About how we 'Normally' Welcome New Users

Not a slam, just that we seem to be losing something.

[pendanticist]

I've noticed that many of the 'Welcome' posts of late seem to be devoid of the standard WebmasterWorld Welcome and Guide to the Basics [webmasterworld.com] link.

While the 'Welcome to WebmasterWorld so-and-so' statement (as a stand-alone greeting) is very nice, I think we should always assume that the newbies need to look thru the link itself, or at the very least, that they will look it over and perhaps learn a bit from it's being there.

Just my thoughts...

Pendanticist.

[martinibuster]

Good point Mr. P, I'll keep a copy of that link.

But I have to make a point about the quality of some newbies.

Some don't like to read. They don't read the previous posts, they never read the "about" section of a search engine, they never read the WW TOS... They just want things handed to them without having to lift a finger to research the answers by themselves.

Then there are the other types, the "Gimme-gimmes." There are two types of "gimme-gimmes."

1> The ones who breeze in with the "gimme-gimme" attitude asking for serious money-making tips. They aren't seeking advice or insight, only a recipe for "making money" straight out of the box, or the name of the #1 MOST LUCRATIVE AFFILIATE PROGRAM.

2> Then there are the helpless "gimme-gimmes". These are the ones who need help choosing a host, choosing a business name, choosing a registrar, then they disappear for three months, only to reappear when their guestbook is blowing up, chanting the gimme-gimme blues.

There is something fundamentally selfish about the gimme-gimmes that I find troubling.

So, in conclusion, I'd like to say Welcome to Webmasterworld, do come back. But please...

[deejay]

Good post pedanticist, and good reply martinibuster.. I agree with you both entirely.

I am quite guilty of not posting the welcome message despite often being an early reply to a newbie.. I need to look at how to customise my setup here so that post is on hand.

I definitely agree about the gimme-gimme attitudes too. I find I avoid replying to them, for fear of not being able to respond... *ahem* 'appropriately'.

Lately I've noticed another thing that disturbs me... those replying asking to sticky the URL of the problem site so they can have a look for the poster. Allowing this concerns me for a few reasons:

1 The opinions resulting from the site review are often written in such a way that they add nothing for anyone except the poster... we don't all get to learn.

2 The poster themselves I believe often doesn't learn much. They might get an answer and an instruction to do this or that to remedy the situation, but they often don't seem to learn WHY.... they don't learn to look at the problem objectively, analyse and evaluate it. Doesn't educate the poster, doesn't educate the population of WebmasterWorld.

3 THe poster doesn't learn how to express their problems in a meaningful way. It's a bit of skill in some cases to be able to express your problem here without reference to the site, product, keywords, etc. Those who don't learn that with their early posts will either continue with poor postings or drift away. WebmasterWorld loses either way.

4 Encourages the 'gimme-gimmes'.

5 It has the potential to encourage solicitation of work by people replying.

Ok.. *grin* got that off my chest..

<edit> because I kount as gud as I speel </edit>

[edited by: deejay at 6:09 am (utc) on April 25, 2003]

[bill]

I can't find the thread now, but somebody once posted a way we could add the "Welcome [webmasterworld.com] to WebmasterWorld" code at the bottom of our page. I tried dropping the code in a Note, but the system automatically converts everything :(. I guess I'll have to go old-school and use Notepad and my desktop ;)

[heini]

I think it is great when the membership here tries to welcome first timers, setting up a tone and a style from the beginning.
To me it doesn't matter if this welcome includes any links or follows any standard format. Way more important is to give a new member the feeling that he's exactly that: a member.

Deejay, you are absolutely right. The sticky me posts are as a rule of thumb pretty much worthless for the board.

[BlobFisk]

If you go to your Control Panel > System Preferences there are two fields towards the bottom called "Custom Code Insert Top" and "Custom Code Insert Bottom".

On my bottom one I have:

<p style="font-size:11px">{url=http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum19/865.htm}Welcome{/url} to WebmasterWorld, NAME!</p>*

If there is a new user post that I am replying to I copy and paste that in (replacing NAME with their nick, of course!) Fast and easy!

I agree with heini, I think that the welcome is very important - I believe that it makes new members more relaxed and confident about posting, as they see the friendly environment here.

* Used curly braces instead of square to show link details

[Brett_Tabke]

Man, we certainly appreciate the spirit of this! I'm not fond of the link to the welcome message. The problem is we can't garantee that url forever. Anything of an official/unofficial nature should/could be taken care of in the welcome letter to members. A simple welcome is sufficient when answering a users first message.