Guide Comments & Voting, Recommending Guides

Q1: How many of you actively view a variety of guides and vote on them?

As some of you know, I've now written 4 guides...a huge general assault one (with a supplemental Guan Yu guide), and 3 arena guides. I find myself wishing I could get more votes, comments, etc., especially for the thought, detail, and work I've put into them.

I'm thinking that everyone that's put in time and effort on their guides would love more votes and comments. How can we get the community to be more active, other than when we have a contest?

Q2: What are your criteria for giving an up/downvote?

More specifically, do you vote based on overall feeling of the guide? Do you downvote because you don't agree with the build, even if they provide reasoning behind their choices? Does any of it have to do with effort involved?

Also, when you withhold a vote, what are the reasons behind that?

Q3 (Guide Recommendations): If this doesn't turn into a sticky thread, what's a good channel for recommending guides to the general forum, rather than as an individual thread?

It'd be nice to be able to give props to specific guides, based on some standout aspect (could be level of detail, beautiful BB coding, or specific ideas or strategies that aren't generally considered).


Your feedback is APPRECIATED!

I'll start it out...

Q1: My biggest problem is likely that Conquest is by far the most popular mode, and the most detail-oriented one where people actively search for individual god guides to improve their game. Also doesn't help that 2 out of the 3 arena guides I've made have been on less popular gods ( Odin and Ravana).

I may never get into Conquest, so that's just something I'll have to deal with, but that doesn't mean I can't read and vote...at this point, I think my general knowledge of the game, items, strategies, etc. is pretty comprehensive.

So I'm going to put in a personal effort to check out more guides and at least vote...possibly comment and add suggestions if it's a strong enough thought. Set an example and all that. I'll start with those that have been great at providing feedback to me (e.g. ThePerfectPrism, Zilby, Devampi, BestMinionEver, Vithaliy, Arvorus) and branch out from there.


Q2: A lot of my vote is based on tangible effort given to the guide. If someone throws stuff up and writes something that I could type out in 10 minutes, I'm probably not going to vote on it. BB coding is a pain and takes a lot of time, so it's not a requirement that the guide look clean and uncluttered. I do look to see that the author responds to comments and suggestions, and at least considers and explains their point, whether or not they revise their guide, as that also shows care.

I also consider the context of the build...doesn't have to match with what build I think is best...it's how that build might work with regard to how they suggest the god be played. So I don't downvote just because I don't agree with it.

Q1 I don't look a lot at guides any more unless they spark a lot of attention from active members or they are on a god I have mained a lot. (or if I have been asked) main reason is my time and me playing smite sometimes (I am really addicted to LoL right now with certain champs (like nautilus because smashing people with anchors is fun. oh and a lot of champs that have lazors (viktor vel koz are in the rotation and xerath lazor offcourse too) and I love the jungling of LoL more) even if it's isometric I love them)

Q2
I review guides on certain criteria 1st one being is it a guide or a build (yes those exists)
and within those I have points that have a certain value:

builds:
item build with explanation and skill order with explanation and of course the slight bbcoding or icons which doesn't get me scrolling up every time it's mentioned to look at the stats/passive (however this doesn't withhold me from voting)

guides:
intro (optional)
items with explanation
skill order with explanation and combo's
Gameplay and teamwork section
BBcoding that helps make things clear (like I said in builds the or even certain colour coding etc.)
pros & cons (optional)

if important points are missing I normally won't vote and if most are there I normally already upvote. Downvotes are more when people are missing sections and have really rushed/bad/untrue information. A lot of it.

I do look a bit for meta stuff but I don't always weight it (but if you are going a lot of X and miss a lot of other important stats I do make recommendations if I don't find the explanation good enough)

recommending guides!! we need scouts on smitefire as well!! WAYNEY GET OVA HERE

Scouts seems cool but I heard that it didn't work out that well on other sites. :(

Unlikely ;)

Guide activity seems a good bit lower on this site than on MOBAFire, though obviously there's a pretty significant difference in the number of users as well. It's definitely something I've become aware of recently, and I'm planning to compare SF to some of the other smaller sites to gain some insight on how big of a problem it truly is (before of course looking into solutions). Ideas (beyond extra contests) are much appreciated :)

I believe that I have some to get people looking at this site more often (ideas of course, dont take it too seriously)

1) More creative options or easier options to handle. The BBCoding in this site is awesome, with training and experience. People like comparing their guides to others, and some either dont care and make it anyway, or dont think it will get attention and just forget it. Although BBCoding is a good feature, its not a feature you can easily pick up on the spot. People have short time-spans and not all are dedicated to one specific thing.

2) Make SmiteFire more attractive visually. As humans we always (subjective) judge things before asking questions, their first impressions. If it appeals to them visually, they will get interested and explore a bit more.

Thats about all i really have, ill think of some more if i can.
But the biggest one would be point one. Make it more easier for new people to pick up on. (especially if they have no experience with coding, like myself)

Another question someone might have an idea about...what other sites do people use, that provide a build/guide creation option, and are potentially higher traffic than SMITEFire?

Q1 : I normally view SOME guides each 7 to 7 days. I only VOTE if I find the information interesting and I see the person has been running around her tail to update the guide often.

Q2 : Content, A LIST OF UPDATES ( Ppl plea do this . ) And if the person is investing on the community, not only making guides.

Q3 : Tbh I think it's a gamble. My Athena guide got lucky cuz Seto archived he's, and it became the biggest one , almost at 50k views already !


For Wayne :

I think if we had a BBCoding guide that is easy to understand ( Ik ppl are going to link to the guide we have of BBCoding, but it's ****ing hard to understand, as a noob. ) Something like : You click on Create Guide and it shows :


Click here to understand the basics of BBCoding. ( with the click here being a link thingie ).

A way to search for items instead of scrolling down ( I waste so much time on that XD )


Personal Opinion : A way to change the PO ( Purchase Options ) and where they are located. When I find a new start with a god, and I put it up on my guide, it ends up on the end if I don't re-do the entire PO. ( Example : My Ahena Guide . )


Sums it up.

I feel like we need to be more open to the casual and new players. After all this IS a website dedicated to helping players, we should make them our number one priority.

Overall we need easier options that people can easily use without too much help, make sure that their guides get a chance to be seen, and just generally make it appeal to the casual audience. I would like more fancy visuals, though I know that would take a lot of time.