Collaborative WoW-Pro Content
A WoW-Pro Collaborative Project is one in which many authors come together to contribute to a guide. They may not all be contributing equally - some may only be editing, others writing, others doing formatting. The idea is that it allows massive and extremely useful guides to be written that would otherwise be too much work for a single person.
I've been thinking a lot lately about some massive guides that I would love to see on WoW-Pro. I even probably have the know-how to write these guides, but they would take up too much of my time. Additionally, a lot of them would really benefit from other players with different experiences from mine.
The more I thought about this, the more the idea of collaborative projects here on WoW-Pro made sense. We have seen this a little in the past, with people updating guides or providing very useful comments. Shikamaru and I even started on a loot distribution system guide together, though it's been somewhat abandoned by both of us.
But as of yet we haven't seen any big collaborative projects. This is something I think could produce some truly awesome guides, and I'd like to help organize a few projects. I can serve as editor and sometimes-contributor, if there is enough interest by others.
Here is a list of projects suggested by the WoW-Pro community:
- Instance Healing Guide - This would cover all level 80 heroics and possibly raids as well, with specific advice for healers. It would also have advice specific to different types of healers.
- Glory of the Hero - Rather than full instance guides for each instance, this guide would cover only the specific boss fights, and the methods for getting achievements in those boss fights. Class-specific advice or group make-up advice may also be included.
- Glory of the Raider, etc. - Similar to the above, but for raid instances.
- Instance/Raid Boss Macros - A guide containing short fight explanation macros for all bosses, useful for raid leaders.
These guides would most likely be released in chunks, since they would be fairly massive.
Here are some potential roles that people might have in a particular guide. There may be multiple people in one role, or likewise one person may perform multiple roles.
- Project Head: The person "responsible" for the project, helping find more people to work on it, figuring out what needs to be done, making sure it all comes together. Not the "boss", but the coordinator.
- Editor: In charge of making sure formatting matches across project pages, also checks spelling/grammar/word choice, etc. In charge of the overall image and presentation of the guide.
- Writer: Writes content for the guide. It's best if they have some knowledge of formatting, but not necessary if the project has an editor.
- Contributor: May do some writing, mostly pitches in with helpful comments or quick edits.
There may be even more specialized roles for some projects. For example the healing guide might have a writer of each healing class to write sections for each encounter. Or, a guide which needs a lot of pictures might have someone specifically responsible for that.
Moderator
Collaborative Project Update
Hi folks!
I've updated this post with some ideas of possible roles people could serve in projects. I'm also going to create forum pages for each project. On those pages, I would like people to post in comments if they are interested in a project and what they would like to do to help out. These forum pages will serve as the "center of operations" for those projects.
For project heads creating the first page of your project - please make sure the page is a wiki. Also, it's probably best to use BBCode, since that's what most writers here are used to (and it allows for HTML use, which is much more flexible).
Update: I've created forum pages for each project mentioned so far. Shikamaru, I listed you as a writer for the glory of the raider project - I wasn't sure if you wanted to be project leader or not. Let me know and I'll transfer the page to you if you do. Eric - I made you project leader for the raid macro guide, since it was your idea. Let me know if you don't want that. I also listed myself as editor for all the projects.
Exalted Member
Sure, transfer it Although
Sure, transfer it
Although you should know I've started school again, so it will take some time (plus I'm working on the Warlock guide)
Honored Member
Editor
I'd love to help with editing. I'm a fairly good speller and pretty handy with links and that type of stuff. Let me know if you'd like help with something.
James
Moderator
Any project in particular
Any project in particular you are interested in, or all of them?
Honored Member
Any
I'm not real particular. I can help when help is needed.
James
Exalted Member
I'd like to do Glory of the
I'd like to do Glory of the Raider with someone
Experienced and cleared almost all encounters in-game (raid wise).
Anyone else who wants to join in?
Moderator
I'd love to help out, though
I'd love to help out, though maybe in a more minor way. I don't have experience with some of the more difficult hard mode or achievement content, but I've experienced every fight currently in the game on 10-man normal mode, and been successful at everything but Yoggy so far.
Trusted Member
I can help with boss fights as a hunter
I can help with major boss fights as a hunter and the hunter rotation during a boss fight. I done most instances and working on getting to raid status
Healing Guide
As far as a healing guide goes I'd be happy to help with my experience playing a Disc priest for the past two years.
Trusted Member
Lowbie
Hey if we made this into a proper ''Everything you need to know from choosing Char to getting that level 80 with full proffesions'' That would be great. i could put in alot of lowbie techniques that would be found usefull.
Moderator
I think we already have some
I think we already have some pretty comprehensive lowbie guides, in particular the Newb-No-More Guide by Lycander. If there is something specific you want to see added, posting a comment so he can update that guide would probably be better than creating a whole new one.
Exalted Member
Great idea, I'm in!
Great idea, I'm in!
Another major project will be too create a list which in short, covers all boss strategies for WotLK (or maybe whole WoW!) so you can copy the strategy into a macro in-game!
If you have no idea of what I'm talking about, this example may help you:
The Nexus
When we attack the boss, we will tank 'n' spank, right after we will be throwed into the air, and take a low damage every second. After a while... etc.
< Anomalus boss strategy > ... etc.
< Ormorok the tree shaper boss strategy > ... etc.
What we gonna do is: Copy the text from one of the bosses into a macro (in-game), and when we reach that boss in our group, we click on the macro, and the group got the strategy on how to beat the boss.
This can help new started raiding guilds, random groups, and all other that just want a fast way on how to beat a boss.
Honored Member
As someone who has tanked
As someone who has tanked pretty much everything apart from raids - not a great thing, i know - I'd be more than willing to help with a few macros. I use a few myself, because when pugging you always get that one idiot who does not MOVE OUT OF THE FIRE! Haha, anyway yeah, PM me if you want to start on this.
"Wise is the man who knows he does not know"...
...Or who knows why my mother keeps calling me.
Moderator
What a cool idea! I would
What a cool idea! I would recommend using a little bit of short-hand if this is intended for macro purposes, to keep things shorter. For example: "Tank and spank until 50%, then she splits and we're thrown into the air, burn down ice first... " and so forth. Still understandable, but without using full sentences it shortens it a bit.
Anyway, this is a great idea. Are you proposing this as a group project or something you are personally working on?
Exalted Member
That was an idea that
That was an idea that suddenly popped up in my mind, and I was about to start writing on it. But I think that will be "too much work for a single person" so it is meant to be a group project.
Exalted Member
Another thing worth doing is
Another thing worth doing is going through all the guides and revamp the ones written by eight-year-olds. Also, putting crappy guides to "work in progress" would also be nice, as, sadly, some of the guides on this site doesn't help a bit.
Maybe too much straight on, but this is the sad truth, and things worth looking into. I personally think it would be awesome if all the guides on wow-pro followed some certain standards and all had somewhat the same appearance, or theme.
That said, I'm glad people are contributing with guides and such, and a lot of people do a great job helping others here on wow-pro - a great community.
PS (Edit): There is nothing wrong about eight-year-olds... I think they just should consider doing other stuff than hopelessly trying to type a comment which ends up looking like a whole other language than English, or writing a guide on a subject that they know less about than even the average player. Go out, climb in trees, buy a slingshot and shoot apples with it instead
Moderator
Keeping guide quality high
Keeping guide quality high is important. I know Jame occasionally did guide "purges", putting abandoned guides back to "Work In Progress".
I think, with the absence of the great Jame here, I might want to do this in his stead. However, not being the actual owner of the site, I'm thinking I want some very clear policies for how I do this.
Here is my idea. The requirements for a guide to be moved to "Work in Progress" stage:
I think this would be more than fair. However, it *will* require that our active members make sure to vote on any new guides that come up. I know some of you do, but those who don't, it only takes a moment to glance over the guide and rank it. You can always change your vote later, too. You can't always tell if the information is good, but I'm sure all of you experienced contributors have an idea of what a guide should look like and contain.
Does this sound like what you are thinking of, Maw?
Exalted Member
Yes, and also making an
Yes, and also making an effort of getting guides out of the "Work in Progress" stage once they have been put there.
By the way, sorry if I went somewhat off-topic in my first post. I were really tired and it was 1.30 in the morning, but I just wanted to post the comment before I forgot what I had in mind.
Moderator
It's okay, it was still a
It's okay, it was still a useful post
I would love to hear more input from you or any other active contributors on the way the site is run, it's good to hear what people think and ideas to improve things.
Exalted Member
Yeah, well, I'm trying my
Yeah, well, I'm trying my best to take some time every now and then to wow-pro, but with Jame inactive, wow-pro seems like a dead fire with just a tiny spark left (Oh, and that's you btw
).
With that said, it seems wow-pro is slowly, but steadily, getting more active. And I think that's partly because of Shika's official comeback (if one can call it that).
Sign me in! I have a lot
Sign me in!
I have a lot of time to do this things maybe spelling its not my strenght but sure i can search and experience the things i find quite well!!
Trusted Member
Wow. Sounds like it would be
Wow. Sounds like it would be pretty awesome.