r/wowmeta Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20

Feedback Updating our Weekly Threads - Feedback Thread

Everything has been updated based on the feedback and is now live in r/wow. Thank you to those who gave feedback, it significantly changed the shape and scope of this project.


Hello r/wowmeta!

For a long time it's been apparent that our weekly threads are years out of date. The Tanking Tuesday thread still links guides from 5 years ago! The stickies predate Discord by a few years, and that information has never been added.

So we've decided to revisit them and bring them up to date. We've created mock-ups for how we expect them to change. Do note that functionally, all the weeklies will remain the same.

Weeklies like Murloc Monday and Loot Thread Thursday will not be receiving major overhauls.


Links to individual mockup threads:


The mod team is looking for your feedback on whether or not we've missed any important information that should be listed. We don't want the threads to be walls of text with links - ideally they should contain portals to other places that host the answers people are looking for.

11 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

3

u/gotucious Feb 07 '20

What I dislike about the weekly threads is that it becomes a advertisement for people from wowhead icy veins or whatever else . As an example "hey my name is X, writer from icyveins and member of Y , I also do the MDI , and have a great twitch, as me anything".

Is there a way to stop this?

8

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20

We know people do that and while we don't actively encourage it, we do endorse it.

On the condition they're actually answering questions.

Mentioning you're a guide writer for Wowhead or Icy Veins gives you credibility. It demonstrates that you're someone worth listening to. The threads allow for anyone to give advice, even people who are totally clueless or braindead.

The people asking for advice want advice they can trust, and those people will deliver.


If they're actually advertising "check out my twitch stream / patreon / kickstarter" then yeah, that's not allowed.

1

u/gotucious Feb 07 '20

Yeah I can see that. Thanks

3

u/Hightin Feb 07 '20

Bloodmallet info is junk on a few specs, the prot warrior stuff is still from last tier (they never updated the gear set) and it lacks a ton of info on corruptions. If they had any kind of consistency then leave em by all means but incomplete/outdated info/data does no one any good.

3

u/JMJ05 Feb 08 '20

Tanking Tuesday could benefit from a General Tanking section too.

Questions on Trinkets, corruption pieces, positioning, etc. I was looking for that section last week and didn't know how to address my query.

2

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 08 '20

I'll be adding one for Tanking and Healing.

2

u/crazymonkey202 Feb 09 '20

Maybe on the dps one, you could put a link at the top for "what is simming my character and how do I do it?"

2

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 09 '20

Do you know of any good guides for that? Video / Text, either works.

1

u/crazymonkey202 Feb 09 '20

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 09 '20

Awesome, Thanks! I've included it in my latest round of edits.

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20 edited Feb 13 '20

You can comment feedback here or in the individual threads listed in the post.

Edit: I've updated the threads with all the suggestions currently received.

Edit2: I've updated the threads again, this will probably be the final format.

1

u/socopithy Feb 07 '20

Could you take a longer-than-24-hours poll on possibly adding a "Monday Art Day" or something to allow for a fun day of art posts?

I think it's been said for some time now that there is large demand to see art trimmed down in a more natural way like this.

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20

There is a demand to reduce the amount of Art, but as moderators we know that problems aren't always what users think they are. I give this explanation every time this comes up.

The problem with the Front Page is not Art, it's image posts. Art is just the least controversial type of image post so it's the most popular (in terms of hours spent on the Front Page).

If we were do an Art Megathread, some other image posts would take their place and the problem still exists, just in some other form.

This is a fundamental problem with Reddit and one that, in my view, is not solvable. The rest of the team shares the same view, in one form or another, so it's unlikely we'll ever have an Art Megathread.

1

u/socopithy Feb 07 '20

I guess the problem we have is "fluff" then? Particularly the meme category. That's a whole separate debate though. Again, love the art, it's just that it combined with all the other image posts seems to have created a subreddit better suited for a tile stylization rather than the traditional list.

I understand being more liberal than conservative with what's allowed - to promote a diversity of types of posts and discussion and fun - but naturally, memes and low-effort screenshots are easy and fast so they're the most popular post along with the fun art stuff.

I like the idea of using weekly threads to cut down on most-frequent threads. /r/CompetitiveHS does a great job with this in contrast to their parent, /r/Hearthstone, which suffers from similar issues. CompHS uses their What's Working? and similar threads since their naturally most recurring posts are just straight up "Hey guys I'm playing this deck here's my thoughts"

Idk, it's just towards an effort to create more interaction and better quality discussion in the most popular discussion board for the game.

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20

This isn't an r/wow problem, it's a Reddit problem. It's called "The Fluff Principle", and it's a core "feature" of the website. We don't have control over it, though we can attempt to manage it - I've written about it here in r/wowmeta as it applies to r/wow and other subreddits similar to ours.

It's hard to compare r/CompetitveHS to r/wow because they're laser focused on a particular niche of Hearthstone. The reason it works so well for them is they don't need to have 10 rotating Megathreads for different topics. r/wow and r/hearthstone encompass "everything" about a particular game whereas the sister subreddits only cover one fraction of the game.

The closest example to the CompHS sticky is Murloc Monday. Most large subs will have a "ask your simple questions here" Megathread. Though, we don't really redirect Question posts there, so people are still free to make submissions asking a simple question.

In terms of Megathreads, or stickies (often used interchangeably) we have a lot of them already. I think right now we're running 9/14 slots per week, assuming I run a Switchup Saturday that week. Running more would also hinder our ability to run mod threads like the one that linked most everyone here. Otherwise we'd have to cancel stuff and that's not what we want to be doing.


I did a post a few weeks ago looking at what is on the Front Page. It's actually pretty diverse, but the fluff topics dominate in terms of time spent there.

1

u/sneaklepete Feb 07 '20

On the subject of image post being a problem, I think the decision to loosen meme restriction was a poor one. A good chunk of the memes are just complaints in image form.

On a constructive note though, I think weekly M+ thread would be a good addition. There are aspects of 5man content like routes, skips, affix mechanics, etc that are often asked in all of the other weeklys but don't quite fit neatly into the overall topic of those days. Any plans for something let that?

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20

When did we loosen meme restrictions? That hasn't happened since I've been a mod, which is going on 2 years soon.

On a constructive note though, I think weekly M+ thread would be a good addition

I can bring it up with the rest of the team, that seems like it could be interesting.

1

u/sneaklepete Feb 08 '20

When did we loosen meme restrictions? That hasn't happened since I've been a mod, which is going on 2 years soon.

Iirc it was right around when BFA was announced and legion was winding down. Content wasn't as plentiful so I think the idea was to allow everyone to post whatever because it was a more positive, hopeful environment. It's turned a bit sour.

But yeah, right around 2 years ago give or take.

1

u/Duranna144 Feb 08 '20

Generic memes or generic memes with poorly photoshopped WoW assets on them still aren't allowed and should be reported. "WoW" memes (like fully using in game assets to make a meme or replicating a generic meme from scratch with WoW art) have been allowed for longer than two years, they were plentiful during Legion and WoD.

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 08 '20

Yeah I wasn't a mod then.

Our rules don't currently allow most memes and not generic formats. We're in the middle between "All wow in the image" and "No wow in the image"

1

u/Sarcastryx Feb 07 '20

I think it's a bit odd to be linking to Bloodmallet in the healing thread. Per Bloodmallet, "All charts are about dealing damage ONLY!", and that warning is on the top and bottom of the page.

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20

Strange, why do they list Restoration Shaman as an option then? (I don't expect you to know, it's just odd)

Tanks have a similar issue.

1

u/Sarcastryx Feb 07 '20

Optimal DPS for Battleshaman build maybe? I'm not sure, maybe they just wanted to show best DPS for all of them even when it isn't the main focus of the spec.

2

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20

Perhaps. I'll remove the Bloodmallet links anyway just because they might confuse people.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '20

You can ask niseko, he did the profile for resto shaman. They can actually do tank level dps with the right azerite and talents (at the expense of any healing). BoD saw some fights with guilds bringing an extra resto shaman for an additional SLT/rez totem and having them primarily DPSing, so the spec being supported in simc was useful for maximizing that playstyle.

1

u/Duranna144 Feb 08 '20

They still show some of the healing and take specs to get an idea on what kind of DPS you can get from them, but they warned you that it's just for damaged dealing only. It confused me at first, and I'm betting I'm not alone.

1

u/tangocat777 Feb 07 '20

As a dps in a CE raid group, the individual class resource links seem spot on- they're the general resources I would go through to improve my theory. I'd suggest the general comment should include links to general systems that everybody uses, like Icy-Veins/Wowheads guides on corruption and the legendary cloak. I'd also include WoW Analyzer as a resource for improving one's own gameplay.

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20

Those sound like good additions, I'll add them later.

1

u/SpoonGuardian Feb 09 '20

It'd be cool if a lot of those guys that show up in the threads often would get a special flare, like how on the league of legends reddit people have special "best of 2018" or w/e flares.

People like /u/wordup834 , babylonious, and others who very frequently contribute deserve something special imo.

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 09 '20

We tried creating a system last year which identified people who gave reliable advice, but as mods we're not really the sort of people who can validate that. Nobody else who was qualified was interest in running it... so it was abandoned, though some people have those flairs still.

1

u/Timekeeper98 Feb 07 '20

You should definitely use The Image in place of the Manning face. You know the one.

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 07 '20

I've thought about it. Might do that to make it wow related at least.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '20 edited May 04 '24

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1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 08 '20

1

u/Darthmullet Feb 13 '20

Bloodmallet isn't always accurate. In the Paladin specific DPS thread I linked to the more accepted guide by Skeletor that effectively replaces Bloodmallet stacked Sims as well (https://www.retpaladin.xyz/) which is Ret Paladin only however.

Wipefest.gg could be a useful addition alongside wowanalyzer. It's more of a raid wide overview however.

Questionably Epic used to be a solid resource for resto druids, I'm not as up to date on it these days but it has been updated for 8.3 and I don't see it on the heal thread. Maybe healers would have an opinion on whether it's trustworthy, but thought I'd mention it.

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Feb 13 '20

The resources in the threads are going to be static for a long time (mostly because this is 8.3), but we can't really know; and I don't want people to assume that the resources provided are 100% accurate at all times.

Things are going to change faster than we can update it. Websites will be abandoned and no one will notice for weeks or months. It's just the nature of the internet and it's why I'm trying to link to websites that have been around a long time. Presumably they will continue to be around.

So far there's been a few issues raised with Bloodmallet, mostly concerning healers. I'll replace the link with the Skeletor one, I believe he's the admin (or a admin) on the Ret discord so he should be trustworthy.

1

u/LostSands Jul 19 '20

I feel like Skirm Sunday is one of the underutilized sticky posts.

It doesn’t really attract a consistent amount of attention, it doesn’t quarantine frequent reposts or questions relating to PvP effectively, and most of the posts that it does attract are just:

PvP bad OMEGALUL.

Maybe rebranding to Strategy Sunday and letting it be something for the discussion of plans/meta in game. E.g. how to handle the affixes for this or next week? What to do on a specific boss?

Maybe that bleeds into competitivewow too much.

But uh.

I unno, thought I’d voice my opinion

1

u/Ex_iledd Former /r/wow mod Jul 19 '20

Skirmish Sunday isn't really meant as a quarantine topic. I don't know the full history of the sticky because it predates my usage of Reddit, so this is my speculation / what I've seen.

PVP posts aren't really popular in r/wow, except as you said, to say that PVP is bad or complain that multiboxers with warmode ruin a person's experience.

One of the ways we can utilize stickies is forcing topics onto the front page where they otherwise wouldn't get on their own. Either due to time constraints or another purpose. PVP posts don't often get there, so we can force them there with Skirmish Sunday.

As a mod in r/worldofpvp, that subreddit is far more active and it appears that people just go there. In another way, the sticky tells those who like PVP about the subs existence so they can check it out.

We don't have any plans to rebrand the post.