TWC Wiki:FAQ project/draft
Copied Commodus's draft in here for group play... and an attempt at pasting the other info
This is a guide to your membership, abilities, options and access on the Total War Center. If you are a new user, please review the first sections (particularly the New User FAQ); more experienced users may find this helpful as a reference or review (particularly sections 3 and 4).
For the site's rules please see the Terms of Service, you are expected to follow them at all times on the platform!
For information about where to post, what to enter, and where to find interesting articles please see the The Community Portal.
About Total War Center
For a general overview of the site, please see Total War Center.
Total War Center is one of the largest and oldest communities for the Total War Series on the internet centered around modding, discussion, and cultivating a multi-decade community with users across the game generations. While our strongest base is in Medieval 2, the forum is open to all Total War fans and even those who just want political discussion, technical advice, a place to write and so on. The site is represented in the following formats:
- The main vBulletin site containing:
- The Forums, where most of the community activity and modding resources are located.
- The Home Page, with announcements and news for the site, the TW series and mods. Users cannot post here but may request an announcement.
- The Articles section, where Content Staff publish articles, reviews and features.
- The Blogs, where TWC members can publish their own blogs (subject to some constraints).
- The Download section, where members can upload and access small mods and resources.
- The TWC Wiki, hosting information about the site (including this page), the TW series, mods and modding.
- The TWC discord server, a chat service open to all users, registered or not.
- The TWC Twitter account, which posts news items and accepts messages.
New User FAQ
If you haven't done so already, the first step is to register, at which point you will need to check your email for confirmation. If it is not in your inbox, please give it some time, as it takes a little while to arrive. If it does not come, check your spam folder. If it's nowhere at all, send a message to staff on TWC's Twitter, please be patient when waiting for a reply. If you use Discord you can also seek advice on the TWC Discord server.
After registering, you must make 25 posts before you can create polls or edit posts. After 25 posts you will be a full member, at which point everything the general membership can do, you can do. Check out what interests you and make yourself at home! There are various communities and sub-communities available. Some work differently from others and some are more active than others. Check out what you're interested in, and if you don't see what you want, don't be afraid to make suggestions or strike up something new.
Forum Sections
The main index page for the forums is here. All viewable forum sections are shown on the left. If you arrive at the site and see the white and blue vBulletin default view for mobiles scroll to the bottom of the page and select "Full Site".
The Community Portal on the wiki explains which forum sections might be most useful for your particular interests or problems. A large part of the forum index is devoted to sections for each of the Total War Series games. Non-Total War Games also have their own sections. The Common Community sections of TWC are almost as big as the Total War areas and include spaces for debate, advice and chat, creative writing and graphic arts, forum games and competitions, and much more!
Forum sections you are not interested in may be closed with the small ^ in the upper right corner of the category, shrinking your scrolling space. Double-clicking on a forum's left-hand icon will mark it as read.
Who's Who: Staff, Titles & Access
When you view a forum thread you will see that some members have badges under their avatar, such as these;
Users with badges will often also have their user-name displayed in a different colour to the standard dark grey. Badges can either represent an award or position granted by the Curia, indicate that the user is a member of TWC Staff, or indicate that they are a games company representative. The User Badges page shows the currently available badges and which branch they represent.
Staff
For a list of current staff and a breakdown of each department, see Staff.
Note that users can have multiple titles and feature in different departments. When contacting someone, check where their jurisdictions are for the best results. Technical support for games and mods are not site staff problems you should send DMs for unless they solicit those messages; sections like the Basement, the tech boards for each game and the various mod forums for mod problems should be places to check first.
Additionally, while the above Staff link is the most accurate source you can use to tell who's who, you can get an idea of who has authority in each section by scrolling to the bottom of the page and finding the local mods of the given forum.
The Hexagon Council, distinctively colored in red is in charge of overall management of the site. If you wish to join staff, discuss things about a department that has no staff, or take a site issue to the highest levels, they are the ones to approach. It is best to check activity first as some are more frequent than others, and thus more likely to give a quick reply. The best results come from approaching the right department, but if you make a mistake, they will likely at least point you in the right direction. For most, non-critical matters, other departments should be checked first. Official comments are sometimes made in bolded red.
Moderators are the first line of defense and thus contact whenever there are disputes on the forum. They are distinct from local moderators, who may be present depending on which section you're in; if you're unsure, check the local pins. A global mod will not interfere in a matter that is a local mod's business, but if they break Terms of Use, you are completely in your right to go above to the blue-tinted powers above. More often than not on TWC these global moderators have jurisdiction and should be contacted first, especially if you have serious issues with members being rude or harassing on the site. They often make their comments in dark bolded blue when officially regulating a thread.
Content Staff wear light blue names. While their word is from a position of staff, they are ultimately regular users who volunteer their time and drive to produce content for TWC, and are not to be confused with site moderation. If you're a new user looking to do something, consider looking through the options and contacting a Hex if something stands out to you, as they are often very open to new users in almost every section. Their work ranges between making graphics, articles, managing various events and competitions, maintaining sections and more.
Gaming Staff manage some of the specific activities that take place on the site, posting officially in orange color. Currently, they manage [Hotseating] and the [RPG section]. Note that the two groups have almost nothing to do with each other.
Technical Staff manage the backend of the website. At this time, it would be ideal for you to make inquiries public in the Questions and Suggestions board. Note they are for site problems, not necessarily troubleshooting computer issues.
Local Moderators
Local moderators are not part of TWC Staff and do not display a badge for the role; though they may display their names in light grey and use a custom user-title. They are usually modders who have been granted edit powers for their mod teams' hosted forum. The local moderators' role is for 'housekeeping' purposes in their sub-forum, they do not enforce the Terms of Service and should not attempt to discipline users. *********Mak's just realised she might not actually know the right answer on this bit
Conduct Advice
Features Breakdown
Forum Posts
Reputation
Reputation is a fun feature that theoretically enables you to see your community standing with the other members of TWC. In theory, the more reputation you have, the more highly thought of you are by the other members of the community. It has no other real meaning, and many members choose to disable the display.
Reputation here will be described as if you were using the default TWCenter skin. The symbols are different on the other skins, the principle is the same however.
| How do I give rep? |
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You can add reputation to a post by clicking this button: You can only add 1 point of rep to each post and you can only give 7 points total a day. Additionally, you have to rep 5 different users before you can give rep to the same user again, in order to prevent rep abuse. |
| Who can give rep? |
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Because of issues with account cloning in the past, where people created accounts just to give themselves rep, only users registered for at least one week with over 25 posts may give rep. Furthermore, it may take an hour or so after your 25th post for your rep to start working, even if you've been registered for over one week by that point. |
| How do I know which member gave me rep? |
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Generally people also mention their username along with the rep comment, if they have not chosen to do so then it's an anonymous rep and you won't be able to find out who it came from. However, if you have been insulted via rep feature then contact any moderator or an administrator as they have the access to view it, they can remove the insult and take care of the offender as per TWC's terms of service. |
| Where does reputation show? |
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Your reputation shows up in two places. One, on the left hand side where you post, a collection of symbols shows a rough guide to how much rep you have. Two, in your control panel. There's a more comprehensive display of the last 20 rep points you received, showing which post you got it for, who gave it, and any comment they left. |
| How many rep points do I have? |
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You can see the current number of rep points on your profile by clicking My Account. The total is shown at the top of the "Latest Reputation Received" table. |
| Can I disable reputation? |
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Yes, you can disable the display of your reputation in your control panel under "General Settings". If you do so, your own rep won't be displayed on your posts but you will still be able to give other people rep as well as receive it and view rep messages. |
| What does it look like? |
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Each symbol represents a certain number of rep points. It starts at 3, so if you have less than 3 rep points, you'll show the scales symbol for neutral rep. Some very few members who have received negative rep from the staff will have this replaced by a red square. Those users who have disabled the reputation feature will simply show a grey square. Once you hit 3 rep points, you'll get 1 gold ring Each ring = 3 points, so if someone has 5 rings, they have 15 Rep points. You can only get a maximum of 5 rings, after that the rings are transferred into a fleur-de-lis. Each gold fleur-de-lis is worth 15 rep points. Each red fleur-de-lis is worth 150 rep points. |
Reputation Descriptions
When you hover over the reputation icons in someone's post a reputation description will be shown, the descriptions are based on famous movie quotes, different quotes are used as the number of rep points increases.
Below is a list of all the descriptions, and which film they came from, sorted by number of rep points. "User" in the descriptions will be replaced by the member's actual user-name.
| List of Rep Descriptions and Point Levels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Blogs
TWC's blogs are written by members of TWC. They can all be found here.
How to get a blog
Anyone can request permission to have a blog. Requests should be made by going to your profile and clicking on Join Groups in the Permission Groups section, and then clicking to join the 'Bloggers' group. The site administrators will decide whether or not people should have permission to post a blog on a case by case basis.
Only people with permission to post blogs will be able to post comments on blogs. If you do not want to post a blog of your own, but you do want to be able to post comments on blogs, then you should follow the steps above and request permission to have a blog.
Rules for Blogs and Blog Comments
Some content is not appropriate for blogs and blog comments. If you have a blog, or if you post comments on any blogs, you must follow these rules, which will be applied strictly:
- no religion
- no politics
- no content which breaks TWC's Terms of Service (please note that this means all content must be family friendly).
Anyone who breaks the rules above will lose the ability to post blogs and also the ability to post comments on blogs, and their blog will be deleted. Appeals to the Tribunal will have no effect on this decision - this is a purely administrative matter and the decision will be made by the site administrators.
Citizenship & Opportunities
Browsing the forums, you may notice that many users have at least a few badges, likely a title, a colored name. This is because TWC openly and actively encourages participation in its structure, which offers users various bling and awards - anything from helping with graphics to proving yourself for the moderation team to being a good modder to patching up errors on the wiki. Whatever your niche, if you're dedicated at something on the site and stick to it, you will almost inevitably be rewarded, and if you're really putting in legwork, you may be offered Citizenship or a staff position (they do not mutually exclude each other). If you just want to be a normal user doing your thing, that's perfectly fine too.
If you want to strive for more or know how to help out the site more, however, read on.
Citizenship
Citizenship is recognition for your contributions to the website. It is a badge, a colored title, a bit of recognition and a small selection of forums open for you to post in (the Curia). It is also a path to the Magistrate position and local moderation/management positions. Finally, it is a place to propose awards, both for users and new ones, as well as make and vote on suggestions for both the Curia itself and for the website in general. Note that votes passed in the Curia are still subject to the wants/abilities of the administration, and further, to be a Citizen is not to hold a staff title or authority over other members. Likewise, you are not obliged to participate in the curia and discussions - but it would be appreciated if you lend your input.
Joining & Helping Staff
If you're interested in the Wiki, see one section down.
Almost every branch of staff is actively recruiting members, especially Content Staff, Modding Staff, and branches of Gaming Staff. Others will likely be more stringent in recruiting members as moderating, administrating, or working on technical business are very important tasks that require you to build up time and trust, and they tend to come to you.
While each department has its own standards and requirements, the listed branches are most likely to have places for newer members to contribute with less stress. Content Staff has many of its own branches that address different sections of the forum and take different talents, including writing, art, organization skills, and in all cases, dedication. That said, everything is volunteer - the site is not a job, and your position won't be treated like one unless you want to go above and beyond or put a little more into leadership roles. More information is available for each branch. If you're looking to fill an actually vacant branch, it would be useful to research old works the branch has done so you have a clear idea of what you're going to get yourself into, as well as be aware that you will likely be the main drive for the time being unless you recruit others to join with you. That said, Hex are always there to lend a hand.
Modding Staff works much like Content Staff, but has a specific focus and no sub branches. It is mainly administrative; while helping users out with modding questions is a thing, knowledge in the field is not required and duties are mainly working with TWC Download and keeping thread prefixes and the like in order. They are explicitly interested in as many hands as they can get.
Gaming Staff are a case by case basis; please see the given sections, look them over, and decide if you want to help out. They don't recruit quite so actively, but the Hotseating section in particular still has an application process. If you're uncertain, message the given director.
If you see an opportunity to contribute to a section but don't want to actually become staff, make what you'd like and send it to a relevant staff member for that section, or inquire how to help out otherwise. You may wish to get in contact with them first to see what you can do that they'd be able to use and accept. Keep in mind that Staff Non-Disclosure may prevent them from being fully upfront with you on internal matters. SND is very important to staff, and you will be expected to maintain it yourself if you join the structure.
TWC Wiki
You're here! The wiki hosts information about the site and the total war games, particularly site history, site information, summaries of modding knowledge, lists and pages for mods, and overviews of the games themselves as well as their features. Making it better is a never-ending process for a site that's been online over a decade. If you're interested in contributing, see this thread to get you signed up and this page to get you started. TWC_Wiki:Things to do gives you an idea of what the priorities are at the time, but you're free to just find pages and subjects you're interested in and work on them as you see fit. If you want to go even further, consider joining the Wiki Team and get in contact with the Wiki Director (see Staff).
Note that all Terms of Service rules and conditions apply - deliberate vandalism or repeatedly ignoring the Wiki Staff may result in temporary or even permanent removal from the Wiki.
