"[Mostly-Meta] Official Shiny Odds and RNG."

#PokemonGO: One of the things I love about my fellow travelers on the road is how much effort everyone puts into trying to figure out how everything works behind the scenes.One of the things I strongly dislike about the Road is how quickly folks will jump onto half-baked conclusions and spread them like wildfire. It is like some folks are eager to get internet points and have no interest in actually providing accurate information.With this said: We do not know the rates of shiny Pokemon. Repeat this with me: We do not know the rates of shiny Pokemon. Be it from eggs, raids, wild catches, events, community days - as much data as we uncover, we simply do not know the rate.In the handheld games, the shiny rate is determined on the cartridge - so, if you want to know the rate, you decompile the data on the cartridge and you can find it.In PoGo, the shiny rate is determined server-side. There is no possible way for us to determine an official shiny rate without someone who has access to the server telling us.But... more importantly - we have ZERO way of even knowing what determines shiny rate. It could be a roll of a 256 sided die (i.e.: true RNG), it could be something with a trainer ID, it could be something calculated server-side amongst all of that species of Pokemon captured ... Frankly, we don't know. shouting out RNG as the answer when you DO NOT KNOW isn't helpful for the conversation.I'm not saying we should give up on the search for answers. On the contrary, I'm saying the exact opposite. So many folks want to hand-wave any thread about shiny Pokemon off with RNG or odds that make have zero basis in reality - which stifles the discussion at hand.So, my ask. When one of these topics comes up and you feel the need to reply "RNG!" - TAKE A STEP BACK. Consider, does replying with that really add to the conversation? Are you helping the discussion? Or can you think of another, more positive way to add to the topic? Or, just maybe, that topic doesn't need you?Thanks for your time. via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2rUMOkM