome through global initiatives that empower you to grow and foster your local community.

If you're new, please review the League's Code of Conduct: https://TheSilphRoad.com/league-code-of-conduct

Then, stay tuned for an update about League resources you can use to incentivize attendance at your February Community Day meetup soon!

- The Executives -

Howdy, everyone!

A warm welcome to all our new Telegram Community Leads! As February Community Day is one week from today, the Silph League has prepared some swag you can offer and give out to your local meetup attendees:

1. Community Day Badge: Shiny Valentine's Dratini
Community Leads in the League (you!) are authorized to check folks in and award a collectible Travelers Card badge for attending your meetup in-person. Check out the new badge above! Type /events in your DM with @SilphBot and follow the prompts to designate event staff who can help check people in at your meetup!

All your staff will have to do is enter attendees' handshake codes on a special URL and your attendee will be checked-in and receive the Travelers Card badge! We'll send the special URL out a few days before Community Day.

2. Free Downloads of League Graphics on a New Asset Site!
Making a meetup flyer? A Facebook event photo? Or any other graphic to promote your League event? Feel free to use anything on the new League asset site! You can now get graphics and even .PSDs for free (non-commercial) use in your own graphics! <https://assets.sil.ph/silph-league/>

And that's all for now! Help spread the word about the limited edition collectible badge - and use it to incentivize attendance at your meetup!

Are you ready, everyone?

The February Community Day event is roughly 18 hours away for the Asia-Pacific region, 24 hours away for Europe/Afr/Ind/Mid East, and 36 hours away for the Americas.

We're looking forward to enabling you to grant Silph League badges to your meetup attendees! Here are some final instructions and resources for this weekend's League event:

1. The Check-In URL (For Your Staff)
Give your staff the following URL ahead of time for checking people in:

https://TheSilphRoad.com/check-in

Make sure you've authorized them as staff via @SilphBot! If you need more help setting up your staff, start with these instructions: https://thesilphroad.com/community-day-checkins-telegram

We recommend 1 staff per 10 attendees!

The check-in URL above will accept check-ins for a few hours before, during, and a few hours after the 3-hour event.

2. New 'Description' Field on League Map
You can now add custom description text to your marker on the League Map! Configure it via /config in a private message to @SilphBot. We recommend adding instructions for joining/finding your community, or other useful information for prospective members.

—---

Over 1,200 communities around the world (with an average of 4 staff apiece) are joining us all in this League event! Remember you can use the free assets on https://assets.sil.ph/silph-league/ in your promotions. We hope your meetup is a huge success. We'll be here to help should you have any questions!

- The Executives -

Good evening, everyone!

The dust has settled from Saturday's Community Day, and it's time for some final updates on your tools (and juicy League stats)!

1. The Numbers!
This weekend brought the largest global League participation yet! We had:
- 3,223 staff check in at least one person (besides themselves!)
- 20,000+ in-person check-ins
- Only 45 minutes of down time in the 36 hours surrounding the event ;)

This is more than a 25% increase in check-ins from last month - something we're proud to see!

2. Retro-active Check-ins for 24 Hours
Due to the 45 minute outage right as communities in the Americas were getting together, we're opening a 24 hour window for late check-ins. This is for travelers who hit technical difficulties claiming their check-in, or Community Leaders who had any issues with check-ins. You can use the retro-active check-in tool here:

https://TheSilphRoad.com/check-in

for the next 24 hours - so hurry before it closes!

3. Volunteer Badges and Volunteer Handshakes are live!
To thank our veritable army of League staff around the world, your first-time staff have all received a Volunteer Badge on their Travelers' Card. These are appearing on their cards now!

We hope that offering check-ins helped bump your meetup attendance and provided a fun memento to your communities! Remember to share your experience (and pics!) in t.me/silphleague so we can get a peek into your hard work! We love seeing the projects, faces, and output of your coordination efforts around the world.

And, from the Silph Road team, thank you all for being understanding as we work diligently to scale and improve the League's infrastructure. Overall this month went *way* smoother - but we still weren't perfect. This is a volunteer effort we do in our free time - but we have some great folks donating time and resources to make it (and bigger things) happen. The future of the League is bright.

- The Executives -

Time for the February event's full debriefing, everyone!

The League has put together an interactive map of all check-ins, some sweet stats, and even a photo roundup from this past weekend around the world in the League! (Special mention to the communities listed in the article for the hard work and amazing participation in your groups!)

Take a look at what we've accomplished together. Great work, all.

https://thesilphroad.com/news/silph-league-february-community-day-stats/

Good evening, everyone!

March Community Day is just around the corner - so we wanted to get you some assets you can use in promoting your community's meetup!

That means it's time to unveil the next League badge: the Shiny Venusaur Badge (check it out above!)

You can now join the League event for March Community Day and authorize staff to give your attendees a collectible meetup memento on their Travelers Card. Read this for more on getting set up: https://thesilphroad.com/community-day-checkins-telegram

A few items of League business for next Sunday:

1. Free Assets for Your Graphics
You can download graphics (including the new badge!) for use in your meetup promotions here: https://assets.sil.ph/silph-league/
Download and re-use these League assets at your hearts content!

2. A Meetup *Field Guide* is Coming Soon
As always, you may ask questions in the Community League channel (t.me/silphleague), but the League is compiling a list of best practices to help make your meetup a success. Keep an eye out for that soon!

3. Larger Communities: Plan for Park Restrictions & Don't Forget Cleanup!
Of the nearly 1,500 meetups the League held last month, 3 resulted in complaints filed by municipal parks. These were for *large* groups who exceeded their park's permit-less policies and those that left litter behind. If your meetup is becoming large enough to raise eyebrows, consider: a) applying for a permit, b) splitting into multiple smaller meetups, or c) holding a "moving" meetup over an area, rather than setting up at one park. And remember to leave the meetup spot as clean or cleaner than when you found it!

4. Stay Tuned for Bigger News...
We have some exciting news to share with all our Community Leaders, but we have to hold our tongues until things solidify. Stay tuned in a few weeks for something awesome. :)

We're looking forward to next weekend with you all! We hope your meetups are a smashing success.

- The Executives -

Hello everyone!

Sunday's Silph League event is just around the corner. In preparation for the event, we want to make sure you have everything you'll need to successfully award League collectible badges as a memento of your local meetup! Here's a few important instructions and resources:

1. How to Offer Check-Ins at My Meetup:
https://thesilphroad.com/community-day-checkins-telegram

2. How to Introduce Travelers Cards:
You can share this link with those unfamiliar with the Silph Road: https://thesilphroad.com/travelers-cards

3. Graphic Asset Downloads For Promo Materials:
https://assets.sil.ph/silph-league/

Also, we're excited to announce that the Silph Road native app will soon be entering a private alpha test phase - and League staff are invited! If you'll be checking in folks Sunday, you can request an invite to the Silph Road's alpha test and use the native app instead of the web check-in! You can request an invite to the alpha here: https://goo.gl/forms/aLdIU9nf4jkeVUWh1

Finally, if you have any questions or need help or advice getting set up, just give us a ping in the League's community lead telegram: https://t.me/silphleague

We hope your meetup this weekend is a wild success! Be sure to share a pic in the league Telegram channel, and your community may be featured in the global report. Stay tuned for more League news soon. :)

- The Executives -

Good evening from Silph Road HQ! We hope Community Day in your local community was a fantastic success. Thank you to all the awesome event staff who helped offer the League badge collectible to your meetup attendees! We hope those who joined the Silph Road app Alpha test enjoyed the taste of the future. 😉

As Community Day has now been concluded for several hours in the last global window, we are letting you know about one more tool in your League toolbox!

Retro-Active Check-Ins
For the next 24 hours you will be able to award the Shiny Venusaur League badge retro-actively to any of your meetup attendees that failed to claim them at the meetup - or those who attempted to check-in when our servers wobbled.

Simply enter their Travelers Card username or their Discord username (e.g. Dronpes#7376) here:

https://thesilphroad.com/check-in

You must be authorized as March event staff to award this badge. Remember these badges are for in-person meetup attendees you confirmed!

Additionally, staff volunteer badges will be awarded in <12 hours for all your awesome volunteer staff.

We'll have more information (including juicy stats!) in the full League event debrief tomorrow. Lastly, if you took pictures at your meetup, come share them in https://t.me/silphleague and we may feature them in the photo round-up!

- The Executives -

The dust has settled, everyone!

Thank you to all our Community Leaders and staff for making this the biggest and most awesome League Community Day yet. We broke 25,000 in-person check-ins this round - an 11% increase across the board - and had hundreds more communities join us around the world. Volunteer badges have now been awarded!

Infrastructure Post-Mortem:
We had two 35 minute outages and a few smaller pockets of wobbly availability during the 36 hours of check-ins. Our two most intense traffic spikes (and holy cow were they intense) crushed and surprised us (thanks to the Americas all checking in in the 5 minutes after the event ending), but we've worked through the next scaling hurdles and can handle that level of traffic and beyond moving forward.

Special thanks to those who helped us alpha test the new mobile app's check-in capabilities - we hope you enjoyed the early access!

Now for the Fun Stuff:
The League has put together an interactive map of all check-ins, some sweet stats, and even a photo roundup of some of our favorite photos from http://t.me/silphleague and the League Discord! Special mention to the top 10 communities listed in the article for the hard work and amazing participation in your groups! Pokemon Go: Philippines - you're still reigning champs. (Ang galing ninyong lahat!) ;)

Check out the full report and share any fun memories in the Reddit thread:
http://redd.it/87kys5

What's Up Next
Remember that alpha test of the Silph Road's mobile app? Well, we're working hard to enable *all* travelers to ditch the website for a native experience by Mareep Day in April. Stay tuned for some major updates in the alpha!

Parting Words
Finally, we all owe huge thanks to our Support Hero and TSR leadership volunteers for manning the help lines. Their tireless service helped hundreds of community leaders get set up and help their local communities. ❤️

We'll be in touch soon. Travel safe.

- The Executives -

The April Community Day is now 10 days away!

This month's Community Day is only 3 weeks after March's - it's coming up quick - so we want to get you everything you need to award League badge mementos at your meetup! First off, some League news & announcements:

1. The New Badge: The Shiny Pinksheep!
Check out the latest League Badge you can award! This month features the shiny sheep in all its pink, blue, & electric glory! Assets (including a 3x3" 300dpi version!) are now live on the assets site (link below) for your use.

2. Retro-Checkins for Past Community Days: Soon
Did your community members miss out on the Surfing Pikachu or Pink Dratini badges? Well, soon Community Leads will be able to award these missed badges to verified meetup attendees of past months! Watch for news on your new capabilities soon!

3. The Mobile App: Alpha Test Expanding
Did your staff miss the alpha test we opened last Community Day? We're expanding our mobile app alpha - and that means we're adding more Community Leads! Simply have your staff request an invite and they can use the mobile app instead of web-based check-ins at your meetup: https://goo.gl/forms/aLdIU9nf4jkeVUWh1

—-

Finally, to the communities who have joined us recently, welcome! Here's some helpful info for your first League meetup:

1. How to Offer Check-Ins at My Meetup:
https://thesilphroad.com/community-day-checkins-telegram

2. How to Introduce Travelers Cards:
You can share this link with those unfamiliar with the Silph Road: https://thesilphroad.com/travelers-cards

3. Graphic Asset Downloads For Promo Materials:
https://assets.sil.ph/silph-league/

Questions? need help or advice getting set up? Reach out to @SilphLeague.

—-

We'll be in touch soon. We hope your meetup is a great success!

- The Executives -

Hello from Silph HQ!

With under 36 hours to the first Community Day window in Asia-Pacific, here's your League updates for this Sunday:

1. The `Staff` Check-In URL
The check-in page will soon open to authorized staff. Remember to send your volunteers the URL: https://TheSilphRoad.com/check-in

2. Mobile App Alpha Invites
Any Community Leaders or staff desiring an invite: the next invite wave goes out roughly 18 hours from now. Request an invitation here: https://goo.gl/forms/OrzT9L7IbD8GtjFB2

3. Retroactive Checkins for Past Community Days ARE HERE!
Did your past meetup attendees miss out on Community Day badges? Effective immediately all staff from past events can award badges to verified attendees of their meetups. Check out the Past Meetups button on the Check-In page: https://TheSilphRoad.com/check-in

Woot! Now two reminders:
1. Simply catching a pink Dratini != attending a meetup. These badges are meetup mementos!
2. Check-ins should be conducted in-person moving forward.
Ignoring these guidelines jeapordizes future League eligibility!

Also, we do not currently support joining past events you had zero staff for via the Telegram bot, but this functionality is coming soon. You are able to authorize past event staff via the Discord bot in the meantime, however.

—-

Lastly, handy resources:

1. How to Offer Check-Ins at My Meetup:
https://thesilphroad.com/community-day-checkins-telegram

2. How to Introduce Travelers Cards:
You can share this with the unfamiliar: https://thesilphroad.com/travelers-cards

3. Graphic Assets For Promo Materials:
https://assets.sil.ph/silph-league/

Need a little help? Reach out in https://t.me/silphleague and we'll get you taken care of.

We hope your meetup is a hit. Remember to snap a picture and post it to t.me/silphleague! We'll see you afterward!

- The Executives -

Hello from Silph HQ!

With May Community Day announced we wanted to get you some assets early so you can start promoting your community's meetup! That means it's time to unveil the next League badge: the Shiny Charizard Badge (check it out above!)

You can now also join the League event for May Community Day and authorize staff to give your attendees a collectible meetup memento on their Travelers Card. Read this for more on getting set up: https://thesilphroad.com/community-day-checkins-telegram

A few items of League business for May:

1. Free Assets for Your Graphics
You can download graphics (including the new badge!) for use in your meetup promotions here: https://assets.sil.ph/silph-league/. Download and re-use these League assets at your hearts content!

2. Larger Communities: Plan for Park Restrictions & Don't Forget Cleanup!
We again received a few complaints about Pokemon Go meetups in cities around the world. These were for large groups who exceeded their park's permit-less policies, those that left litter behind, and those which interrupted services taking place. If your meetup is becoming large enough to raise eyebrows, consider: a) applying for a permit, b) splitting into multiple smaller meetups, or c) holding a "moving" meetup over an area, rather than setting up at one park. And remember to leave the meetup spot as clean or cleaner than when you found it!

3. What about the mobile app!
We have been working hard to iterate on feedback from the past community day. One such improvement is streamling the process of getting the app for you and your community staff. We'll have more details about this in the coming weeks, so if you haven't gotten access to the app yet hold tight!

We're looking forward to the next community day and we'll have additional details as it day draws near. In the meantime if you have any questions reach out in @SIlphLeague

- The Executives -

Get ready everyone, Community Day begins in 5 minutes in Asia-Pacific, 6 hours in Eur/Afr/Ind/Mid.East and 15 hours in the Americas and Greenland!

1. Your Staff Check-In URL
The check-in page is now open for your authorized staff to check in attendees. Remember to send your volunteers the URL: https://thesilphroad.com/check-in

2. Mobile App Alpha Invites
Any Community Leaders or staff desiring an invite: the next invite wave goes out roughly 45 minutes from now. Request an invitation here: https://goo.gl/forms/OrzT9L7IbD8GtjFB2

—-

Infrastructure Update:

In past Community Days the League servers have gotten very slow during the heaviest spikes. But good news! Our back-end infrastructure has been re-engineered!

Let your staff know that this time, as long as a staff member sees that a check-in was recorded, then the badge will be awarded soon (it may take a minute or two to appear for each attendee). Staff are free to immediately move on and check another in as long as they get a success message for the check-in!

We feel pretty optimistic about our sexy new back-end this time. Let's give it a spin! ;)

—-

Lastly, handy resources:

1. How to Offer Check-Ins at My Meetup:
https://thesilphroad.com/community-day-checkins-telegram

2. How to Introduce Travelers Cards:
You can share this with the unfamiliar: https://thesilphroad.com/travelers-cards

3. Graphic Assets For Promo Materials:
https://assets.sil.ph/silph-league/

—-

Need help? Come to the League's Telegram channel and we can get you ready to rock. (https://t.me/silphleague)

We know your meetup will be a blast. (It's Shiny Charizard time!) We'd love to see your story and pics in the Silph League channel - remember to snap a group photo!

- The Executives -