Haunter: n_n
Stinson: good afternoon haunter!
Haunter: hello
Stinson: as many people know, you are a distinguished member of the smogon community, and a PS admin!
Stinson: for the benefit of those who haven't read your interview for the smog, what can you tell us about yourself?
Haunter: first of all, thanks for the "distinguished" ahah
Stinson: haha
Haunter: I'm a 30 yo male from Naples, Italy. I'm a lawyer in real life. I love soccer and motorbikes.
Stinson: a rare sight, an Italian smogoner
Stinson: to tie in with the lawyer thing though, I have here a question from MattL regarding that
Haunter: well, actually, the italian community has been growing a lot lately, with more and more people becoming involved in both Smogon and PS!
Haunter: I'd like to mention some honorable users, like the quasar, Alexander and the good, old, zarator
Stinson: I'll ask that in a minute, its great to see people from countries other than America and the UK getting involved, even the VGC winner of 2013 was from Italy!
Haunter: sure, ask it
Haunter: yeah
Stinson: "A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge." What do you think about that popular saying?
Haunter: I think that it's, sadly, very true. Sometimes important friendships are much more decisive than an excellent knowledge of the law.
Stinson: I guess that is similar to the phrase 'it is not what you know, it is who you know'
Haunter: exactly
Stinson: alright so lets get onto some pokemon stuff
Stinson: A popular question people always want to ask the admins is, how much do you actually battle, and which tiers?
Haunter: I've only battled in OU in gen 6 so far. I usually ladder on alts, so people rarely see me play. But I qualified for the last OU Suspect test.
Haunter: I play enough and watch enough games to keep myself up to date with the metagame
Stinson: Oh awesome, so you don't often need to battle to keep your skills up to scratch!
Haunter: you probably know about this directly
Stinson: I do often see you viewing OU battles, when you aren't in the lobby!
Haunter: exaclty
Stinson: Okay so here is one I wanted to know myself
Stinson: When you started playing pokemon, before you got into competitive, which mon was your favourite?
Haunter: I think you can guess it yourself ahah
Haunter: but I also loved Rayquaza
Stinson: haha that is true, which kinda answers the question where did your name come from xD
Haunter: exactly
Stinson: I loved rayquaza too, sapphie being my first game at 7 years old, rayquaza had me in awe
Stinson: sapphire*
Haunter: oh and, before you ask, I'm not going to evolve anytime soon!
Stinson: haha unsurprisingly that is on my list of questions, but I guess I'll cross it off!
Haunter: eheh
Stinson: So would it be reasonable to guess that ghost was your favourite type when you started playing?
Haunter: actually ghost and dragon
Haunter: but yeah, haunter was my favorite, so probably ghost comes first
Stinson: its a shame for you that gamefreak haven't come up with that combination yet!
Stinson: oh wait, giratina
Haunter: yep
Stinson: haha
Haunter: awesome type combination
Stinson: I agree, the gen 4 legends mixed dragon with 3 great types
Haunter: I agree
Haunter: Palkia and Dialga were great too
Stinson: yeah, I played pearl and palkia was pretty incredible
Haunter: indeed
Stinson: On the subject of type combinations, which new combination would you most like to see?
Haunter: dragon/fighting would be sick
Haunter: as ghost/fighting
Stinson: Yeah that would be amazing, there is a vast swathe of awesome combinations gamefreak hasn't mixed yet
Stinson: but the creation of fairy type this gen shows they listen to their fans
Stinson: so who knows for next one!
Stinson: So on a more showdown related note, a popular question people wanted me to ask was, what are the ups and downs of being an admin on PS?
Haunter: ups is that you're famous and have the power to set policies and manage staff promotions/demotions
Haunter: downs are basically the same as ups
Stinson: haha I guess being famous can be a good and bad thing, some admire you for your position, some not so much xD
Haunter: you have a lot of responsibilities, have to grow a thick skin to handle the many complaints you receive: from people who're not satisfied with how the site is run and stuff like that
Haunter: exactly
Stinson: I can relate to that, i've certainly gotten more thick skinned since becoming staff, I can only imagine how thick yours is!
Haunter: ahah, yeah you're starting to understand it
Stinson: definitely
Stinson: So heres a good one, which staff member would you most want to go sky diving with xD?
Haunter: uhm
Haunter: how many female staffers do we have?
Stinson: haha
Stinson: I'm actually struggling to think of one since skylight left
Stinson: are you simply saying you'd take any female staff member sky diving? Haunter yep, clearly
Haunter: I suppose I'll pick briyella then
Haunter: n_n
Stinson: briyella is the lucky girl!
Haunter: definitely
Stinson: I suppose shes probably the least likely to replace your parachute with something unlikely to save your life
Stinson: Okay, so MattL made it abundantly clear that I should ask this so please take your blame to him and not me
Stinson: what was it like meeting Stone_Cold?
Haunter: lol if I ever meet him in real life, I'll let you know
Haunter: note the I
Haunter: not him
Haunter: ._.
Stinson: Stone_Cold if you're reading this
Stinson: I'd be scared
Haunter: lol
Stinson: I must say, he tricked me into thinking it was you
Stinson: Until you reminded me you were from Naples not Florence!
Haunter: ahah
Haunter: stone cold is a professional troll
Haunter: no wonder he tricked you
Haunter: and many others
Stinson: haha I'll keep a look out for his antics in future
Stinson: So I think the main message we can take from this interview
Haunter: I'll ban him if he mentions me again in his troll attempts
Stinson: is to stop asking haunter when hes gonna evolve, haunter will always be haunter!
Stinson: haha sounds like a plan, or he may take that as a call to arms!
Haunter: that's a safe assumption yeah
Haunter: lol maybe
Haunter: knowing him...
Stinson: I hope you haven't just dug yourself a hole!
Haunter: ahah, stone is a friend
Haunter: he actually asked for my permission before posting that thread
Haunter: though his joke went a bit too far
Haunter: cause people actually believed that man was me
Haunter: ._.
Stinson: haha yeah I heard from someone that you weren't entirely happy about it
Stinson: you mean it would have been fine if people had taken it as a joke xD?
Haunter: yeah
Haunter: it was supposed to be a joke
Stinson: that makes sense
Haunter: but some people on this site just take stuff too seriously
Haunter: if you get what I mean
Stinson: I totally do, I always tell people, especially on PS, that everything works out best if you lighten up, and I need to take my own advice sometimes!
Haunter: ahah
Haunter: good to hear
Stinson: I guess there is only thing more I need to ask that is on my list, what is your biggest pet peeve?
Haunter: I have many. Probably cleanliness is the biggest though and I hate disorder
Stinson: I guess it fits that you are an admin then, as you have the power to turn disorder into order!
Haunter: good guess
Haunter: ahah
Stinson: Well this has been fun, and I think now would be a good time to conclude the first PS staff interview, and I hope everyone will read this and get to know you a bit better!
Haunter: thanks for the interview and greetings to the PS! community
Stinson: thanks very much haunter!