New People Here On FFXIAH

Has anyone on the moderator end bothered to ... I dunno, send the creators of the types of thread that have ultimately led to this situation and say something like:

"Hey, You're not in violation of any forum rules, but if you don't notice, there are a lot of negative responses to your threads. This is in no way defending their behavior, but the types of threads you're making are more suited as one-off questions in the existing Random Questions Thread. You also may want to familiarize yourself with the existing Wikis. The better information you have on your own, the better questions you'll be able to ask, and it's more likely that a lot of people will end up benefiting from your posts!

Hope you are enjoying the site, and here's a link to the FFXIAH Newcomers Guide if you need any more information."

I know it's not in your job description, but yeah.

NO!! We dont work here!!! geez thats just wayy out of my job description!!

hit that right on the head there, it's not their job at all to tell people to go, they are here to enforce the rules and that's it, making a thread asking a simple (and yes sometimes really simple!) question and getting flack for it from regulars or just from someone who knows it but wants to be a douche about it is exactly what they are here for, if you aren't going to help the person out and just troll/flame/*** around then what's the point of posting?

The thing is, these threads aren't ALL that common, and are limited to a few posters.

A little bit of proactiveness on the moderator end may have prevented the need for this discussion altogether.

Or perhaps that's something that would be better suited for someone with VIP status (Kallila for example).

Like it or not: Special bar = people listen to what you have to say, right or wrong.

wrong, not many care to listen to me until i put the puerto rican sassiness into my tone with hand on the hip and finger in the air

...you should make that pose your avatar.

what, no way, do you know how many ppl would throw something at me.

btw i did speak to the person way before they posted threads in PM, helped them with things about the site and he had already found the rules before sending me a pm for help

Only stupid questions are the ones never asked.

If person in question really is a troll, they may be the most successful one in the history of these forums!

yeah you are right. But OP is at fault as much as whoever started bashing him.
I wonder how many of you complaining actually took the effort of pm him and explain politely.

That may be true, but a thread in 2012, asking how often traverser stones refresh is just asking for trouble.

Seeing as they already talked to a mod, found forum rules etc., I lean further and further toward 'Most successful troll ever.'

he isnt a troll... he really is a new person here.

Most successful accidental troll ever?

-edit- ^ Most likely

We've talked, even before the majority of the threads. It's safe to say he's asking these questions genuinely.

Anyway, it seems he's found the random questions thread which is a plus. But, maybe we need a second thread for "Newbie" type questions.

Whereas it seems the goal of the RQT would be for less obvious questions that don't quite deserve an entire thread, a

"Help! I'm New to the game/ Just came back and I'm lost" sort of thread would help to isolate those sorts of questions. People posting in such a thread would be either people asking questions, or people willing to deal with those sorts of questions, and I think it would lead to a more positive environment overall.

Then I'm sure you'll understand my skepticism, my concerns about unrealistic expectations, and my curiosity about why the initial presentation was so one-sided given that such an understanding would encourage a more well-rounded post.

that sounded like a commercial
"Hey are you lost? Have you decided to come back to ffxi and don't know what to do??!? Well we got the solution right here for just $19.95!"

Rqt covers pretty much everything ffxi related including super noobish questions. Separating it into noob and skilled+ may confuse some of the more oblivious posters. Maybe a guide for returning players that explains everything that was added or changed 75-99.

The first few posts of such a thread would contain starter information, i.e., getting started with abyssea, links to info on weakness triggering, atmas, and empyrean armor/weapon guides, getting started with voidwatch, links to information on that system, overview of changes since 75 cap for returning players, etc.

Would potentially head off some of the "how i mine for fish" threads in question, and give players a better resource to link in threads that slip through.

You don't have to separate RQT, but a dedicated "Noob Corner" certainly wouldn't hurt.

This isn't a segregation lol

Not a segregation but it would help against having the same thread pop up 3 times a week. Idk about other job forums, but in the BLU forum it's always "WHICH MULTIATTACK SWORD MAKE I DO" and "WHAT SETS OF SPELLS" despite it all having been covered a million and a half times.

I don't normally contribute, but here's what I can add. I like the idea of heading off needless topics, as well as needless trolling. The problem with topics (even stickied topics), especially when it comes to newer members of the forums who don't know how to navigate the site well, is that the main page only shows the most recent topics across the whole site.

We've all read their posts and know what they normally do: Look at the main page, MAYBE click "View More," and if they don't see the kind of topic they want to ask about there, they click the "New Post" button.

Since sometimes even topics like RQT get pushed out of visibility (depending on level of laziness or site familiarity), the obvious thing is to make sure they stay more visible.

So, like a boss, I grabbed MS Paint (never got around to loading Photoshop on this laptop ; ;) and made my rendition of how the front page could look:

Like Prothescar mentioned, the price index thing hasn't served much of a purpose recently (ever?), so it probably wouldn't hurt to go away. The only thing I've ever used it for was as a reminder for how many servers (and which) are still active. The guides and question threads could all be topics that have been "tagged" by a moderator/admin as an important contribution.

TL;DR: Make a section on the main page for special stickied topics related to FFXI.

EDIT: Also, I don't really take credit for the idea. I basically took the whole premise of what Prothescar said and did with his image and tried to make it look the way it did in my head before I saw his picture.

What also might help is a "Featured Thread" highlight color.

I.e. similar to how if Kalilla posts a thread it turns purple on the main page, mods are green etc.

Instead of tying that to a person, make it possible to "highlight" a thread so important guides or RQT show up with a blue highlight or something.

Just a thought.

If we're actually interested in helping new players, uneducated players and to be honest, even veteran players... I think the best method would be to have people start helping consolidate knowledge.

I've been playing since early 2005 and even I can have a little trouble finding specific information even when I know certain key words to look for. I often have to utilize advanced search on 600+ page threads to find what I need. Having it split between 3 different wiki and a few other specialty sources is honestly kinda annoying.

So next time you look at a wiki and know information that isn't listed or is just wrong, consider taking some time filling out a few things and making corrections. It'd help a whole lot more for everyone.

7+ page thread going all because people were told to stop being *** and help out new players ... sounds just like these forums. Handful of helpers and the rest forgot what it was like to be new and pretend they made their characters with gear already in place.

I don't see anyone having a problem with helping new people. It's just annoying to have people creating a thread for every single question they need answered.

As a lurker who posts almost never I would have to say, a perma sticky section would be what I would like to see the most if it was possible.