Regarding Gear Advice Questions

I've been brainstorming a bit to try and figure out the best way to deal with the gear advice questions. Based on the feedback I've already been given as well as my own musings, I've come up with what I think is a sensible idea, and thought I'd pose it to the community to see what you guys think.

First, I'd like to outline my thought process.

Observations:
1. No one likes to be response #9001 in a 150-page sticky; even those who follow the process seem to be turned off by it.
2. Furthermore, those who do not follow the process and post individual threads are more likely to have their questions answered quickly, if a moderator doesn't get to it first.
3. Nearly every thread on any forum here begins with a question (the exception being guides, which tend to spawn as an answer to questions).
4. Character-specific gear questions tend to compose the majority of the content in the Gear forum.
5. Stickies in the gear forum are getting crowded, making it hard to add new stickies to answer the more common questions.
6. The community - and information base - has grown so large that digging through it for the exact information you seek has become something of a chore.

Goals:
1. Allow any player to ask the questions they need, even if the information is probably available elsewhere on the forums (with the understanding that they may not have their question answered if the answer is too obvious).
2. Keep the character-specific gear questions from stifling the more general gear discussion threads.
3. Allow more room for guides and other stickies.

With that in mind, here is my proposal for community review:

- The gear forum would be split into a "Gear Discussion and Guides" forum and a "Gear Questions and Advice" forum.

- The Gear Discussion and Guides forum would contain threads such as "Gemming for pure stamina" and "Enchant on Illidari Runeshield" (just as a couple examples), as well as the majority of the stickies currently in the Gear forum. Posters with questions specific to their character would be directed to the Gear Questions and Advice forum.

- The Gear Questions and Advice forum would be for all of the "What can I do to get more HP" and "Is this item an upgrade for me" threads. It also would be a great place to sticky threads such as Invisusira's Glove Enchant Guide, which are intended purely to answer common questions quickly and to the point.

Thoughts?
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I can keep rhythm with no metronome.

Sounds like a good idea. The more people on the forum, the more able it is to support multiple sub-forums.

Your observations seem to be dead on.

Another option with regard to observation #5 would be to make the sticky posts contain only "facts" and leave discussion to other linked threads, similar to the glove enchant. Just lock the sticky post and allow only the thread creator to post/edit the posts. The problem here then becomes, what happens when life happens; for that, I don't have an answer other than hope someone else steps up to maintain. You should also be able to consolidate some of these guides, somehow.

*inserting shameless plug*
Sticky http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=8221&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 too pls. It's relatively accurate and easy to read, but I had to go looking for it yesterday since it fell off page 1
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Am I Prot?

Or am I Ret?

6/6 SSC; 4/4 TK; 5/5 MH; 5/9 BT

Hmm.

I'm not sure I like this idea, but I'm having trouble thinking of a better one. I'll let you know if I think of anything.
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Stormreaver US

Modus | Governor

Yeah, it's not a bad idea. I agree there are a lot of people who just want a post with their name saying "hello, help me", and the Gear Advice thread does sometimes move too quickly for any one person to reasonably keep up with it.
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Don't ask any more stupid questions / You already know the answers to
Armory : Gear Advice

One of the benefits to having a separate subforum is that it's easier for people whose questions get overlooked to bump it back to the top.

Probably the biggest benefit though would be that it allows for stickies to answer the most common questions.
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I can keep rhythm with no metronome.

Sounds like a good idea to me.
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Alright, looking at our current stickies:

MT Gear Progression
Gear Check/Advice Thread
Eanin's Failsafe Uncrushability Guide
Pre-raid Tanking: Theories, Goals and the Gear to Get There
Resistance Gear
A Tankadin's Guide to Healing Gear
Gems and Enchantments: A short guide
[LIST] Tanking Gear Uncrushability Values

Assuming the Gear Check/Advice thread is removed, which go where?
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Stormreaver US

Modus | Governor

I guess I agree that it's mostly just guides and questions for advice that come into the gear forum. However, I don't know what else there is TO discuss. I just scrolled all the way down the first and second pages of the Gear Forum, and aside from the occasional offtopic weird post, it's literally all things that "belong" in the Gear Check/Advice Thread.

I suppose every time we hear about new gear coming out, it could be discussed here (or General), but I guess my vote would be to:

Lock the Gear Check / Advice Sticky.
Make the lists "announcements" and keep the guides for new people as "stickies".
Rename the stickies to match a conventional naming scheme, such as "How to Choose Gems and Enchantments," "How to Choose Resistance Gear," "How to Reach Uncrushable Pre-Karazhan," and "How to Choose Between X and Y." Right now, the sticky names are intimidating and not really clear. Also, all the lists should be clearly labeled as "LIST."
We should consider asking for clearer, better-written stickies.
Allow members to ask questions openly in their own threads.

Theoretically, we'd be making clearer, better stickies so less questions are asked, but at the same time, when people have questions, they are already in the right place to post and ask questions.
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Stormreaver US

Modus | Governor

General philosophy would go thusly:

Non-stickied posts: The distinction would be made with the question "Is this post asking a question specific to the poster's character." Enchant on Illidari Runeshield kinda rides that line closely; in all honesty from just the OP I would probably have put it in the Gear Questions forum, but the discussion since has kind of evolved into "What enchant is the best to put on a threat shield", which is a more generic topic that would belong in Gear Discussion. My apologies, it was a poor example.

Stickies: Broad, all-encompassing guides belong in Gear Discussion and Guides, quick "This is a common question, here is the answer and why" stickies belong in Gear Questions and Advice. Stickies in the Discussion forum are intended to teach, stickies in the Questions forum are designed to answer common questions (without requiring that the reader dig through an entire guide to answer one simple question).

By that distinction I believe all of the stickies in the Gear forum would remain in the Discussion forum, although I would have to look more closely at a couple of them. Resistance Gear, Gems and Enchantments, and Eanin's Failsafe Uncrushability Guide are all potential candidates for Questions forum stickies.
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I can keep rhythm with no metronome.

The problem is twofold. For one, I don't intend that the Gear Questions forum simply become a forum incarnation of the current sticky; I think we're pushing too much in that direction at the moment. Here's some threads from the first page that you could probably make a case for directing to the sticky under the current policy that I would leave in the Discussion forum under the proposed policy:

http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=10668
http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=10407
http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=10733
http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=10731
http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=10449
http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=10715

Just to list a handful, I didn't go all the way down the page. The distinction is made at the "Is this thread asking a question specific to this character's situation, or is the answer more broad and all-encompassing?" Taking the last link for example, the question isn't precise; it's "What's a good 2hander for a protection paladin" not "I have X honor and Y badges, but I also want Z item, what should I do?"

Under the current policy that thread could probably be locked and the poster directed to the sticky, but under the new policy it would be left in the Discussion forum for further discussion on the topic as it pertains to the Protection Paladin in general.
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I can keep rhythm with no metronome.

I think the split is probably a good idea. As I see it, the distinction is between:

-- threads which are about gear

and

-- threads which are about players

The former is kind of in the abstract...how do to pieces of gear compare, what general approach do you take to gemming, how does a new piece of gear compare to existing options, etc.

The latter is about "how does this piece fit into my set up", "do these gems make sense given the content I'm tanking", "which pieces of my gear are most in need of upgrades", etc.

Does that make sense?

edit -- hm, I guess Lore just said the same thing. In any event, I think it's a good idea.
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It might be worth looking into what TankSpot does.
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Stormreaver US

Modus | Governor