Adoptions Suggestion Box-currently discussing the adopter "waiting period" issue. Comments welcome!

Don't worry Ewok, the thread will still be here tomorrow. Go get some sleep first.

Well, I'm rested up and ready to do some critiquing (sp?) !

(Since I probably will have a lot to comment on, the quoted stuff might come from quite a few posts up)


New "oldbies" signing up for adoption should receive a Private Message from the coordinator asking for their location and fav. boards (as before), and additionally whether they'd like to pick an adoptee on their own or have one assigned to them by the coordinator. The coordinator would keep a record of these answers on his hard drive.

Good! I think giving them a choice in the begining is good. Like finding an adopter with around the same age of adopter and either a male or female adopter. I wonder if one of the questions from the coordinator, if the newbie wants them to pick them adopter, is if they would like an adopter of the same sex or different as them. Also age. I know its nice having a newb around the same age, since your going through like times in your life.

When a newbie asks to be adopted, and the coordinator is not online, all oldbies looking for a newbie are free to "snatch them up".

Also good. Helps move it along faster.

As soon as the coordinator gets online, they send a Private Message to the new member to welcome them to the program and offer their help.
If the newbie has already been adopted by someone at this time - great, not much work to do for the coordinator here, just give them your best wishes and add them to the list of "pairs".

If the newbie has not been adopted yet, the coordinator offers to help finding a suitable adopter. The newbie should definitely have the opportunity to pick an adopter on their own, some directions (i.e. who's available for adopting, how to find out more about them and how to contact someone) would be good here.


Again, good. Also, same as my response to the first one, if the newb wants help in finding an adopter.

Keep an eye on newbies who chose to find an oldbie alone and contact them again if you don't see any results after a few days.
(These newbies would be on the "free newbies" list while they're looking and oldbies would be allowed to contact them and offer to adopt.)

Now, when a newbie asks to be paired up by the coordinator, they should try to find out a litte more about their interests/favourite boards and then get in contact with a suitable oldbie immediately. Preferably with someone who asked to be paired up of course, one of the others if necessary.


Again, sounds good!

Okay, quick question, whats NPUC? I think I know what it means but not sure,

On the waiting period issue, I think maybe a week would be good. I think this because then when they are done with an adoptee, then they won't be able to take a newb that someone, who maybe hasn't been able to adopt yet, might want.

I can't give you any numbers right now, unfortunately, but several people have said that they're disappointed that they never get the chance to adopt because they're always too late; and that they're getting frustrated because of it. More than one person has left the program because they "never get an adoptee anyway".

Hmm, I see both sides of this complaint. One side is that some people are "hogging" the newbies that aren't adopted, although, I have to wonder how many times these people checked the thread for new newbs. If I'm not mistaken, and please correct me if I'm wrong, the people that post in thread seem to me to be either newbs saying they want in, people saying they want to become adopters and then a select amount of oldbies/midbies that hang around waiting for newer people. I'm not coming down on people, just a question.

If someone leave their adoptee and signed up for the free oldbie list at the adoption thread.
These oldbies are asked to wait one day after a possible newbie posted their welcome thread or in the adoption thread. But this just for the next two weeks.

 

NPUC = Newbie who wants to be paired up by the coordinator.

I think Sabine spent a little too much time with TwiLekJedi.


Hmm, I see both sides of this complaint. One side is that some people are "hogging" the newbies that aren't adopted, although, I have to wonder how many times these people checked the thread for new newbs. If I'm not mistaken, and please correct me if I'm wrong, the people that post in thread seem to me to be either newbs saying they want in, people saying they want to become adopters and then a select amount of oldbies/midbies that hang around waiting for newer people. I'm not coming down on people, just a question.

Yes, good analysis. And I believe most of those who never get an adoptee are not too late, but rather those who are waiting to be paired up with a newbie by the coordinator - which is exactly why I think this is such an important issue to discuss.

 

Morgaine: "Yes, good analysis. And I believe most of those who never get an adoptee are not too late, but rather those who are waiting to be paired up with a newbie by the coordinator - which is exactly why I think this is such an important issue to discuss. "

Hmm, I think the point being portrayed here is the fact that if those whom had not had a chance to adopt, would over-look the main thread for adoptions, their likeliness to adopt would increase . And, for those whom are still unable, we could still set time limit.

Many of those whom get the Newbie are the ones that are active in the WNU and Adoptions thread .

 

NPUC = Newbie who wants to be paired up by the coordinator.


Thats what I thought. Didn't get the words right, but the general idea


I think Sabine spent a little too much time with TwiLekJedi.




Many of those whom get the Newbie are the ones that are active in the WNU and Adoptions thread

I agree with this. You said in one sentance what I tried to say in a paragraph,

 

Hmm, I think the point being portrayed here is the fact that if those whom had not had a chance to adopt, would over-look the main thread for adoptions, their likeliness to adopt would increase. And, for those whom are still unable, we could still set time limit.

But what you are missing here is that most people do not want to visit the adoptions thread that often. Which I can understand quite well; sometimes there aren't any new sign-ups for days and it's pretty frustrating to check the same thread again and again and there's still no new newbie.

Most people have better things to do than spending a lot of time searching for a potential adoptee. The offer to take on a newbie is already a lot more than you will ever get from a majority of JCers, so don't set the standards too high. And remember, they offered to look after a newbie, not a thread.


Also, can I please get a reply to my post on the previous page, Strid.


//edit: D'Oh!

Ewok, I was wrong about the abbreviation. Skiara said on the last page that it actually means not paired up by coordinator. Sorry about the confusion.

 

No prob Morgaine!


Also, I didn't mean that I think we should make it so all the adopters have to check the thread 24/7. I was just commenting on why I think it happens that these people don't get newbies.

Now, I totally agree with a waiting time. I feel that it will help get everyone, who wanted to be, involved with the program.

Like I said in my last post, I like Skiara's idea. I feel this will give the other people a chance to get a newbie before other people that have just let go off an adoptee. Although, as I said in the last post, I feel that maybe the days should be pushed up, two, maybe three

 

For a second my brain was refusing to understand the abbreviation too. Argh, me and my confuddled head.

I'm answering Morgaine's post here...

---

[i]I certainly don't want you to force any newbie to 'get together' with an oldbie they don't like. I want you to ask the newbies whether they would like to choose an adopter on their own or have someone assigned to them. Only for the latter you have to pick an oldbie. That is your job.[/i]


Well said Julia. First thing is first...no one is forcing a newbie to be adopted by an adopter if that newbie isn't happy about it and would rather wait for a different adopter.

Yes, it is [u]upto the newbie[/u] ultimately. Of course the reason the co-ordinator helps is because the newbie requested help...if it doesn't work out, the I guess the co-ordinator could try another match up. :)



[b]Regarding the point Morgaine made about interests of adopters and adoptees...[/b]

[i]I mean, look at me. WNU is the only forum I regularly post in these days. Does that make me a bad adopter? I dare to say that my previous adoptees (which include our forum moderator) would disagree with that.[/i]

Very true. I can say from experience that while I was adopted by Julia, we had loads of different interests. For example, I am a fan fic reader and writer so I practically lived on those boards, I had totally different favourite characters in the SW universe I liked different things, blah blah blah...you get my drift. ;)

I think the only thing we had in common was that we were both the same age, girls and posted in WNU...I guess we took a liking to each other and I thoroughly enjoyed my adoption experience. :D


At the end of the day, it's whether each adopter can basically guide their newbie, teach them what then know of the forums, teach them how to get about, be good posters and the newbies will also pick up things as they go...it worked for me. ;)


[i]Adoption is such a simple concept. Don't make it more complicated than it is[/i]

Bingo. :)


Edit:- About the [i]"waiting period".[/i]

Okay if I have understoond the waiting period properly...you wish to give the adopters who have just finished an adoption a waiting period?

This is to give all adopters a fair chance to adopt a newbie? Have I got that right? :)


If so, yeah I suppose a short waiting period is all right...but it shouldn't be at the expense of the newbie who would like to be adopted as soon as possible. Therefore a few days seems all right...

After all, its all about helping the newbies ASAP, right? ;)

 

Thanks for the abbreviations Sabine. Oh don't worry about mixing us up...it's just me!


Ahh, that's what I figured about the waiting period, then. Sounds like an idea...ofcourse the length of the period is something to consider...esp if newbies have to wait a while...

Just thinking out loud...

 

Edits: Just because I love the edit function. I always find something to make it better.

Well, at least I'm not the only one. I do find something to edit in nearly all of my posts, too.


ofcourse the length of the period is something to consider...esp if newbies have to wait a while...

Yes, that's the critical point. The waiting period has to be long enough to give everyone a chance to come here and see that there's a new newbie, but short enough to assure the newbie will get adopted quickly if none of the not-so-regular visitors of the thread are interested. Which is why I'm leaning towards 24 hours and not two days. One full day should be enough to assure that people from all time zones have had a chance to log in.


//edit: Just to prove my point.
No, seriously, I just re-worded a sentence because it sounded stupid.

 

Yeah Jules, the shorter the "waiting period" the better. If its even 2 days the newbie might be wondering what's going on...

We need to help them out as fast as we can...24 hours-give or take a few hours to account for time differences-sounds good.


Edit:- Typo
No honest, it was a typo. But I have to say I love the edit button-even more so now that I am a mod. That "no-time-limit" edit button is lovely.

 

Great point Pash! the faster the pairing is to occur the better it is for the "newer" users listed . I am in support of this idea. As I've explained to Pash via PM .

I also must state, I am attempting to get back into the groove of things. So, I will have to ask, that if I do not immediately respond. It is not because I have this thing against any idea given. But, rather that I am unsure at that point how to respond. And, I am thinking it through fully. I do not want to be an idea-nazi, nor do I want to be too easy going on what I allow to come through. So, thanks again for your understanding, and I hope to continue to see all of these awesome ideas presented .

 

Now that I thought about it for a second, it makes more sense to have a waiting period of 24 hours when a newbie expresses he/she wants to become adopted. Will make it go faster in the long run.

Now, did we decided that it would last for 2 weeks after you had just finished an adoption?

 

Ewok: It has been suggested, but nothing has been decided yet.


Thank you for the heads up, Stridarious. Good to hear that you're reading and considering our ideas.


//edit! I think the thread title could use an edit, Pash.

 

Whoops, I'll get on that pronto, Jules!

I remember thinking about changing it the other day...slipped my mind.

 

Morgaine: "Thank you for the heads up, Stridarious. Good to hear that you're reading and considering our ideas. "

No problem . I wish to thank-you all for your understanding. And, I am hoping to get up to speed soon. As well, able to be more active in these discussions. However, the time I am here, I am over-looking alot of the Adoptions issues presented .

 

Personally, I do think that the "waiting period" is important for the following reasons:

It allows the adoptions co-ordinator to see what forums the future adopter is most active in

It allows the future adopter time to get used to the board community

It allows other users to get to know the future adopter

Just my thoughts.

 

Well milney. That is something that already exsists as a requirement set for those whom are just stepping into the ranks of an Adopter. However, what we are currently discussing is a set "waiting period" for users whom have adopted before. Setting down a limit of a few days before they can adopt again. Giving other Adopters a chance to adopt a new user .

I hope I cleared that all up .

 

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

I have one question though strid, when pairing Newbie's with Oldbies, would you pair a newbie with a new adopter or one who has adopted before first?

 

milney: "I have one question though strid, when pairing Newbie's with Oldbies, would you pair a newbie with a new adopter or one who has adopted before first?"

Well, in my personal opinion, I do not think it matters how long they've been with the program. But, rather how well they know their way around the forums, and using the many buttons!

Yes, it would be a good idea to wait a while before allowing a user to adopt another. However, how would they learn, unless of course they first try.

 

Yes, it would be a good idea to wait a while before allowing a user to adopt another.

That's why people have to be registered at the JC for at least for months and a minimum post count of 500 posts before they can become an adopter, is it not?


milney: I have one question though strid, when pairing Newbie's with Oldbies, would you pair a newbie with a new adopter or one who has adopted before first?"

Stridarious: Well, in my personal opinion, I do not think it matters how long they've been with the program.

Okay, then how do you decide on who to pair up?


Also, I'd like to remind you that it's been a full week since I asked you to reply to one of my posts. Any chance of getting a reply soon? You do seem to have plenty of time to post in other threads.


//edits: a typo and clarification

 

Thanks for the reminder . I'll send my response via PM .