I just went over to the new members introduction area, and noticed something. The top thread had 36 views, but only three people (two because cogito always does and shouldn't count ) bothered to say hi. It's a little thing, but I can tell you if that had happened to me, I wouldn't feel very welcome. All I'm asking is that if you go to the thread and add to the page count, just take the 5 seconds it'll take to say hi. It'll go a long way to making the forum even more welcoming. And it'll encourage newcomers to stick around because it shows how nice we are. Nate
I agree, I was looking at another forum before I joined this one and they also had the intro threads, but one thread has over 2000 views but only 3 comments. Because of this I didn't join, they and we should all make more of an effort.
Keep in mind that many visits are likely to be guests. They can't post until they join, but may be surveying the land first.
But that in mind, people don't even have the decency to say hello, as if it's below their standereds.
Have you ever thought that people might be sending PMs instead of posting a hello on a board that is almost never looked at?
if you want to/can take the time to welcome each newcomer indivdually, with posts tailored to personally respond to theirs, that's fine... and a nice thing to do... what i find annoying, rudely impersonal, and a waste of posts/thread space is pasting the exact same message into every new intro... the only acceptable exception, imo, is cog's, which he only posts when called for, to let the newcomer know about the rule in re critiquing before posting work...
What's wrong if every post is just a form of the word 'hello'? It shows that the person cared enough to go specifically to the introduction subforum, to that thread, and post a reply with a greeting. I highly doubt very many members visit an introduction thread, read it, then reply with a pm. I can't say I can prove that, but it seems very unlikely. Again, just speaking from personal experience but how many guests would view the introduction threads if they're scouting out a site? And if so, then we're really in trouble because it's still a sad place IMO. A prospective member would view places like the general writing area, maybe the lounge, and the critique corner. Those are the most relevant to their interests. Nate
Here's one example of that\/ Second, do you really want anonymous people that you can neither regulate nor in anyway identify to have access to our critique workshop? That just screams as an opening to have the forum members' work exploited.
Only members can read posts in the Review Room. That still isn't very restrictive, because of the ease of getting an account with nothing more than a valid email account, but it still requires a member login. Exploitation is possible, but that's just the Internet for you.
And with the amount of opinions thrown back and forth in this tread - how many new people could you have welcomed by now? I have no problem posting a template 'hello' to new comers...wouldn't you agree it's better than no welcome at all? Any club/gym/group you join in the real world will almost ALWAYS send you a letter of welcome. And guess what, it's not tailored just for you!! You're over analyzing it. Big time.
*deep breath* Yeah... that kinda got ridiculous. My original point was just that we should try to do a little more welcoming. Does anyone really think that's a bad thing?
Can't it be changed so if guests view a thread it isn't counted as a view, it would stop alot of hasel.
It shouldn't matter how many times a thread is looked at. Most of the time you will find people aren't welcoming new comers because they are socialising in the lounge, getting to know each other and discussing different topics, or they are only able to log onto the forum for a set amount of time and so they go straight to the review room and review others works that have been posted and respond to reviews that they themselves have received. Don't judge members of the board because they aren't welcoming new members all the time. Some members are just trying to make sure they are being constructive in the review room in the amount of time they have. In an ideal world, we would all have the time to stop and welcome every single new member to the boards. Last night, I spent my normal time in the evening welcoming members before I had to do the poetry contest and then sign out. Which wasn't a great deal of time I had last night to do so. Stop and think before you start jumping up and down about lack of welcomes, we have an entire forum that we are required to post in, reviews to do, reviews to reply to, people waiting for us to reply to questions they have asked, people waiting for tips and advice on certain things. If you really want to be a pary of the community, welcome as many as you can find the time for, don't judge others for not welcoming and then go join in with a discussion around the boards. Whether that be in the writing issues section, the community interaction section, or the review room. We don't all have hours to spend online at a time, we have jobs, children, parents, siblings, homework and housework to do. Torana Supporter/Reviewer
