How Gaming Site Editors Verify Secret Tips Before Online Game Players Share Them

Every gaming site that accepts reader submissions eventually gets the email. Subject line: "secret trick nobody knows." Inside is a method for duplicating an item, skipping a boss phase or getting a rare drop every time. Sometimes it is real. More often it is a misunderstanding, an old patched exploit, or bait designed to get someone banned.

Sharing tips is how gaming communities work, and the impulse is generous. A moderator we interviewed keeps a log of where such tips reach her team, and the list runs from Discord DMs and video comments to forum signatures and links to pages like ankertoto that people forward with a note saying "this one is legit." Her job, and the job of any editor who publishes tips, is to check before the tip spreads further under the site's name.

Why Unverified Tips Cause Real Harm

A wrong tip is not just embarrassing. Depending on the game, it can cost players:

• Hours of grinding spent on a method that does not work.
• In game currency or items lost to a "duplication" trick that actually deletes items.
• Account bans, when the tip relies on an exploit the developer is actively punishing.
• Account theft, when the "tip" asks players to install a tool or log in somewhere.

The last category is the most serious. Some secret tip posts are phishing in disguise, the same way some cheat code pages bundle malware. We explained the history of that in what a cheat code is in games, and the pattern has not changed much.

A Verification Protocol in Six Steps

Here is the protocol the moderator's team uses. It works for small sites with one or two editors.

Step 1: Classify the tip

Is it a strategy (a route, a build, a timing), a mechanic claim (a hidden stat, a drop rate), an exploit (a bug that produces unintended results), or something that asks the player to do anything outside the game? Anything in the last category is rejected immediately.

Step 2: Check if it is already known

Search the official forums, patch notes and major wikis. Roughly half of the "secret" tips the team receives are documented mechanics or exploits patched months ago.

Step 3: Reproduce it

Someone on the team tries it on the current version, ideally on a secondary account. They record the attempt on video and note the exact game version, platform and character setup.

Step 4: Reproduce it again, differently

A second person tries it, on another platform if possible. Many tips only work under conditions the original sender did not mention, such as a specific server region or a party size.

Step 5: Check the terms of service

If the tip is an exploit, check whether using it breaks the game's rules. The team will document an exploit for awareness but will not publish step by step instructions for one that risks bans.

Step 6: Publish with conditions

If it holds up, the tip is published with the version tested, the conditions required, and a credit to the sender if they want one.

A Template for Publishing Verified Tips

Consistency helps readers trust the process. The team's tip posts all follow the same short format:

In WordPress this can be a reusable block pattern, so every editor fills the same fields. It also makes old tips easy to audit after patches, since the version is always in the same place.

Where We Part Ways With Common Advice

A common view among gaming bloggers is that you should publish tips quickly and "let the comments sort it out." The idea is that readers will report if something is wrong. In our experience this works badly. Most readers who try a broken tip do not comment. They just leave and remember your site as unreliable. The handful who do comment often arrive after the tip has already been copied by other sites.

Comments are a useful second check, not a substitute for the first. If you lack the time to verify, label the post clearly as untested and invite reports. That is honest. Publishing an untested tip as fact is not.

Handling Tips From Your Own Community

The most valuable tips often come from regular readers, and how you respond shapes whether they keep sending them. A few practices help:

1. Acknowledge every submission within a few days, even if the answer is "we could not reproduce this."
2. Explain why a tip was rejected. People accept a clear reason far better than silence.
3. Credit contributors by name when they want it.
4. Keep a public page explaining your verification process, so readers know what to expect.

Our guide on getting into writing game guides covers how many of today's guide writers started as tip submitters, which is another reason to treat them well.

When a Tip Turns Out to Be Wrong After Publishing

Even a careful protocol lets something slip occasionally. A hotfix changes a mechanic the day after you publish, or a tip worked only because of a server bug that has since been fixed. How you handle that moment matters more than the mistake itself.

The moderator's team follows a simple rule: correct in public, at the top of the post, within a day. They do not delete the post, because other sites and Discord messages may already link to it, and a dead link leaves readers more confused than a clear correction. Instead they add a dated note such as "No longer works as of version 2.7.3, the developer patched the interaction," and move the post into an archive category.

They also tell the original submitter. Most people appreciate knowing, and several have come back later with a working variation. Over two years, the team estimates that about one in fifteen published tips needed a correction. That rate is low enough that readers trust the site, and the visible corrections are a large part of why they do.

Protecting the Site Itself

Tip submission forms attract spam and malicious links. Use a form plugin with spam filtering, never auto-publish submissions, and strip links from the submitted text before it reaches an editor's inbox. If you run a newsletter, never forward a reader tip containing a download link without checking it first. These steps are part of the broader habits in our tips for running a gaming blog.

Sharing secrets is half the fun of being a player. Checking them first is what makes a site worth reading.