Raccoon
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Moo said:
So, in the hypothetical, if newbies got an automated message, say via PM, what should it look like?
Something based on either of my two ideas, treasure hunt or ask-a-member?
Various site policies? - (a capsule summary) of "please, no bodily function intro threads, no drama, no L33t, no rudeness, no forbidden memes, look for low-postcount intro threads," and the like?
Links to stickies? The stickies themselves?
FAQ?
Recommendations on how to base trustworthiness? Or a simple, Darkfinnish "Trust No-one?"
Spoilering whichever of the above are included to make the APPEARANCE of the "handbook" not intimidating in its length?
Links to the wiki?
Or maybe the handbook in a newbie forum sticky? Or its own subforum, where individual policies had their own threads? So if guidance or reprimand were given to a newbie or any other member, the one doing the reprimanding or making the suggestion could simply link to the appropriate policy/rule in the handbook - and we would have everything a newbie should know in one place? (Yay newbie forum
) also see
Better to give a personal reply to two, than an impersonal reply to twenty.
Ultimately, someone who gets no responses may understand, given the busy nature of the forum. Or, they might get one later. Or, they might get a friendly welcome after their second post.
But someone who gets a copied-and-pasted message as their first response... well... personally, I'd prefer to get either a *totally* automatic message (one sent to all newbies, upon signup, automatically) or a welcome by a human being. This hybrid suggests that either the forum is not advanced enough to have a truly automated welcome message, or just doesn't care enough about its new users.
So, in the hypothetical, if newbies got an automated message, say via PM, what should it look like?
Something based on either of my two ideas, treasure hunt or ask-a-member?
Various site policies? - (a capsule summary) of "please, no bodily function intro threads, no drama, no L33t, no rudeness, no forbidden memes, look for low-postcount intro threads," and the like?
Links to stickies? The stickies themselves?
FAQ?
Recommendations on how to base trustworthiness? Or a simple, Darkfinnish "Trust No-one?"
Spoilering whichever of the above are included to make the APPEARANCE of the "handbook" not intimidating in its length?
Links to the wiki?
Or maybe the handbook in a newbie forum sticky? Or its own subforum, where individual policies had their own threads? So if guidance or reprimand were given to a newbie or any other member, the one doing the reprimanding or making the suggestion could simply link to the appropriate policy/rule in the handbook - and we would have everything a newbie should know in one place? (Yay newbie forum
I would just suggest having a more indepth introducation and FAQ about the forum all in one place or page, almost all the information/questions are already on the site, but as a newbie it can take a bit of digging before you are able to find it sometimes. (like some answers i found in announcements, some in administation, some in newbie questions, etc). Perhaps someone who has a few days to kill could centralize all those questions and answers on to one page if they really felt the need![]()
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