This blog will contain advice geared towards making the right decisions on the forums. Slowly I will build up the Word of the Day messages. At first, it will be beginner advice, mainly helpful to new users. However, old d2jsp users might find some of it of use. Then I will move onto more in-depth advice.

For those curious about why I am starting this blog: back a few months to May, I finally came back to d2jsp after a long break. At this point I was new to all site functionality and I had no idea what I was doing. During this time I used the General Help forum to gain aid from the d2jsp user base. Slowly I became quite proficient with my d2jsp knowledge, so much as to being able to answer nearly every question about d2jsp. The one thing that helped me during this time were the users that went above and beyond just answering my questions in a thread, they would offer aid in PM. Now, in a General Help thread some might construe it as "TT Chasing". But these few members have gone to PMs, where the staff don't see their actions, and it is these people that made my time learning the functionality great. I wish to provide advice they've given me through PMs, in a blog form, so that all may have the knowledge, not just myself and those who gave me the advice initially. Hopefully this blog can be posted in frequently with plentiful advice. Enjoy!

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General Help Replies
A little beginner tip for all here. Now, when you see a General Help thread with no replies, it's always great because then you're thinking "Alright! I get to help this dude out!!!" Most users don't really note that probably 2-3 other users had the same thought seconds after you've already started preparing your message. Then when you submit, there could be a possibility that a user has already answered the question above you. This is why it is important to use the Preview Reply button. Always use this! You don't want to repeat what's already been said, that is not the point of posting in General Help. The point of General Help is to bring unto others advice and information they did not have prior, or to solve one's dilemma. If someone has already answered the OP's (Original Poster's) question, you don't have to repeat the answer. So it is always good practice to use the Preview Reply button. It is understood that you are eager to help, for whatever reason it may be. But be patient! Your time will come where you are able to answer a question. I always leave the General Help tab open, because maybe when I refresh I'll be able to give my 2 cents. Don't camp the General Help forum, spamming the refresh button. Browse as you would and if someone is in need of help when you refresh, go see if you can help out.

Users who inspired General Help Replies: Fault and RaveTheGo.

Thank you for making this topic. I hope it can help site users both become better helpers and locate helpers.

You're right that patience is a virtue when it comes to helping.

It's my pleasure, and I definitely hope this blog proves useful to those aspiring to aid throughout the site, or to those wishing to improve the way they help others.

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This may be a long read, but this bit of advice contains everything you need to know on the subject.

Reforming Yourself From a High Warn
Today in General Help a user was inquiring about why his warns were being rejected for removal. Many factors can definitely go into a rejected warn request, but most all requests revolve around a recurring theme of "you need to prove yourself". Some users have it in their head that if they make 30 or so posts that are good-mannered, they think their warn will be removed. It is certainly great that they are posting properly, but it's going to take far more than that to prove yourself. Those with 70% warn have broken the rules time and time again and it is because of this that makes going down from 70% warn a battle, even more so for those with 80% and 90% warns. But hope is not lost. No matter what many think, it is not a lost cause to work on removing your warn. You have to acknowledge and accept the fact that you have attained 70% warn for your unjust actions. This is the past now, though. Do your best to make up for it now and prove to others that you can change.

Users who inspired Reforming Yourself From a High Warn: Meridyth, Justine, and RaveTheGo.

Meridyth's Words of Wisdom thread has always been a great inspiration to me. My past is not anything I am proud of on d2jsp, but I have done my part to prove myself as a reformed person, thanks to Meridyth. I thank her greatly and I hope everyone else can learn a valuable lesson from her words just as I have. Another bit of inspiration were quotes from Daniel's (RaveTheGo) and Justine's signatures. Both have impressive quotes, and I shared them in a thread today. Below is the link to the thread, as well as the quoted message from myself.

Thread: Sharp

Ignoring Belittling & Distasteful Posting Habits
It is important that you ignore posts that are insulting, contain flame, or are otherwise distasteful. Replying to these posts are just as bad as the initial posts themselves, ignore these posts. Now I understand how hard it is to ignore these posts, I truly do. There have been many cases in which I was being targeted for a troll, was flamed, etc, but you have to learn to ignore such posts and messages. There are a few things I remind myself of whenever I receive any flame or posts directed towards me.

The first thing I remember, and this is the "Golden Rule" of receiving flame: everyone is entitled to their own opinions and interpretation, and it is their choice to act upon these opinions and interpretations, regardless of if they are right or wrong; I remember this and I do not judge them for their actions.

Secondly, I remember that in the end, I choose how large the flame will get. They are looking to get a reaction from you, and so it is your job to not give them this satisfaction. If you give them a response, you are going to worsen the flame, and you truthfully do not want this. Don't even give them a calm reply, it's not worth your time to respond to their negativity.

Thirdly, I remember that in the end, I am the better person. They're the lesser person for stooping so low as to insult and belittle others. Last but not least, I remember that they are people too. We all have feelings, regardless of how cruel the person flaming you is, there are feelings deep down underneath. Try and remember this. Don't jump the gun and go to hate, simply brush it off and know that they too are human.

User who inspired Ignoring Belittling & Distasteful Posting Habits: CPR.

Big thanks to FantaExotic and CPR for the proofreading! Also another big thanks to RewTheBrave for his positive feedback on my previous bits of advice.

Account Security & Taking Responsibility For Your Account
While you are on d2jsp, you must ensure that your account is safe to be used. This means that if your computer has been compromised, you should not use d2jsp until your computer has been secured.

A leading cause of account hacking on d2jsp would be through phishing emails or keylogger viruses. For those of who don't know what either are, a phishing email is a faulty email sent to users to try and have them visit a duplicated website and enter their login details. This site is a phony site and merely exists to log that data, then it will redirect you to the legitimate website to make it seem like it was a legitimate procedure. These are dangerous and you need to be very careful! As for a keylogger virus, these are viruses that infect your computer and log your keys (hence the name). This means that if you're logging into d2jsp, the keylogger will log where you're logging into and log the keystrokes you have made during login. Avoid downloading suspicious mirror downloads - only download content from trusted sites.

Because of the fact that the only way your account will be hacked is if you have a virus or fall for a phishing email, this means your account security is up to you in the end. If you're hacked and the hacker does something on your account, you'll take the blame, not the hacker. Your account is your own responsibility and you should be the only one using your account to ensure account security.

Additional information can be found here: Account Safety And D2jsp Information.

User who inspired Account Security & Taking Responsibility For Your Account: Fault.

Patience & Maturity Whilst Contacting A Member Of The Staff
We've all had our fair share of times where we have contacted a member of the staff team, whether it be for something as petty as a signature violation when we contact a Members++ or disputing a warn that you have deemed unjust with a Senior Moderator. Whilst we are contacting members of the staff team we need to make sure we are calm, collective, and most importantly, patient.

First, we must remember that they're probably receiving many other messages from other users. You're not the only one who has to contact the staff; other people have problems they need solved too. Because of this you should be lenient and patient with the staff member you are contacting.

Secondly, it is important to note that they have feelings as well. The next time you go to send a flame message to a staff team, remember that they too are human beings with feelings and you should honor those feelings. Granted, in some cases you may want to flame them for a warn they just gave you. But in the end that was your own fault, and it is very important to know that they were merely doing their job, do not treat them like it was a warn based on personal views of yourself. In the end, it is your actions that discern whether or not you get the warn. There's no need to flame the staff member if your actions caused a warn, as they were just doing their job. Be calm and collective to find out what you must do to reduce your warn.

Lastly, you need to remember that the staff team deals with people of varying sorts on a day-to-day basis. Whether it be flame for a warn, flame for a closed topic, flame for a rejected warn removal, or a simple question about the rules. The variation in what they deal with is incredible, and you should show them the same patience they show you when you're contacting them. Don't add to the stress that they already have to deal with.

User who inspired Patience & Maturity Whilst Contacting A Member Of The Staff: Fault.

Fault has given me several ideas for my blog thus far, and I would like to thank him for his ideas. They are very good ideas and are good contributions. Thank you!

BIG thanks to FantaExotic and Fault for the extensive proofreading they have provided me for this one. You guys are awesome!

This post was edited by Beacon on Aug 19 2012 04:13pm

Repaying Scams & Removing Your Scammer Tag
Being tagged as a Scammer indicates that there was a Scammer Accusation thread posted, and the information within that thread reflected that you have scammed a user. But also note that you can be tagged by sending a message to a S/A Moderator admitting your scam. In the end, there was evidence that proved you have committed a scam. At this time you probably want to get that ugly red tag gone, and you probably want access to your FG as well. Well, today I will advise you guys on the procedure for doing so, as well as give you pointers to make the process easier than it seems.

Currently, you're locked and you need to repay your scam in order to be unlocked. First off, you'll be making a post in the Why Am I Locked? forum. Be sure to title accordingly. During this step it is important to note that you are not repaying anything just yet. This step is merely to get the attention of the required users, don't make any attempt to repay your scam directly to the scammed user just yet, you will get instructions later on about repaying your scam.

Once you've posted your thread, be patient and only bump your thread once every 24 hours. At some point a Mediator will post in your topic informing you that they will be your Scam Repay Mediator, and they will include links to your scams that you must repay. It is important to note that Mediators do their "job" entirely volunteer, show them the utmost respect during the Scam Repay process.

There are two options in which you can repay your scams
- Forum Gold
- In-Game Items or Gold

Repaying scams with in-game items or gold must be done through your Mediator, for you are not allowed to PM the scammed user. Within your thread, you and the scammed user have to come to an agreement on what items they will be receiving. After you two have come to an agreement, contact your Scam Repay Mediator saying that you two have agreed upon what items are going to be given. Wait patiently for your Scam Repay Mediator to contact you both with game info.

There are three methods in which you can pay them back using FG
- Friend repays with Forum Gold
- Selling items for FG with a Mediator
- Purchasing FG from njaguar

Friends who are repaying must send the exact amount of FG that was scammed during specific scams, paying in increments is not allowed. Your friend who is sending the FG to repay your scams must put in the comments "NAME scam repay", NAME being your name.

If you choose to sell items for FG using a Mediator, you must make an appropriate topic in the Trading Grounds and specify that the FG is going towards repaying your scams. It is important to note that this trade must be exactly enough to repay your scam, payments are not accepted. Once the trade is completed, have your Mediator send the FG to the scammed user with the comment "NAME scam repay", NAME being your account name. In this instance, the Mediator will send the FG to the victim(s). But if the victim is locked, banned, or has 100% warn, the FG is sent to njaguar.

Lastly, you can repay your scam by purchasing FG directly from njaguar. This must be done through mail, it cannot be done through PayPal. For more information view How to Purchase Gold with Postal Mail, Cash, or Moneygram. Once njaguar receives your payment, the FG will be sent to your Scam Repay Mediator and it is to be sent to the scammed user as your scam repayment.

Users who inspired Repaying Scams & Removing Your Scammer Tag: Fault, Justine, zex.

Taking Responsibility For Your Actions & Owning Your Words
When you are on d2jsp, you are solely responsible for your account and the security of your account, as aforementioned in Account Security & Taking Responsibility For Your Account. Just like you are responsible for the safety and security of your account, you are responsible for your own actions while you are on d2jsp. Likewise, you must own your words. What that means is that you must acknowledge and take full responsibility for what you say on these forums.

Spencer's quote: "You must always own the words you say as your own and be responsible for the acts that you do". In essence, this quote is saying that one should not say words that they would not normally say, and they need not blame others for their own actions; responsibility should be taken for all of your actions.

You shouldn't blame others for your actions. So, for instance, if you were being flamed at and you decided to flame the user back, that was your own fault, not the user flaming you. Don't blame the other user for starting things. If you've flamed a user back, that was your own decision and you should have dealt with the situation much better. Same thing applies for when you are posting. If you're posting distasteful commentary because someone else posted either a flame message or a belittling message, you need to own your own words in this instance. Don't blame the other user, for it was your decision to reply. Refer to Ignoring Belittling & Distasteful Posting Habits for advice on ignoring flame messages.

User who inspired Taking Responsibility For Your Actions & Owning Your Words: Fault.

Fault has given me a wonderful list of ideas for this blog, and this list of ideas has come to it's end for now. He has helped establish a precedented string of entries. Big thanks to him!

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 Answer
While 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 Precautions
On 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

Posting Constructively and Avoiding Spam
Often times when I am browsing d2jsp, I will see users posting some replies that aren't necessarily constructive to a thread or discussion. Whether it be a one-word reply, or a meme, or a post that has "derail potential", the post didn't push the thread into a good direction and I am here to today to give you advice on how you can work on posting constructively and how you can aid in the prevention of topic derailment.

First are foremost, speak your mind. Yes, speak your mind! Whatever comes into your head, or whatever you think you would say to the poster about the situation, post it. Forums are a means of communicating your thoughts and opinions and so you should make an effort to do just that when posting on a thread.

Secondly, I want to cover where a good place would be for general banter. On d2jsp, there are many different forums in which you can simply shoot the breeze with other users. Now I'm not going to list off which forums those are, but generally if the subject of matter pertains to a niche (video games, pets, etc), then it is expected that you are going to post with the intention of adding positive discussion material. Other forums such as General Chat really don't require you to post with constructive intentions, since the goal of General Chat is to channel all of the users' off-topic posting urges into a forum where they can do so without breaching the rules for spam and off-topic/derailing posts.

Thirdly, it is often a concern of mine that users do not deal with spam posters very well at all. Many times I've seen just one user post something off topic, then the rest of the users decide to jump in because they saw another user do it. Just because someone else is doing something doesn't make it right. Think about what that other person is doing, and if you even have the slightest thought that it's off topic, don't reply to it. Don't even tell the user to get back on topic; report it as Spam and leave it for the appropriate staff member, it is not our job to enforce the rules, though we can make it our duty to help make d2jsp a cleaner place by reporting bad posts.

Lastly, you need to think from every point of view when you're posting. Some might think this is irrelevant to off topic posting, but it's truthfully not. I've had my fair share of encounters with posting a reply in General Chat on accident, when I thought I was in the Donor Forum. The reaction from users in the Donor Forum and the reaction from users in General Chat can be very different. Always double check to see if you're on the right thread, forum, etc; be conscious of your audience. Think about who will be reading the thread or post, and try to put yourselves in their shoes. Attempt to think link them. Think to yourself "hmm, if I were him, I would probably..." and you will be able to address matters that not only you feel like need addressing, but what you think others might like to see addressed in a post.

Try posting constructively, guys!

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Users who inspired Posting Constructively and Avoiding Spam: Fault, RaveTheGo, Termn8tin_Cobra, Legacy843 and RewTheBrave. At some point in the past, these users have told me that it is the quality of my posts that matters the most, not the quantity. At the start, RaveTheGo basically drilled this into my head as I was learning the ropes, likewise with Fault. Then over the course of my time with the aforementioned users, they always reminded me that the quality of my posts are what matter the most. Every time I was told this, my posting got better and better, and I thank these users so very much for the reiteration.

This theme of 'quality is better than the quantity' is something I enjoy telling users about, and I have waited a very long time to incorporate into my blog. This theme was drilled into my head, I hope anyone who has made it this far into my post has decided to also adhere to this theme.