FAQ

Introduction

Welcome to World of Warcraft Pro. We are a platform for WoW-Players to exchange self-written guides, free of charge. Our guide books are a compilation of all guides submitted by the WoW-pro memberbase. We will try to answer all questions about functioning, features and troubleshooting here, however if you still have questions, you can always contact us through the contact form.

Guide Books

Guides are published in 5 big encyclopedias:

• General Guides
• Leveling Guides
• Instance Guides
• Tradeskill Guides
• Guides in Other Languages

These books are organised in chapters and sub-chapters which are always summarized in a table of contents. Below the table of contents there are links with the names of the next/previous page. You can click on them directly like you would turn pages in a real book. You can also click on "up" to get back to the parent chapter of the page you are viewing.

The top level pages are generally called parents and act as chapters to a number of child pages. Everyone can add a child page to any existing parent/chapter, however unfinished, redundant or outdated content will be removed. For more information please refer to the Guide Status section of this FAQ.

Guides & Wiki Pages

Guides can be submitted in two different forms:

• Guides
• Wiki Pages

Guides can only be edited and updated by their respective author.
Wiki Pages can be edited and updated by anyone who is logged in.

Which to choose? If you are really determined about writing a certain guide and if you honestly think that you are going to have the time to pull it off, choose Guide as content type. If you would like to start a guide but don't know when or if you are going to finish it, choose Wiki Pages as content type. Don't worry, Wiki Pages do not erase your name as author.

Text Formatting

Mediawiki Syntax

Mediawiki Syntax: Sounds complicated? It's very easy actually. If you've ever edited an article in Wikipedia, you know what I'm talking about. This is the syntax which is used by Wikipedia to format any sort of article. What's nice about it is: it's very easy, it is fast to learn, it is perfectly adapted for long articles.

• IMPORTANT To make best use of Mediawiki: For example you want to make an article about a quest. The different sections of the article would be prerequisits, location, objectives, rewards (just an example). To structure your article visually you make each of those titles a header (as descibed on the cheatsheet linked above) and if you have any subsections you use smaller headers for those. Once you are done you use [ [ toc ] ]. This will automatically create a table of contents with your header titles. To make the header sections clearer, insert a horizontal line after each title.

• Links to other pages: [ [ Page Title ] ] or [ [ path/to/page|Title ] ]. (without the excess spaces of course)

• External links: http://example.com or [ http://example.com some link title ].

• To use Mediawiki Syntax, scroll to the bottom of the "body" field of your article and click on the link "Input Format". Choose Mediawiki.

BBCode

Especially for shorter articles and comments, you can use BBCode. BBCode is the default input format, so you don't need to change anything.

General Tips

• Do not use too many colors. Generally the more colors you use the more confusing it gets. Try to stick to 2-3 different colors.

• Be consistent with your text formatting. Do not do one thing for one section then another for the rest.

• Generally only change the size of titles, don't write normal words in diffent sizes.

• Do not use underline. People tend to use this way too often because it works on paper while writing by hand to emphasize words. On screen it looks quite bad, especially when used extensively. Additionally readers tend to confound underlined words with links.

• Don't make titles too big.

• Leave spaces between paragraphs. Don't nuke readers with walls of text.

• Everyone loves images. If you can add a useful image somewhere, do the extra effort. It pays off big time.

• Finally check out articles that you find visually appealing and copy their style of formatting.

Wowhead item links automatically show a tooltip when you hover over them. The only thing you need to do is search for the item on wowhead and paste the url. When someone hovers over the url with their mouse, they will see a tooltip with the stats and the icon of the respective item.

Guidelines for Editing and Guide Writing

'Step by step':

1. Make up your mind about the topic you'd like to contribute to. Be specific... do not submit guides like "Leveling Guide" which is obviously too vague. Be as realistic as possible and only make a guide about something that has a prospect of eventually being finished.
2. Choose the form in which you'd like to contribute (click here for more info).
3. Always check the needed guides page first before you start a new guide. Posting the same type of article 5 times doesn't help anyone, especially if a quality guide for that subject exists already. Rather invest your time in something that's needed by the community.
4. If you choose to edit a wiki page please first read the editing guidelines at the to and then the comments of the article. After you make changes, you can add your signature at the end of the part you edited if you like.
5. You can see which changes have been made to an article by clicking on the revisions tab. If (for example) a wiki page got vadalized (or if the changes simply don't fit in the project) you can revert the last revision (means: remove the last changes made). You can only do this if you are a trusted user though.
6. '''Whatever the changes you make to a wiki page, always add an explanation to the "log message" field at the bottom of the submit form. That way other authors know why you changed certain things.
7. After editing, reread what you just wrote and preview your article to see if all bb-tags are properly closed etc.
8. If you can, regularly read your article's comments and try to update it with feedback.

General Rules (Comments & Articles)

1. Whatever you write, whether it is a comment, a guide or a wiki page, post in correct English. There is nothing more annoying than having to decyper l33t-speak and the like to get to the viable information of an article. "Ur", "n1", "y?", "skillz" are not words and we won't tolerate any articles containing them. Applying a few basic rules of grammar is the least you can do to make your article worth reading; actually I'd go as far as saying: slack on grammar is lack of respect.
2. We do not accept any content that goes in any way against Blizzard's terms of agreement. No selling of in game objects (gold included), no bots, hacks, cheats, etc.
3. We STRONGLY forbid using our article system, forums or comments for posting advertise. Doing so, especially if you spam, will get you banned in light speed and depending on how annoying you are, your IP will be reported to your service provider. We've had very bad experiences with this and people on this site DO NOT appreciate gold ads while they're reading. We had to disable countless cool features because of ad spamming and I don't want to think about the hours I spent deleting ad spam, so don't test our patience.
4. Please only post guides about World of Warcraft. Do not post any racist, abusive, volent, explicit or otherwise controversial content.

Needed Guides

http://www.wow-pro.com/needed_guides

This is a list of guides that are currently needed. Please always check it before you decide to start a guide/wiki. You should choose your topic from this page because those are the things that are currently needed the most by the WoW-Pro community.

If you want something added to this list, click here and choose "Guide Suggestion" as category.

If you decide to start a guide/wiki about any of the topics mentioned on the list, leave a comment on that page to inform us so we can edit the page accordingly.

How to: Guides

1. View the needed guides page and choose the topic you want to write about.
2. Click on create content and choose guide as format.
3. Enter the title of your guide. Be specific, however don't make titles that are too long.
4. Next you'll see a drop-down list saying parent. Here you need to choose which category the guide should belong to. For example "Druid Leveling Spec" would go under Class Guides & Template Suggestions > Druid.
5. Decide if you are going to use bbcode or Mediawiki syntax to format your guide.
6. If you decide to use bbcode, you don't have to change anything and you can use the widgets above the body field to apply simple formatting such as bold or italic.
7. If you decide to use Mediawiki syntax, click on Input Format right below the body field and tick the radio button next to Mediawiki.
8. Write your guide. Remember to save as often as possible, you can always come back later and edit.
9. You can save your guide as a draft. That way only you can see it and you can take your time to edit it until you think it's ready to be shown to the community. You can see your drafts on the right side, right below the navigation menu.
10. If your guide is finished set the Guide Status to finished. If your guide is incomplete, but you still want people to be able to see it, set the status to Work in Progress. If for whatever reason you can't maintain the guide anymore, choose Abandoned.
11. To use images scroll below the Guide Status box to the link that says File attachments. Click on it and upload your files, the maximum size is 500x500 pixels, 1mb. Your picture will be uploaded once you save your guide, so it is normal that you don't see them in the preview yet. The path to use for your link will be shown below the upload field.
12. Click Submit.

How to: Wiki Pages

1. View the needed guides page and choose the topic you want to write about.
2. Click on create content and choose Wiki Page as format.
3. Enter the title of your wiki page. Be specific, however don't make titles that are too long.
4. Next you'll see a set of check boxes under Editing Guidelines. You can check options here that will indicate readers and other editors precisely what needs to be done to help improving this wiki page. The good thing about editing guidelines is that they appear at the top of each wiki page in bold which means that everyone will see immediately what needs to be done.
5. Wiki Information is just a text field that informs people that they are viewing a wiki page and that they can edit it should they wish to. Normally you don't need to change this unless you want to communicate some important information about your particular wiki page.
6. Decide if you are going to use bbcode or Mediawiki syntax to format your guide.
7. If you decide to use bbcode, you don't have to change anything and you can use the widgets above the body field to apply simple formatting such as bold or italic.
8. If you decide to use Mediawiki syntax, click on Input Format right below the body field and tick the radio button next to Mediawiki.
9. Write your guide/wiki page. Remember to save as often as possible, you can always come back later and edit.
10. You can save your wiki page as a draft. That way only you can see it and you can tak your time to edit it until you think it's ready to be shown to the community.

You can see your drafts on the right side, right below the navigation menu.

1. If your Wiki Page is finished set the Guide Status to finished. If it is incomplete set the status to Work in Progress. If for whatever reason you can't maintain the project anymore, choose Abandoned.
2. To use images scroll below the Guide Status box to the link that says File attachments. Click on it and upload your files, the maximum size is 500x500 pixels, 1mb. Your picture will be uploaded once you save your Wiki Page, so it is normal that you don't see them in the preview yet. The path to use for your link will be shown below the upload field.
3. Click Submit.

User Ranks and Rating System

We use a rating system that allows every visitor to cast a positive or a negative vote on comments and articles.
After registering an account you will count as Member and you'll be able to receive rating for your contributions. You will rise in rank the more positive rating you recieve and consequently you will lose ranks if you receive negative rating.

Users and their ratings are compared on this page.

User ranks show below your user picture along with a set of stars. Different ranks (and privileges) are as follows:

Members (no stars):

• receive rating
• create/edit content
• create/edit forum topics
• edit wiki pages
• view revisions
• send/view private messages
• access user profiles

Trusted Members (1 star):

• skip captcha challenges
• post comments without approval
• cancel own vote on polls

Honored Members (2 stars):

• revert revisions
• rename the url of your articles
• create polls

Revered Members (3 stars):

• create new encycolpedia books
• administer smileys

Exalted Members (4 stars):

• edit guides (of anyone)
• outline guides into the encyclopedias (change their category)
• edit news posts
• inspect votes on polls

Moderator (5 stars):

• administer comments and their approval queue
• administer forums
• create static pages (like an about page)

Comments and Moderation

When you decide to leave a comment, always make sure that you click on the "reply" link of the source you wish to reply to. For example if you click on a guide and you acctually want to reply to one of its comments, scroll down to that particular comment and click the "reply" link below it.

Comments from anonymous posters are currently being moderated until we find a working solution against spammers and trolls. Once you post your comment it will be submitted to an approval queue until a moderator gets time to review it. If the comment does not go against our previously stated policy, it will be published.

Whenever you leave comments, please make sure that what you contribute contains at least some viable information. Furthermore we do not tolerate any form of unfriendly/hostile remarks against authors; however you are allowed and strongly encouraged to post constructive criticism.

As of now, comments can be rated. If a comment receives several negative ratings it will be burried.

Guide Satuses & Drafts

Guide Statuses are there to indicate the stage of development of a guide. There are four different statuses: Draft, Work in Progress, Finished, Abandoned.

Whenever you want to work on a guide without other users being able to see your changes until it is finished, choose Draft as guide status. This will cause the guide or wiki page to be unpublished and you'll be the only one able to see it. To view your drafts, look at your dashboard on the right side.

If your article is finished set the Guide Status to finished. If it is incomplete, but you still want users to be able to view your guide and give you feedback set the status to Work in Progress. If for whatever reason you can't maintain the article anymore (whether before the guide is finished or afterwards), choose Abandoned.

• A Guide in progress that has not been updated for 30 days will be treated as 'Abandoned' and will be transformed to a Wiki Page (if the guide is about a topic that is already covered by a good guide, it will simply be deleted)
• A Wiki Page can remain in progress infinately.
• Finished Guides should be updated every 30 days, including feedback from comments and possible changes from Blizzard patches. An email will be sent to you every month to remind you of updating your guide.
• Finished Wiki Pages will be added to our guide books.
• Abandonded Guides will be transformed to Wiki Pages if they are still in development state. If the guide is finished but hasn't been updated with feedback for more than 30 days, it will be added to our abandoned guides list, giving any volunteer the chance to take over maintenance of the guide.
• Abandoned Wiki Pages will have their main author changed to the person who wishes to take over direction of the project.

Abandoned Guides, Stubs and Outdated Material

http://www.wow-pro.com/wiki/stubs

This is a page containing links to all guides that have once been started but never finished or that no one takes care of anymore or that simply became outdated with new expansions etc.

Some of these guides are Wiki Pages. You can edit those directly and continue the work of other people, change and improve things or you can simply use the work of that person to create something new yourself (within this site only though). Be sure to give credits to the original author if you use someone else's work.

In the abandoned work section you'll find guides that have once been finished but that need updating and maintaining. If you'd like to take over those guides, please send a private message to Snowflake or contact us through the contact form.