greeting committee

[Raccoon]

This is copied (entire) from http://www.adisc.org/forum/showthrea...1941#post11941

Originally Posted by Pramrider

Just did a bit of searching on the greetings forum to see who all has returned or newly joined ADISC so far. It was sad to see several newbie's/returnee's threads never had so much as one "welcome" or "welcome back" reply. Started thinking how lax I've been about offering welcomes, too. Sooooo......to rectify that situation.....I'd like to formally offer a welcome to the following members:

Conrad
Sly Fox
Ranger
Silverwing
Lone_Wolf
Angelicus
tbchris
legobaby
tbsam88
DarkSunDS
Target_0

I see some are already regulars while others have posted only a few times. Just hope none of those *low post* members were discouraged by not receiving a welcome at first to make them feel at home.

A belated, but well deserved warm Welcome to all eleven of you!

~Pramrider

Good for you Pramrider. Part of the problem is the rate of new posts; I have given up trying to keep up with many threads, even some forums. Some people ignore the greetings threads as they simply have limited time to spend here. I try to say at least something to new people, though it is often slight. Therein lies another reason greetings threads are often ignored: that they are often not very interesting. It is as boring to write, "Hi new person; glad you are here; hope you stay," as it is to read the same thing over and over. Some new people write a good intro. Many don't know what to say, so they don't say it. And some try to plunge into the fray with the kind of "stories" that are meant to say," I am one of you! I deserve some status or standing in the community because I told my parents and they are ok with it!! or my gf indulges me etc." - And are probably shocked, or at least disappointed when they are met with derision and skepticism.

I suggest we form a greetings committee - you and me as founding members.
With, say 10 gc members, if one or two of us are away, the others would make sure the newbies do no go ungreeted. The replies of the gc members would contain a brief paragraph about the gc member, and some questions to the newbie; this would be a good time to introduce forum rules, etiquette, and other info, such as pointers to the kind of standard info that might be stored in wiki but "put" under the noses of the newbies.

Where it says member (I mean regular) or vip etc. we could have the title "greeter."

We would need a storehouse of little paragraphs to feed the newbies. I don't think having 10 pages of rules, system of government, who's who, punctuation and spelling etiquette, forum features etc. as required reading before a member can join in would work. "TL;DR would appear and defeat the purpose. Greeters would have to literally be on the same page so as to give the newbies consistent and useful information. Maybe we could stop some of the drama in its tracks. Maybe we could get newbies to post a bit more. We would be guides and mentors... We could handle some things, and pass others, as required, up to the mods.

The little paragraphs could be in a sticky (where they would add up to the aforementioned 10 pages) or on the wiki - or both. One such thread would consist of exemplary greetings from the past as instances of how to write - or not - a really good greeting. We might need a new sub-forum where gc members could go to coordinate their efforts, work out policy, take suggestions, cooperatively work out which info to feed newbies and so forth. The first thing is to get volunteers to be greeters.

[Dash]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

This is copied (entire) from http://www.adisc.org/forum/showthrea...1941#post11941



Good for you Pramrider. Part of the problem is the rate of new posts; I have given up trying to keep up with many threads, even some forums. Some people ignore the greetings threads as they simply have limited time to spend here. I try to say at least something to new people, though it is often slight. Therein lies another reason greetings threads are often ignored: that they are often not very interesting. It is as boring to write, "Hi new person; glad you are here; hope you stay," as it is to read the same thing over and over. Some new people write a good intro. Many don't know what to say, so they don't say it. And some try to plunge into the fray with the kind of "stories" that are meant to say," I am one of you! I deserve some status or standing in the community because I told my parents and they are ok with it!! or my gf indulges me etc." - And are probably shocked, or at least disappointed when they are met with derision and skepticism.

I suggest we form a greetings committee - you and me as founding members.
With, say 10 gc members, if one or two of us are away, the others would make sure the newbies do no go ungreeted. The replies of the gc members would contain a brief paragraph about the gc member, and some questions to the newbie; this would be a good time to introduce forum rules, etiquette, and other info, such as pointers to the kind of standard info that might be stored in wiki but "put" under the noses of the newbies.

Where it says member (I mean regular) or vip etc. we could have the title "greeter."

We would need a storehouse of little paragraphs to feed the newbies. I don't think 10 pages of rules, system of government, who's who, punctuation and spelling etiquette, forum features etc. as required reading before a member can join in would work. "TL;DR would appear and defeat the purpose. We would have to literally be on the same page so as to give the newbies consistent and useful information. Maybe we could stop some of the drama in its tracks. Maybe we could get newbies to post a bit more.

I agree, it's one thing to say "hey, welcome" to someone who tells us about themselves, but another to give them insight to our community, cos I'm sure most of you would agree; it's a damn good one!

I'm all for this idea ^.^

[UnMarth]

I'm with the campaign and all. But wasn't there the "Adopt a Newbie" thing aswell? i didn't remember the technicalities of it all. But overall the idea was the same. to welcome Newbies, and ensure they are comfortable and have a little understanding of how things work here.

Maybe having a list of dedicated members to the program and have some sort of order, where a member who is free can tag a new member and help them. As to ensure two people talking to them at once.

[Dash]

that works too. either way - i think if i were a newbie, and from what i remember of being new to ADISC [TBDL] was that I felt I had to try and dig my way deep into the community to make friends and get to know people - which wasn't easy since I'm quite a shy person.

[FullMetal]

Originally Posted by UnMarth

I'm with the campaign and all. But wasn't there the "Adopt a Newbie" thing aswell? i didn't remember the technicalities of it all. But overall the idea was the same. to welcome Newbies, and ensure they are comfortable and have a little understanding of how things work here.

Maybe having a list of dedicated members to the program and have some sort of order, where a member who is free can tag a new member and help them. As to ensure two people talking to them at once.

Yes, and that will pick up in a few weeks. Adopt a Newbie really worked well. My "Adopt A Newbie" program was more on a person level. It paired Members up with Newbies to help them try and integrate into our community. I would like to have more VIP's first, and that is why I have not started it just yet. Before, I opened it to all members but I'm not sure about that right now. I will be revising it just a bit, and I think it will be up in two weeks or so.

Sorry for the Delay. Oh and if you guys think that this would work better than Adopt a Newbie, say so, I mean, I dont want two of virtually the same programs running...it would not make sense.

FullMetal

[avery]

Originally Posted by Dash

that works too. either way - i think if i were a newbie, and from what i remember of being new to ADISC [TBDL] was that I felt I had to try and dig my way deep into the community to make friends and get to know people - which wasn't easy since I'm quite a shy person.

i felt the same way when i first joined. it takes a huge amount of time and effort to become a part of this community. i don't think "adopt a newbie" or any kind of greetings committee is going to change that. it's just the way things are on a site like this: you have to spend a lot of time getting to know someone before you can feel sure you trust them.

all the same, i think "adopt a newbie" is a good idea and i'd be happy to participate in it once fullmetal gets it back off the ground.

[Target]

It's a very good idea.
I agree with Raccoon

[ayanna]

I don't think I'd have time for this...I barely have time to read the forums as it is...specifically seeking out 'newbies' is not for me (although I was a part of the currently dis-banded 'adopt-a-newbie').

I've got enough trouble with newbies who come in and post "I think I might be a...." as their greeting and then turn around and post "How do I know if I'm a...." in another thread (before anyone's practically had a chance to read/respond to the first one. (I'm on a rant at the moment, can you tell?) Or the newbies who come in and post "I told my mum/dad/sister/brother/significant other and they were fine with it" as their greeting and then bugger off and never return (Gee, I wonder why no one believes them?)

See where I'm comin' from with this?

As for the adopt a newbie program which was all well and good. I was a part of it but had 'bad luck' with my 'newbie'. In fact I sent him a PM welcoming him to the forum and so on, but alas, since he hadn't made enough posts to be allowed to PM back he couldn't...and so it was an ill-fated alliance from the get-go. There has to be another way to contact "your newbie" than PM (or publicly on the forum).

Although, I have to admit, when my friend Inifini (a non *BDL) signed up and I posted a 'welcome message' to him (to which many of you have responded and I thank you for that) it seemed to go quite well!

I forget where I was going with this...but anyway...ummm...yeah!

[Raccoon]

Ah, I don't remember "Adopt a Newbie." I had a long absence last year. The aims of the two programs sound the same, with slightly different mechanics. But it sounds as though there is enthusiasm to set up some single program, and there are experienced people willing to join in. I agree with Fullmetal they should be vip's. I also think the first step is to have sticky for volunteers to sign up. Next step is for the volunteers to get together and work out what policies to adhere to. It sounds like Fullmetal will have a lot of that already and we don't need to reinvent Fullmetal's wheel; he will also have an idea of what worked in the past.

[Dash]

Originally Posted by avery

i felt the same way when i first joined. it takes a huge amount of time and effort to become a part of this community. i don't think "adopt a newbie" or any kind of greetings committee is going to change that. it's just the way things are on a site like this: you have to spend a lot of time getting to know someone before you can feel sure you trust them.

Certainly, I don't think we can change it, but I still think we can somehow boost newcomers' confidence to post/chat on the forums.
And wouldn't you agree that not all newcomers; who really want to be part of this community, have the time they wish they had to socialise here? Particularly if you're in the situation of most users - you have nobody else other than the people in this community that you feel you can talk to about being *B, DL, babyfur, etc...

aw, jesus... sorry for ranting. again! =(