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A few years ago, “shipping” had a section all to itself on BMGF. In those times, one might see it as “a lawless battle ground” where respect boundaries were crossed on more than one occasion. “Shippers’ Paradise” is now a subsection of the Pokémon World section, and as the title suggests, serves as a haven for all those who wish to discuss their romantic Poké-couples (with proper restrictions in place, of course).
Due to the subjectivity of the matter, these forums have a very organized and strict set of rules. There is little tolerance toward trolling and flaming due to “shipping debate fiascos” that occurred before these regulations were put in place. Ship vs. Ship combat tends to be looked down upon; though, they were the focal point of discussion at a certain time. This is one of the few sections that allow thread necromancy, to prevent clutter or repeat threads.
During the Team Rocket takeover in March of 2010, all the threads were closed by Hun, due to love being “inconsequential” and a “hindrance to the Rocket’s plans.” Soon after, the forums were overhauled – at least ten people from each of the old main shipping threads had to mail the main moderator of the section one sentence explaining why they should have a new thread.
The largest and most active shipping threads include PokeShipping (Ash x Misty), RocketShipping (James x Jessie) and AdvanceShipping (Ash x May) along with several others like PearlShipping (Ash x Dawn). Once in a blue moon, there will be a popular crack shipping (a couple with no canon “hints” or have never met in canon) that gain a respectable following. The most prominent examples that come to mind are the ToxicBoltShipping thread and the HonorShipping, which advocate Lt. Surge x Koga and Morty x Falkner, respectively.
Along with discussion on the couples, Shippers’ Paradise houses discussion on shipping in general. Examples include sexualities on different characters (particularly Ash and Jame’s), “shipping sins,” and multiple shippings lists. The “shipping pictures” thread was a place for posting fanart and was very active back when a user was allowed to “pic spam” the thread without giving proper credit. Now a days, crediting the original artist with a link is mandatory, for courtesy reasons among other things.
Activity in the threads has waned in recent months, as well as shipping in general. The shipping community is fairly segregated, with mutual discussion being very limited. If trends continue the way they are, with multishipping becoming increasingly popular, it truly will be a Shippers’ Paradise.
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