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How to make flamebait-free Deathknight threads
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Post by
apocalypsa
Ok, seeing as there are alot more flame threads on the DK forums these days I decided to (almost) copy the thread made by Pezz on the Paladin forums. Here goes....
1. Read the stickies, and do some other research first
Those of us who write any kind of guide spend a decent amount of time on them. We do that to make sure there's plenty of information in them. If you have a really basic question about rotations, gems, enchants, various caps and minimums, etc., chances are that your really simple question is answered in the stickies, right under a big bold heading about exactly what you asked about. But we aren't perfect. We don't get everything. Believe it or not, I am not the only person with any knowledge of deathknights anywhere that has ever lived. Plenty of them hang out and discuss their class on plenty of other good sites. Same goes for any other kind of class, or any other kind of character. If you don't even bother to do a simple Google search for yourself before posting your thread, why should we do it for you? If you really can't find anything and it's not in the stickies, there's still no need to make a brand new thread. Ask in the relevant sticky, that way the right people can see your question right away, and maybe it will get added to the front of the thread so in the future people with your particular question can have it answered.
2. Rate my dk/spec/gear/whatever. Closely related to can I tank/heal/dps insert instance here?
No one is going to spend a half an hour pouring over every enchant and gem you have, looking at ilvls, putting gear through rawr or any rating system in the stickied thread here and compiling a list of pieces you should be shooting for in various instances and ending up with a guide you can follow to become awesome in 12 easy steps in 6 to 8 weeks. If there's any glaring faults, we'll point them out. If you have a horrible piece of gear, someone will probably recommend an easy-to-get upgrade. If you don't know what content you're capable of handling PvE wise, there's a couple guidelines in the form of profiles made up and numbers listed in the various guides, as well as resources around the web such as be.imba.hu and wow-heroes.com. You'll get a faster answer if you do five minutes of research yourself rather than post a thread and wait a couple hours for someone to get around to responding to you.
3. I came up with this new idea! Do you think it will work?
Almost certainly not. Be prepared for this answer. Your idea is not hugely, amazingly better than anything ever thought of before. Accept that. If you think it's interesting and you don't see any glaring faults, by all means post it, but it would be remiss of anyone who can see why it would fail not to tell you when you come here asking how it is. If you get this response you have two choices: 1) Accept it gracefully or 2) Provide some cogent, logical argument, preferably with statistics to back it up to refute the claim of 'it sucks'. Despite these limited choices what people usually do is: 1) Get defensive and lash out and/or 2) Pull random, obviously fake numbers out of their butts. Don't do this. It won't end well for you or your thread, and at the end of the day you'll still be wrong.
3a. When I say provide statistics to back up your idea, check your numbers and check their context first. If you did some amazing amount of damage or whatever, tell us the context. Did you come up with a new spec that gives 20k Blood Strike crits? Big deal, if you needed every raid buff known to man and a few gimmicky boss specific buffs. Did you make some amazing hybrid tank spec that you've been breezing through heroics with? Big deal, if your dps are all idiots pulling 9k dps and your healer's ToGC 25 geared. Some of the better theorycrafters on this forum can come up with very very close estimates of what you're capable of doing in various gear sets, and their first assumption is going to be that you either made a mistake or are intentionally trying to mislead us. If you've come up with an idea that seems to be worth something, check and double check that you have useful data.
4. English
These are English speaking boards. You do not have to be a literary genius, you do not have to reach the level of eloquence that Ayn Rand did when she deconstructed Jim Taggart in the climax of Atlas Shrugged(wtf did Pezz say here...), but you need to have a working grasp of punctuation and capitalization at the very least, and if you're a bad speller or English is not your first language, use a dictionary some times. It is not our job to sit there and get a headache deciphering your post, only to find out 10 minutes and 6 seconds later you asked a really stupid and simple question. Also remember this is not a raid where commands and communication have to be given quickly, and this is not IM where it's a real, immediate conversation over the internet. You have unlimited time to construct your posts, use it. Think through what you want to say, organize your thoughts, proofread a couple of times. You have absolutely no reason not to, and it's disrespectful to just turn your keyboard sensitivity up and vomit all over it and post whatever comes out of that. Also, dont use triple dots every 5 words. Its annoying as hell.
And a suggestion: use firefox's in-build spellings checker. Wanna know how this 15 year old dutch guy speaks almost flawless americenglish? Spellings checker.
5. Be polite
Be polite, be respectful, if someone proves you wrong be glad you learned something new. Insulting them doesn't make their good, logical arguments why you're wrong any less true, I promise you.
6. Provide enough information
This should be a no brainer, but if you want help with your character, we need to be able to see your character. If you want to know why your frost tank couldn't hold aggro, at the very least tell us what he was tanking. And I don't mean 'have an out of date Wowhead profile buried in your profile somewhere while asking for help' I mean 'have several pertinent links right at the top of your post with big shiny arrows pointing at them with bold, underlined text saying 'HERE IS MY CHARACTER.' It is not our job to go and find this information for you. Strictly speaking, it isn't our job to tell you how to play, so be glad we are.
7. Grow a slightly thicker skin
Strictly speaking, 'you are just really sensitive about everything' is not a good excuse for being a jerk to you. But if you post a really, really, really stupid question after ignoring everything I've written here, or you make an amusing spelling mistake, etc., chances are someone is going to make a lighthearted jab at you. Accept this. Sometimes people communicate by a bit of friendly mocking. If this happens and you're really, really upset about it, send the person a private message saying you were hurt, they'll probably be civil. The wrong thing to do, and the reason most of the locked threads here get locked, is to absolutely fly off the handle at someone who made a small joke at your expense, and start a vendetta that ruins any chance of the thread staying relevant to the original post. No one will like you for that, and it will achieve nothing. Accept a joke at your expense every once in a while, learn something for it, and you'll be a much better person. Plus, if you prove you can do this, and you prove you learn things when taught them, you will receive respect or at the very least civil tolerance.
8. Accept polite criticism
Related to #7, some people have such thin skins that they can't tell the difference between a slightly mocking tone and constructive, polite criticism. In my opinion, both are perfectly valid methods of teaching people things (satire has the aim of fixing a perceived problem and I'm a great believer in satire) but I can understand that not everyone likes being made fun of. However, if someone says 'you would get better dps replacing those Outlands AP gems with Northrend Str gems' in those words, you are NOT being mocked. This is useful information, which 99 times out of a 100 you asked to be provided with. Don't get mad at a person who says that to you, because then no one is going to help you. Why should we, when you flip out and people who are trying to answer your question?
9. Should I tank, heal, or dps? PvP or PvE? Or should I be a Deathknight or <class>?
By asking this, you're asking us which you personally would enjoy doing more. We are not some big, collective conscious that can tap into your brain and find the truths it even keeps locked away from you. We don't know what you prefer to do, or what you enjoy doing. We don't know what your realm and/or guild requires the most unless you tell us, and you rarely do. When we say 'do whatever you enjoy the most' people often accuse us of being unhelpful in the sense of 'why are you saying nothing instead of helping me?' When in reality we're being unhelpful, but 'do whatever you enjoy most' is actually the best advice anyone can possibly give you.
Guess that's it.
Post by
495174
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
410715
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
oberondreaming
So we're the paladins now? ;)
Post by
251602
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
181961
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
apocalypsa
Reported for sticky(yes I reported my own post :p)
Post by
GenXCub
Regarding #2:
I think it deserves a spot on this list, but it needs a counterpoint. Just like we don't need totally ignorant non-sticky-reading posts, we also don't need totally indignant didn't-bother-to-read-the-post people talking smack to those who do post. If we do that, we become the rogue forum.
Maybe there's an easy to answer question in there that doesn't take 30 minutes.
If you can tell by the title that you don't want to answer the question, just don't answer the question. Or, better yet, don't bother reading the thread if it upsets you so much that people want to get a question answered about their particular situation.
Is the DK board so cluttered with rate my DK posts that it drives off more important posts? No, it isn't. Live and let live.
Post by
woohaa
rebumping this and hope it gets stickied ^^
Post by
239809
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
apocalypsa
Gen, in #2 theres already that if its an easy question we will ofc answer it, but they just shouldnt expect a total how-to-own guide.
Post by
Doring
Bumped, should be stickied in every class forum everywhere.
Doring
Post by
TomatoSauce
Reported for sticky.
Post by
580181
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
470688
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
apocalypsa
Which is why I suggest making it a real sticky(instead of being listed in one)
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