Hmm, still feeling
touchy then? For someone who I think is one of the best battlers
and contributors to the game, you sure seem to get riled up about this one thing. I wonder why...
Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because the system you implemented, while serviceable, doesn't hit at what I think should be one of the main goals of the Gym Committee:
Being a gym leader was never supposed to be part of completing the gym challenge, it was about contributing to the community for other's challenges
I am proposing a reward for long-standing gym leaders because the system you implemented (and has always been in place, really) have never specifically rewarded longevity in gym leaders, yet it's something I feel we value highly in ASB. People revere Dogfish's Electric-type gym, and Ghost-type and zarator have practically become synonymous. We should be rewarding those contributors for staying in their gym for so long because they are providing a valuable service to us. One that takes a lot of work and effort, too.
It has nothing to do with people switching. I think people should be allowed to switch gyms (if you couldn't gather from my request back in November) for the exact reasons you mentioned, Frosty. In fact, I think it's a good thing in many situations: both you and Jayy really wanted to switch gyms and were given venues to do so. You have not "doomed us all," and I never implied that from my post. I just believe that if we're going to allow people to switch gyms (which we should), then there should be an even more tempting reason to stay in a gym. Because right now, in a vacuum, there is no reason to stay in a gym if you're hunting badges. And since most members of the community value longevity in gym leaders, we should give people a reason to stay. Note that I'm not saying we force them to stay. Just give them a reason.
I propose that gym leaders get xUC - 10 per completed gym battle, where x = amount of career-completed battles. Yes, I've always been a proponent of high UC levels, but I think that the price needs to be high to keep people tempted to stay in a gym. That would give Dogfish44 around 27UC for his next battle, 19UC to zarator, and 6UC to me. Wow, that is sort of telling that this is a problem -- I am the third most senior gym leader LOL. I know that's a lot of UC, particularly for Dogfish, but that's not a bad thing. He's provided the service of Electric-type gym for longer than most of us have been playing this game. The dude has the right to make some bank, especially since he could have applied for like five other gyms in that time and gotten those badges. The least bit of compensation he could get is some counters for it. The funny thing is, the UC he gets will likely be turned around at some point to further fueling his Electric-type gym when he gets a new Electric-type Pokemon, making it better. This goes doubly for zarator, who is well-known for having insane amounts of maxed Ghost-type Pokemon.
Does this system sound tempting to be a part of? Good, it should. Because that's the essence of what I'm proposing, not some construed argument that I consider "gym jumping to be a source of evil." It should be equally tempting to stay in a gym as it is to leave it. I think the system I've proposed above it a good metric: you can either stay and start raking in some pretty good UC, or you can leave and work on your next badge. It doesn't ultimately address Texas' post, but it does go a long way in equaling the playing field. If we really wanted to address it, we should honestly make users lose the badge of the gym they leave. But since that would frustrate a lot of people, I don't think it's feasible. My proposed UC boost is the cleanest way of tackling this issue, in my opinion.