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Pae -> =AQ= Pending Guides Rules (7/2/2007 1:55:26)
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(Note that this is a copy of what is in AQ Guides.)
Guides now has two sections. The main section, Guides, is for completed guides and is reply only. Pending Guides will be the holding forum for all new guides and has replies disabled. A few sentences is wholly insufficient. Guides are not simple answers to a question someone may have asked; they should thoroughly explain the chosen topic.
Incomplete (incorrect information, lacks thoroughness, etc.) guides will be given a completion deadline to meet, or they will be deleted. Completion deadlines will also be used for repetitive guides. If the author cannot find a way to make the guide helpful and unique (no, not in a decorative sense), it will also be deleted.
Tips: Always save guides in a text document (rather than writing everything on the forums) to have a backup copy and something that can be saved as more content in added. Those who aren't familiar with PGD code (bold, underline, etc.) can use Preview (instead of 'OK') to see what the guide will look like without submitting it.
General Rules
- Follow all Universal Rules.
- Use proper English. This is extremely important for guides. If it isn't easily understandable, there is no point in writing it.
- Only posts relevant to guides belong here. Everything else will be deleted.
Posting Guides
- Important: There are to be no Battle Strategy Guides, including but not limited to Quest Guide and Monster Battle Strategy Guide, in Guides forum - they belong in Battle Strategy forum. No Farming Guides either - post in the Farming Guide Compliation Remake thread.Posting a Battle Strategy Guide will result in a warning and deletion of thread.
- Check all previous guides. If there is already a guide, don't make a new one. If you see improvements that need to be made to a current guide, politely post in the thread instead of making a new guide. If you do find a guide past repair, you must include a reason in your new guide. It cannot be a simple paraphrase and/or reorganization. Guides is not a contest. It isn't for outdoing each other. It's for helping others.
- Put time and effort into the making of the guide. Guides that are incomplete and/or repetitive and show little effort will be deleted.
- Guides that fail to make an attempt at using proper English will be deleted without warning.
- Guides should be easy to read. Use formatting when necessary to separate items and make the guide clearer.
- Since Guides should be informative and not cause confusion, no acronyms and abbreviations should be used, unless they are first explained. Define everything first, no matter how obvious it is. An easy way to do that is to include a short key before the actual guide or mention it in within the guide like "In AdventureQuest (AQ), [...]"
- Titles:
Pae- Use a descriptive title. "Guide to Everything" is pointless, as it will not be the purported guide to everything.
Pae- Remember the part about following Universal Rules? The use of over two symbols of any kind will be considered spam and prevent a guide from being approved. As said before, guides are meant to be informative. It isn't the place to let other people know that the guide writer can use symbols, which detracts from the guide, get the most number hits, make it more exciting, and so on. Again, it isn't a competition.
Pae- All superlatives describing the guide should be avoided, since it does not add to the description and is misleading. Superlatives relating to guide content (e.g. best spells as part of the Subject) are allowed.
Pae- None of the guides are "official". There is no purpose in stating that a guide is "official", "unofficial", etc. It's a guide for helping people.
- Banners and other graphical decorations may be used. However, the maximum total file size(s) must be 250KB or less. It is to prevent long loading times for those with slow connections. Overuse of any graphics will prevent a guide from being approved. For the main banner (likely the one at the top, if there is one), the max width is 750 pixels, and the max height is 200 pixels. For dividers, the max for each is 750 pixels in width and 20 pixels in height with a file size no larger than 5KB.
- Credits must be given, regardless of where it came from - IRC, PM, replies etc.
- Sigs cannot be used in the first post, since they are distracting, detract from the guide, and are often used to advertise.
- Do not advertise. If other threads are linked to, they should supplement the guide. Such links may be removed at any time.
- Do not post anything that is not relevant to the topic of the guide. Also, do not post "Rate my guide!", "Post!", etc.
- Guides should be related to the game/forums in some form to be in this forum. Those that aren't will be deleted or moved somewhere else.
Note: Guides that break the rules after being moved from Pending Guides will be moved back to Pending Guides and remain there until corrected. In more severe instances, the guide might remain in Pending Guides for a while after the time that it was corrected. Guides can also deleted without warning in severe instances.
Replying to Your Own Guide
The main point of this is not bumping your thread. Posts that do not contribute anything relevant to the guide will be considered bumping. Yes, a couple "Thank You" and "You're welcome." posts are allowed, but they can be easily overused and used as an excuse to bump. Posting like that after many responses will result in the guide being moved back to Pending Guides. Replying to questions is perfectly fine, assuming that no one else has already answered it. Discussing the guide and suggestions are allowed, but anything suspected for only serving the purpose of dragging it out and bumping the guide will be removed. If you're posting in response to a suggestion that you took, "added." will pretty much only serve the purpose of bumping the thread. If posts are made that are not responding to someone, it should only be for major content updates. That doesn't include adding a sentence or two. To summarize, anything where someone is trying to bump his/her guide, it will be removed. If a post only served to bump the thread, that post and all following posts will be deleted.
Replies
- All replies must directly deal with the guide. This includes suggestions and questions. Comments on how helpful a guide is may be made. However, simple ones like "Great guide!" only serve to bump the thread, so they will be deleted.
- Check all previous replies in the thread to see if what you want to post has already been stated. Too many replies to read? Don't post.
- If you have a suggestion for a guide, politely post in the new thread.
Miscellaneous
[Archive] - Moderator/AK only tag used to indicate a guide about something that is no longer available but worth keeping around.
Final Notes: Do not ask about getting someone else's guide moved to Guides. It is the guide author's responsibility. If a new guide in Pending Guides has not received a response on problems with the guide and has not been moved for at least one week, the guide author can [image]http://forums2.battleon.com/f/image/pm.gif[/image] an ArchKnight or a Moderator in the list below. Take note that aggressive PMs accomplish nothing positive. The same applies to whining.
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