Golden Manners for a Golden Reputation

The Argument

At the risk of incurring wrath from Markco (previous author of Just My Two Copper) and Cold (Cold’s Gold Factory) I’m going to comment on the current argument between the two. The argument centers around the JMTC Coaching program and refunds for coaches who have backed out of the program. I have stopped taking part in the program myself. I cancelled my paypal payment and have not suffered the re-billing that the other coaches had.

I am still offering private consultations to readers, at the same rate and with the same personal attention. However, I decided that the monthly fee was far too much just to be added to an unpleasant and under-advertised webpage. Just contact me for a friendly chat.

The background to this argument can be found here:  Cold‘s post.  Markco‘s post.

The public part of the argument played out in real time across Twitter, with other bloggers joining in. Some sided with one party, some with another. One blogger tried to play the fool/joker and laugh away their tension. Another blogger stopped following them both temporarily in seeming disgust at the situation. You get the idea, right?

My opinion

Perhaps due to the way I was brought up, perhaps due to my gender, my age (elderly compared to many wow players!) or perhaps because I’m a wimp, I did not get involved on the flaming across twitter that spread to the other bloggers as some laughed, some tried to put out the fires, and some were just shocked and surprised.

I have a golden rule: Be nice.

I try and keep it on my blog, in world of warcraft, and in the members forums. Sometimes I mess up, but I try.  I value my reputation. I value my readers. I don’t think my readers would be impressed to hear one side of an argument, especially if it was peppered with shocking accusations.  You guys come here to read gold tips, right!?  The world of warcraft gold blog community is too small and too precious to me for me to attack any member. The other wow gold bloggers are not competition, they’re my mates.  And I don’t attack my mates.

Did Markco mess up? Was it from forgetfulness, being busy, or malice?  Did Cold do his best to resolve the matter peaceably?  Did we need to see this public and ugly fight?  One wise friend on Twitter brought up Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Give your mate the benefit of the doubt, and try and work it out together, that’s how I do it.  Some more quotes:

Either remain silent or say something which is better than silence.

Better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt

Sometimes I fail at this. It’s very easy to jump to the worst opinion. I’m lucky to have some good friends to keep me thinking the best of people. It’s easy to be cynical.  It’s easy to be naive.  It’s not so easy to aim for realism and keep your chin up in the face of the noisy minority.  The most difficult time I experienced is when a so-called friend walked off with 75% of all my gold, refusing to pay back a loan I had trusted him with, spewing slander and painful lies over /trade chat. I wanted to poke his eyes out and introduce his testicles to a cheese grater. But enough of that, I’m trying to be polite here!

Which wow bloggers are the most well-mannered in my personal opinion?

Toltec. Dark Tuesday. King of Friendliness.
Flux. Power Word:Gold. Prince of Honor.

Both these guys deserve extra respect and extra link from me!

Can we apply any of this to making gold in World of Warcraft?

If you badmouth player X in trade chat, you will simply gain a reputation for bad mouthing people.

(I’m going to be explaining that in more detail in the upcoming WoW Mini-Guide “Making Gold for Teens”)

Items in WoW have a value. What cannot be valued though is Time, Bag Space, and Reputation.  Each of these will add value to the items you are selling.

1. Time: Time is money, friend.  The more time you have to play, the more value you can add to an item.
2. Bag Space: The more room in your bags, then the more items you can loot on your journeys.  The more items you can carry between mailbox and AH, then the faster you can get them all posted.  Bag Space is essential for me.
3. Reputation: Reputation is what this post is all about.

• With a good reputation, players add you to their friends list.
• They ask you to craft items for them.
• They recommend you to their friends.
• They happily buy your items from auction house.

• With a bad reputation, players laugh at you on trade chat.
• They skip your sales in the Auction House.
• They tell their friends that you suck.
• You miss out on invites to raids, heroics, pugs.
• Overall, you make less gold.

Please, thank you, and a little consideration will pay off in the end. Follow my golden rule “be nice” and the majority (but not all) players will be nice to you in return.

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Mr Burns (C) Fox

About the Author

The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande. With many level 100s, 9 years expertise in making gold, 10 garrisons, 16k achievements, 1505 days played, and over 18m gold earned. The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing World of Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling snatch lists, and farming gold making.