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| #1zombiegleemaxJul 19, 2002 17:59:00 | Update: Four new questions: Link colors, member laziness, image errors and Sticky threads. I also edited the question regarding 'official' D&D answers. I also changed the title a bit. Disclaimer: Since I'm no longer in charge of this part of the boards, some of these answers might no longer be entirely accurate. Let the reader beware. --- WizO Jedi's D&D Meta Board FAQ --- Okay, we have FAQs for many of the other boards, time for one for the Meta Board. Spam is most definitely not welcome here, tyvm. Q: What specific questions does this document answer? A: The following questions, in order of appearance:
Q: What is the Meta Board? A: It’s a forum designed to answer questions about these boards themselves – how they work, where one can post about certain topics, how the WizOs do their jobs – and a place for feedback on how to make the boards, and the community in general, a more enjoyable place for everyone. It is also a place to discuss boards etiquette. Q: So what’s all that mean? What’s ‘On Topic’ here? A: To fully answer that, let’s break down the two blurbs that the Meta Board has: quote:A place to ask your questions about the Code of Conduct, discuss boards etiquette, troubleshoot posting issues, or just test out your new name. Hellos and Goodbyes belong here as well.Questions about the Code of Conduct: This refers to issues about the rules of the community. Some examples of this are, “What constitutes Harassment?’ ‘How often can I bump threads without being warned for Flooding/Scrolling?’ and ‘Why can’t I advertise my commercial website?’ Remember: the tone of your post is as important as the content. Do not take an antagonistic approach to posting. Discuss Boards Etiquette: This refers to topics about posting habits and styles. How to get your thread noticed, or how to disagree without ‘flaming’ someone, or how long is too long for signatures. Threads such as these are On Topic so long as they remain civil and productive. Should they become bogged down in spam or flames, they’ll soon be locked. Remember: the tone of your post is as important as the content. Do not take an antagonistic approach to posting. Troubleshoot Posting Issues: Questions that deal with boards ‘bugs’ fall under this category. Having a hard time posting images, or can’t seem to figure out the CODE function? We’ll do our best to provide answers. Remember: the tone of your post is as important as the content. Do not take an antagonistic approach to posting. Just test out your new name/Hellos and Goodbyes: These two categories are closely related. If you’re a newcomer to the boards, posting a greeting here is fine. If you’ve misplaced the password on an old name, or had a character perish on an In Character forum and have a new one, posting to let everyone know your new identity is fine. However, if you’ve lost a screen name due to repeated CoC violations, you cannot reveal your new identity this way. If you’re leaving the boards for a short time, or even forever, posting a farewell is also acceptable. Do not reveal too much detail about your personal lives. Even though you namy develop a kinship with many of the members of the boards, they are open for anyone to read, whether they have a login name or not. Reading these forums does not automatically make someone trustworthy or ethical. Briefly telling folks why you’re leaving is fine; anyone who wants more information can ask you for it in email. Remember: the tone of your post is as important as the content. Do not take an antagonistic approach to posting. quote:You can even express discontent with the management and suggest changes!If some decision we’ve made isn’t to your liking, you are certainly free to say so, but with tact. This is a forum for feedback, and we understand (and expect) that not all of it will be positive. Remember: the tone of your post is as important as the content. Do not take an antagonistic approach to posting. Q: Uh, okay. So what’s “Off Topic” here? A: Just about everything else. This isn’t the place to discuss gaming, your personal lives, or current world events, and it’s not a place to just ‘hang out’ and joke around. Those kinds of threads won’t have a long lifespan here, even if you try to make them fit. The thread ‘Music to Read the Boards By’ is Off Topic. The boards were not created so that the Meta Board could exist. The Meta Board was created to centralize feedback on how to make the rest of the boards more enjoyable. Q: Sheesh, don’t you have a sense of humor? Why are you spoiling all of our fun? A: I do have a sense of humor, but I also know when and where it’s not appropriate. And I’m not spoiling all of your fun, just redirecting it to more appropriate places. General UBB questions: Q: How do I give myself an avatar/signature? A: Click on the ‘My Profile’ link (it’s at the top of almost every page on the boards.) Then click ‘View/Update Profile.’ You will see a list of categories into which you can enter information. Under ‘Your Avatar,’ you can click to see all the images you can choose from to display under your boards username. Your signature can be up to 500 characters long, although excessively long signatures tend to make people not want to read your posts at all. Generally speaking, try to keep your signature less than six lines long. Q: I've seen signatures longer than alot of posts. Can you limit how big a signature is? A: We can limit the length of signatures in number of characters, but we can't limit how many lines they take up. Q: How do I post a picture, insert a link, etc? A: To learn the various UBB commands, you can click the ‘UBB is enabled’ text in the Post a Reply screen. That will open a window with instructions on how to post images and links manually. ((Click this sentence to view that page.)) Or you can use the various buttons located under the Post a Reply textbox. Q: Can I make the links I insert in my posts or signature a different colour? A: The color of weblinks is based on the color scheme being used on each particular forum. Links in the Magic and D&D forums appear in a slightly different color than regular text, while links using the Community color scheme are almost the same color as regular text. The WizOs can edit the color schemes, but it affects every forum that uses it. Regular members cannot post in different colors. Talk to either WizO Paradox ([email]paradox@wizardsmoderator.com[/email] for the RPG forums) or WizO Jedi ([email]jedi@wizardsmoderator.com[/email] for the TCG forums) about making weblinks more distinct from normal text. Q: I want to post a relevant picture that's hosted on Geocities, but people complain they can't see it (it shows up as a red 'x'.) A: Some sites like Geocities do not allow image linking from other sites. If you want people to be able to see the image, they will need to copy and paste the image URL into a new browser window. Windows users: To obtain the image URL, right-click on the image placeholder (the little box with a red cross). Select "Properties" from the menu. Copy and paste the address (URL) into the address bar of a browser window and hit Return. This should take you to the image. You can also add a link to the image in your post by using the URL command for UBB. This will do the same as copying the image URL into a new window. Q: Why can't I pick my own avatar and how do I get a custom one? A: We don’t allow everyone to upload their own avatar because we would have to watch out for images that violate our Code of Conduct (graphic, sexually explicit, etc.) Some people get custom avatars by volunteering to author FAQs for other forums, or by winning contests held on the boards. Even their avatars must not violate the CoC. Q: How can I find my own postings? A: You can use the Search feature to search for posts using your own member number, or you can view a list of recent postings in your profile by clicking on the rolodex icon in one of your posts. Q: What are the archives, and what are the criteria for a thread being put in there? A: The archives are read-only forums in which highly informative threads are stored. In the near future, FAQ threads will be stored in the archives to prevent them from being pruned, and only moved briefly to be updated. Generally threads must be informative, relevant to the forum they’re in, and civil to be considered for archiving. Q: Why when I copy and paste certain characters do they turn into numbers? A: This is the result of a hastily added in-house security patch to this version of UBB. The next version of UBB is supposed to have a patch that works without the bug that ours has. Q: Why is the D&D/Magic webpage down again? A: Alas, your guess is usually as good as mine. The tech team may be updating it, it may have gone down due to too much traffic, or it might be cursed. The boards can go down when they’re being reindexed, but that usually lasts only an hour, and is done once every few weeks. Q: I have noticed on some boards that one or more threads stay at the top of the topic list, despite other threads having more recent posts. Why is this? A: "Sticky threads" have now been implemented so that important topics on a particular boards, such as forum rules or an FAQ can stay at the top and not get lost or accidentally pruned. Q: What happened to the post count? They used to be at the bottom of every post I write. A: Too much emphasis was being placed on peoples’ post counts instead of the content of their posts. Too lessen the visibility of that, post counts are no longer displayed under every person’s posts. However, you can still view them in their profile. Q: What's with "tj?" A: That is not a boards error. Some posters prefer to illustrate their culture’s spelling habits by posting ‘tj’ in words that use ‘ch’ in their English spelling. In short, it’s a "tjoice" on some people’s part. Q: How do I find postings on a particular topic/by a particular member? A: Click the ‘Search’ link at the top of most pages, and enter the criteria you wish to search for. Note: If you’re looking for a topic that’s over a month old, it may have been pruned, which means it may have been deleted with other older threads. Q: How can I use the Search function to search all boards for a topic? A: You can't because searching through 200+ forums takes a very long time and bogs down the board system. Boards Team questions: Q: How do I become a WizO and what does it pay? A: To qualify for consideration to be a WizO, a person must be at least 18 years old, be a boards member in good standing for at least six months, and be able to volunteer at least 4 hours a week. If you meet all these requirements, you can fill out and email in <<This Application.>> If an Area Lead is interested in your application, he or she will contact you for an online interview appointment. WizOs are volunteers, not paid employees. There are occasional perks to being a WizO, such as opportunities to playtest WotC products and occasional goodies in the mail, but no steady paychecks. WizOs are merely gamers who want to make the community as fun as possible, not people who are just in it for the money. Q: How do you change your WizO application once submitted? A: You can’t. You’ll have to resubmit your application if the information you’ve provided has changed recently. Q: How many WizOs are there? A: The number changes all the time, but we usually have more than fifty people on the team. ((Here's a link to the WizO Bios page.)) The WizO team is divided into a handful of smaller teams: Admin, RPG Boards, TCG Boards, RPG Live/Events and ISRP. Q: What's the difference between WotC_, WizO_, and "moderator" (board DM)? A: People with WotC prefixes to their names are actual employees of Wizards of the Coast, working in Renton, WA. People with WizO prefixes are boards or chat room administrators; people who work directly on the Wizards.Community areas. Forum moderators are either people who help run message based game forums, or people who run individual Other Worlds forums as part of their duties with the Official website related to that realm. Moderators are not WizOs, nor are they empowered to enforce the CoC. In cases where the CoC is being violated, they contact a WizO to step in. Q: Why are there sometimes no explanations of why my post was locked? A: If no explanation is given, it means the WizO who locked the thread felt the reason was obvious. Q: May I e-mail WizO's to know the exact reason when I think it doesn't make sense? A: If no explanation was given, then yes. However, the WizOs staff is not required to respond to every piece of mail they receive. Questions regarding boards usage: Q: How do I figure out what board I should be posting on? A: Read the descriptions beneath each forum. If that doesn’t help you find a forum suitable for your post, read some of the threads in the most appropriate places you believe your topic is suited for, and make your decision then. If you still can’t find a good place to post, you can ask people where your topic would be best put on the Meta Board. Q: Can we have an Off Topic forum? A: No. These boards are for the discussion of Wizards of the Coast games and the playing of said games. They’re not meant to discuss TV, music, sports, current events, the latest fashion trends, macramé, or particle physics. There are boards for those topics elsewhere on the web. Q: What is the CoF? A: The CoF, or <<Castle of Fun>> , is another forum located on the Community board. It’s for humorous postings, either In Character or Out of Character. This sentence is a link to the Castle Of Fun FAQ. Q: What is a sock puppet/MuP? A: Check out <<Trollbill's Dictionary.>> It contains definitions of several terms used on these boards. Q: Why was a word or part of word I innocently used in a post replaced by asterisks (*)? A: You may have inadvertently used a word that violates the Code of Conduct. There is a profanity filter that is designed to prevent certain words from being typed to the screen. Trying to set around this by s p a c i n g out your characters or using numbers and symbols to approximate the letters is called Masked Profanity, and is a CoC violation in itself. Q: Where can I find an online game? A: Try the RPG or TCG Classifieds forums n the Community section. You can also find active Message-Based games in the Wizards.Community section. Q: What should I do when I see someone violating the CoC? A: Click the ‘Report this Thread’ icon (the red and gray envelope) at the top of anyone’s post in the thread. That will send an email to boards@wizards.com, which is auto-forwarded to all the message boards WizOs. Questions about the CoC: Q: Why is it that a banned user cannot publicly state any of his/her previous identities? A: Because it would not be a significant punishment when compared to the number of times the person has violated the CoC, much in the same way a person can lose their driver's lisence after several traffic violations. If your name gets banned, it means you've been repeatedly violting the CoC after receiving multiple warnings. In an online community, a user's name becomes an identity, and in most cases online identities are highly valued. If Member X gets banned, creates the name Member_X, and tells everyone that he was once Member X, then he has lost nothing of value, as he retains his identity. By forbidding banned users from making login names that are similar to their banned usernames and announcing their previous identities, their loss is greater and more fitting when compared to the amount of trouble they've caused. This rule also benefits the banned user, as they can log back on with a 'clean slate' in the eyes of the community members. Nobody can hold a grudge against an apparent new member. This is not a hidden rule; it is meant as a deterrent to misbehavior. Boards Etiquette questions: Q: Why can't people learn to spell properly? A: Chronic misspelling is usually the result of one of three things.
A: Again, several reasons:
A: ‘Elite’ is an ambiguous term applied to boards members based on various criteria. Some feel an elite poster is someone with a high post count, or someone with a reputation for being helpful or funny, or just someone with a name that everyone seems to recognize (usually due to prolific posting habits.) Some people feel that the so-called ‘elite’ posters get preferential treatment from the WizO staff. Q: Can I post a complaint about another person on the boards? A: No. If you have a problem with a specific user, report the matter to a WizO. Posting complaints about specific people on the boards is considered Harassment, and can actually get you into trouble. Q: Can I post a message to another person on the boards using the Metaboard? A: If you cannot contact the person via email, you may post a message asking for the person you want to contact to email you. Person-to-person conversations are Off Topic on the Meta Board. Q: Who can I contact for "official" D&D rulings? A: There are several FAQ threads on the various D&D boards that may help you find an 'official' answer to a question. The members who maintain these FAQs are not Wizards employees, but they endeavor to make their answers as close to 'official' as possible. Q: Who can I contact for "official" Magic: the Gathering rulings? A: Check out the Rules Answers and Articles forum in the Magic section. The Ultimate Question! Q: Is this the final draft of the Meta Board FAQ? A: No, I hope to continue to update it as it needs to be, or I hope my successor WizOs do so if/when I leave the WizO team. [ October 29, 2002, 04:55 PM: Message edited by: WizO_Jedi ] |
| #2zombiegleemaxSep 20, 2002 7:39:00 | For you next mission Jedi, if you choose to accept it, make all of the questions at the top a link to each question within the post itself. (I honestly have no idea if this is possible with UBB.) |
| #3zombiegleemaxOct 02, 2002 14:41:00 | quote:Originally posted by WizO_Jedi:Well, it would probably be a pain to set up, but you could give each couple of question/answer pairs their own posts on the FAQ thread and then link to each post. For example this LINK should lead to the post just above mine. <edit> well it does now that I've put in the correct number, damn typo gremlin [ October 02, 2002, 03:44 PM: Message edited by: Reader ] |
| #4zombiegleemaxOct 29, 2002 14:40:00 | quote:Originally posted by WizO_Jedi:Q. Is that link ever going to be updated to list the current crop of WizOs? |
| #5zombiegleemaxOct 29, 2002 14:47:00 | quote:Originally posted by Josh_Kablack:That's a question for Mel. First the new WizOs need to fill out the Bio info, (heck, mine could stand to be updated) then Mel needs to update the page. As one might suspect, it's not a high priority issue. |
| #6zombiegleemaxOct 29, 2002 14:48:00 | The following questions were added to the FAQ: Q: Can I make the links I insert in my posts or signature a different colour? A: The color of weblinks is based on the color scheme being used on each particular forum. Links in the Magic and D&D forums appear in a lightly different color than regular text, while links using the Community color scheme are almost the same color as regular text. The WizOs can edit the color schemes, but it affects every forum that uses it. Regular members cannot post in different colors. Talk to either WizO Paradox ([email]paradox@wizardsmoderator.com[/email] for the RPG forums) or WizO Jedi ([email]jedi@wizardsmoderator.com[/email] for the TCG forums) about making weblinks more distinct from normal text. Q: I want to post a relevant picture that's hosted on Geocities, but people complain they can't see it (it shows up as a red 'x'.) A: Some sites like Geocities do not allow image linking from other sites. If you want people to be able to see the image, they will need to copy and paste the image URL into a new browser window. Windows users: To obtain the image URL, right-click on the image placeholder (the little box with a red cross). Select "Properties" from the menu. Copy and paste the address (URL) into the address bar of a browser window and hit Return. This should take you to the image. You can also add a link to the image in your post by using the URL command for UBB. This will do the same as copying the image URL into a new window. Q: I have noticed on some boards that one or more threads stay at the top of the topic list, despite other threads having more recent posts. Why is this? A: "Sticky threads" have now been implemented so that important topics on a particular boards, such as forum rules or an FAQ can stay at the top and not get lost or accidentally pruned. Q: Why don't people check to see if their question has already been asked/answered before they post their question? A: Again, several reasons:
Q: Who can I contact for "official" D&D rulings? A: There are several FAQ threads on the various D&D boards that may help you find an 'official' answer to a question. The members who maintain these FAQs are not Wizards employees, but they endeavor to make their answers as close to 'official' as possible. |
| #7wotc_melOct 29, 2002 14:56:00 | oof. Yeah, it is chronically out of date. The day I post a new one people have changes for me. Anyway, I will make more of an effort to get to it in Novemeber. |
| #8zombiegleemaxOct 29, 2002 15:47:00 | quote:Originally posted by WizO_Jedi:Not to be nitpicky, but in this case it might be confusing... I suppose you meant slightly? |
| #9zombiegleemaxOct 29, 2002 15:56:00 | Oops, fixed. Thanks! |