Find It Yourself, or "If You Don't Stop Asking Where ______ Is, I'm Going to KILL You"

Every good player in WoW has one thing in common: he or she knows how to find information.

Guildmate 1: I almost laughed at how many people bought the guide to go with the game. It will most likely be rendered 85% obsolete when the next big patch hits. Why spend $15 on a guide when all that information is FREE from at least 4 major WoW sites? And they all show it in a much better format than a book can.
Guildmate 2: Two kids by me did. They poured over it and were like "omg, I want that". Completely don't understand it either. Wowhead.com ftw.

Though my husband and his best friend tell me that people who don't know how to find information will never find this post, I'll keep my delusions.

Laziness

I laid the smackdown on a few of my guildmates about this today, when I was leveling my 64 druid alongside my husband's new death knight: "You are in Northrend, and I am not. I should not be the one giving YOU directions to things."

It wasn't that they asked -- I don't mind helping when I'm able -- it was the ridiculousness of someone in Zangarmarsh looking up the mining trainer in Warsong Outpost for people who could easily tab out for themselves. Inefficient and just a mite lazy.

Misinformation

This is one of the hardest things to manage. One of our raiders found a dps rotation that was outdated, and it was like pulling teeth to get her to change it. She consistently put out less dps than the tanks, in part because of this rotation. And her gear was just fine.

The only way to fight misinformation is the continual application of correct information. Even if they're mentally thick, just keep pounding the right info into their head and they ... might catch on. Eventually.

Ignorance

Not knowing anything and not knowing where to start is the easiest to fix. Any good guild will have someone to answer your questions, but in case you're in an inactive, selfish, or mostly-70 guild (what? I'm 70 and don't like repeating info over and over), here are a few starting places:

• Wowhead: My personal first stop for any quest, NPC, or drop-related question. People can post comments and images, the best are voted up, and the poor/redundant ones are removed. It's a database of information on the individual pieces of the game and their individual statistics. There's a similar site called Thottbot, but I find Wowhead a lot easier to navigate -- plus, Thottbot doesn't remove its redundant/unhelpful comments, or not often if it does, so the comments area (the most helpful area of Wowhead for me) tends to be a mess.
  
• WoWWiki: A different type of resource than Wowhead, but just as useful. This has a lot of information on Lore (the stories in and behind the game) and overviews of rep grinds, profession leveling, and holidays.
• WarcraftPets: Comprehensive vanity pet listing and one of my favorite sites. See my collection and make your own! (The owner of this site, Breanni, has been imortalized as the Dalaran small pet vendor for his work.)
  
• WarcraftMounts: Listing of all mounts in the game. I love the big, clear images offered, especially in the full "Gallery of Mounts," though I always continue my research on Wowhead after finding what I want.
• MMO-Champion: My husband and his best friend check this for updates daily. This site has all of the newest items, changes, and sparklies before anyone else. I don't read it personally, because most of the breaking news is about gear and spell changes, and I'm more interested in new mounts and pets. XD (Lame but true.)
  
• WoW Insider: I do read this, and they get a lot of their information from MMO-Champion, so if you want to stay informed but don't want the hassle of scanning pages of patch notes, this is the place to go.
  
• Hunters: Petopia: Your comprehensive guide to hunter pets.
• Raiders: Elitist Jerks: One of the best raid theory forums around. My husband reads these and then tells me what I need to know.

There are a lot more resources than just these, but these are the ones that even I've heard of.

I also want to note that sometimes "knowing where to look" means "knowing who to ask." Just because your source is a friend or even, say, your husband (^-^) doesn't mean that you don't know how to find information. Getting spec, gear, and rotation help from a knowledgeable guildmate or class lead is still a lot smarter than tossing your talent points around and hoping to hit a combination that works.

Just Plain Dumb

I heard recently about a guy who left an instance group because the warlock kept ninjaing all the soul shards.