So you're standing in Tempest Keep, preparing for your third take on Kael'thas for the night. Suddenly, you hear a loud crash in the next room, where your husband is putting your daughter to bed. Do you tell your team "GTG" and hearth, or do you run out of the room instantly and leave your character where it is? What if it's your dog and not your child? What if it's a phone call?

There's a debate on this very subject going on in the Raids and Dungeons forum. Belak of Crimson Fury asks the simple question of whether there's any way to kick a raid member who suddenly took an extended AFK for an emergency so they can get a 25th player in the instance. The forumgoers tell him that sadly, there's nothing he can do about it. Several raiders noted that they don't believe in such things as an emergency AFK without warning, noting that it takes less time to Alt-F4 than it does to get out of your headphones for Vent.

Since there is a shortage of tanks, it's probably easiest for tank classes to find a group. That also means it's hardest if you are not a tank to find someone to play that role. The next most difficult is a healer. There's usually plenty of DPS to go around. It can take some time to make a group, but since dungeons provide excellent loot and good experience it's usually worthwhile to stick with it.

How young is too young to play WoW? We've discussed the ups and downs of grouping with kids quite a few times over the years, but the topic – like the kids themselves – just won't go away. Earlier this week, we interviewed an 11-year-old SSC raider and his mother. While most reader comments applauded the family for a disciplined, sensible approach to online gaming, a few readers seemed confused or even aghast that someone so young would be allowed to play World of Warcraft.

Gamers on the Street decided to pop in on Bloodscalp, a high-population PvP realm with what one supposes would be a correspondingly tough outlook on kiddie action. We surveyed several level 70 players at random, asking them about their own experiences with children in game. The consensus: Jerks come in all shapes, sizes and ages -- and children and teens are no better or worse than their adult counterparts. Hear out their reasoning, after the break.

Instances are known in most cases by their initials. Notable exceptions will be listed below. This guide also gives suggested levels for completing the dungeons. Entering at a lower level will usually prove difficult and, at times, painful. If you do an instance at a higher level than recommended will garner little experience and rewards that do not benefit your current level.

Welcome to today's edition of Ask WoW Insider, in which we publish your questions for dissection by the peanut gallery. Last time we discussed identification with your virtual self, and this time we turn our attention once again to an issue of instance etiquette; James wants to know if it should be customary to tip your tank after a run:

Hey guys,

I was wondering if there is some standard etiquette for tipping your main tank after instances. The repair bill for our much-loved meat shields is usually much higher than the bill for me and my clothy brethren, so I'm curious if most PUG's will throw the MT a few gold after a run. To be honest, I don't normally tip the MT (and in my experience, they don't expect one) but is this something we should do? If so, what's a good amount?

What's the verdict: do you tip your tanks, or do they not deserve the special treatment? Are there any circumstances in which you'd feel more likely to tip? What's a reasonable amount, and does it vary by instance?

Got questions? Don't wait! Send them to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com and your query could be up in lights here next week.

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling and using player-made products.

A handful of my guildies and I rerolled early this week on a new-to-us server for a new-to-us type of game play (and yes, I'm exhausted from the whole "Just let me do this last turn-in over here, oh and here are the last six mobs for that collect quest, and then I gotta train, and then top off a few points in fishing ..." thing until 2 a.m. – I'll be needing all the Night Dragon's Breath Dip I can get to make it through the tail end of the work week). I can verifiably report that we have indeed discovered the promised land: a mature, friendly and humorous server population. (And no, I won't tell you which server we chose. This community is mine, all mine!) Although our intrepid little group plans to group all the way up together almost exclusively, I'm sure we'll be picking up the occasional PuGger. But somehow, I don't think we'll run into many problems with loot whiners -- the players here seem to have specced for level-headedness.

On some servers, though, the atmosphere's not so holly-jolly. Mole hills blow up into mountains (and indeed, volcanos) before you can say "Who's in on this drop?" Today, Insider Trader takes a look at an issue that's left many an enchanter completely scratching his head: who disenchants items nobody needs during an instance run – and who gets to keep the results?

I can't really say I'm surprised to the response to the question Calipsa asked. But what I am surprised by is why she asked it: she wanted to know if sending group or even guild invites without whispering first was rude, and players responded overwhelmingly that it was. Why did she think it wasn't? There's almost nothing more confusing than receiving a random group or guild invite, and considering that even spammers are using group invites to spam, it's just not something you want to do.

Now maybe she meant just whether a whisper was necessary or not. If a player is marked LFG, or they're a guildie you know is available for a group, or they've just shouted out "LFG for group quests" in a chat channel, then I'd say they're fair game for a ninja invite. You don't need to actually whisper them and confirm everything you do (well, it's still nice to do, but in those cases, I'd say you don't need to).

But yes, invites out of the blue are a no-no. Rude, maybe, annoying, yes, and usually a waste of time for both parties.

It's time once again for Ask WoW Insider to publish one of your questions for the community to answer. Last week we heard a ton of great ding stories, and this week we examine a possible breach of instance etiquette. Pelia on Greymane writes:

Last night I was leading a PUG into DM East and about 10 minutes into the instance our mage says "hey guys, i g2g in 20 minutes..." Since we were just starting the instance, I dropped him and instantly started looking for a replacement that would be able to run the whole instance with us. The mage was surprised and said "I said 20 minutes!"

Should I have let him stay in our group until he really needed to go? The group had just formed, so I didn't really feel I owed anything to him. Plus I couldn't use the LFG tool/channel if he stayed since we already had 5 people... I figured I owed it to the rest of the group to find a 5th person that was in it for the long haul...

Was I being a good leader, or a jerk... or both?

What say you, readers -- did the mage commit an instance faux pas? Most of us have rushed to complete a dungeon whilst an exasperated significant other/parent/child/spouse/friend waited for our tardy asses to show up somewhere, but what's an acceptable limit for a "gtg soon!" announcement? Would you go into a dungeon knowing you had to replace a member part way through?

Our kingdom for your questions! Please send us what you'd like to know for next week at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.

It seems like everyone's getting prepared for BlizzCon these days. As a member of the prestigious Too Broke To Fly Out To California club, I have to content myself with reading forum posts and leaked information from my colleagues. But for those of you that are actually going, Adriss's "Helpful Blizzcon etiquette tips" can help you avoid embarassment in front of your guildmates:

• Upon meeting a blood elf or dwarf it is considered impolite to ask them if they would qualify for the reality show "Intervention."
• It is impolite to refer to any member of the Forsaken as a zombie. Zombies are undead, flesh-eating humans created by George A. Romero. The Forsaken, are undead, flesh-eating humans created by the Lich King.
• When meeting a Dev. ask an original and creative question. For instance, instead of being the 40, 599, 600th person to ask "When you fellas gonna open the instance in SW?", ask something like, "Why don't tailors have a recipe to make me a new pair of underwear?"
• Wait at least a day after the convention to post your swag on any Internet Auction site. That way you can see how much people are truly willing to pay for a code that makes their char. run around in a fish man suit.

Do you have any handy etiquette tips for BlizzCon? Other than showering?

Blizzcon is only three weeks away, and so right now might be the best time to start brushing up on your BlizzCon Etiquette-- Adriss from Skywall has written up this very helpful tongue-in-cheek guide to make sure you don't commit any faux pas at Blizzard's gigantic get-together.

For instance, did you know that you should always ask permission before punting any gnomes you see? And also, I was sorry to read that Night Elves will not be permitted to dance at the convention-- apparently there will be children there. Pretty funny.

Have any other tips for not stepping on any toes? My only suggestions would be to stay away from any shoulder-related comments when around Orcs, and by all means, do not feed the CMs. They subside just fine on their normal diet of forum trolls and customer tears.

[ via WorldofWar.net ]

Welcome back to Ask WoW Insider, where each week we publish one of your questions. Last week we had some fun imagineering new battlegrounds, and this week we turn our attention once again to an issue near and dear to our hearts: loot. This week's question comes from Chris, who wants to know about etiquette regarding rolling or bidding for an epic drop to replace an item in a slot that is already an epic:

All DKP ideas aside, when is it fair to upgrade an epic over an epic?

Here is the situation: We are running Karazhan and the Staff of Infinite Mysteries drops. I, being a mage, have the epic spell blade form Thrallmar and epic off hand I got from turning in badges of justice. In addition to my weapons I have dropped all money making professions to take up tailoring and enchanting and power leveled them up to get the best gear and enchants possible to make raiding easier. Everyone else has just started doing the same thing finally and are a bit slow in the progress.

Now, every DPS squishy wants the staff because it's an obvious upgrade to their blue weapon and I want it because it's an upgrade for boss fights because of the +hit and secondary stats. Would it be fair to roll for the staff seeing as how I have worked hard to get where I am at and still consider the staff to be an upgrade? Or should I just let the people that haven't worked as hard to get geared out take it in hopes it helps out the raid progression a bit faster.

My opinion is that passing on loot to help those less geared out is like taxing the smart to help the dumb. Perhaps you have a better theory.

What say you, readers? What factors should you consider when bidding or rolling on an epic drop that will replace a piece of gear on your character that is already shiny purple? Should you gear up those in blues first to help your guild, or is your dkp yours to spend on whatever you like with a free conscience? How much of an upgrade does it need to be to justify taking it over the lesser-geared?

Join us next week for another Friday edition of Ask WoW Insider, and don't forget that we need your questions to make it happen! Send us what you want to know at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.

Sometimes, the inevitable happens. You're down a man (or woman), halfway through an instance, and one of you has to pick up a replacement. Or perhaps you're on the other side -- you really want to get into a particular instance to do all those quests cluttering up your log.

Some players in the latter category may hang around capital cities occasionally asking in LFG and waiting for appropriate LFM broadcasts. However, it's safe to say that not every player in Orgrimmar wants to do RFC, and not every player in Stormwind wants to do the Stockades. Unfortunately, I've seen a huge rise in the number of unsolicited whispers recently from players asking for help in these instances -- and more.

I wouldn't mind so much if they were phrased nicely, or gave me some motivation to join. "u want 2 come to dm with us? u heal?" isn't sufficient justification for a high-level character to leave the comfort of a city and run through a low-level instance with strangers. Of course, some players take this opportunity to play tricks on unsuspecting lowbies -- what's your reaction to random instance invitations? Have you ever found one compelling enough to take up? Or did you manage to phrase your LFG nicely enough that you were deluged with help?

As I was running through Ironforge today with my guild-less alt, without warning a guild charter opened in front of me. I was slightly annoyed by someone interrupting my day without asking, so I declined to sign and kept moving. A few seconds later, the same document popped up again. I declined and kept moving. After the third signature request, I yelled at the offending party to back off, and was finally left alone.

I find it extremely annoying when people open guild charter windows, invite me to groups, or trade with me without asking permission. I decline everything on principle, but some particularly forward individuals don't seem to get the message. Does everyone have these problems, or am I just hypersensitive?