Yes, I've been thinking again...

[Ifrit's Bodyguard]

Which isn't normally a bad thing, but anyways,

I was looking through my PM box there and I was thinking how I haven't deleted any since I came here, which made me think how there was never an automatic "hello, welcome to the forums" PM when I joined. (sorry if there was but I'm quite sure about this) Then I realised that a PM like that might cut down the number of "newbie question" threads if there was an automatic PM thingie set up wherein things like avators are explained, and who the mods/admins are.

Even though we have a very good FAQ here, a lot of people just don't read it, perhaps this would help.

[Zell's Fists of Fury]

That's actually a very good idea. I wonder if we had the capabilities to do that?

[crono_logical]

I think that system is called Newbie PMs a mod or admin I'm not sure if the board can automatically PM a user from a non-existing user or not, though I guess it'd work with a bit of hacking

[Citizen Bleys]

It's probably doable, but a form message might seem pretty standoffish and impersonal. I like newbie threads. It gives us a chance to meet the individual as a whole community.

[Cz]

I prefer newbie threads. It's a good idea, especially since many newbies don't have newbie threads (thank god). However, I like to meet new people in their threads, rather than have them appear from nowhere.

Plus, it's far easier to go off topic.

[Ifrit's Bodyguard]

I like newbie threads myself, but the qestion threads are normally very similar and you often find the same people giving the same answers to the same questions every couple of weeks. I just think it would mean that new members wouldn't feel they needed to ask loads of questions, they would feel more involved, I know when I came here at first I didn't know the differance between a thread, a forum and a post.

[Agent Proto]

Newbie threads are still good, it's only to help them introduce themselves to everyone. I think that PMing new members some things like who the moderators are, some rules of the forums, should also help.

[Citizen Bleys]

Actually, I've been meaning to randomly start PM'ing newbies for a long time now.

Too many newbie threads start out the same--Some newbie shows up, gives us the look at who they are--and get form answers from a few members. Just the same people saying "Yeah, welcome." "Welcome and don't spam." Welcome and don't spam?. Every newbie who comes in gets that line now. They're being bossed around before they ever get a chance to show who they are.

I've wanted to send PMs to some of those newbies (can't get 'em all, I'm just one man) and tell them to ignore the bossy rules lawyers and be themselves.

[Cz]

Perhaps if one of the first replys to a newbie thread included an FAQ link, then that would help. From now on, I think that I'll start giving actual information to newbies, instead of a generic message.

[The Man]

The link to the FAQ is provided right next to the register link when the main forum page shows up and the user isn't logged in, but most people don't see it, I think. I certainly think a lot of people have no clue about a lot of the rules when they show up, and I genuinely do think something like Bodyguard's idea might save a lot of moderators a lot of time. I don't envy the person who'd have to write it though. :o

Ultimately it's up to the staff how such a thing might be handled - I think it's a great idea, myself.

Peace
Kilgore Trout

[Dr Unne]

Actually we're sort of in the process of making the FAQ good, instead of using the horrible default vBB FAQ that hardly even applies to anything here.