General Forum FAQ (WoW)
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If you are new to the Allakhazam forums, click here, then read through the entire post.
Every player needs to read "The unwritten (until now) rules of Warcraft." (and yes, I'm aware that it's already in section II, #17) It's important enough to get mentioned twice.)
Frequently Asked Questions, The general forum FAQ.
FAQ, the general wow FAQ
Section I: Forum Conduct
I want to sell/buy gold
Gold buying and selling is evil.
If you are looking to buy or sell gold/items/services, you are not welcome here. Please see the following snippet from the World of Warcraft EULA below. As an official fansite, Allakhazam does not condone, support nor allow the business of RMT in any fashion on the site and will remove any and all such behavior it finds, up to and including permanent banning from the site.
| Terms of use |
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| 8. Ownership/Selling of the Account or Virtual Items. Blizzard does not recognize the transfer of Accounts. You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void. Blizzard owns, has licensed, or otherwise has rights to all of the content that appears in the Program. You agree that you have no right or title in or to any such content, including the virtual goods or currency appearing or originating in the Game, or any other attributes associated with the Account or stored on the Service. Blizzard does not recognize any virtual property transfers executed outside of the Game or the purported sale, gift or trade in the "real world" of anything related to the Game. Accordingly, you may not sell items for "real" money or otherwise exchange items for value outside of the Game |
- Step 1: Resist the urge to post in the thread, AT ALL COSTS. Posting only bumps the thread to the top, NO MATTER WHAT YOU POST.
- Step 2: Click the Report link in the lower right area of the post. Enter the reason for reporting the post (e.g. RMT spam/Illegitimate services..)
- Step 3: Click the "red down arrow" rate button above the message. This will lower the threads rating and reduce the amount of traffic it receives until the Admins arrive. This also lowers the chances of people bumping it with flames/testimonials/spam/etc.
If you are receiving PMs of such a nature. Please contact the WoW Forum Admin or any of the other admins on the site here, and forward them a copy of the PM you received.
Follow these simple steps and we will take a big step towards self moderation! Together we can make our beloved Allakhazam better. Thank you for your cooperation, and good luck!
Spelling
"i cant speel ore use grammer but i still post can u tell me y my posts r ingored?"
If you don't want to be ignored, please use proper English. This includes capitalization, punctuation, and not using abbreviations or "1337 speak". The same holds for in-game - you can't and won't be taken seriously without knowing how to write. If you are unsure of your spelling, there is online help available at Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com also provides a thesaurus, so you can try using different words in your sentences. The best reference for sentence construction that I've found is on Wikipedia.
People care about grammar, spelling, and punctuation. When your English is sloppy, then you come across as sloppy. If you use "leet", you come across as juvenile. When you use swear words, you come across as a moron. It's up to you to decide how you want to present yourself.
One quick tip, a very common mistake that is misspelling rogue class as rouge. Here is a quick spelling lesson from those of us here at Zam!
| rogue n. | 1. An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal. | 2. One who is playfully mischievous; a scamp. | 3. A wandering beggar; a vagrant. |
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| rouge n. | 1. A red or pink cosmetic for coloring the cheeks or lips. | 2. A reddish powder, chiefly ferric oxide, used to polish metals or glass. Most people consider a rouge to be over-powdered. |
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"The servers are down!"
a. Check your calendar.
If it's Tuesday, then it's maintenance time, and the servers are supposed to be down. If you still feel like bitching and moaning, post in the Tuesday is Maintenance Thread.
- Yes, your servers will be down until 2pm Eastern (May be earlier depending on when they start). This will happen EVERY Tuesday! (5AM-11AM PST)
- Yes, continue to post questions/comments.
- No, even if you're able to log-in you won't be able to play, unless they happen to bring them online earlier than anticipated.
- No, Do not whine about your servers.
- Yes, maintenance time is an estimate at best. If your servers do not come up at the scheduled time, refer to #4.
- Yes, the Official WoW Forums (O-boards) will be down during the course of maintenance as well (submitted by:mohenjodari the Mighty)
Euro Maintenance:
The euro maintenance is at 0300 CEST to 0700 or 0800 CEST on Wednesdays.
At patchdays it goes on until 1100 CEST.compgenius wrote:
Every Tuesday I log in to check the forums and catch up on whats going on while I am stuck at work. Sadly I stop shortly after lunch because its always the same thing over and over....OMFG!!! THEY EXTENDED MAINTENANCE AGAIN!!! OMG WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?????!?!?!?!?!??!
I almost dread reading posts on Tuesdays. Why do people find it necessary to come here and complain? Its Tuesday, I have been playing since January...EVERY Tuesday there has been maintenance. Its not some new magical thing that blizzard thought up to piss off the WoW community.b. Sometimes servers go out for other reasons. If it's a global effect, other posters are aware of the problem and you aren't providing any new information. You can check realm status at the official site here.
c. Ranting at Blizzard isn't going to help the servers get back to normal any faster. If you want to rant at Blizz someplace where they actually look, http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/ post in the O-forums.
"Blizz sucks!"
a. Ranting at Blizzard here isn't going to solve your problem. If you want to rant at Blizzard someplace where they actually look, post in the O-forums.
b. If you are posting here to get sympathy or much needed attention, you won't get much. Most posters here don't want to hear rants, so chances are that you will get down rated to oblivion. So calm down and post something that might actually help people instead of ranting.
Banned from the O-Boards
"I've been banned from the official forums and I want to bring my drama here"
Just go away.
New vs. Existing Threads
"I'm posting this even though there is an existing thread on the subject"
Don't. Post in the existing thread. This might require actually reading threads, though, and that might be beyond your cranial capacity.
"Is (any other game) better than WoW?"
You're posting on a World of Warcraft forum. If you expect any answer other than "WoW > (other game)", you are deluding yourself. If you post the same question on a board dedicated to the other game, you can expect "(other game) > WoW". If you post a defense of the other game, expect flames. Some people may consider you to be a troll for posting questions like this on the main WoW forum. If you want to compare games, consider posting in the multi-game forum.
The Rating System
Can you explain the Allakhazam Rating system to me?
First off, there are various ranks for posters. Those are Norate, Unrated, Sub-Default, Default, Scholar, Sage, and Guru. Ranks are gained by being rated up, and lost by being rated down. A poster's average rating can be viewed by clicking on the poster's name.
Posts themselves have ratings, which are then attached to the poster. The ratings are:
- 1 - Awful
- 2 - Default
- 3 - Decent
- 4 - Good
- 5 - Excellent
Rate ups are gained by putting up generally useful posts. In order to rate a post, you have to have a minimum rating of Scholar. Rate downs are gained for various reasons, but certainly because someone did not like what was posted. If a post is rated down often enough, it becomes sub-default and disappears (as long as you are using the default filter). Norate are banned or otherwise unwanted posters for various reasons. Unrated means you have managed to annoy the entire community to the point that they have all rated you to oblivion, sub-default means you should either suck less, stop whining about karma or post better.
Perhaps it's better explained in this quote from the Site FAQ:
Q: I see posters rated as Scholar, Sage and Guru. What's up with that and how do I get a title?
A: That is part of the Karma system. Your Karma rating is determined by averaging every rating your posts have received from the users of the site. The rating comes from posts made under your registered name on any of the rated forums for any game covered by allakhazam.com, but does not include posts on user journals. You must have at least 15 posts before you receive a Karma rating. Then any future post you make will start out at your Karma level. Anonymous posts start at a rating of 2.
Titles are assigned to your posts according to the following scale:
| Karma | ||||
| Karma below 3 = user. | Karma between 3.01 and 3.65 | Karma between 3.66 and 4.34 | Karma between 4.35 and 5 | Administrators |
| Default. Posts are in orange. Cannot rate | Scholar. Posts are in light blue. Can rate other users. | Sage. Posts are in green. Can rate other users. | Guru. Posts are in red. Can rate other users. | Administrators posts are in maroon. Best not to test the rate ability of an admin. |
| Q: What are the karma ratings? | ||||
| Excellent = 5.0 | Good = 4.0 | Decent = 3.0 | Default = 2.0 | Awful = 1.0 |
Private Servers
Can you shed some light on the private server issue? Why is it considered bad?
Sure - from "Terms of Use"
4. Limitations on Your Use of the Service.
A. Only Blizzard or its licensees have the right to host the Game. You may not host or provide matchmaking services for the Game, or intercept, emulate or redirect the proprietary communication protocols used by Blizzard in connection with the Program, regardless of the method used to do so. Such prohibited methods may include, but are not limited to, protocol emulation, reverse engineering, modifying the Program, adding unauthorized components to the Program, or using a packet sniffer while the Program is running.
There are several reasons for people wanting to use a pirate/private server.
- They want to play without paying for the software.
- They want to play without paying the monthly fee.
- They want to play "god mode" -using their own artifacts and leveling through cheats.
- They want to test cheats and exploits.
- They are third-party developers of cheat software.
Unacceptable Behavior
Can you give me some examples of unacceptable behavior on this forum?
There are a number of things that will get you flamed, derided, down-rated, laughed at, etc. The following is not a comprehensive list:
- Asking about exploits or cheats.
- Asking how to play without paying.
- Asking about external programs or bots that automate the game.
- Asking or bragging about software theft.
- Offering commercial software to someone else.
- Touting warez websites.
- Distributing commercial guides for free.
- Asking about selling accounts or items for real money.
- Asking about trading accounts.
- Spamming anything and everything related to Nyhm, Zygor or Ragnarok guides. These are persona non grata in any form and are also banned on site so be advised.
- spam post off topic stupid +1 games in the WoW forum
N00b Vs. Newb
What is the difference between a newb and a noob (often spelled n00b)?
From the Urban Dictionary:
newb
A term used to describe a inexperienced gamer/person/etc. Unlike a noob, a newb is someone who actually wants to get better.and
noob
Noob is meant as an offensive term towards someone who is not necessarily new, and quite often is directed at someone that is |somewhat| experienced but at the same time stupid/disruptive and/or totally incapable of learning.
A noob is almost always someone who thinks they're cool but obviously aren't. Also used in 1337speak. See also: n00b, nub, ch00b, n00bo, n00blet.
Newb is not meant to be offensive. Newb merely states that the person in question is new to the game/board/ For further explanation, look at this link.
Guild Advertising
Is this the proper place to advertise my guild?
Not really. Where you need to go is the realm forums or the guild recruitment forums on the Official website.
I Can Has A Survey!!!
Before you take your survey, you might want to check to see if the survey has already been performed. Nick Yee from Stanford has performed a large number of Surveys on MMOs as an extension of his personal and academic interests. His studies can be found at The Daedelus Project: The Psychology of MMORPGs.
Titling Your Post
Post Titles: "Question" or "???" or "I have a problem" are not acceptable.
If this is the title to your post, then you have shown yourself to be unacquainted with netiquette. You need to look at the title of your post as a headline. A very short summary of the content within. A stupid title demands stupid answers. You can become the object of ridicule. Everyone on the Allakhazam boards will be pointing at you and laughing.
Give people a clue about the post. Instead of "Question" - use "Video Card Question" or "(Name of quest) Question". Instead of "I have a problem", use "Blizz not accepting prepaid cards?" or "My CPU is smoking". "???" is just plain stupid.