Updating the GAIA FAQ, we need your feedback!

[Boxed Lunch]

Good day everyone,

As Gaia continues to grow, our FAQ / Help page needs to grow as well. The Gaia staff have started a project where we will be building a better, more complete FAQ / HELP system. Before we open it however, we want to make sure we have as much content as possible about Gaia ready to go.

The Q&A is a forum were many questions are asked. For this reason, we want to ask you what is asked the most often and is not covered well. This will give us a better idea of what to do from here.

A couple things to note:

• We want to know, what is often asked and not covered in the current FAQ/Help page. This will help us expand and make Gaia more easy for new users.
  
• We also would like to know what is covered well.
  
• What are your common responses to simple questions? Detailed good explanations are loved. If they have pictures, dont worry! Gaia will host them!
  
• At this time, credit will only be given to users who contribute a whole guide that we use. See the bellow note for the legality.
  
• If you would like to suggest a guide that you made, please use this thread
  
• If you wish to say Gaia may NOT use your work in part or whole, please provide a link and make it clear in your post.
  
• Nothing is for certain at this point. This may never come to pass, but the Gaia Online staff wish to present the best customer support possible, and we feel this is a great direction to go.
  

This sticky is NOT the place to ask questions that do not regard the FAQ/Help being updated. Please use the correct forum to do so.

Please note that Gaia reserves all rights to create and use any existing tutorials, Frequently Asked Questions, help sections, etc, for any and all features on Gaia. Gaia prefers to work WITH you and appreciates your contribution/cooperation. Should anyone have a problem with the re-purpose of their material, please contact us.

Note: If you have youtube videos that could be guides, please post those as well!

[Anne Packrat]

Can you make a more extensive guide about what to do after a hacking, and what exactly to expect? I think quite a few questions we get on here are about hackers and what to do.

Perhaps you can link to some of the excellent Password strengthening guides that are in the Guides forum?

And please put in something about the Special tab and what you'll find under it, like Monthly Collectibles, etc.

Finally, can you please include a description of the Grombie skin and why it's not attainable now? With a detailed explanation of what Experiment 105 really does?

Thank you for your time, and hard work. I greatly appreciate it.

[Boxed Lunch]

As for the hackings, this is a great Idea! I will for sure do this!

I will see about the gunnys too!

I am not sure what you mean by "special tab" feel free to post a link to it ^_^.


This is a good example of the feedback we are looking for ^_^

~Boxed Lunch

[Lily-Anne-Marie]

Something else that would be helpful is a link to the list of all mods and admins on the site. That way people have a list and can reference that. Also something about what to do if the account gets banned and what they should do because that comes up a lot in the Q&A as well.

[Raifion]

I'm going to request information on images. Because of the new display levels for images a lot of people don't know why some are showing up as links. It would be nice to have it included in the FAQ.

[Anne Packrat]

Boxed Lunch

As for the hackings, this is a great Idea! I will for sure do this!

I will see about the gunnys too!

I am not sure what you mean by "special tab" feel free to post a link to it ^_^.


This is a good example of the feedback we are looking for ^_^

~Boxed Lunch

By Special Tab I mean when you go to your inventory you have various tabs you can click on, you know, Equip, House, etc. Well Monthly Collectible letters and Giftboxes always show up under the Special tab and not in the Equip menu.

Because of this we get a lot of people coming in and posting about how they just bought a letter and can't find it. The usually just haven't checked under the Special tab. I would think a note explaining this might be beneficial.

[Druki]

Boxed Lunch

I am not sure what you mean by "special tab" feel free to post a link to it ^_^.

~Boxed Lunch

I'm *fairly* sure he means the Special tab in an Inventory, as some people wonder why they don't get their letters/giftboxes or how to use usable/consumable items in general.

As for the FAQ..

Can something be listed about finding out why you were banned and/or how to contest it?

You might want to cross reference the Museum at some point in the Monthly Collectables link. I know it can be found with an extra click from the link in the first question, but a direct link might work better for a question regarding the past collectables.

How about a FAQ regarding moderators, the various types and when you should/shouldn't go to them? Seems like it's listed in many places already, just not there.

Just some off the top of my head.



Edit: I see I was beaten to the punch about a lot of what I listed. sweatdrop

[Anne Packrat]

Druki

Boxed Lunch

I am not sure what you mean by "special tab" feel free to post a link to it ^_^.

~Boxed Lunch

I'm *fairly* sure he means the Special tab in an Inventory, as some people wonder why they don't get their letters/giftboxes or how to use usable/consumable items in general.

I'm a *he* now? My husband will not be happy to hear that. xp

But yes, Druki is right about what I mean.

Could we maybe include links to the different forums and subforums all together and what basically is discussed in each? Some people might not realize that such things like a Profile Discussion forum, or a Fishing forum exist.

EDIT: Could you include some of the more common things we tell people to try first, like emptying their cache etc? Maybe with instructions of how to do it in each type of browser?

[RinSakura]

I recommend that the FAQ page be featured more prominently in the Q&A; I can honestly say that I've never seen it more than twice in my time here. It has answers to a lot of the questions we see, so if it were further out in the open it might mitigate some of them.
And on a more user-friendly note, if the FAQ page were made to look a little prettier, with larger font and other small touches, many users would probably find it easier to find what they were looking for... Or at least read the titles of the pages. sweatdrop
That's probably not as helpful as most of the other posts here, but if I think of something else I'll come back and post it as well.

[Unstable OMFG]

EDIT: I guess I'll just edit this post if I find something. I haven't read the FAQ in a long time since I don't really need to.

I think adding a section just dedicated to Staff Impersonation would be good. Add that Staff Impersonation Sticky to the FAQ.

For name changes, add the whole only first two times are free and each time after that it goes up. Also maybe add the "unique" username rule. Where only letters and numbers determine uniqueness.

You might also want to think about updating The Newbies Guide to Gaia. Thats probably what most new people see first. If people actually read your FAQ we wouldn't get as much business in the Q&A. The Newbies Help Desk I am (in Different account) led by Teekz was updating it, but I haven't seen any recent activity. I did some work for it.

I agree with Rin about making the FAQ more known about. Like I said if people actually read it we wouldn't have as much business here in the Q&A. Maybe add a link to the drop down menu. I'm not sure under which heading though. I don't think the link at the bottom of the page is cutting it.

EDIT: And for the profiles, add something about v2. Like specifics on using the editor and not just CSS. We get questions about people asking about adding avatars to their profile every now and then. Also add something about switching from Classic to Current. People seem to miss that in their profile options. Also maybe instead of just directing them to the PD, list some profile guides. A good one, by Kahime for Classic profiles is in the G&R forum. Its real detailed.

EDIT x2: Mule accounts. Add a section about them (didn't see one). Make sure to add in that they need separate email addresses. Also edit the "What is needed to create an account" section. You don't ask for Security Questions anymore and it says you do.

[Druki]

Anne Packrat

Druki

Boxed Lunch

I am not sure what you mean by "special tab" feel free to post a link to it ^_^.

~Boxed Lunch

I'm *fairly* sure he means the Special tab in an Inventory, as some people wonder why they don't get their letters/giftboxes or how to use usable/consumable items in general.

I'm a *he* now? My husband will not be happy to hear that. xp

But yes, Druki is right about what I mean.

Could we maybe include links to the different forums and subforums all together and what basically is discussed in each? Some people might not realize that such things like a Profile Discussion forum, or a Fishing forum exist.

EDIT: Could you include some of the more common things we tell people to try first, like emptying their cache etc? Maybe with instructions of how to do it in each type of browser?

In my defense, masculine pronouns are often acceptable in a variety of situations, regardless of gender. sweatdrop

I think the Cache could probably be summed into a Common Solutions section, like clearing cache/cookies, updating necessary applications, feature could be down, et cetera.

Since you have something about Going Postal, maybe a FAQ about Mischief Makers might help.

[Kobayashi]

How to change your user name feels like a question I see often. It's harder to find since it's a link hidden in a paragraph that a lot of people don't seem to read. XD;;

Information about how the generations of evolving items would be great too. Many people seem confused about how items evolve and what happens with later generations.

[Boxed Lunch]

Thanks everyone! Its great to here some of this feedback! Its even better to see some ideas what we have already done so our work is not in vain! Anyways, I am off to getting to work on some of your ideas! Keep em coming!

~Boxed Lunch

[Unstable OMFG]

Hope you saw my edits. wink

Most of these are fixes for the FAQ parts that are a bit out of date:

Sticky in there.

Also fix the evolving item FAQ. The "Will you announce when an item will change" section is wrong, since you have the evolving item report. I also agree with Kobayashi. Add a section about generations. I think that is the question asked most about evolving items.

EDIT: The trade icon in the Trading Section is outdated. Its in the "How do I start a trade" part.

EDIT x2: In the Gaia Marketplace section. You need to fix the "Can I cancel a listing" part. You can no longer cancel listings that have bidding enabled once it has been five minutes.

EDITx3: Private message section. Fix the icon in the "How do I know if I received a Private Message" section. Also maybe add something about not being able to message your friendslist at once anymore and how you can separate their names with commas to send PMs to multiple friends at once.

EDITx4: Add something about Bans ie how you can contest them and what to do if you don't receive an email explaining why you were banned.

EDIT x5: Salon section. Update the "What can the Salon do for me part". We don't have Gift Credits anymore. The picture and Buy with Credits explanation is out of date. With that said, you can also probably get rid of the ""What Are Gift Credits" section or edit to explain that they were an old type of currency you could buy but aren't offered anymore.

Also in the other site options section. The "What are Rare Events?" part needs to be edit. Change the "Pink Boxes" to Pink, Blue or Brown boxes or something like that. Also take out pink links. I don't think we get them anymore.

EDITx6: In the GGN section, add something about what Captains can do if they want to sell the Guild. Maybe mention something about the Registered Guilds Forum and the Subforum in the Captains' Guild. I suggest that you take the Buying and Selling tip section out of the Registered Guild's forum R&G. Also maybe add something about subforums and their cost (2.5k). Maybe a section about being careful with Vice Captains (there is a sticky in the Registered Guild forum) and what to do if your guild is stolen. Maybe add a section about the banner size for the guilds (200x40px) and edit the "How to get to the GGN" part. You can get there by going to Community>Guilds now.

Last time I'm editing this post. 3nodding

EDITx7 I lied. This is the last edit. Add a section about Mispriced items in the MP and how all sales are final. My favorite line: There is a confirmation page for a reason. :3

[Chocobo Princess]

Wow, you've already got a lot of great feedback! Here's my two cents:

Q&A is a way to tell what's up on the site and what's down. The people who are in there a lot have a feel for things because of how the Q&A flows. So we know which stuff is down (most likely due to Item Norm fallout these days), and we know how long certain types of problems have taken to correct in the past. (BTW, mass kudos to whoever created the tools that allowed the shortening of the Hack and Scam report times, and thanks to the mods who work those queues, too; we get a lot of questions about that, and it's great to have shorter times to quote.)

On to relevant bits:
We get a lot of questions regarding the difference between generation and stage of Evolutionary Items. Many Gaians simply do not understand this well. Most assume that the generation number and the stage are the same, and nearly all fear that their 7th gen (or whatever) will never have the cool poses they just saw in that week's EI report. We are able to calm their fears, but it's a long, complicated answer and usually involves a lot of back-and-forthing. sweatdrop

We get a lot of requests for profile coding, too, and tons of users asking how to post multimedia, either video or playlists.

And of course, people like to double-check about scam PMs. It's so great that we have that new Staff Impersonation Sticky to show them.

Currently, many users are concerned about Gifting being down and when it will return. There's no official word, and last time it went down, it was out for about a year, which is somewhat disheartening. Getting an estimate for that (if possible, of course) would be great.

Thanks for the Sticky (in Site Feedback) about the Flute. It's nice to have somewhere official to point disgruntled Gaians who've waited days for their challenge PM. Is there a similar glitch Sticky for Cards? I haven't found one, so I have no good answer for Gaians who say Cards ate their Tokens and Tickets.

A clear explanation about deleting one's avatar would be great, too.

Keep up the great work!