New Member & New Members Section Issue

[Micah 16]

After 13 members sending me private messages suggesting I should do this... well, here it is.

I posted a thread over in the New Members section and it became a very controversial thread. It was suppose to welcome all the new members so that they wouldn't have to create new threads that get only 20 replies or so and become dead after a few days or so. (Quote from a member). Can you believe that some of the new members that visit the New Members forum believe it is the most unwelcoming forum of all the forums?? (Quote from several new members)

 

 

 

They feel it unwelcoming because none of the 'older' members visited their threads. Consequently none of the new members could 'meet and greet' the older members or ask their questions. And when some new member had the audacity to ask the question outside of the new member thread... or horror-of-horrors start a thread, they got jumped on by angry long-timers. They were basically told to go back to the new members thread... where of course any question would remain unanswered. So the forum as a whole eventually turned into a rather inhospitable place. The older members had basically formed little cliques, often with their own dedicated threads, and it was very unwelcoming for new members. I was rather disgusted with the behavior I seen and last I looked, a whole lot of like minded individuals simply got fed up and left. (Quote from a new member).

 

 

 

Also, new members in the New Member section say that they find it unwelcoming because of the culture that seems to occur, the short sarcastic posts critical of 'noobs' posts, complaining about a topic coming up again and again.

[vidioman 21]

I think there should be a page made directing new members to an FAQ section. (I also think there should be an FAQ section, regarding both SC4 and the site)

We should also include links to the help squad, maybe give them a better way of contacting members. Sometine like a link to the side, put your problem into a text box, send it, and someone will reply to it.

The new members section is a mess... I agree with you there.

[Eastwinn 6]

Yes, you are right, the title must be changed. Maybe something like What do you do? Where do you live? - A place to welcome yourself. Also, I do think that the new members should be informed about the SHS. Anyone can PM me or other SHS members with a question anytime and should know that the question are completely confidential and no one will be judged by their question.

[Mikeaut1 261]

Yes, I totally agree with Vidioman that the New Member area needs to be cleaned up at this time.

 

What I think, is that we should make New Member Information SEPARATE from the Sim City 4 Forums. If people aren't seeing that there actually is a New Member Information area, then we should make the thread more noticeable. Maybe on the homepage, we can have ...

 

New to Simtropolis? Click here for help!

 

That link would direct new users to the New Member Information forum.

 

We really need to organize the New Member Information section of this site. It is too all over the place. Stickey Threads should include a welcome thread to new users, a general question thread, and FAQ.

 

What also is a bit unsettling is that there are questions regarding Sim City 4 being asked in that forum. Isn't that forum just for new members information?

[samantha 138]

The new members forum was never meant to herd off the new members and keep them away from the rest of the forums, it was something I requested as we have a lot of information that new members might like to read and it seemed logical to have it all kept in the same forum...rather than spread all over the board.   I did hope that it might become an area where newer folk could say Hi and more experienced members of the community could go and answer questions and post if they decided to do so.

 

The whole reason this site is run is for the community...this is your bulletin board, and we want it to be run to satisfy the needs of the community and our members.  If you would like to see some changes to the line up, the individual forums we have or the topic content then please just let us know your ideas.  I'm not saying that every idea will be acted upon, but they will be considered by the admins and the Dirktator will implement any he deems suitable.  

 

 

[Joesocwork 4]

Micah, I understand your frustrations fr that thread and your intentions appeared very well intending to me.  I wouldn't take the feedback you got on it personally though. 

Helping newcomers to feel welcome while engaging in the work that continually goes on is continual challenge no matter what.   I think we all should be open on how to do it as members and as a part of the website while still maintaining the standards that we've already set.  This is as good of a venue as any.

 

Since all of the open forums were meant for everybody, I would not be in favor of changing the What do you do? Where do you live thread.  We often have members who discover it many months later, including myself.  Again I think anybody should participate.

 

But if there are suggestions for change within the website that seem reasonable we know doubt will discuss it within the Dirktatorship.

 

-Joe

[Micah 16]

Joesocwork, sorry that this caused a misunderstanding. I'm not the one frustrated. Sorry, I should have said that in the first post. This may sound odd, but I don't necessarily consider myself a new member. I'm just simply feel sorry for the new members, and I hope that they get better treatment through this issue that was raised over there. A few new members viewed their opinions in that thread and many people were telling me I should raise this issue even farther, so since I personally didn't think any new member would raise this issue, I did it for them (since they also requested it as well).

Edited: Thanks Samantha and Joe for considering these ideas.

[Voar Tok 4]

Date: 11/30/2005 9:18:57 PM Author: vidioman I think there should be a page made directing new members to an FAQ section.

quote>

I had talked to dirk about something like that not that long ago.  My idea had been an auto-generated PM to the new person that would direct them to a few places on the site (forums rules, what do you do, where do you live, chat rules etc.) so that they could get an idea about how this site works and introduce themselves.

 

I personally believe that the NMI forum does need some help.  A new member creating a thread saying that they are new to the site isn't a bad idea, but if everyone started doing that, the forum would balloon in size uncontrollably.  I'm positive that there is a happy medium somewhere, but I'm not quite sure where it is.  However, part of the problem is actually us, because by avoiding the NMI forum, it is very easy to give the new members the cold shoulder.  I'm not saying that we all need to hang out there at the exclusion of the other forums, but maybe we could all spend a little bit more time in the NMI forum and welcome the new members.  Now that this has been brought to my attention, I will be trying to spend a little more time there from now on.

[Compromise 1]

As a ex-moderator of the NMI forum I can tell you that people not spotting the What do you do? Where do you live? thread has been a problem for a long time. At one point I did try replacing it with a welcome thread but that diden't work as everyone ignored it so I switched it back. I think we should just add to the current title like What do you do? Where do you live? (A Place to Welcome New Members).

 

About fears on newbie discrimination and segragation, during my NMI forum moderating time I did not have to edit any posts releated to anti-newbie stunts. Also most newbie's post in other forums apart from NMI. But I still think it is something to keep an eye on.

[SamFlash 0]

I lurked for 6 months and was a member for 9 months before I went to the New Members forum for the first time.  That tells me it is not as effective and utilized as much as it could be. 

One other observation I would like to share is something I noticed in this forum.  I came here for the first time 3 weeks or so ago and read posts by members I have never seen (read) before.  There would appear to be a number of members with 2000+ posts who do not post in any of the forums where most new people go for help.  This deprives new members of the valuable help many older members can give and creates the impression of cliques.

This is not a criticism (just my 2 cents worth) and I'm not saying that everybody needs to go to the general discussion forums but I find that many of the most helpful members are fairly new themselves.   I will say that most of the moderators and administrators are quite active in helping out and answering questions and that reflects well on them and the community as a whole. 

[gggg 9]

I can see there are some trobel in the new members forum....

I myself stoped posting there about a mounth ago

when some $%&^! insolted me after I tried to help him.

 

guess its time for me to get back there now....

[Mikeaut1 261]

Date: 12/1/2005 4:18:12 PM Author: gggg

I can see there are some trobel in the new members forum....

I myself stoped posting there about a mounth ago

when some $%&^! insolted me after I tried to help him.

guess its time for me to get back there now....

quote>

 

LOL.

 

I like the ideas flowing around in here, about changing the titles of the What Do You Do? Where Do You Live? thread. I also like the idea about the automated PM being sent to new users. That has been an idea here for a long time. Hopefully we can try and do something like that.

 

 

[Kevin 101]

Like many of you, I am all for changing the title of the What do you do, where do you live thread to something like Introduce Yourself or Make your first post here!

Right now, the title isn't clear enough, and I think thats why members create their own threads to introduce themselves.

[Micah 16]

Oh hi, Cheese89. I think the two main ideas presented here is that they need to change the title of the What do you do? Where do you live thread or to simply add on a few words saying something new members come here or something close to that. Also, the other idea presented is somehow sending an automatic PM to new members who sign in here. And the sooner we do it, the more new members recieve the welcoming PM. I'll just wait to see if there are any more issues. I especially would love to see any more recommendations for the New Members section. Thanks for all the support and help for the New Member's section.

[Duke87 1,070]

Well, one thing that bothers me is that (new) people here post threads in the new members forum asking for help on SC4 related issues. So, New Member Information might be a tad misleading, as some people apparently think that if you're a new member and you want to start a thread, that that's where you should put it, as opposed to in its proper forum. I think a better name might just be Site related FAQ. Keep all the rules and tutorial threads there, and maybe add some other stuff that's FAQ related, but don't allow for the creation of new threads in that forum (modmins will still be able to move topics there if deemed appropriate).

As for the issue of old timers never posting there, well, I will admit that I don't enter that forum too often... I guess that after you've seen too many hi, I'm new threads they all start to seem the same and you just stop caring.  Then again, there probably aren't any forums on the internet where you can start such a thread and expect a warm welcome from everyone. Like it or not, that's reality. So, if we expect that to happen, we have higher expectations of peole than any forum out there. But maybe it would be for the better, so we can always try.

 

I think I'll pop in there later and see what's going on just because of this thread.

[Rymac91 15]

I wish they would send a uto PM to a member once they registerd giving them the rules and giving them the features and links to tutourials...but it's just my opinion on this...though I wish the search engine was a little more flexable...

[Compromise 1]

Yes I like the automatic PM idea alougth weather it could be created is a different issue.

[Jasoncw 11,839]

I think that the new member forum should do nothing but have stickied information for new members. I don't think there should be any discussion becuase it just segregates the community. The new member forum is just an off-topic forum for newbies, why seperate the two?

But some newbies remind me of hampsters in their balls, running around (who knows what they're trying to do) bumping into things.

So imo the new member forum should be completely.

The automatic pm is a good idea, and it's not uncommon for other websites to have them. It also helps teach how pms work becuase for me at least, it's hard to see if you have a new pm (not so much on this site though).

As far as the admins acting on members suggestions, I really don't feel like it happens. I've posted in threads where alot of well thought out improvements to simtropolis were posted, and there was never any posts from admins acknowleding that it was discussed or saying any outcomes.

[Micah 16]

I went into the New Members Section today, and the What do you do? Where are you from? thread hasn't been updated since last Saturday which is a week ago!!! And if you look at the population, it is growing by nearly a thousand a week!!! Last week the pop. was about 95,000 people... now it is over 98,000.

 

[Eastwinn 6]

    I like the What Do You Do? Where Do You Live? thread; I like to welcome people so hopfully they may stay and become a helpful part of the cummunity. The title will need to be changed if we want people to welcome themselves and chat with other new members. Since the last post there, as Micah said, was a week ago. I really don't think that newbies releaze that is the welcoming thread they are looking for.

    I don't want the title to change completely, I just want  -- A Place To Introduce Yourself to be added to it. It might be more welcoming if the title were more like What Do You Do? Where Do You Live? -- A Place To Introduce Yourself. People also need to know from the start that this site has one of the nicest people and forums and that in the NMI forum, no question is stupid (Unless the question is less of a question and more spammish).

    A simple title change could make the difference we need but an Automatic PM would be helpful. The PM could hopefully let people know about the SHS since our only way about telling the newbies about the SHS is by our signatures.

 

-East

[MsD 0]

I guess you could consider me to still be a newbee, I have only been a member of this site for a few months.

I have read all the posts on this thread and on the thread that Micah directed us to in his first post on this thread.

 

I agree that the new members section does need some work.  But I feel that I need to point out, that although I have never seen any memeber tell a new member to go back to the new members section I have seen new members criticized for posting a thread in the wrong area and basic get ignored and their questions not answered.

 

I will admit that there is probably a huge problem with new members not reading the FAQ's and the rules for this site.  So I would suggest that all new members be directed to an area where they must first read the rules before they are allowed to procede to any other areas on this site.  I would also suggest that this rules section also contain a list of all areas on this site with a good explination of what type of posts should go in each section.  This very well could eliminate a lot of posts being made in the wrong forums and giving the newbee's a little bit more education about this site allowing them to fit in better.

 

I wouldn't restrict the new members from any area on this site because there are some area's which are very welcoming to all members and are a great source of meeting other members.  Plus the members who post in these area are useally very patient with newbee's and are willing to give little tidbits to help them out.

 

Still the question remains, who is considered a newbee and how long should they be considered one?  There are several members who became members a good six months ago or longer but have only made 1 or 2 posts.  Are these members newbee's?

 

Anyway that is my 2 cents worth.

[Athens2004 1]

Oh, you're well again I guess. We all used to be newbies once.