Does anyone remember...

[SharMarali]

Does anyone remember when people used to actually SEARCH to see if their question had already been answered before they'd make a big stupid post to address a question that had already been hashed and rehased 10,000 times?

How many threads do we need of "OMG what SJ should I use!??!" and "Do I like, REEEEEEEEALLY need Fenrir? Really?" and "y do i alwayz haff to heal my PT?" and "wot race is teh best 4 smn?" and "ME WANT TOO BEE A DAMAGE DEELING SUMMENOR HOW KAN I DEW THIS???"

Answers:

WHM is best, but there are other options which are largely situational

No, but he helps a lot 50+

Because people don't know how to best utilize SMN, and even those that DO recognize that you have 60 seconds of cooldown before you can bloodpact again, so it makes SENSE to have SMNs heal. After all, not EVERY PT can have a WHM.

Tarutaru if you're looking for MP first and foremost, but any race CAN play SMN, it's just hard in the early levels.

You can be a damage dealing SMN at any level, but you will be far more effective after level 70. For earlier levels, try experimenting with some of your supportive blood pacts and rotating them in with your damaging ones.

There. Everybody happy? NOW STOP REPOSTING THE SAME STUPID CRAP.

kthxbye

[Mog]

Re: Does anyone remember...



Yes, because this thread will solve all the common problems that can be easily searched.

(Take a chill pill!)

[Murphie]

Re: Does anyone remember...

I'd suggest taking a form of your own advice. If you don't want to read the threads, then don't click on them. I totally feel you on people not using the search function, but being unpleasant about it isn't going to convince anyone to change their ways.

[Mog]

Re: Does anyone remember...

I'd suggest taking a form of your own advice. If you don't want to read the threads, then don't click on them. I totally feel you on people not using the search function, but being unpleasant about it isn't going to convince anyone to change their ways.

qft

Unless you sticky this thread to the top and title it "READ THIS THREAD IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMON QUESTIONS", it really isn't going to change the way people think.

Moreover, if you have new people coming in, many of them don't even know there IS a search function (even though it's one of the top tabs), so people need to tell them to use the search function in the first thread that they make....and more than likely, they'll use it in the future.

[Gentoo]

Re: Does anyone remember...

Moreover, if you have new people coming in, many of them don't even know there IS a search function (even though it's one of the top tabs)

I believe part of the problem is that web sites have been training users to never touch the search feature.

Few sites spend any time implimenting a internal search feature, or worse, if they do only give it a sidelong glance at best.

Then you get the organizations that believe that the search feature is a marketing tool instead of a method for finding useful information. I've found too many sites that will skew search results to push product instead of returning valid data.

The problem is compounded the fact that the forum search feature on fan web sites is often reserved for "premium" content subscribers. Although far from the only site that does it, a great example is allakhazam.com.

In essence these sites are training users to not even bother clicking on the search feature.

The hardest problem is that search engines can give less than useful information, even when a [well intentioned] user tries to to find something.

Pretend, if you will, that you are (1) not a sophisticated search engine user, and (2) interested in simply finding out what a good subjob for summoner is. What might you search on? Perhaps your search string would be: "what is a good subjob for summoner?"
That seems fairly reasonable. Go ahead, enter that in the search bar at the top. As of 16August2006 @ 5:39PM Pacific, that search strings yields:

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

I don't mean to make excuses for people that are simply too lazy to use the search feature, or simply scroll a little ways down the page. Likewise, it bothers me when I see people carp about redundant posts, when there might be mitigating circumstances.

Speaking of which. Since this is probably one of the most asked questions ever, how come there isn't a stickied post at the top of every job board titled "The best subjob for <insert job here>?"

EDIT:

So for fun, I decided to search on "stupid crap" just to see what would happen. This thread is the top result (as of now). Clearly my post has made an impact...

[bikkebakke]

Re: Does anyone remember...

I'm with Shar on this one >.>

[Drive]

Re: Does anyone remember...

I have to agree with Gentoo on this one. I used the search engine not to long ago, typed in "Why dagger" in the search and it said nothing came up. I changed it a little maybe only used dagger and it gave me 25 pages of crap.

[Murphie]

Re: Does anyone remember...

That's why you use the advanced search if you have a very specific question and you want to target particular forums.

Really, I've found the search function here to be very helpful in the time that I've been a poster.

EDIT:

For instance, search of just the Summoner forum with the keyword subjob brings up a ton of threads, all mostly about what is the best sub for SMN.

http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/sea...earchid=374055

[Tirrock]

Re: Does anyone remember...

At least SharMarali gave some of the most common questions and answered them.

I don't really get bothered by something that's been asked a month ago, but when we have people posting about subjobs on forums with a sticky about subjobs and two or three posts on the first page about subjobs...that's just laziness.

[klvino]

Re: Does anyone remember...

A retort to those that repeat the same question, "go read the sticky". By referring the unknowing to the sticky, it's like teaching them to fish, instead of feeding them a fish.

After being forced to read the sticky, and realizing, "hey, there's some good shit in here", then perhaps they will develop the practice of reading the sticky themselves instead of wasting their time and effort, and everyone else's as well, with a post of a repeat question.

[SharMarali]

Re: Does anyone remember...

First off, I want to apologize. I mostly posted this to rant, because ever since Alla was sold to the same parent company that owns IGE, we've been spammed with answering the exact same questions over and over every single week and it is driving me insane. This has always been my favorite forum because so many of the posts are well-thought-out. That has all but completely stopped being the case and it's very upsetting to me, considering that I don't KNOW of any other forums to go to instead. Plus I've been a user here since March of 2003 and I have a certain loyalty to this place.

Secondly..

I'd suggest taking a form of your own advice. If you don't want to read the threads, then don't click on them. I totally feel you on people not using the search function, but being unpleasant about it isn't going to convince anyone to change their ways.

The problem with this suggestion is that 90% of the threads that ask the same questions over and over don't actually put in the title what the thread is about. Many of them are "PLZ HELP!" or "Summoner Question..." or something along those lines. So I click it to find out what somebody needs help with (maybe they've run into an unusual glitch when using a particular avatar under certain circumstances? I don't know!) or what their question is (maybe their question is "What's the difference between avatar perpetuation reduction and refresh effect?" ...OK, the answer might seem obvious to some of us, but it's STILL a perfectly valid question) ...Only to find out that their question is "What SJ should I use" and what they need help with is figuring out whether they need Fen and how to get him.

I am sooooo frustrated right now.

[Murphie]

Re: Does anyone remember...

I really do feel your pain on that. I read the new posts section every day when I get online, and more often than not, I find myself reading, and then moving on past a thread because I don't have anything to contribute, or the question has already been answered, or the question isn't worth answering. It's very frustrating, yes. But any forum with substantial traffic is going to run into that, so we have to make do.

The only other option is to be mean to them and make them feel small like the folks at BG do with anyone new, but I'd like to think that we're more evolved than that.

[Eohmer]

Re: Does anyone remember...

How many threads do we need of "OMG what SJ should I use!??!" and "Do I like, REEEEEEEEALLY need Fenrir? Really?" and "y do i alwayz haff to heal my PT?" and "wot race is teh best 4 smn?" and "ME WANT TOO BEE A DAMAGE DEELING SUMMENOR HOW KAN I DEW THIS???"

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't even attempt to type like that. :-P

[Icemage]

Re: Does anyone remember...

First off, I want to apologize. I mostly posted this to rant, because ever since Alla was sold to the same parent company that owns IGE, we've been spammed with answering the exact same questions over and over every single week and it is driving me insane. This has always been my favorite forum because so many of the posts are well-thought-out. That has all but completely stopped being the case and it's very upsetting to me, considering that I don't KNOW of any other forums to go to instead. Plus I've been a user here since March of 2003 and I have a certain loyalty to this place.

Secondly..

The problem with this suggestion is that 90% of the threads that ask the same questions over and over don't actually put in the title what the thread is about. Many of them are "PLZ HELP!" or "Summoner Question..." or something along those lines. So I click it to find out what somebody needs help with (maybe they've run into an unusual glitch when using a particular avatar under certain circumstances? I don't know!) or what their question is (maybe their question is "What's the difference between avatar perpetuation reduction and refresh effect?" ...OK, the answer might seem obvious to some of us, but it's STILL a perfectly valid question) ...Only to find out that their question is "What SJ should I use" and what they need help with is figuring out whether they need Fen and how to get him.

I am sooooo frustrated right now.

Just imagine what it's like being a moderator here. We have to read threads even when we aren't remotely interested in them.

I do understand your frustration. While the temptation to add "please use an intelligent topic" to the posting guidelines has been there for a while, the realist in me knows that it won't make any difference because the people who post the "plz hlp" type threads are the same ones who won't read the stickies in the first place.

If it makes you feel any better, things should eventually settle down. The initial XBox360 flood is receding, the immediate shipjumping from Alla when IGE bought them out is mostly over, so it's not nearly as bad now as it was a few months ago, and it's getting better (for the most part) each day.

The moderation team here is pretty dedicated to making sure the forum is as approachable to newcomers as possible, but if you find that the endless grind of reading "wat is teh best sj??!" is getting to you, try skipping over those generic topic titles. Unlike us moderators, you aren't obligated to read them all, and rest assured we'll be watching from the sidelines to make sure they get taken care of regardless.


Icemage