Other people can edit my stuff?!

Like Wikipedia, this site is collaboratively edited. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your questions and answers being edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you. Only people who have earned enough reputation (2000 for normal posts, 100 for community wiki) are allowed to edit other peoples posts. As such only users trusted by the community, with experience of both asking and answering good questions will be able to perform this action. If you feel that a question/answer has been wrongly edited, or edited away from the point your trying to make, you can always edit it yourself, and use the 'rollback' feature to revert it back to it's original format.

What if I don't get a good answer?

In order to get good answers, you have to put some effort into the question. Edit your question to provide status and progress updates. Document your own continued efforts to answer your question. This will naturally bump your question and get more people interested in it.

If, after two days, you still don't have an answer you like, you can offer a bounty. Slice off a bit of your own hard-earned reputation -- anywhere from 50 to 500 -- and attach it to the question as a bounty. We'll even throw in 50 reputation to sweeten the deal. The bountied question will appear with a special icon in all question lists, and it will also be visible on the home page Featured tab.

Once initiated, the bounty period lasts seven days. If you mark an accepted answer, your bounty is awarded to the answerer (do note that accepted bounty answers are permanent and cannot be changed). If you do not accept an answer in seven days, the top voted answer will automatically become the accepted answer, and half your bounty will be awarded to that answer. You will always give up the amount of reputation specified in the bounty, so if you start a bounty, be sure to follow up and accept the best answer!

Of course, bounty awards, like all accepted answers, are immune to the daily reputation cap and community wiki mode.

What is reputation?

Reputation is completely optional. Normal use of EpicAdvice.com — that is, asking and answering questions — does not require any reputation whatsoever.

Remember, EpicAdvice.com is run by you! If you want to help us run the site, you'll need reputation first. Reputation is a (very) rough measurement of how much the EpicAdvice.com community trusts you. Reputation is never given, it is earned by convincing other users that you know what you're talking about.

Here's how it works: if you post a good question or helpful answer, it will be voted up by your peers: you gain 10 reputation points. If you post something that's off topic or incorrect, it will be voted down: you lose 2 reputation points. You can earn up to 200 reputation per day, but no more. (Note that votes for any posts marked "community wiki" do not generate reputation.)

Amass enough reputation points and EpicAdvice.com will allow you to go beyond simply asking and answering questions:

       15 Vote up
       15 Flag offensive
       50 Leave comments
      100 Vote down (costs 1 rep), edit community wiki posts
      200 Reduced advertising
      250 Vote to close or reopen your questions, create new tags
      500 Retag questions
     2000 Edit other people's posts
     3000 Vote to close or reopen any questions
    10000 Delete closed questions, access to moderation tools

At the high end of this reputation spectrum there is little difference between users with high reputation and moderators. That is very much intentional. We don't run EpicAdvice.com. The community does.

Do I have to log in or create an account?

Nope. You can answer and ask questions to your heart's content as an anonymous user, much like Wikipedia. However, there are some things you won't be able to do on the site without registering. But it's easy to register if you want to. All you need is an OpenID account.

Be nice.

Treat others with the same respect you'd want them to treat you. We're all here to learn together. Be tolerant of others who may not know everything you know. Bring your sense of humor.

Be honest.

Above all, be honest. If you see misinformation, vote it down. Insert comments indicating what, specifically, is wrong. Even better — edit and improve the information! Provide stronger, faster, superior answers of your own!

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

Avoid asking questions that are subjective, argumentative, will start a flame-war or require extended discussion. This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered!

Why should I vote?

If you have earned enough reputation to vote, you might as well start voicing your opinion on the content we are collecting. If you come across a post that you find helpful, vote on it. If you come across a post that you feel is inaccurate, vote negatively, and leave a comment. The post might actually be improved by your comment. There are many other valid reasons to vote for or against content, make your judgments count.

Don't forget about voting on the questions as well as the answers. Use your judgment, but please upvote any questions that you would like to know the answer to.

(the section above is an attempt at answering the question, I'm not sure I like it yet, someone else want to take a stab??)

PLEASE proof-read your questions and attempt to spell correctly (most modern browsers have built in spell checking). Use multiple paragraphs to separate subquestions or concepts.

If people cannot read your question, they wont respond to it. At least, not in the way you want.

I can't think up a specific format, but perhaps a bit on the welcome page on how to ask questions, or how to title your post?

Real life examples:
Exalted Northrend?
vs
What questions should be in the FAQ/Welcome to Epic Advice pages?

Questions of the first type often start off with background info, which still doesn't tell me what the question is actually about. I shouldn't have to click on the link to see the question the poster actually wants answered. This does semi- fall under the 'what type of question' FAQ but most people don't read the FAQs before they start posting.

My question was asked in a previous patch/expansion, but the answer seems out of date. How should I handle this?

If you feel that the answer provided to a previous question no longer applies, you can comment about it, or if you have enough reputation, you can vote to close as "no longer relevant". You should probably ask your question, referring to the old post, explaining why it doesn't answer the question any longer, and ask for new opinions. Feel free to leave a comment/edit the old post to point at the "up to date" version.

Can I get some basic tips for raiding as an [insert class/spec here]?

Go check Elitist Jerks. If that doesn't answer your question, feel free to come back and ask.

What kind of questions do I ask here?

World of Warcraft questions, of course! As long as your question is:

• detailed and specific
• written clearly and simply
• of interest to at least one other person somewhere

... it is welcome here. No question is too trivial or too "newbie". Oh yes, and it should be about World of Warcraft.

The more specific your question is, the higher the chance you'll get an usable answer. If you're asking for help improving your DPS, you should include an armory link and describe your rotation. If you're having issues with a boss, mention the things you've tried, your raid makeup and so on. A little bit of background information can make a question answerable.

Please look around to see if your question has already been asked (and maybe even answered!) before you ask. However, if you end up asking a question that has been asked before, that is OK and deliberately allowed. If you come across a duplicate question, you should comment a "See Also" link and point to the other question.

It's also encouraged to ask and answer your own question, but pretend you're on Jeopardy, phrase it in the form of a question...

What does Community Wiki mean?

A community wiki question/answer requires less reputation for a member to be able to edit it. It also generates no reputation for any votes it receives. There is a Community Wiki FAQ post which describes what types of questions/answers should be community wiki.

How about, for the FAQ

How do I format my questions and answers?

There is a formatting reference guide available. For the most part though, you can just write plain text. If you have problems getting the formatting to work correctly, feel free to post a comment about it, and hopefully someone else will be kind and edit the post for you.