Great, Good and Bad Guides

Alright heres my idea, some people (well me :| ) notice that some people post just out right horrible guides. Some of these out right horrible guides get locked as they don't follow the rules ect. but some of them get left open('The ones that follow the rules'), the ones that get left open arn't all horrible guides (The way I look at it), just there unappealing to look at such as no format, grammer ect. and them lack infomation. Thus the forums are spammed with these guides that don't really help that well.

 

 

 

I think there should be two more sub forums made. They would be 'Begginers Guides: Skills, Mini Games & Quests' and Begginers Guides: Monsters, Money-Making, Tips & Other'. This would help the 'decent' guides not be blocked from viewing from people and offer a space for people who post a new guide to get feedback that postive and helpful, this feedback would help them to keep making it better and better to get into the Player-Made Guides: Skills, Mini Games & Quests or Player-Made Guides: Monsters, Money-Making, Tips & Other. All new guides (Even great ones, that just get posted after this is done) have to post there first, so its like a trial period.

 

 

 

Theres only two problems I see with this, first is that the staff have to go though a bunch of guides to resort them into the two new subforums :( I can't see any way around it other then a few people plus the staff go though the guides intern making less work for the staff : . Second is that staff would have to mod the forums each day looking at new guides to move to the Player-Made Guides: Skills, Mini Games & Quests or Player-Made Guides: Monsters, Money-Making, Tips & Other, but again theres a way to get around this. Non-staff would be picked to look at the new guides and see if they are good enough, if they feel as though they are then they would pm a mod with the link and a little list on why they think it should be moved. Thus creating less work for the staff also. :D

 

 

 

 

 

So...what you think? Good idea or not? If you got any problems or questions feel free to ask 'em. :

 

 

 

 

 

P.S: I think the simly limit should be changed, I had to take out 2 no 3 smiles cause I had to many :cry: < - 3rd one.

So you want guides to be checked by Staff first and then, if it's good enough, to put it in a special forum. Sounds like the "Archive of Wisdom" forum to me.

 

 

 

Another reason I don't support this, is because I don't like more sub forums. The market things are good, but I don't really like the other ones.

From what I've seen (and done myself), most of the guides (if not all) that have a lack of information, pictures, creativity, etc. are locked anyway because they don't follow the tips listed in the sticky. If you could point out a guide that was not locked but matches your description, that'd be great. Just to get a sense of which guides you're talking about.

So you want guides to be checked by Staff first and then, if it's good enough, to put it in a special forum. Sounds like the "Archive of Wisdom" forum to me.

Well, when they make sub forums, the staff has to go though each post (If title isn't clear) and sort them out.

 

 

 

The Archive of Wisdom is guides that

 

 

 

Another reason I don't support this, is because I don't like more sub forums. The market things are good, but I don't really like the other ones.

Sub forums are suppose to keep the borad clean, if you don't like them then leave cause I doubt tip.it will change the whole forum for you...

 

 

 

From what I've seen (and done myself), most of the guides (if not all) that have a lack of information, pictures, creativity, etc. are locked anyway because they don't follow the tips listed in the sticky. If you could point out a guide that was not locked but matches your description, that'd be great. Just to get a sense of which guides you're talking about.

True, I can see about a 1:10 ratio of good guides to bad, heres just a few that I saw on the front page.

 

 

 

No grammer, pictures, full infomation about the subject. < - Reported that one, never got locked.

 

 

 

No grammer (some what), pictures, not even finished. < - Didn't report or I just don't remember.

 

 

 

No grammer, pictures, just a tip like get materials and sell for cash. < - Reported, and never got locked.

 

 

 

No pictures, a tip that just tells you what to do, not explains or shows. < - Didn't report cause I knew it probley woulnd't get locked as the two above didn't so there was really no point.

 

 

 

 

 

So tripsis, what were you saying?

most of the guides that have a lack of information, pictures, creativity, etc. are locked anyway because they don't follow the tips listed in the sticky.

Well them guides up there lack pictures, infomation and creativity (Cept one). Yet there not locked.

 

 

 

(if not all)

I guess not all are locked, even when there reported. -.-

then leave cause I doubt tip.it will change the whole forum for you...

 

 

 

 

What was it you were asking, again?

 

 

 

Your own opinions towards the ideas of others makes me all the more reluctant to accept yours.

Guides being horrible and good are just opinions.

 

 

 

One person may have a different opinion, therefore you can't do what you suggest.

It's a lot harder to evaluate these guides when one is responsible to the community and management. As a former professional editor IRL, I'd probably lock 99.99% of the guides that get posted. But I'm not familiar with all aspects of RS (I don't do much combat), so I am not the best person to decide which guides have "useful" information.

 

 

 

If the information is common knowledge, or the person pulled it all out of their head in minutes without doing any research at all, the guide should probably be locked. But who decides what's "common" knowledge? New people enter the game every day.

 

If you could point out a guide that was not locked but matches your description, that'd be great. Just to get a sense of which guides you're talking about.

True, I can see about a 1:10 ratio of good guides to bad, heres just a few that I saw on the front page.

 

 

 

No grammer, pictures, full infomation about the subject. < - Reported that one, never got locked.

 

No grammer (some what), pictures, not even finished. < - Didn't report or I just don't remember.

 

No grammer, pictures, just a tip like get materials and sell for cash. < - Reported, and never got locked.

 

No pictures, a tip that just tells you what to do, not explains or shows. < - Didn't report cause I knew it probley woulnd't get locked as the two above didn't so there was really no point.

 

Okay, I took a look at the topics you've mentioned:

 

1. I've never seen something like this before, don't know if it's useful to anyone or not. Didn't take a long time to produce, that's for sure. Sometimes we try to give people some time in case more is forthcoming. I'd prefer to have a rule that guides should only be posted when they are COMPLETE, but we don't.

 

2. We already have a monsters database, so this guide should have been locked right away. (Monster fighting tips can always be submitted to the Bestiary topic in Website Updates.) This topic was very old and the author is no longer at TIF. Someone seems to have revived the topic; I've locked it.

 

3. and 4. Money tips are the hardest ones to evaluate. That's all I can say.

 

 

 

 

 

Adding another tier of forums won't really help, in the long run. I was an avid supporter of the AOW forum when it was first proposed, as I thought it would include only the few hand-selected guides that have stood the test of time. Instead, all guides from all forums were swept into it.

 

 

 

Now it seems to have become an "American Idol" of wannabe guide writers, many of whom:

 

• a. joined Tip.It only a few days before posting
   
  b. have made no other posts on any other TIF boards
   
  c. have obviously not bothered to read other existing guides (forum or website)
   
  d. haven't read or understood the PMG forum rules
   
  e. ask their friends and clan mates to post saying "good job" on their topic to make the guide look popular :evil:

Basically, they seem to just want their "fifteen minutes of fame".

 

 

 

Unfortunately, most RS players are young. It's not nice to tell kids that their stuff is garbage, even if it is. We are not here to hurt people's feelings - Real Life will take care of that sooner or later (*wink*).

 

 

 

And in the meantime, people who would *like* to find tips or helpful player-made guides may glance at the PMG forum, see the mess, and decide to look elsewhere.

 

 

 

One thing I think we can attempt - let's try to put "Skill:" or "Tip:" or something in the titles so people will know what it's about. So I retitled the last two topics you linked, so that it shows "Money Tip" in the forum index. Maybe that will better help people find what they need, anyway.

 

 

 

Thus far I haven't been able to come up with any significant solutions for the "lame guide" problem that won't offend anybody, so ... here we are.

Just one small thing to add since pokemama has stated a lot of what I already think.

 

 

 

Another way this can be taken care of is for users to stop bumping guides that are complete and utter crap. A fool's dream I know but it would help.

 

 

 

I don't think we should further subdivide PMG on the basis of quality since that's what PMG was supposed to do for the AOW. I don't feel we need yet another board in the mix to eventually get up to the AOW. I'm not saying the system is perfect since there are still some issues to fix. So...yeah. :|