Whatever you tell a newbie, or someone else who risks to be subjected to "find out IC" or "Armageddon is harsh", should be informative and useful to that person. Don't reply just to satisfy your posting urges. If you feel like saying something but have nothing to say, let it go. That said, the most recent newbie threads I've seen have received some very good replies - much of the strife seems to have been about fairly well-established issues.

When you give one of those annoying answers, you prevent yourself from exploring the deeper sides of the question. For instance, the mention that there are big sandstorms in the world... There are some things that the docs don't show, such as the fact that storms miraculously die down at the end of every half-week, or after there's a crash. When you're asked why the templar had you beaten up for forgetting to bow... Let's remember that while these people are described as corrupt and ruthless in the docs, everyone has his own interpretation of what "corrupt and ruthless" means. If something has been covered by the docs, ignorance might not always be a good excuse (though it is, most of the time - I read the docs over and over again years ago when I started playing, and forgot most of them), but misunderstading or being confused about what the docs say... That's another story.

The search function, while useful for those who have an idea what keywords to look for, will give newbies absolutely no help, particularly if they're having problems with the syntax. Keep this in mind, and try to link to useful posts whenever you're too lazy or frustrated to answer yourself. When you invite someone to read the docs, do it because he might stumble onto information that he never would have considered searching for, but that would end up being exceptionally useful later on. Make sure he would actually *want* to read the docs before you invite him, eh?

Here's an idea that might help out newbies: provide a sort of slideshow in the hall of kings, either as cycling room echoes or paintings. It would include stuff like a templar beating up someone in public while commoners looked on, magickers receiving nasty stares, elves trying to con people... Perhaps not slideshows, but stuff like the sensate stones in Planescape, through which you could feel exactly what the character in question was feeling. To add to the coolness factor, these depictions/sensate-stuff would all be pulled out of old RP logs, and shown as if they were actual role-play scenes. Then again, if people overlook even these hints and nudges, the forum silt horrors might crawl up and drag us all into another round of bitching.

In fact, let's stop wondering how we should treat questions and ask ourselves how we should treat worthless, self-gratifying answers. Personally, I vote for Bestatte to be put on a leash. And one of those wire mouth-guard thingies.
And a kinky leather outfit.

Quote from: "Bestatte"I don't think anyone here is arguing about that mitey warrior. I know I"m not. I was a clueless newbie just like everyone else when they first started playing Arm.

The difference between me and people whose questions annoy me, is that they're the ones who don't even TRY to find the answers out before asking. I think I've stressed that enough here and in other threads. If you tried for 2 RL weeks to find out how to put money in a container, heh - you should've asked long before that. The point is, you tried to find out on your own FIRST. You failed - and no one can fault you for that. As you say - the website is enormous.

We now have that handy google-search link, that we didn't have before (or at least, no one posted how to do it before). There's even MORE of a reason for people to check stuff out first before asking now than previously, and even less opportunity for them to claim they looked and didn't find anything.

There are parts of the website that are hidden in obscurity, and many of us have been trying to make suggestions for improvement on that. But we're not talking about obscure stuff. We're talking about things like "How come no one is being friendly to my half-breed?" or "I didn't succeed in stealing from that NPC, how come the soldiers killed my character?" or "I passed out while trying to use the think-net and someone killed me while I was passed out. It isn't fair and I wanna know how come I can't get a rezz!"

These are all things that are explained, in detail, in the sections of the website dedicated to new players, and players of characters with skillsets they haven't tried before. It is the courteous thing for players to *attempt* to find these answers for themselves before running to the GDB or asking in game to have the answers handed to them. Attempt - try - and most of us will attempt - and try - to go out of our way to help you. Refuse to attempt - try - and I, for one, will let you sink or swim on your own.

I guess I do not agree with this at all mainly because you are assuming the newbie at hand did not
attempt to try it. I do not think, nor do I agree with a newbie having to post that they have attempted
try to work something out. If a questioned is asked, answer it kindly in the same fashion which you
would like your questions answered. If it is too ic, let the newbie know hey, it is too IC to discuss
on the board, for further information ask a helper.  I do not know what the problem is with people
having to type out just a little bit more than just "Find out IC" or "Arm is a harsh mud". Screw that,
help them, and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Yes we know the website is enormous, and yes EVERYTHING you need is there, but someone brand
new to the game is not going to know where to look, or even where to start looking. Moving on to
the search  command, it is highly, HIGHLY inaccurate, as I will say because I have attempted
to use it myself and it give you about two hundred different post with that word, or group of words in
a post. Yes the Half-breed thing is explained in the docs, Yes it is explained why if you die
for certain reasons you do not get a rezz, but they are not as experienced as us nor do they even
know where to begin to look. Could you imagine doing a search for Ressuraction? There would
be too many damn post and they would likely lose interest in the game. So, IMHO, if you can not
answer the question politetly and give an explaination as to WHY you answered in ASK IC, or
Look in the docs(without giving a link), just do not answer.

My thoughts.