Due to the 5 day wait, I have decided to give two bits of advice for this entry.
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General Help: Ensuring a Correct AnswerWhile it is our goal to offer our help through patience, we also can take some necessary steps to ensure we are giving a correct answer. Just remember though, it's not how many questions and threads we answer, it is the quality of the answers that count! Have a look at
General Help Replies for recap.
First, we can always try to quite literally put ourselves in the shoes of the user in need of help. So say a user is having an issue with their YouTube videos. They can't find the option to set the privacy of their favorited videos to private from public. In this case, you can just log into your YouTube account and sift through the various options and settings to find the option yourself. There's no better way of helping someone out than to put yourself in their dilemma, so now even you are looking for the solution. Now, after you have found the solution, prepare your reply. Try not to make it a big message with elaborated steps. Just a simple sentence can answer most questions. Also, in this reply, you should note that you have tried this yourself and it has worked just fine. This gives the user asking help a sense of reassurance that they have found the solution to their problem. Don't post this unless you have truthfully done it yourself.
Secondly, our past experiences can be a very useful "tool" in supplying the answer in a General Help thread. This can really tie into the first bit about putting yourself in their shoes. If you have had the same exact problem as the poster, then use this to your advantage and share your knowledge! There's nothing more powerful than our own past experiences when it comes to giving advice to others, for even my own past experiences have allowed me to introduce insight into these entries.
Our last and final step to ensuring a correct answer would be to use Google, Bing, Ask, or other search engines. You don't want to resort to going to Google for your problems. Yes, this has been a useful tool to me for past threads, but I use it as a last resort method. I like to rely on doing things as they are doing them, or relate to them through my past experience. Both are fool-proof, while the Internet could potentially have inaccurate answers because not every solution pertains to everyone. However, there are some things that you could look for that will prove almost just as fool-proof: forum threads. These are what you should hone-in on when you're using Google. Forum threads provide a user's problem, and replies to the problem that are normally solutions. You can look through the threads and see what did and didn't work, and you can use this in your reply for the General Help thread. Anything other than forum threads could potentially be inaccurate, avoid this if you can!
User who inspired General Help: Ensuring a Correct Answer:
ELC. In General Help ELC had posted asking for help on a
YouTube issue, and so I decided to use this as inspiration for the entry. Thanks Ed for the convenient timing!
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Trading Safely and Necessary Trading PrecautionsOn d2jsp, I feel like it is certainly a concern that some users don't take proper precautions while trading. Granted, some of them could be classed as tedious, but being cautious never hurts. These precautions I am going to describe to you are very helpful, just in case you are scammed.
We have to note the existence of Mediators. Often time Mediators are disregarded because "they take too long", and while that is true, we need to acknowledge that they too have lives and occupations that take some level of precedence, so we need to be patient with them. But in any case, they are here to ensure that your trade is 100% safe, use this to your advantage and let them help you with your trade. The procedure for these mediations are truthfully simple. First, the creator of the topic will click on the Request Mediator button on their topic and they will await Mediator response via PM. Both traders will receive a message, asking for information or will supply a game name, etc. Follow their instructions. Once in-game, the item will be given to the Mediator by Trader 1 and the FG will be sent by Trader 2 to the Mediator. After the Mediator has both, the items/FG are exchanged to the proper party.
It is acknowledged that not many people like to use Mediators, and so there are some precautions you should take, just for the chance you will be scammed. First and foremost, when you've entered the game, make sure you both state your d2jsp names, the trade, and ensure you guys have agreed upon the stated trade. Press 'M' and take a screenshot of this message exchange. Doesn't take too long at all. Now, quickly open your Stash and take a screenshot, do the same for your cube and inventory pre-trade. Then when in the trade screen, take a screenshot of the item by hovering over the item and doing the screenshot then. Now proceed to send FG and accept the trade. This may seem hindersome, but it's truly not. The Stash, messages, and cube take all of 30-40 seconds. Then the trade itself is pretty smooth majority of the time. Just remember that these precautions are very useful to S/A Moderators and S/A helpers in the event that you do get scammed.
In the end, try to remember to
always use a Mediator. This is the only way to ensure 100% safety of your items and FG!
User who inspired Trading Safely and Necessary Trading Precautions:
CPR. My buddy Matt has told me a lot about the S/A forum, and so I geared this advice towards pushing users to avoid having to either A, not have to use the S/A forum at all, or B, have proper evidence just in case they do actually have to post a S/A thread.
This post was edited by Beacon on Aug 28 2012 06:53pm