A beginners guide to writing guides

[TheFreak]

I was instructed to place this here so..



First off, welcome to OwnedCore.com. This is a great community and you'll find so much useful information. Unlike many other communities out there who just copy and paste, 90% of the actively posting members provide new content.

So you want to stop leeching off of others? You have a guide and/or exploit you would like to share with the community?

I will do my best to help you raise your rank by attracting more attention to your threads.


So you got a great idea for a guide?
The first thing you want to do is use the search feature the site offers. Search for terms of your guide to help better narrow out the threads that don't contain anything about your guide

For example: If you had something that is related to farming a mob, search for that mobs name.


Did you find something related able to your search?
That's OK, read those threads that relate to your guide and compare the difference between the information you have to offer vs what the other OwnedCore community member has already contributed.

* Is there a difference?
If yes, then feel free to write your guide. If no, then I wouldn't waste your time writing it as many members will spam your thread with, "Re-post" and there is a higher chance that it will be reported and deleted. If this has happened to you, it's ok as you're learning the do's and don'ts of posting guides and/or exploits.

Didn't find anything relate able in your search?
Keep on reading and you'll see many good examples of ways to post your guide so you'll increase the interest in members of the OwnedCore community.

Note: We understand that if you are not a donator or above, you will not have access to the Donator Elite sections thus causing many threads in these sections unavailable for search. That's ok!


Ok shut up, show me how to write a decent guide already!
The first thing after my search results and inspecting the other threads is I open up WordPad. WordPad is a great way of giving you an "idea" of how your guide will appear once you've committed to it and submitted it to the community. You could also post a new topic and use the advance options which allows you to Preview your post, Either way works fine.


Title
You want to make the title as descriptive as possible. Lets say for example you've found a great farming location for Experience points in the Diablo 3 game. You could put

"Experience Point Farming - MOB NAME"
"Experience Point Farming - Act x - Phase x"
"Farming XX for XX Amount of Experience Points"

The above are just examples. The better detailed your title, the better the traffic flow. Same examples apply with Gold Farming and/or Exploits.


Images and Videos
Images and Videos are always better than a wall of text. You want to avoid a pure wall of text as much as you can. Showing somebody rather than shoving a wall of text in their face works better in both real life and here in the world of online game.

The human brain reacts better to images and videos rather than forcing them to read. A image can help show better detailed surroundings. Where as a video can allow the gamer to pause, locate the same area before resuming and continuing your instructions.


Details, Details, Details
Regardless if it's a wall of text, an Image guide or a Video guide, the more details the easier it is to understand and follow. You want to avoid long drawn out instructions. Keep them semi-short and to the point.

Example:

BAD - "Find the cave, enter it and kill elite mob."
- Lets break this down and see why it's not a good way to instruct gamers.

* Find the cave - What hidden cave are you talking about?
* Kill the elite mob - What elite mob are you talking about?

GOOD - "Move south-east and locate the Hidden Cave, Enter and kill The Ice Frost King"
- As you see, you're given the name of the Cave, "Hidden Cave" and the name of the elite, "The Ice Frost King."

An image guide of the above example would show the current screen with directional arrows point in the direction including text that states the direction (a just encase option but not needed).




Grammar
You don't have to be the smartest fish in the sea but you do have to know the basic language (English for Ownedcore). Writing in internet Ebonics is bad and hard to understand. You don't even have to be a spelling bee contestant. As long as you use proper grammar where the common person can understand then in most cases, it will be readable.

Color
If you are unable to post images or videos and you're only other option is a wall of text, then use colors to separate each covering topic. As used in this guide. Keep in mind, the background color. If it's hard to see on the standard stock supported theme which most people use, then people may get frustrated and not even bother reading what you have to contribute.

Elite it or not to Elite it? That is the question
This is pretty much up to you to determine if you want in the Elite section or not. However, Paid Guides should only be posted in the Elite Guide section.

Submitting guides and/or exploits to their proper elite section reduces the chances that the uncommon user at OwnedCore will rip and post your work on another communites. As well as reporting them to the games devs. This does happen even if it's submitted in the elite section by donators and above but it does lower the risk a bit.

Is it a Guide (Strategy) or an Exploit?
This subject is very debateable so follow the wiki links and you'll get the idea of what is and what isn't.

Is it a Guide
Is it an Exploit?

That's pretty much the basic steps on how to write a good legible guide. Below are some examples that you could use to help assist you.

Please keep in mind, Copy and Paste are a bad thing. If you copy something from another community, give credit to the Original Poster. Don't just steal their hard work.

Non-Elite Examples

Seli's Guide to Farming Act 4
Title: [Farming] Act 4 Inferno items with 200% Magicfind!
Link: http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...magicfind.html

Benternet's Guide to Grinding the Auction House
Title: Grinding The Auction House, How I Make >500k Per Hour
Link: http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...-per-hour.html

Hackerlol's Video guide to obtaining a 1k DPS Weapon
Title: Diablo 3 1,000k DPS Weapon Farming Spot
Link: http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...ming-spot.html

Elite member guides (Donator and above)

Crouse's Guide to making gold
Title: [60, Nightmare Farm] Making Gold Like a Bau5
Link: http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...like-bau5.html

TheFreak's Experience Point Farming
Title:New - Best(?) Experience Farming Spot
Link: http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...ming-spot.html