We want Forum Feedback!

[~!~]

Sounds like a case of "let's bump my post count" to me. How about we make posts in the introductions forum not count?

[Layn]

that might break the process which allows people to post elsewhere once they've posted in introductions. Probably, the other areas to post in become available after their post count hits 1. Making those posts not count would break that....

[Angziety]

that might break the process which allows people to post elsewhere once they've posted in introductions. Probably, the other areas to post in become available after their post count hits 1. Making those posts not count would break that....

I think this is a very good idea. For there are people here who wdo accualy go and help people. though like requests it's hard to notice under all the spam.

[Walker]

I've got an idea concerning the mods.  Maybe instead of individual members being promoted to moderators, there could be a few special moderator accounts.  For instance, all the S&R mods would know the password to an account named "S&R Mod," and when they need to do some modding they could log in as it instead of their usual accounts, which would just have regular user status.

The problem I see with that... I don't think two mods could be logged into an account at the same time. It would also make us more intimidating. I mean, at least this way we are personalized a bit with avatars and sigs to show a little bit of who we are, but a second account would be kind of detached and everyone would fear the 'almighty mod account' that never did anything but mod.

 

Also, if the password for such an account was leaked, that would be baaaaaad. The more people that know a password for an account, the more likely it'll get around.

[TJ09]

that might break the process which allows people to post elsewhere once they've posted in introductions. Probably, the other areas to post in become available after their post count hits 1. Making those posts not count would break that....

I think that's the case, but I dunno for sure.

 

I could also just disallow non-new members from posting there, but that's probably a bad idea.

[crazywargod]

I think that's the case, but I dunno for sure.

 

I could also just disallow non-new members from posting there, but that's probably a bad idea.

Yeah bad idea. Non-new members may not know everything needed. No it isn't the links as much as the OP's question not being answered. If the links AND answer were there then it wouldn't be a problem IMO.

 

 

 

EDIT:*kicks PS3 and crappy internet for double post*

Edited December 31, 2010 by crazywargod

[_Z_]

As I have posted earlier, I post in every Introduction topic because.

1. I approve everyone of them.

2. I need to check every one of them for spam in their signatures.

3. posting shows which one, I have checked.

4. I try to give every member all the info they need to be successful.

 

If that has , is annoying members I can happily stop posting in intros. But after posting for almost three years and welcoming many if not most of you, You do realize many members will not receive a reply at all to their topics?

 

Any way the point is this topic was intended to be about making the forum more friendly, so I will stop CP'ing in intros. Now what are the rest of you going to do?

[Mustangs44]

As I have posted earlier, I post in every Introduction topic because.

1. I approve everyone of them.

2. I need to check every one of them for spam in their signatures.

3. posting shows which one, I have checked.

4. I try to give every member all the info they need to be successful.

 

If that has , is annoying members I can happily stop posting in intros. But after posting for almost three years and welcoming many if not most of you,  You do realize many members will not receive a reply at all to their topics?

 

Any way the point is this topic was intended to be about making the forum more friendly, so I will stop CP'ing in intros. Now what are the rest of you going to do?

I don't think it's your copy and pasted post that's the main issue, _Z_, but the people that follow in your footsteps copying and pasting their messages to "PM me if you have a question!" when the OP has a question in their first post that goes unanswered.

I figured that you had to approve them all in some way, and your post is actually pretty helpful. I don't blame you for making a functional method on approving n00bs, that apparently has worked thus far. It'd take a ton of time to write up a message to someone and approve them.

[_Z_]

Thank you, but I get rather tired of hearing about my posts in intros, when no one seems to realize that if I don't approve them no one gets access to the bloody forum! I approve or not many intro's daily, I can not post special individual welcomes.

 

I have a life off the forum instead of picking apart members at least trying to help new members why can't we focus on trying to fix things that aren't working? Members post CP in intros, how many of you post in intro's?

[LadyAmlaruil2]

I don't think it's your copy and pasted post that's the main issue, _Z_, but the people that follow in your footsteps copying and pasting their messages to "PM me if you have a question!" when the OP has a question in their first post that goes unanswered.

I am proud to say that I have been, until very recently due to the holidays, one of the VERY FEW people who tried to regularly post replies to the newbie's in the intro post. For me, I can very definitely say it was not / is not just to boost my post count, as some have suggested.

 

First, may I say that I PM'd a mod, and asked for permission to "follow in the footsteps" and to welcome new members. I created a set of "standard" posts that I thought would be helpful. Being a relatively new member myself, I simply used myself as an example of how overwhelming it all was, and devised a post that I thought would be helpful, welcoming, and friendly.

 

I do try to answer specific questions, if such are asked in the intro post, if I can.

 

As for the offer to send a PM - I personally have received quite a few PM's from newbie's with questions as a result of posting that... and most of them have been extremely grateful for my input. Maybe to veteran players, the offer is irrelevant, but I don't think it was pointless to the people who sent me a question because of it.

 

I am kind of disappointed by some of the reactions listed here, to the concept of a "welcome wagon". Not everyone is a past master at forums in general, and I just don't see the harm in trying to make people feel like they are part of something.

 

By the way >>> since reading this, and Z's post - I went to the intro thread and found quite a few intro posts from new members that have 0 replies. Is that the kind of community we want for the DC forums? If so, why do we have ARK, or the Eggy Give Away, or any such threads? If we don't encourage new members, we'll never gain more veteran's!

[Imzadi]

I post in intros if no one besides you has done so already. If there are already several responses, I don't: it's just repetitive. Anyway, I have never seen anything wrong with your message in intro. It's concise, and helpful, with good links.

[skauble]

I actually don't have any problems with the C&P replies in the Intro section and I wouldn't have been bothered by them when I was new. In fact I would have loved the offer to PM someone who knew about the game back when I was panicking about my eggs dying and only sort of understanding the FAQ. And, frankly, no matter what the responses are, it can be kind of depressing to see your post there with no responses whatsoever.

 

IMO, the problem is that lots of people are talking about how awful all of the C&P intros are, but I don't see lots of people in the Intro section welcoming the waves of new people with personal welcomes. So either what's being said is that people should get almost no responses to their intros, or that folks just want other people to shoulder what is a rather substantial amount of work.

 

Because this is one thing that doesn't require mod assisted forum change at all. The Intro forum's there right now, waiting to be posted in. I'd be willing to bet that everyone currently doing responses there would love it if everyone started going over there and adding individualized hellos. And then it wouldn't even matter if people kept C&Ping responses because there'd be all sorts of other replies mixed in.

 

But until that starts happening, my personal opinion is that we probably shouldn't be too hard on the people who are at least trying something.

 

ETA: As to post count, IMO, if people want to get their post count up by doing something productive here then I don't see the problem with it. It's really a time consuming, thankless way to accumulate posts, it's way better than most the other ways people go about it, and who cares if it gives them thousands of posts because it's not like they get something super special for it.

Edited December 31, 2010 by skauble

[Fuzzbucket]

As I have posted earlier, I post in every Introduction topic because.

1. I approve everyone of them.

2. I need to check every one of them for spam in their signatures.

3. posting shows which one, I have checked.

4. I try to give every member all the info they need to be successful.

 

If that has , is annoying members I can happily stop posting in intros. But after posting for almost three years and welcoming many if not most of you, You do realize many members will not receive a reply at all to their topics?

 

Any way the point is this topic was intended to be about making the forum more friendly, so I will stop CP'ing in intros. Now what are the rest of you going to do?

YOUR intro posts are hugely useful (I bookmarked mine for a while !) it is the other that are(IMHO) clearly just pasted to up post count that are annoying. I actually don't go to the welcome area any more (welcoming though I am !) because the threads there are - except for YOUR post - generally so inane it isn't worth a visit.

[skauble]

YOUR intro posts are hugely useful (I bookmarked mine for a while !) it is the other that are(IMHO) clearly just pasted to up post count that are annoying. I actually don't go to the welcome area any more (welcoming though I am !) because the threads there are - except for YOUR post - generally so inane it isn't worth a visit.

But no one needs to respond to the C&P posts. Why would those stop people from responding to the original post? I admit that this is the part I'm not getting so maybe someone could clarify for me - if people want something better than the welcoming posts there are, who are they suggesting should be the ones making them?

[Fuzzbucket]

But no one needs to respond to the C&P posts. Why would those stop people from responding to the original post? I admit that this is the part I'm not getting so maybe someone could clarify for me - if people want something better than the welcoming posts there are, who are they suggesting should be the ones making them?

People who say more than "Hi there" in every welcome thread just to (IMHO) up their own post count. I know I wouldn't find that very welcoming - in fact in another forum I'm on you are specifically asked NOT to have a generic one (except the mod's welcoming and informative post). Anyone who takes the trouble to actually RESPOND. You, for instance - even me !

 

I just looked and there is one actually fun welcome post saying to the OP "you didn't HAVE to tell us all that" - showing that they had actually READ the OP and were welcoming THEM, not just thinking "hi - great; another post for ME !"

[skauble]

People who say more than "Hi there" in every welcome thread just to (IMHO) up their own post count. I know I wouldn't find that very welcoming - in fact in another forum I'm on you are specifically asked NOT to have a generic one (except the mod's welcoming and informative post). Anyone who takes the trouble to actually RESPOND. You, for instance - even me !

 

I just looked and there is one actually fun welcome post saying to the OP "you didn't HAVE to tell us all that" - showing that they had actually READ the OP and were welcoming THEM, not just thinking "hi - great; another post for ME !"

Well, actually not me, because I'm not the one suggesting that we strip away the majority of what few replies the new people get. I think before we make any attempt to leave people with only one, lone response to their intro post, those who are concerned about the poor impression the other replies are making should probably show that they can fill the void that will be made. Because I would think that most of us could agree that, as helpful as _Z_'s post is (and I agree that it is very helpful), having nothing to accompany it would be a depressing sight indeed for a new person hoping for some kind of welcome.

 

The thing is that there's been some very unkind things said here about the people in the greeting section. I think that if people are going to insult them and their efforts then they should probably be stepping up to the plate to show that they can do the job better.

[Fuzzbucket]

The thing is that there's been some very unkind things said here about the people in the greeting section. I think that if people are going to insult them and their efforts then they should probably be stepping up to the plate to show that they can do the job better.

Fair comment. I will try and be nice there myself. After the grandchildren leave on Tuesday....

[DarkLadyNyara]

As I have posted earlier, I post in every Introduction topic because.

1. I approve everyone of them.

2. I need to check every one of them for spam in their signatures.

3. posting shows which one, I have checked.

4. I try to give every member all the info they need to be successful.

 

If that has , is annoying members I can happily stop posting in intros. But after posting for almost three years and welcoming many if not most of you, You do realize many members will not receive a reply at all to their topics?

 

Any way the point is this topic was intended to be about making the forum more friendly, so I will stop CP'ing in intros. Now what are the rest of you going to do?

I don't think there's any complaint about your intro posts- it's mainly when three other people also post generic replies. (Most of which usually just repeat things that your standard intro already covered.)

[Fiona]

I wasn't suggesting we strip away posts in the intro threads, just be more personal. Yes, _Z_'s posts are needed. And they contain a lot of useful information for the new player. I think it's good to have one of the people running the mentoring project post with links too, and most of that post could be copy and paste. But he/she needs to actually read the op, and see if they might need mentoring, or if they're coming in with a base of friends already, and knowledge of how to raise dragons. For the rest of the posts that are copied and pasted into every intro thread, I think saying hi, and welcome to the forums is great. Just be personal and not just copy and paste the same message in every thread. And yes, there is a recent example of exactly what I mean there. The person responding took the time to read to op, and responded to that, not just copy and paste a response.

 

I've hesitated to answer in Intro threads, because there were so many copypasta ones. I didn't want to pile on the new players. However, I certainly could. And no one would be suspecting it as a way to increase my post counts, since I'm already level 10.

[Marrionetta]

I'm a little weirded out by how much post count seems to matter to you guys. I say hide it from everyone but keep the feature viewable to moderators and admin, and each user can view their own. Also post stalking would be able to tell you how much a body has posted, but this strange fixation on post count is... completely uncalled for. I know it's there for custom user titles and such, but still. Building a hierarchy off of 'LOOK AT HOW MUCH I CAN POST' is crazy.

[Fuzzbucket]

I'm a little weirded out by how much post count seems to matter to you guys. I say hide it from everyone but keep the feature viewable to moderators and admin, and each user can view their own. Also post stalking would be able to tell you how much a body has posted, but this strange fixation on post count is... completely uncalled for. I know it's there for custom user titles and such, but still. Building a hierarchy off of 'LOOK AT HOW MUCH I CAN POST' is crazy.

I don't care at all about post count. But many people do.

[blah]

I'm a little weirded out by how much post count seems to matter to you guys. I say hide it from everyone but keep the feature viewable to moderators and admin, and each user can view their own. Also post stalking would be able to tell you how much a body has posted, but this strange fixation on post count is... completely uncalled for. I know it's there for custom user titles and such, but still. Building a hierarchy off of 'LOOK AT HOW MUCH I CAN POST' is crazy.

I'm not just a little weirded out by it. In fact, I'm always rather embarrassed to have a high post count because it indicates that I'm spending way too much time online.

 

About the introducton posts - I think the links Z provides are really useful and not everyone has been a lurker before signing up, I don't think she should stop.

 

It might be a generic message, but if the new user uses the links, they will in 90% percent of the cases find their answer anyway.

 

So with regards to forum feedback, I think the mods (or rather Z) is doing everything just right. And the members who want to increase their post count? Eh, I don't really care what post count they have.

[Fiona]

lol. Hi Marri.

 

I could care less about post counts. I just like to talk. It is a little weird how much that issue comes up though, isn't it?

 

And the current batch of posts in the intro threads are exactly what I was talking about earlier (except _Z_ hasn't posted in them...) Instead of just 3 or 4 copypasta replies from the same people in each intro thread, different people are replying personally. Rubyshoes is still mostly copying her link to the Mentoring project, but she's also adding a personal touch. So the copied part of her message now comes across as "let me help you" rather than "gotta stick this in every intro thread"

 

_Z_, I know you probably don't have time to personalize your post in the intro threads, but one strictly copied post from a mod in each thread isn't so bad, especially when it's followed by a couple of personal posts. And your copied posts do contain pretty much all the links a new player might need.

[olympe]

Exactly. Nobody can honestly expect one single person - namely _Z_ - to answer all intro posts with a personalized message, and I think the copy&paste message is fine as it is because it's actually helpful. Still, I have to agree that it seems abundant if several other, non-modding people jump onto the copy pasta wagon and spam in intro threads.

 

Since people seem to think this has to do with post count, why not make the posts in the introductions section not count towards post count? Problem solved. (Hopefully.)

[purplehaze]

I don't really think the c/p posts in the intro section are a post count issue. The people who have been doing it for awhile are surely at level 10 by now!

 

I think they are sincerely trying to be helpful. I did that for a long time, too, although I did not post the same message to everyone. I tried to personalize the message and answer questions, offer advice specific to the post. Do you realize how time-consuming that can be? I finally gave it up because I just did not have the time. It is obviously much less demanding of your time to post the same greeting to everyone and I cannot fault the people who do this.