Helping New Members

Aztec Triogal

Aztec Triogal

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I talked to Darkblade about re-organizing the forums in a PM. I know it was discussed before but honestly they're not horrible. I can navigate around pretty well and it's really not a big deal anymore. I use the subscription feature found in the Edit Options feature and it makes browsing a lot easier. However, new members really are having trouble navigating. I asked if there was any way to introduce newer members to the forum slowly. In other words, clip their wings and only let them see and post in a small fraction of the site until they got their postcount up past 50 (or to some other number of posts that was deemed significant). At least for my money, the FF section and the Midgar sections are the two main places to be anyhow. If you limited them to those two forums, then opened up all the other places they could post, it would give them time to get used to the layout of the forums instead of just putting them out there without a map. It would also help them not be intimidated by the sheer size of the forums. As a sidenote, it would also really help control spam attacks. We had one last night and if it was only limited to two forums, you could spot and clean it up much faster.

His response to my PM was to post it in here to get more feedback so as to make a more informed decision. So... here it is. Post your replies.
 
Not bad, not bad at all.

Another route for helping new members would be to assign 'buddies' or 'guides' to the new members. Obviously, the guides would have to volunteer, and the new members would have to accept them as a guide, but overall, I've seen this work before.

The buddy will act as a kind of mentor, answering whatever questions the new member might need answered. Where I've seen this happen, there's been guidelines for the buddies, too, where the buddy could only carry X number of new members between X-X months.

Then again, we're only talking about navigation, and if new members are stuck, they tend to find the help desk and moderators relatively easily.

I like the idea you've gone along with, but I'm not sure of the numbers/locations you've given. Of course, that could be decided at a later date, but this suggestion certainly has a nod from me.
 
I like the sound of Rikus Idea ^_^ when i was new there was the SB to help me out but since thats gone then it would defintley be good to have a "Buddie System" that being said i like Aztecs idea too.....perhaps you could incorperate the 2?
 
It makes sense. I also think its a good idea. There are way more pros than cons. But in a sense, I think some people may get upset about the 50 post rule. I mean, I've seen some current active members that have less than 50 posts. And its not cause they're not posting, they're just posting in certain boards. Plus, people got angry with the RPG rule.

But yea, it would fight spam attacks. It wouldn't seem as huge which I still think is one of the sites few flaws. I mean, look how many topics have been posted in the wrong spot and had to be moved and I dont think it was the ignorance of the poster but the way everything is so segregated. So it might be good for new members.

But I was wondering that maybe instead of doing it by post count you could do it by time spent here or something. Like after 5 days of your join date it opens up the rest. Then again, I don't know how complicated the code would be for that.
 
The biggest problem I see with the buddy system is we've literally had 25 new members in the last day. That is a LOT of people to assign to volunteers. I think you could do that job with a stickied topic and a PM from the FFF System, like when you get the rules sent to you at the join date.
 
Which means we'd have to have many volunteers. Say, for example, we had 21 volunteers - one idea would be to split up the number of volunteers to the number of days in the week, and so here, we have three volunteers each day. Then, on Monday, Volutneers A, B and C become the buddies. On Tuesdays, D, E and F are the buddies ... so on and so forth.

It's a little out there, but it could work.
 
well what if you assigned two or three newbies to one person? preferably an active one...then its like 12 (my maths is crap so bear with me here) people to be buddies, and there are already stickied threads in the help desk but the spammers dont read them first normally and when they do spam/flame/advertise it seems tro be all over the place - whereas if it was only in two areas it would be slightly easier to control.

Edit - or you could assign like 5-7 people to be permanent buddys - they dont have to be PM'd or anything there just the person that you SHOULD pm if you need any problems solving...and the buddys names should be purple so everyone knows who they are XD
 
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I think restricting where they can post would cause too much spam. It's a very good idea, but in the end it's going to really bugger up the forums in question :sad:
I do like Riku's idea though. A guide would be helpful, and I know that I could've done with one when I first started posting on forums
 
I like the idea, goof. You're certainly right: it will control spam attacks. We've had so many in the last few days that I feel like spam is all we ever talk about in our forums. =/ Hmm, however, I don't want them to feel segregated though...so I really don't know. I mean, when I was a newbie, I felt overwhelmed too. That's only natural to everyone who comes in as a newbie. But we got used to the whole navigation part, eventually, yes?

I guess my point is that, if they are really dedicated to contributing to our forums, most especially the FF sections, they'll eventually find a way to navigate through the area easily like us. It takes time, really. Give it a few days or so. Eventually, they'll get used to the whole site.

So I'm not sure if "clipping their wings" is really necessary. But it seems like everyone loves the idea, so that's fine as well. ;)

Meh, I tend to change my mind easily as I post. Forgive me.
 
Well I'm really kinda against the "guide" thing. I wouldn't be opposed to certain people put as permanant guides, as Aeris suggested... but assigning members to new members seems like a lot of work. Not to mention you're making some fairly large assumptions about what the new members would want. I think right now they just want "not to be lost". I can't really say that when I signed up I was hoping for someone to help guide me around the forums. I mean... it's a big site but I'm not a moron. lol And having someone set as my "forum buddy" is not only insulting to their intelligence... it's kinda just uh... light in the loafers. Now if I had to wait a certain initiation period (as MR suggested), that would be fine. But the buddy system seems like a ton of work and I can't say it sounds very effective. An effective system > effective people.

EDIT: We have enough trouble keeping the forums in order as it is, without assigning mods other jobs. Now granted it doesn't neccessarily have to be mods... but you know as much as I do that there's only a fistful of people on here that would take your "guide" job seriously.

DOUBLE EDIT: Not to mention the whole reason I made this topic is because I've been sending PMs to new member to try to help them out around the forums. lol It just gets old... so thats why I suggested a good system to replace the constant flood of work that introducing people to the forums would be.
 
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ive thought of a way to mix the two effectively (i hope) create like a newbie section where newbies will be able to post in until they reach a certain amount of posts 25-30? and have like 2-5 mods there call them Newbie herders or something XD that way we not only have a seperate section for newbs to go and talk until there like ready to be unleashed upon the forums - we have members there to act as mentors and control the "Newb forums" so that its not another strain on the current Mods.

that way they dont feel like idiots and we can easily assess who are the spammers and who are the non-spammers - and we could have one of the "Nwb herders" like do an assessment on them - so if they behave in a nonspammy manner on the newb forums they can be fastracked to the main forums, before reaching the 25-30 post count, while members who are more spammy or are on the borderline can be kept in the newb forum for observation XD
 
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^I like. It could work, but there may be a small catch
I'm no expert at coding. In fact I'm a total idiot, but I do know a little. And as far as I know, you can't make a section in which you can 'ascend' out of once you reach a given post count. Therefore, the admins would have to change the user permssions manually, which would be tedious
I'm sure someone can clear that up though. So far I think that's the best idea. Plus it could help root out the joke accounts before they're allowed to post on the main board
 
Well if you give the "Newb Herders" the power to do that, then the admins wouldnt have to do that as well, and i dont think it would require that much coding. kinda like changing your usertitle and sich - like going from "Newb" to new member to full member?

Some Ideas for the newb section :

ok first of all move the 7th heaven inn there,
take some threads and place them there like :Favourite character, favourite game, how did you here about us. Random facts about yourself, and add a General FFF helpdesk.

that way we could assess the spammers from the non spammers and learn more about the new members at the same time :)

what do you think?

adn "Newb Herders" is trademarked by me :P but i give you all permission to use it XD
 
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I think (again this is just a rough guess) that only admins can change user permissions though. So the "Newb herders" would need to have admin permissions, which is unlikely
 
hmm..i dunno - maybe they could make it so that if a "Newb Herder" clicks something - possibly to "approve" the system would automatically upgrade them?

i think a system like this would be pretty cool - especially since we do seem to be having a lot of spammers recently - by keeping them locked up in a "newb section" then we could moderate them and keep the more serious spammers from ever disturbing the maon forums.
 
Oh you can edit a quote - arn't you Clever? it would take someone with an IQ of 5 or above to realise that. well at least your proving my point - we need Newb forums to stop spammers from doing stuff like that.

Now go away.
 
looks like he took my advice and went away :) thanks whoever banned him.

But anyway - people like him just prove my point that "newb Forums" would be pretty useful ^_^ say if like the "newb herders" got the powers to ban the spammers it would be pretty effective and less time consuming for normal mods and Gmods....what do you guys think now?
 
I still don't like the guide thing and the term noob herder is attrocious, even if it references Star Wars. I don't think it's a horribly bad idea... but I don't think we should lock the new members away somewhere, just limit where they post. We're not trying to condemn them for being new, just help them navigate the forums better. And if we limit it to only FF topics, then they will at least be "confined" that that area. But a noob forum, just for new people would quickly kill any interest in this site. It would basically be like a 5 day "acceptance" period and really wouldn't help them learn to navigate the forums any better whatsoever.

Not to seem like I'm not a team player but Riku's idea has way to much involved and your idea just defeats the point of helping new members. Setting up a good system (like an FFXII gambit) is the way to go. Set up a good system and let it take care of itself.
 
Hmmm mixing the two ideas would be good now that i think about it...like 5 days or so with only the Final Fantasy topics open and after that if theyve behaved open the entire site for them?

And i like Noob herder :P tis a funny phrase XD i was probably on something when i came up with it XD
 
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