Another thought I had was maybe some sort of adopt-a-newb or big brothers-big sisters program that pair new folks up with vets. Only not so stupidly named.
Yes! At last a n00b of my very own, to mold into an image of myself, complete with my personal animosities towards other posters. I shall make armies of them! Where do I sign up?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevlar
Why is it the intellectuals are the first ones to get executed in every Revolution? It's not because they're overly charming.
Stand by for a 5,000 word post about why your theory of revolution is crap, absolute crap I tells yaz! I'll set you straight, but let's fight about it some first YOU ASSHOLE!
If we start getting hundreds of new members that answer the question, "I'm a pedophile" we may be in trouble.
__________________
"It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened."
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Another thought I had was maybe some sort of adopt-a-newb or big brothers-big sisters program that pair new folks up with vets. Only not so stupidly named.
Yes! At last a n00b of my very own, to mold into an image of myself, complete with my personal animosities towards other posters. I shall make armies of them! Where do I sign up?
Stand by for a 5,000 word post about why your theory of revolution is crap, absolute crap I tells yaz! I'll set you straight, but let's fight about it some first YOU ASSHOLE!
Oh shit! I forgot the revolutionaries were hanging out here.
How do you provide an inclusive environment?
Same as you do IRL: by being inclusive. By recognizing what makes each user (new or old) who they are and what is important to them, by acknowledging their existence and remembering your conversations with them so that they feel it was worth posting. Not just in a Welcome! thread, but for weeks and months after that. Even if people were interested in interacting with others that way, I suspect most individuals really aren't equipped to be that way for more than a handful of their people in their lives.
I believe there really isn't anything you can do administratively or via suggestions to change that. Social dynamics grow from the people who make it up. I think social groups are 'self-correcting.' The people who are comfortable interacting a particular way tend to gravitate toward each other. We can't get ourselves to suddenly interact in a different way, just by wishing we would or could.
Do you really need to make any changes? There have always been a few new users who do 'click' and join the ranks of the very active and popular each year. I think that's just how socializing works. Simply put, the people who fit in are the people who just do. What combination of attributes and behaviors constitutes "fitting in" is dictated by the most active members in any group. The people with those attributes, behaviors will fit in.
I honestly don't think you should make any changes. is a strong community that grows itself naturally.
I realize your OP is focused on new members, but a similar phenomenon can occur for folks who have been around a while. I'm far more intimidated to post now than I ever was during that period of time I felt I was still part of the group.
I actually think that part of the issue here is that the small size of teh forum makes it so there is really only one clique. If someone isn't in that clique or clicking with it on some level, it's harder to imagine what to do. On many other boards if you don't get along with group A, someone from group B adopts you for that very reason. Here, at least my impression is that we don't really have separate camps. Just one that people related to in various ways.
I can definitely relate to not relating with folks you've known online for awhile. Sometimes, you go left and everyone else goes right, or you come offline for a few months and when you look again the role you occupied just doesn't seem to be there anymore.
I think the hardest part of being a newbie is having people not respond to you, but I think that's often a function of the very lack of rapport in the first place. When people who've known each other for years post, they are often commenting on past history as much as anything, or using it to inform their sense of what the other guys is saying. With a newbie, you just get the comment. No inspiration, and no fall back (WTF? I have no idea how to respond to that. Well, I'll just Raz ES about this picture or that decision-to-join-the-military. That'll be fun and maybe I'll figure out what to say about the post later. Plus I can always misplell a few things and see what liv does...[/Internal Dialogue])
Note how I stop short of suggesting any solutions for this. I don't do solutions; that would be entirely too helpful.
Unless vie do zee interrogation, you know. Vie haf veys of making zem tawk...
__________________
"...because everyone is ugly as sin, when you rip away their skin."
Blake makes a good point. The impression that all the established posters know each other well and have ingrained and understood ways of interacting must be quite offputting.
I have ... a solution. A "get to know" thread where from time to time one established poster (or a few) posts an introduction to another established poster - some history, something about their interests, something about how they post and interact. Newbies wouldn't need to post to the thread, they could just read all the intros and feel 5% less daunted. Or they could post, and make a q&a get-to-know-X thread.
I'm sure if this is a good solution, though. Seems pretty daunting to me to have to write an intro about another poster.
I'm sure if this is a good solution, though. Seems pretty daunting to me to have to write an intro about another poster.
You know what? This makes me think about how much I don't know about other posters. I think there's this assumption that there's some core group that have been friends forever and knows everything about each other, and that's what's intimidating the newbs, but it's really not the case. I don't know where people live, I don't know who's married to whom, I don't even know everybody's gender. That doesn't stop me from posting and having a good time with everybody.
Until I learned otherwise, I believed the following things:
- Shelli and Watser? were married.
- fragment was a girl.
- Stormlight lived in South Africa.
Re: Softening the Blow
worthy!
Okay, I'm totally adding that to the 
dragging Watser? with me, poow 
. 
@ Stormlight
@ Shelli
is a strong community that grows itself naturally.
! You may not be around as much, but you will always be part of the group! 
Fine I can retire the green hands... 
Linear Mode
