1. Must-Read Threads & Policies: While the below threads and policies may take a little time to read and re-read these threads as they do change periodically. If you have any questions, contact one of the Forum Moderators or post in the thread if it is open.

Terms of Service- Since Eorzeapedia consists of a number of different areas, our terms of service are varied. While the provibetasions are legal in nature, they are there to protect not only the site, but the community. We’re striving to collect and share information about Final Fantasy XIV. Sharing is good for Final Fantasy XIV and the larger Final Fantasy XIV community. We hope that those using the information from this site do so responsibly.

Site Acronyms & Dictionary – Some are common to our texting world, but others are FFXIV specific. This page can be a good reference in the future.

Forum Rules – The Gamer Escape forums are provided as a place to discuss games, although certain off-topic areas also exist. There are a few rules we have in place for the forums to ensure enjoyment by all users. Our goal is to make sure the forums are a positive experience for everyone.

Forum FAQ - Some frequently asked questions about the forum platform. Since this is generated by the software, some questions may be out of date, but in general most are still valid.

2. Website Overview: Each game section typically has some or all of the following areas, which can be accessed from the top menu anywhere within the site.

The Home page has a WordPress backend and serves as a news, editorial and op-ed portal. The Home Page serves as our main news portal, but carries a few additions unique to Gamer Escape.

The top section shows certain Featured Articles. These could be especially noteworthy news articles, or editorials or op-eds. Op-Eds, where community members can submit and have their opinions posted right on the front page of one of the Gamer Escape sites. Just click the “Submit Op-Ed” button in the right column to get started.

The Forums have a phpBB backend and provides the main discussion areas at Gamer Escape. Here too we have a few noteworthy features.

Forum Signatures and site-wide Avatars can be added from the forum User Control Panel (UCP), which can be accessed from the user control drop down at the top right of each page. Note that in order to ensure a good browsing experience for all, there are limits on sizes for signatures and avatars.

See also Lodestone Integration, below, for how that information can be integrated into your forum profile.

The Wiki has a MediaWiki backend, with dozens of open source (and some proprietary) extensions to provide a full-fledged wiki with many database-type functions. Here too we’ve added features galore.

Wikinav – the wiki comes complete with its own navigation. Better yet, it is completely customizable by each community member! Want your Wikinav to hot link to Pugilist? No problem. Alchemy recipes? No problem.  On the wiki where you want our own personalized navigation, create a page at User:Username/Wikinav.   Next, just edit that page and add your own custom links.

• • • Each single asterisk represents a top level in the menu hierarchy.
  • • Two asterisks represent a sub-level of the top level.  Three asterisks, a further sub-level.  And so on and so forth.
  • • Each menu item automatically links to its respective article.
  • • If you’d like to use text that is different from the article name, first use the article name followed by a pipe character (|), followed by the display text.
    • Only the bottom-most levels will be clickable – so consider that when personalizing your wiki navigation.

Predictive Search – the wiki has slightly different search functionality than the forums or news sections of the site. Since typically you want to find a particular article in the wiki, our search will provide some assistance. Just start typing and the search area will show you the (existing) pages that are based on the letters you typed. Note that it case sensitive after the first letter.

The “Never Ending” Quiz – some of our wikis have a Never Ending Quiz enabled.  The questions are submitted by the community – in true Gamer Escape fashion – more questions are always being added! You can check out how you stack up with the rest of the community on the Quiz Leaderboard.

DynamicPageListings (DPL) – this is really a passive feature of some of our wikis that turns a user generated wiki into a full fledged database… well almost. It means that the information is added by users in one location only, and the rest of the wiki updates automatically. Add a new sword, and it will appear on the Swords listing. This fundamentally changes the nature of our wiki in a dramatic way, and one that will significantly help us always be up to date on the latest information. Because of the dynamic nature of this set-up, we’ve added a cache to some of these DPL pages.  So if you make a change and don’t see it on a corresponding page immediately, it’s probably a cache issue and will be reflected soon.

The Aetheryte Radio Network is filled with podcasts that can be heard right from within the site, or downloaded directly or via iTunes or Zune for listening on-the-go. Complete with seven different podcasts covering news, in-game topics, community and role playing, among other things, there is something for everyone.

3. Lodestone Integration: for our Final Fantasy XIV members, you can link your account with The Lodestone, and once done, (i) your character information will show up on your FFXIV userpage (see below); and (ii) some of your Lodestone information will appear next to and beneath your avatar on the FFXIV forums. To link accounts, just click on the “Edit profile” link under your username, and head over to the “FFXIV character information” tab and follow the instructions there. Or just click here. We’re looking to expand upon this integration over time, so linking should lead to some other nice additions down the road.

4. Chat: We have a chat channel (#Gamerescape) over on FFOChat, an IRC website home to a number of gamer related chat channels. You can usually find a number of staff and community members hanging out there at all times of day.

5. Userpages: Take a look at the User Page Policy, but in short, Gamer Escape provides user pages to facilitate communication within the community.

You will have access to two separate pages – a social user page and a wiki user page. Which page is displayed as your default can be set by clicking on the orange link and toggling between “Use social userpage” and “Use wiki userpage” on your userpage. While lacking the social features of the social userpage, the wiki userpage is fully customizable like any page on the wiki, so you can personalize it to your taste. Whichever you chose, both pages are always accessible via the social/wiki userpage link at the top of the page.

The social user page is most often used as the default, since it shows friends, awards, gifts, has a messaging areas, character area, and contains fields that can be filled in about other facts about the user. The social profile sections and features are as follows:

Statistics -this section shows your wiki edits, forum posts, blot entries and quiz points. Note that you can click on the forum posts number to see your posts and the blog number to go to your blog.

Friends – your friends are shown in the “Friends” section. You can add friends by heading to their userpage and clicking the “Add as friend” link next to your avatar. The recipient will receive a confirming email, and once they accept, their avatar will show up on your userpage (and your avatar on theirs). Note that you can send board messages to your friends en masse – see “Userboard” below.

Gifts – gifts received from others in the community will be shown in the “Gifts” section. You can send gifts to others by heading to their usepage and clicking on the “Send a gift” link. We currently have 20+ gifts to give, with more being added periodically. If you have a gift you’d like to see created, just suggest it here on the forums.

Awards – you will receive awards at various milestones. Currently you will receive these system rewards for number of friends, number of wiki edits and number of quiz points.

Character information – see Lodestone Integration, above.

Userboard - your userboard is used as a personal wall or message board. Messages sent to you will show up on your board. You can send messages to some or all of your friends by clicking on the “Send board blast” link at the top or your board. Messages sent in this fashion are sent privately. If you want to just send a message to one person, or to someone you are not friends with, you can head to their user page and click on the “Send a message” link or by just typing in their Userboard area. These messages can be either public (default) or private. Note that the forums also have a separate private messaging system that can also be used to send private messages.

Gamer Escape Points & Titles – when you take certain actions at Gamer Escape, you gain points. The more points you gain, the higher level you achieve and the higher your rank and title becomes. For now this is just for fun, although we might try to have these points tie into some tangible rewards/benefits down the line. You can also see your points and titles in the profile box next to each of your posts in the forums. Currently, you get points for editing the wiki, posting in the forums, and creating or answering questions in the Never-Ending Quiz. We might expand what earns points in the future. You can also check the top point earners over on the points leaderboard.

6. Ads: At present, the ads are the only way this site continues to run. Using an ad blocker such as Ad-Block Plus that removes ads means the ads do not load and eorzeapedia.com does not get paid. You do not need to click the ads (although clicking helps too), only allow them to be displayed. So, to keep this site around, please disable ad blockers when you come around.

We do not want ads, however, that ruin the site. If an ad appears that is detracting from the browsing experience, i.e. pop-ups, non-family friendly, gil-selling etc. please copy the URL and pass the information on to the admins so that we can remove the ads from circulation.

7. Moderators/Administrators/Staff: We have quite a few people out there helping run the site in various capacities. You can contact any of us by email from our Contact Us page. When you’re on the forums you can see who’s online (or who’s on the team), by looking at the “Who is online” box on the right of the forum index.

8.Preferences: with the integration of different back-end platforms, we were faced with a variety of different preference areas. For users this means that there are three different areas where user preferences can be set. We’ve managed to integrate some, but not all of these preferences, and while not ideal, a quick look at the three preference areas and you will be set up in no time.

Forum Preferences – as discussed, the UCP is where the forum preferences are stored. You can set various forum preferences such as time zones, some private messaging settings, and also link your account to a few different chatting interfaces. You can also set your birthday in your profile, in which case on your birthday your name will be displayed on the forums.

Wiki Preferences – here you can set wiki settings related to editing the wiki, recent changes, or default search settings. There are also some email settings found here that determine when you will receive some automatic emails related to your wiki account.

Social Profile Preferences – this last area of preferences relates to the social features embedded in the wiki. Here you can fill in some information that will be displayed on your user page, and you can set some additional email preferences related to the social features (friends, gifts, awards, board messages).