The Classifieds: Times change, things fall apart
by Michael Gray 
May 4th 2011 at 3:00PM
As a WoW Insider spouse discovered last night, things change in the world of WoW information. This guy, we'll call him Bean, was working on a heroic and needed to get the rundown on a boss fight. Acting out of years of habit, he loaded up WoWWiki on his PC and immediately picked up a virus.
(It's important you keep an eye out on your security, too. Do you have an authenticator, as well? If not, you should get one.)
There are other options out there for you. Wowpedia is run by the admins who left WoWWiki back in October 2010. Learn to Raid is a fantastic video resource for many fights. Of course, WoW Insider also has you covered with ongoing guides to things like dungeons and raids (in our Guide to Cataclysm), holidays like Children's Week, game lore, and tons of other information.
Random Acts of Uberness
It's when another player lights up your night with precise play, a wicked sense of humor or unexpected generosity that your login becomes something to remember. Share your Random Acts of Uberness with theclassifieds@wowinsider.com. Keep things brief (150 words or less, please), and be sure to list everyone's character names and home realms or battlegroup.
Lavendor of Skywall I'd like to nominate Lavendor of Skywall (US-H) for a random act of uberness. I was at the tailor in Orgrimmar minding my own business when she messaged me to ask about where to get the recipe for Bolt of Imbued Netherweave. I told her I didn't know and thought that was the end of it, but she went off and found it on the vendor in Shattrath and let me know. Then, she asked me to meet her, and she gave me the recipe for free, as well as recipes for the Netherweave Tunic, Robe, and Imbued Netherweave Bag. There was little I could offer as thanks, so I'm hoping this will show my gratitude for her kindness in hooking me up with some free recipes. -- VerraderCinnáh of Kil'jaeden I think I know someone that deserves recognition. I just got home from the bar. I had a very...tumultuous night. I decided to blow off some steam by doing a couple random dungeons. My first one, I apologized as soon as I entered. I said my healing would be crap because I was drunk and had a bad night. I didn't want to be vote kicked. Instead of a vote kick, and instead of taunting, I got...well...surprised. I was in tears at the kindness that was displayed from Cinnáh from Kil'Jaeden, who said "I love you no matter what." All joking that ensued afterward aside, this changed my night. Cinnáh, thank you. From the bottom of my heart. -- Pourami
Local news
Grats to Browncoats on hitting level 25 this week! They're big damn heroes. Ain't they just?
Employment: Guild recruitment
Looking for more? Send in your guild name, realm, a link to your guild website or armory listing and a sentence or two on your guild's focus (10-man, RP, late-night raiding, whatever) to theclassifieds@wowinsider.com.
Aiming to misbehave This guild can kill you with their brain. Browncoats (Sentinels - Horde) is an active, level 25 casual raiding guild. After consistently fielding 25-man raids throughout BC and Wrath, we're looking for additional friendly and sane players who want to join us as we down bosses and have fun together. Knowledge/interest in Firefly and Serenity are a plus, but not required. Visit our guild site for more information about us and to fill out an application.
Crack open The Classifieds for weekly player and community news, help finding the right guild, events of interest and more. Send us your shout-outs for Random Acts of Uberness and mail your news tips and announcements to TheClassifieds@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: The Classifieds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Eridian May 4th 2011 3:19PM
So what happened to WoWwiki? When I think about it I haven't used it for a good wee while...
BB Crisp May 4th 2011 3:41PM
Yeah, I'm wondering too. I actually go there all the time for lore info, boss info, Cata gem lists, macros, etc.
Should I be avoiding them?
Sunaseni May 4th 2011 3:47PM
After a blow up with Wikia plastering adds and forcing the editors to change the template (amongst other things), all of the editors started up WoWpedia.org and moved all of the content over there, so it's WoWWiki, just more current and with less advertisements.
(Before asking about "stealing" content, the very editors who jumped ship wrote the contents, and wiki content is open to be duplicated, including starting another wiki.)
Gennifurfur May 4th 2011 4:26PM
I haven't trusted anything from wowwiki in a long time, now I know why.
Spark May 4th 2011 5:33PM
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Eridian May 4th 2011 3:19PM
So what happened to WoWwiki? When I think about it I haven't used it for a good wee while...
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It should be noted that WoWWiki started as a completely separate project that eventually moved to Wikia hosting. Content licensing allows for forking. And that many WoWWiki project folks decided to do that is one of the strengths of that licensing model.
Wikia is a wiki farm. They provide all the infrastructure for anyone to put up a wiki about (almost) any subject. In turn, Wikia uses your wiki's content to help push advertisements. Ad banner spaces are syndicated.
Syndicated advertisements are dangerous. Bad actors want to get ads that are the beginning of a malware chain on popular sites - especially if sites target an audience that they are also targeting. Bad actors will produce obfuscated ad banners with the intent to obscure their dangerous design from ad syndicate staff; often successfully. And so it isn't uncommon for ad banners that introduce malware to get in to popular high-traffic sites - WoW specific sites aren't the only ones. You can get malware from legitimate, popular sites through no direct fault of the site owners.
Block javascript by default. Block Flash and PDFs by default. Keep your browser and plugins up to date. And view web advertisements as the real and direct threat to your computing environment that they are.
I should note that my last statement will draw ire from a lot of readers here. We have a lot of folks who make their living off web content that gets paid via advertisers. Blocking ads hurts that revenue and threatens jobs. It's an unfortunate situation. Ideally, I suggest blocking only dangerous ad content (read: javascript and all things Adobe). Of course - so many ads involve javascript these days that it's almost the same thing as running an ad blocker.
Res May 4th 2011 7:59PM
Love how none of this is explained at all.
Katherine May 4th 2011 8:21PM
Quite a few of the resources that I visit WoWWiki for I haven't seen on WoWpedia. Perhaps I should look harder, but then I've not had any issues visiting WoWWiki, and I run an adblocker and a script blocker all the time (which then makes me mad when I have to run in and allow a bunch of other website addresses just to make websites I visit functional - I'm looking at you WoW Insider).
Sally Bowls May 5th 2011 7:57AM
However, WoWPedia is part of curse. And after what was in my opinion very poor behavior on their part during the whole WoWMatrix incident, I tend to not trust anything from them.
So I still use WoWWiki.
Badgelooter May 4th 2011 3:20PM
Please tell me I'm missing some new pop culture reference. "Browncoats" is awfully reminiscent of "brown shirts," the nickname given Hitler's bodyguards prior to the SS taking over Adolf's personal protection duties.
Izzy May 4th 2011 3:24PM
You're missing the Firefly/Serenity reference.
Riari May 4th 2011 3:25PM
Not so new but look up Firefly and Serenity. Though the last one is the movie for the series.
Sara May 4th 2011 3:27PM
Yeah, you're missing something. It's the nickname given to the independence fighters on Firefly. You should watch the show. It's about space cowboys, not Nazis. I promise!
evemartyn May 4th 2011 3:33PM
As they have references to Firefly and Serenity in their add I'm thinking its a pop-culture reference :)
Snark May 4th 2011 3:46PM
Similar is not equal to.
Kurtis May 4th 2011 5:24PM
There are also a number of other references to Firefly in WoW. A couple:
K. Lee Smallfry - http://www.wowhead.com/npc=17634
Saffron Reynolds - http://www.wowhead.com/npc=27089
Mudder's Milk - http://www.wowhead.com/item=33036
agridulce May 4th 2011 3:32PM
Hey Browncoats,
Your guild sounds shiny
Keep flying
samphis May 4th 2011 3:34PM
Well, only our officers are Big Damn Heroes. That's the rank, you see.
Saltypoison May 4th 2011 3:37PM
I hope the Browncoats go easy with the Chain of Command.
thinkuknowme May 4th 2011 4:46PM
No one wants to be beaten with that ruttin' chain!
dryankem May 4th 2011 3:41PM
I wish I remembered the tanks name but I was healing in a random deadmines the other day and the tank asked who wanted to man the Reaper for the Foo Reaper fight. Finally someone volunteered but they said they didn't really know what to do, so the tank piped up "Don't worry about it, I got all day for you to learn it".
It was a classy move and we got him on our first shot but I've been in countless other dungeons where someone would finally volunteer for something they didn't know what to do, nobody says anything until after the wipe and they QQ at the guy that tried it. I wish a lot more people had this guys patience, irl and the game.
I must admit myself, I enjoy a fast dungeon but what for to do it all over again?