FAQ Contributors - General
Submitting parts of your full FAQ as an in-depth FAQ
| The Admiral | Posted 4/16/2008 10:17:59 PM | message detail |
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What is the general consensus on submitting parts of your full
FAQ/Walkthrough as an in-depth guide if you think it would be useful?
Let's say I have a detailed item list or enemy list in the appendix of
my guide and feel these would be helpful as stand alone, in-depth
guides. Does anyone think there is an issue with submitting the same
info in a separate file? --- - The Admiral |
| PeTeRL90 | Posted 4/16/2008 11:35:48 PM | message detail |
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I'm guilty of doing that, but I think it can be a good idea. Some
people just want a certain section of your guide and instead of
shuffling through it, adding an in-depth guide on that subject makes it
easier. That's my view on it anyways. --- Total Files/Complete FAQs: 55/39 http://club.ign.com/b/list/custom?&lid=100018&owner=PeTeRL90&mode=vown |
| Shotgunnova | Posted 4/17/2008 12:17:35 AM | message detail |
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No harm in it. --- With such loving craft and shape They leap upon the sky and the heavens’ golden braids |
| llamaman2 | Posted 4/17/2008 4:41:26 AM | message detail |
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It has the potential to help out different people in both locations. It's fine if you ask me. --- Wake Forest Fan Brawl Code: 0301-9442-2268 |
| odino | Posted 4/17/2008 8:48:24 AM | message detail |
| Perfectly fine. |
| cloud VS sephiroth | Posted 4/17/2008 10:02:54 AM | message detail |
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It's perfectly fine. --- Absolute Steve. www.shillatime.org |
| djg40 | Posted 4/17/2008 10:12:08 AM | message detail |
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With the size of some of the guides on here nowadays, I would actually like to see this become more and more common. --- "Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." - Emerson |
| Super Slash | Posted 4/17/2008 10:48:58 AM | message detail |
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I've done it. --- Current Amount of FAQs: 27 (7689 Total KB) Current KB FAQ Rank: KB King |
| Sashanan | Posted 4/17/2008 11:33:17 AM | message detail |
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I wouldn't, but my main reasoning is that it'd be a fuss to have to
keep both versions of the guide synched through future updates, and I
find myself referring from one section of a full guide to others a lot. Don't really see harm in it otherwise. I don't think anybody here *truly* cares about the # of KB showing on their CRP beyond the brief satisfaction of hitting a milestone. --- First you draw a circle, then you dot the eyes http://www.mastagus.com/sash/collection/collection.html |
| Gemerl | Posted 4/17/2008 1:56:17 PM | message detail |
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As long as their appendecies weren't an afterthought. That is, as long
as they were not a haphazard addition after the main walkthrough. --- Complete FAQS: 68 http://faqs.retronintendo.com | http://sms.sitesled.com |
| The Admiral | Posted 4/17/2008 10:05:11 PM | message detail |
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Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably do this then. --- - The Admiral |
| Tessa 6 | Posted 4/18/2008 1:42:54 AM | message detail |
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If you're just submitting the exact same info twice, once in the full
guide, once in the in-depth guide, I'd say it would be a bad idea. It
would be like submitting the same guide for ten games, instead of
making a note when submitting that the info applies to ten games. Cheap
KB, no extra benefit for anyone. If you're taking the info out of the full guide, and say, linking to the in-depth guide instead (something I've done myself on occasion) then I can't see a problem with it. --- ~Karpah~Iron Maiden - 4th February 2008 ^_^ What do girls do during sex, anyways. They just lay there and moan a lot! |
| warfreak | Posted 4/18/2008 10:28:58 AM | message detail |
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Taking a chunk out of your guide and pasting it into a In Depth is no
help to anyone, and as a rule, I don't do it. I can easily do it, mind
you, with unit guides and career analyzes but I don't because it won't
be helpful at all. Cheap KB for nothing, and you are only cheating
yourself. --- Defence is the best form of attack, except when the other side is defending. |
| odino | Posted 4/18/2008 12:54:31 PM | message detail |
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Totally disagree with the last two statements. "no extra benefit for anyone" "it won't be helpful at all." Of course it is helpful: for those just looking for this exact info. Weapons, Units etc are embedded somewhere deep in the guide and can be a pain in the *** to find in full guides, indexed or not. Not to mention that your full guide may not be the only one and it will take a while to find searching through 10+ when most do not even have the info you want. So what if a guy has a 1MB beastiary which is already in his 4MB guide, no-one else stepped forward with one of their own to fill the 'void'. If one guy has a 4MB guide and another person writes the beastiary which is ALREADY IN ANOTHER PERSON'S GUIDE then that is nearly the same thing only that 2 people get KBs... :s *crazy* |
| odino | Posted 4/18/2008 12:58:19 PM | message detail |
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If you're taking the info out of the full guide... Unless the in-depth guide is about something unrelated, like a Beatrix-only walkthrough or something, then you should leave as much as you can in the full guide instead of splitting it up for in-depth purposes. I suppose that is up to you as the author but this sounds like something from the FFIX official guide where you read the guide and then it links you to the website... |
| warfreak | Posted 4/18/2008 1:24:21 PM | message detail |
| [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster] |
| cloud VS sephiroth | Posted 4/18/2008 1:45:57 PM | message detail |
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"Cheap KB" ... "a grab for more kb" It seems like the only people against this are people who actually care about KB. I personally don't care about KB at all seeing how it's just a number. I write whatever I want to write, and if people are asking over and over for an in-depth FAQ, then I'll do as I please and submit it as an in-depth FAQ. Why would it even matter to you if that "gives me more KB"? --- Absolute Steve. www.shillatime.org |
| warfreak | Posted 4/18/2008 1:55:20 PM | message detail |
| [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster] |
| warfreak | Posted 4/18/2008 2:11:17 PM | message detail |
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Also, there really is no point. Viewers, if hungry for information,
will see the guides on the top, look for the biggest, and click and
search, rinse and repeat. There will be no point on adding an indepth
if you aren't going to be indepth about it. Most of the split guides I
have seen are direct copy and pastes from their own guides. It is
rather more of an appendix that an indepth guide. Heck, how is that
going to help anyone? Hate to pick on the last poster, but CvS, your CC:FF7 mission guide is a direct cut-out of your main guide. Now, a mission guide is meant to help a player complete a mission. While it is in your main guide, I could treat it more of an appendix, look, this is how you get the mission, this is your rewards, etc. No problems there. But, as a copy into your mission guide, which is indepth, I, as a reader, would expect that you say, this is what the mission is about, this is how you should do it, etc, etc. You don't, this is my concern with this because it is NOT a mission guide, it is a mission appendix. You are not going indepth about how to complete this mission. A quick search on the boards show that people need help on certain missions. As an indepth guide, you are not providing the answers that an indepth guide is meant to. I will reiterate what I have just said. Your mission guide in your FAQ is totally okay, it is yours to do what you will, and you have provided how to complete the game, as well as appendices on inventory, materials, missions, etc. However, as indepth FAQs, they do not go indepth into the topic. Your enemy encyclopedia does not show how to defeat the enemy, it is a faq on the stats of the enemies. Your mission guide does not show how to complete the missions. This is my problem with indepth guides copied out of a main FAQ. They tend NOT to go indepth. They are a copy and paste of the guides appendices. Unless it says Item List, Mission List, Enemy Stats List, this shows that you have not placed an afterthought on the indepth guide, just copy and paste. A case of self-plagiarism. Sorry CvS, you had the luck of the draw on being that person I had to pick on. --- Defence is the best form of attack, except when the other side is defending. |
| cloud VS sephiroth | Posted 4/18/2008 4:42:38 PM | message detail |
| [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster] |
| TrulyDexterous | Posted 4/18/2008 5:12:45 PM | message detail |
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If you're just submitting the exact same info twice, once in the
full guide, once in the in-depth guide, I'd say it would be a bad idea This ^ ^. Just take it out of the original guide, post it as an in-depth and then link to it in the full FAQ. Simple. --- Signature: Max 2 lines, 160 characters total |
| The Admiral | Posted 4/18/2008 5:39:44 PM | message detail |
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I don't want to turn this into a topic about CvS, but his contributor
page is actually a good example of what I'm talking about now that
warfreak mentioned it. It looks like all of his in-depth guides for
FF7:CC are directly taken from the main FAQ (including the 600 KB enemy
encyclopedia). I don't have any issue with this. It probably does make
it a lot easier for users to find information, and this was my
intention. Why not save someone the time of having to read through a
full FAQ if they don't need it, yet still provide them with this
information in the full FAQ so they can have everything answered in one
file? Yes, it double counts the KB from his main guide, but I thought
we were beyond caring about KB? Like karma, it's something I thought
people no longer fixated on. Maybe I'm mistaken. --- - The Admiral |
| cloud VS sephiroth | Posted 4/18/2008 6:02:16 PM | message detail |
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I personally wouldn't mind it at all if those KB's were taken off the
total. It certainly doesn't mean anything to me, but if it means
something to others, I'll leave it to them to try and arrange something. --- Absolute Steve. www.shillatime.org |
| TrulyDexterous | Posted 4/18/2008 6:32:58 PM | message detail |
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*shrugs* Why not save the hassle and just link to it? --- Signature: Max 2 lines, 160 characters total |
| The Admiral | Posted 4/18/2008 6:45:33 PM | message detail |
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Linking is a pain if someone downloads or prints out the file. I hate
being referred to other files when I am reading a FAQ. I want a FAQ to
be timeless, and hyperlinks are bound to change over time. --- - The Admiral |
| TrulyDexterous | Posted 4/18/2008 7:21:35 PM | message detail |
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I see your point with that, but I would agree with re-posting the same
info in an in-depth guide. But hey-ho I would be bothered by it per se,
that's just my view. --- Signature: Max 2 lines, 160 characters total |
| warfreak | Posted 4/19/2008 12:31:23 AM | message detail |
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I'm against it because it is not going in depth. If it is an indepth
guide, explain everyone and elaborate, rather than post an appendix. If
you copy and paste it out of your guide, then expand on it, I have
absolutely no problem, but copying and pasting it, leaving it like
that, it is a problem. --- Defence is the best form of attack, except when the other side is defending. |
| assassin17 | Posted 4/21/2008 2:29:33 AM | message detail |
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I'm against it, for reasons already provided. Assuming your
walkthrough's Appendix X is the best source of info for a topic on this
site (otherwise it wouldn't be posted), its supremacy should become
common knowledge on the messageboard, and people will rightly refer
questioners to it. So there's no need to duplicate it. Unfortunately, because even a perfectly thorough walkthrough appendix can't stop in-depth guides from being accepted here, you might feel like you want to create an in-depth guide, so as to have it be "the" definitive source for the topic on GameFAQs. In that case, Karpah's compromise is a good approach. Just make damned sure you maintain and update the in-depth guide. If its presence blocks another in-depth guide from being accepted, and the person writing the other guide is more devoted to the topic than the walkthrough writer and more of a stickler for details, then blocking such a guide would be a disservice to the site. --- "Attacks are the best attack." -- RedDemon's strategy for the 2nd to last boss in FF3us -- http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/final_fantasy_iii_boss.txt |
| Crazyreyn | Posted 4/21/2008 12:44:35 PM | message detail |
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I think it's fine, as long as you are only doing one or two sections and not splitting the entire guide. --- 59/110 Full Circle | Y.T.W.S.R. | FCB History - http://www.crazyreyn.com/fcbhistory/ |
