My demands are simple

No more cookie cutter responses to every newbie thread that pops up. Let's aim for originality and creativity. Surely we can handle that, no? Would it not make a newbie feel more welcome to have a personalized, wholly unique thread as opposed to the same thread as every other newbie? Why even a forum then? Why not just one sticky thread with everyone's generic response? It would accomplish the same goal which is to get our newbie friends accustomed to the JC. And in that regard this forum is essentially a lie anyway, since it's unlike every other forum. The only similarly structured forum (other than Fan Forces, which don't count because I say so), is the JCC and this place is wholly unlike the JCC. Too many people are using this forum as a glorified +1 as it is. Why not at least try to make it more than it is for the newbies?

Amazing.

 

But you can't say 'Welcome to the boards' in a lot of different ways. And by the time links are found to give the newbie, someone else had already posted it. (Like J_D or someone).


edit - sometimes the newbie only puts 'hi im new' as there intro so it is hard to aim for personal welcomes if you don't know anything about them.

 

I agree. I think we all (myself included) need to stop posting just 'Welcome to the boards!' and try to make a newbie feel welcome in other ways.


Agent, well, just now, a newbie asked for advice, and you just said, 'Welcome to the boards!'

 

Yea, because what am I suppose to say?

WELCOME!

Don't spam.
Don't troll.
Don't flame.
Use the edit function.
Don't start redundant topics.
Don't swear.

 

Who did #1 in your cereal AmazingB?
There are not that many ways to say hello and have people understand what you are saying.

 

My point is being illustrated quite clearly. You don't have to just say hello. You don't have to link them to threads or FAQs or whatever. There are newbie adoptions, a forum index, an list of informationl threads and other goodies in the header for all that. Try saying something different. Who wants a welcome thread that's the same as everybody else's welcome thread? Where's the fun in that? Isn't that the whole point, fun?

Amazing.

 

In order to say something different, you need to know more about the newbie. If he/she says 'hi im new', you can't really say anything else but, Welcome to the Boards!'.


edit - the only other thing is that you could say stuff like 'Be sure to have fun, ask questions, etc.'

 

Or you could, you know, ask about their screen name, why they joined, what attracted them to Star Wars, something in their profile, what their favorite food is, if they've ever owned a Slip N Slide, if they're polydactyl, if they have pets, where they're from, if they've ever done battle with their neighbors. Really, the possibilites are endless and would make for much better threads than:

"Hi, I'm new."
"Hi."
"Welcome."
"Hi, here are links."
"Thanks for the welcomes."
"Hello."

But maybe that's just me. I would have thought my pro-fun bandwagon would garner more support. But the night is young!

Amazing.

 

People posting the simple reply: ?Welcome to the boards,? ?Welcome to the JC,? ?Hi!? ?Welcome!,? etc, has always been a sort of problem here. I do know a couple people who post here who are definitely trying to just up their post count (one which is very obvious.... Bib!). I?ve warned one of these people about toning it down a whole lot.

I?ve also warned several other people. Posting a simple reply like ?Welcome to the Boards? too much is given a stern warning. A couple people have even been banned here for posting almost the same message for two pages in a row.

There are people who do post rather original welcomes, though. I know there are people who really care for this forum, and really want to help newbies. Some people are simply new here, and simply want to welcome fellow newbies. I?ve always tried to lead by example, and write every single welcome post out instead of just copying and pasting... and believe it or not, posts have went up in originality and helpfulness. Makes me very proud to see someone link helpful threads, forums, links, groups, whatever.

I can never force anyone and say ?Post an original thought out helpful post or so help me!? But I do moderate things to the best of my ability. I am rather proud of this forum, I much rather have people say ?Welcome to the boards!? than ?Who cares? Screw you, nOOb!!1!!? as I?ve seen on many, many, many other Welcome New User type forums on other boards.

 

I don't think it's entirely an issue of moderation, though, since you're not supposed to make people post a certain way. I just think it'd be more fun for everyone if a concerted effort was made by the regulars to go beyond a standard, generic, one-size-fits-all post for the newbies. Because everyone loves fun. Except no good Commies.

Amazing.

 

Oh no, I agree with you. And that's what I was saying, I can't really make people type a certain way. I'm all for people posting a little different, spice things up, ya know.




And yes, Commies.

 

we i right
welocome from the wookie home world

or any wookie related stuff

 

Great post, AmazingB!
My suggestion is to make conversation or put even more simply just ask!

And that's a good way to get some informations from the newbie...

 

Hello AmazingB and welcome!



In real life, I don't get to know someone or feel comfortable around them simply by saying "hello". It's nice to find out more about our similarities, what things the other person likes and dislikes, and other personal discussions. Simply saying hello may be a good start, but it helps if there is more substance - somewhere for the discussion to go just beyond "hello". As others have mentioned, it would be better to use something as simple as "Hello and welcome! Your username is interesting, how did you come up with it?" or "hello, who is your favorite character/movie?" or "Hello, what types of hobbies do you have", or any one of a number of other questions, insead of just "hello".

 

I'm a newbie and I'm not good at writing something about me, but I just said something like: "I'm from Germany and I'm learning english at school. Hope you don't mind mistakes."
Then I got a "welcome and my Master is German too" Message from LeiaO. That was really interessting. But not everybody is from Germany or likes to say something about themselves. I agree, in most cases we should ask.

Very good idea to welcome them different, not just "welcome to the board" or "hello".

 

When posting in welcome threads I always used to do something different, like draw attention to FanForce, or another certain area of the boards, instead of doing a Cloned_Sidious ("Welcome, [insert name here]!")

But I haven't been posting in them recently, as there's only so many unique ones I can do.

 

When posting in welcome threads I always used to do something different, like draw attention to FanForce, or another certain area of the boards, instead of doing a Cloned_Sidious ("Welcome, [insert name here]!")

I am not the only one who does that. And if you didn't notice, I am from Finland, and writing in English is not very easy to me. If I want to welcome new users, what is the problem with that?

 

I see the point, and even try to make the response more than just a token "hi, don't know you, bye now" thing. And I do try, when I give a longer answer, to make it a bit more personal, even if there isn't always terribly much to go by.

However, sometimes I go to the boards to relax when I'm tired. In those cases I tend to not spam the new user threads with useless and impersonal posts, except that when I see that a thread has only gotten one or two replies in half an hour (perhaps because the USA is sleeping?? but whatever) I do say Hi, even if I don't say much more because I'm too tired to make it shine, simply because getting no reply whatsoever is much worse, IMO, than getting several well meant but not incredably personal replies. I remember checking my own welcome thread hoping people would actually respond in between doing interesting things like pillow fights and such ...

Just my thoughts,

DU.

 

Come on, you have nearly 16,000 posts, primarily in English-speaking forums. It can't be that hard, unless you'd admit that most of the 16,000 posts are one-word spam replies.

 

Thank you Amazing B for pointing this out. I have sometimes just replied " Welcome such and such", but most times I like to make my welcome posts more helpful and personal.

Sidious, you should at least should try to make an effort to expand your welcome posts.

 

Come on, you have nearly 16,000 posts, primarily in English-speaking forums. It can't be that hard, unless you'd admit that most of the 16,000 posts are one-word spam replies.

In Finnish I could post much better posts, because I wouldn't have to think about every single word, and make sure it has been wrote correctly.

Even writing that took me much time, and there is still errors.

 

Well, I have the same problem, but I also try to welcome them personal. Of course it is easy for me to write in German, but I try to speak English without too many mistakes and it works - more or less.

 

So what you're saying here is that the newbies arent worth the time it takes you to write longer posts?

What is so difficult in providing a personalized welcome or giving some advise based on that persons first post? I think such a post consists of many standard words/sentences you should know by now after approx. 16.000 posts.

And besides, I dont think anyone would mind if you also included a greeting in finnish (with the english translation of course) in your post as well.

BTW, Im dutch and still try to personalize my welcome posts, it's a matter of respect for that person as well IMHO.