Raccoon
Est. Contributor
- Messages
- 4,161
- Role
-
- Diaper Lover
- Diaperfur
Here is an interesting idea from Kevindhca, above... All ranks (newbies, regs, VIP's, staff) have different levels of access, different areas they can go to. Now one thing intimidating newbies, perhaps, is seeing all the places there are at once but getting access denied messages if they try to go there.If the newbies had less of the site at first, it would be less intimidating and they would be able to get to know the feel of the site
I don't really think that a specific forum for newbies is required, just a reallocation of how many forums newbies can access. Newbies who are active posters and contribute to the community would become regulars quickly and then have access to the rest of the regular forums.
If the newbies had less forums to access, I believe there is a greater chance that the rules and forum guidelines type threads would actually get read.
You know, get your feet wet in the kiddie pool before moving out into the deep water.
So why not give them a different layout that graphically only shows the areas they can access? Then they could go anywhere on it and not feel barred from anywhere
Then part of the prize (as I think Peach put it) of becoming a reg or VIP is that the skin changes; those blank white forums now have text and are clickable! Or where there were no forums, *POP* there they are!!
Put another way, I can go into requests but only have one graphical option that takes me to my threads. If I saw buttons for everyone's request subforums and, of course got nowhere clicking on them, I would be aware I was being denied access. As it is, other peoples' request areas don't enter my mind.
Out of sight, out of mind.
But the main point is just to make site navigation a no-brainer, which might encourage newbies to go to all the places available to them.
Last edited: