Poll: Where the hell did all these newbies come from?
- Thread starter Fniff
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Someone's only been here for 3-4 months and has 4500-5000 Posts already. I'm only just tipping onto 400. |:Mr.Pandah said:
EDIT:Speak of the devil (Above Post)
yeah, we really need to help them clear some space out the back of the chemical sheds, they are starting to smell abit.newguy77 said:
OT: also meh for the same reasons, apart from the one or two whom i happen to know in RL who joined recently, funny when someone tries to tell you about 'this cool site i joined the other day.' that i am already a member on.
Agreed. I personally base it on post count and date of joining combined. To me, someone's new if they have very few posts and they've only been here perhaps a couple of months tops. If they post a lot in a short space of time (without spamming, see Max and Neonbob for examples of the right way) then I consider them established community members, same if they've been here for a long time and only have a few posts to their name. You need to work with all the bases, I guess.Mr.Pandah said:
And on topic, I think new blood is okay if people don't start breaking rules and posting inane threads and posts. If people stick to the rules and contribute well to the forums then I don't see any roblem with a load of newbies. And welcome one and all, to those newbies
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On the note of post count and join date, I lurked for much of the first few months I was here. I think it's a good move to do actually because it was spent reading the forums and getting a feel for them. Even after that time I didn't really start posting until about May/June 2008, part of why many of the older users consider me a part of the generation starting around then with the Cockney thread and such.Trivun said:Agreed. I personally base it on post count and date of joining combined. To me, someone's new if they have very few posts and they've only been here perhaps a couple of months tops. If they post a lot in a short space of time (without spamming, see Max and Neonbob for examples of the right way) then I consider them established community members, same if they've been here for a long time and only have a few posts to their name. You need to work with all the bases, I guess.
And on topic, I think new blood is okay if people don't start breaking rules and posting inane threads and posts. If people stick to the rules and contribute well to the forums then I don't see any roblem with a load of newbies. And welcome one and all, to those newbies
Post count doesn't mean inexperience. If someone has a spread-out backlog I think it means that they chose their words carefully and are more likely to post highly thought-out responses than people who have 1000 posts in the first month.
What it comes down to is the individuals. Maturity is irrespective of experience. People also pick up on the undercurrents of a forum faster if they're more mature, or so I've found anyway. In short I think we should scrap the idea of tarring users with any brush before we've got as much of a feel for them as they develop for the community, or until they make utter dicks of themselves in which case we mods step in. Somehow, this isn't exclusive to new users. I can't imagine why.
On the topic of elitism in forums I find that a lot of the dark-grey objectionable material here is not directly offensive so much as it is generally unfriendly which makes the feel of the site far less welcoming to new people. Better to take a relaxed approach and guide with suggestion and recommendation than slam everyone down with "You're fucking up the site!" bullshit and obnoxiousness. That just makes potentially good users less likely to take that additional step and can turn away many others who would contribute to the site. A similar thing has happened to the more experienced users who got sick of the site and left.
Moral of the story: What poisons a community is never new people, it's dickheads. Change is not cancer. The guidelines are your friend and sing happy songs around the campfire more often.
Hey, I was thinking this around six months ago!Fniff said:
Also, it's typically good. Any trolls we get are easily smashed down by the mods and if the threads in off-topic get a bit stupid I can always go over to the religion and politics board. Honestly, this surge is the most comfortable one I've seen.
