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A short rant on shipping evidence standards It may surprise some of those here to know that I myself am a fairly long-standing shipper. As a matter of fact, I was one of the main shipping debaters back during the day of the PokeShipping/PalletShipping flame wars. I was even the very first archivist of the (In)Complete List.
So why am I bothering to take the time to tell you this? Because I want to establish that I'm not just some outsider coming here and saying what I'm about to say, because I know this is going to rub people the wrong way, and because I know it'd annoy people even worse if it was coming from a non-shipper.
Simply put...the standards held by many current shippers would appear to be so lax that it's practically unbelieveable to someone like myself, or to any of the other old-time shippers (which, I might mention, comprise a disproportionately high number of the admin and mod staff).
The problem, as it was before the debaters straightened things out back in 2001, and as it's been every time we've needed to step in to straighten out shipping flame wars since, are that people are using things that are simple evidence of friendship or rivalry as if they were evidence of their ship being true.
That really ticks me off.
Fair enough, I realize that most shippers here don't get into debates here anymore, but looking at these things as if they're evidence of the writers and directors supporting your ship, and presenting them to others as such in your own individual ship threads, is only creating unreasonable expectations amongst yourselves and others, and just sows the same seeds that have led to countless prior shipping flamewars.
Now, there's nothing wrong with looking at a scene and admiring how good two characters look together. Nor is there anything wrong with using evidence of friendship as a base for your ship, given that any real relationship on the show should be expected to build over time (barring a Digimon style timeskip screw you ending). But to say things akin to "OMG, they did a hi-five after they won the tag battle, they must be in love!" only demeans yourself and your ship, and makes you appear to anyone serious about their ships as the worst kind of gaki.
...I'm going to have to explain what I mean by gaki, aren't I?
If anyone else watches the episodes, you may recall Rocket-Dan calling Satoshi or others in his group "gaki" at some point. Essentially, it translates as something close to immature, or kid. Back in the day, PokeShippers started calling many of their own who acted in this kind of manner as GakiShippers, to distinguish themselves from each other, as the GakiShippers had given PokeShipping a bad name amongst many non-shippers. These were the kind of people who (at best) insisted that Misty's Song was legitimate evidence, that PokeShipping being canon in that ice show meant it must be in every other canon, or (at worst) that, you guessed it, pretty much any evidence that pointed to friendship (and a lot that didn't, like holding hands to walk safely through think fog) must mean they were in love.
So, in summary....if you're the kind of shipper who actually cares if your ship is the OTP or not, then buck up and don't use this kind of crap as evidence, and be prepared to defend your opinions in open debate (or at least help others who do, by compiling hint lists or something), rather than just hiding in your designated ship thread and preaching to the converted in your isolation. If you're not the type to care about that sort of stuff though, or you are but you aren't willing to contribute to the debates in any way...then feel free to admire this kind of stuff, say how cute it is, and so on and so forth, but do us a favour and stay away from calling anything a hint, evidence, proof, or whatever terminology you youngsters use for it these days.
★ Princess of Hoenn!
That was one long, well written, and much needed rant!! 
Originally Posted by podin 
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