Staff Handbook

This page describes some tools used by Staff members. If you're curious, you can ready it to see how we work ;)

Note: since 02/14/09, links to editors are available from the "Staff Panel".

Chat

The chat is basic but functional. It's "real time" and refreshes automatically every 30 seconds.
The only detail you have to know is that you can keep it in one of your browser's tabs (while you're working on AOP for example). If someone posts, you will see a star appearing before the Title, so * Tribune instead of Tribune. So you don't need to check the window. Click here to see an example.

Box Editor

This basic tool makes it possible to edit all available boxes, at least their content and their description.
After selecting a box, new content can be added from the list at the right. First specify both minimum and maximum quantities (put 0 if unkown, put the same number if the value is unique), then double-click the item name.
To update a box (for example: a new max quantity), add it again with the new values, it will overwrite the old data.

Craft Editor

Look at the Monster Editor below, it works the same way.

Monster Editor (v2)

This new version should save 20% of the time :

• Layout is designed to be very small in width (and the height is decreased too), so you can easily have both your browser and AO in windowed mode. Click here to see an example
• Item info runs through a very fast system :
  1. Select a ratio (by default very low). Change it only if the ratio change, it takes the Selected value
  2. Choose an item on the right list (type a letter to jump). Double-Click on it to add to the Monster's list (on the left)
  3. Double-Click also works on the left list, to remove an item
• Form is a lot lighter, so the page loads a lot faster, submitting loads faster too (it was really heavy and took a long time in the previous version).

One important thing : CLICK ON THE SUBMIT BUTTON TO VALIDATE, don't use [Enter] on your keyboard, or else the items will be ignored.
In the Location part, if you use the "Same as above" choice, it will take the same Region/Field value as the one above it (or if that one is "Same as above", it will take the one above that and so on).

If some magic skills, special features or items are not in the list, contact me (on the forum or elsewhere), I'll add them.
Please don't add incomplete monsters, add all Basic+Item+Location info. In the same way, don't add any event monster, as they are temporary and disappear once the event finished (that's also why item event are not available).

Quest Editor

This basic tool makes it possible to add quests from quest logs.
Explanations within the editor are quite clear, but the best way to start is to look at the first quests to see how it works.

Todo List

The Todo List is a simple but efficient tool to know what we have to do, and who is managing such task. It is highly recommended that Staff members look at it before doing something on AOP.

Anyone of you can add a task. For instance :

• You find a bug : add it with Urgent priority if you can't work until it's fixed, or just High/Normal if it is a minor layout problem
• You request a new feature : add it with Normal/Low priority (or wait if you see I already have many things to do ;)
• You wrote a guide in English : add a translation task for French, another one for Spanish

If you want to contribute to a task, click on its number (first column) to edit it, then check "I contribute to this task".
You can also leave a task : same process as above, but uncheck "I contribute to this task".
You can have several contributors on the same task (i.e. : Monster Database)

Translating/Editing Articles (news, guides...)

First, you can read this general help page about posting on AOP (in particular the Write a guide part).

To Edit or Translate an article, just enter it (by clicking its title on the front page or using the Articles overview, and you'll see two extra buttons at the top (just below the title) : Edit and Translate.

Now let's see the additional options that Contributors have:

• Input Format: ALWAYS select the BBCode + HTML one, or else html tags won't be interpreted.
• Revision Information: just ignore this part. But if you feel the need to use it, we'll talk about that.
• Translation settings: the description of this part is right, so check Flag translations as outdated if necessary.
• Authoring information: author and (modification) date can be changed here. It can be correct to change the date (just put the field blank) if important updates are done. The creation date will be automatically set by a server task every hours
• Publishing options: if you edit a text, don't change this parameter. I (admin) prefer doing it myself, at least for now.
  If the text is Published, it means it is available to everyone through its url. Else it's private and only staff members can view/edit it.
  If the text is Promoted to front page, it means the article will be visible on the front page. We always do it for news (and polls), almost never for other articles (guides, etc).
  If the text is Sticky at top of lists, it means the article will appear first in the front page. We only use it for very important news.
  Very important : if you translate a text, leave all fields blank except Published, that you check when the translation is over (not before). Indeed, the other options (front page etc) will follow automatically the English version.

Additional notes about translations:

• Ignore the content within the html codes, except if you're sure about what you're doing.
• Be sure the select the same tags as the original text (ex : select Guide+Character for the complete guide to main characters)
• Translate the title, it has to be different. Else we'll get duplicate content and it's not good at all :)