What is this?
mmogle is a Question and Answer Site designed for players of multiplayer online games that's free. Free to ask questions, free to answer questions, free to read with no scammy cloaking tactics, popup- or pop-under ads, no salespeople, no JavaScript windows dropping down in front of the answer asking for $12.95 to go away. You can register if you want to collect reputation points and win valuable flair that will appear next to your name, but that's not a requirement. Some people would describe mmogle as a fusion between a Wiki, your typical Forum and social bookmarking sites such as Digg.
It doesn't matter wether you are an expert gamer or a newbie. Everyone is welcome. If you have a burning question feel free to ask it here and if you are a pro why don't you share your expertise with others and gain reputation and achievements?
Keep in mind: We don't run this site. You do. mmogle is collaboratively built and maintained by your fellow gamers. Once the system learns to trust you, you'll be able to edit anything, much like Wikipedia. With your help, we can build good answers to every imaginable gaming question together.
mmogle is as frictionless and painless to use as we could make it. We believe finding the right answer to your questions should be as easy as falling into the pit of success. And maybe even a little fun along the way.
What kind of questions can I ask here?
Questions related to Massively Multiplayer Games (MMOs) of course! As long as your question is:
- detailed and specific
- written clearly and simply
- of interest to at least one other player
... it is welcome here. No question is too trivial or too "newbie". Oh yes, did we mention it should be about MMOs?
Please look around to see if your question has already been asked (and maybe even answered!) before you ask. If you end up asking a question that has been asked before, that is OK and deliberately allowed. Other users will hopefully edit in links to related or similar questions to help future visitors find their way.
It's also perfectly fine to ask and answer your own question, but pretend you're on Jeopardy: phrase it in the form of a question.
What kind of questions should I not ask here?
Avoid asking questions that are subjective, argumentative, or require extended discussion. This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered!
Be nice.
Treat others with the same respect you'd want them to treat you. We're all here to learn together. Be tolerant of others who may not know everything you know. Bring your sense of humor.
Be honest.
Above all, be honest. If you see misinformation, vote it down. Insert comments indicating what, specifically, is wrong. Even better — edit and improve the information! Provide stronger, faster, superior answers of your own!
Do I have to log in or create an account?
Yes, but it's easy to register and you can even use your existing account for sites such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo etc. to login.
What are tags?
Questions are grouped by tags. Using the right tags makes it easier for others to find and answer your question.
What is reputation?
Reputation is completely optional. Normal use of mmogle — that is, asking and answering questions — does not require any reputation whatsoever.
Remember, mmogle is run by you! If you want to help us run the site, you'll need reputation first. Reputation is a (very) rough measurement of how much the mmogle community trusts you. Reputation is never given, it is earned by convincing other mmogle users that you know what you're talking about.
Here's how it works: if you post a good question or helpful answer, it will be voted up by your peers: you gain 10 reputation points per answer and 5 reputation points per question. If you post something that's off topic or incorrect, it will be voted down: you lose 2 reputation points. You can earn up to 200 reputation per day, but no more.
Collect enough reputation points and mmogle will allow you to go beyond simply asking and answering questions:
| 1 | Vote up |
| 15 | Flag offensive |
| 20 | Leave comments |
| 100 | Vote down (costs 1 rep) |
| 200 | Reduced advertising |
| 1 | Create new tags |
| 500 | Retag questions |
| 2000 | Edit other people's posts |
| 10000 | Delete closed questions, access to moderation tools |
At the high end of this reputation spectrum there is little difference between users with high reputation and moderators. That is very much intentional. We don't run mmogle. The community does.
What if I don't get a good answer?
In order to get good answers, you have to put some effort into the question. Edit your question to provide status and progress updates. Document your own continued efforts to answer your question. This will naturally bump your question and get more people interested in it.
What are achievements?
Achievements are a way of recognizing users who contribute to this site. There are many ways to contribute, and consequently, there are many achievements.
There are three levels of achievement ranking. Bronze achievements are relatively easy to get, and often help teach users how to use the system. Silver achievements are more difficult to earn, and can be gained for things like extremely insightful questions and answers, as well as a dedication to moderating and improving the content of the site. Gold achievements are the most difficult to earn.
Achievements a user has earned are displayed on their user profile, and are summarized next to the users's gravatar, listing just the numbers of gold ●, silver ●, and bronze ●. The achievements a user has earned don't have any effect on the site, they are simply a sign of accomplishment and bragging rights. The user's abilities are governed not by achievements, but by reputation.
How does a user get achievements?
Users get achievements by participating in the site. The achievements page summarizes what is specifically needed to gain each achievement. Most achievements are awarded for writing particularly good questions and answers.
Some achievements can be gained more than once, and in these cases the User's name will appear multiple times on that achievement's page, once for each time the user earned that achievement. The achievements listing on the user page will also display a multiplier next to the achievement indicating the number of times it has been earned.
Other people can edit my stuff?!
Like Wikipedia, this site is collaboratively edited. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your questions and answers being edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you.
Stackoverflow.com deja-vu wtf?
Correct! The initial version of mmogle was indeed a clone of the popular programmer Q&A site Stackoverflow.com but implemented using different technology.
In the back of my head I've always had the desire to build a Q&A site for MMO Gamers with a clearly defined mission and strong quality control - I was just not confident with the technology. And when I read this article by Jeff Atwood (the creator of stackoverflow) I thought to myself - "Ok let's see how long this will take". Well, the answer is: About four weeks work in my spare time. Which can be largely attributed to my decision to go with the fantastic Grails Framework and jQuery as technological base.
