Curiousity Question - Intimidation Factor

[sparrow]

I've been actively participating this this forum for a little while, and I was just curious as to anyone having feelings of intimidation. Or do those forums remove the "emotional" element of discussion so you feel more at ease.

Just curious.

[Brad]

>I keep away from posts that I feel I have nothing to reply to. << Is that a form of intimidation

Hee hee.

No. I sometimes peek in on different forums. If a lot of people are inside commiting Perl I quickly close the door and back away slowly. :) :)

[IanTurner]

I would add that most of the mods here made the same mistakes everyone has mentioned when they first joined. I remember being admonished by the mods when I first joined, and also remember that it was always done politely and without malice. That is why I stayed.

I now enjoy moderating a forum and try to be polite to people if I need to edit a post or point someone to the TOS for the forum.

I still make mistakes and sometimes say something stupid, but work on the principal that if I keep posting 95% of what I post will be useful to some of the readers (okay some of you may disagree - please tell me if everything I post is rubbish, I'll take your views on board and try to do better, but it would never stop me posting.)

[nancyb]

>Uh oh .....
>I feel intimidated by MY lack of posts

and

>Just wait 'til you post a comment and then the thread dies.

Truthfully, this is the most friendly board ever! Now, if someone will please tell me why I'm not ranked PR10 and why my back links are gone :)

.....joking, not joking, joking, not joking......

[namniboose]

There's a little part of me that is always expecting someone to say 'What are you doing posting here, you don't even know html'! But I have dared to ask the most 'basic' questions and have received nothing but help and humour here (although the answers usually beg more questions!).

I got into making my website after our 'webmaster' took the money and ran leaving us with a program and a piece of &%$#**& and then I got into SEO after being let down by another professional, so I came to WebMasterWorld without any claims to expertise.

I've learnt so much about SEO the past year (all of it here at WMW) and I've got our site onto page 1 of ALL the major search engines. I'm hardly getting a break this summer ('low season'??) because our vacation rentals are so booked up!

So thank you everyone who has shared their knowledge (and a special thank-you to Marcia who has been particularly helpful).

One day I will learn html (it's just another language, isn't it?).

[lioness]

It's actually a document structuring tool, right?? If you don't like the word 'programming', 'document structuring tool' might take some of the sting away...

[deejay]

intimidated: no.

overawed: yes.

I spent a fair bit of time trundling around and working on my sites on my own before I thought to go looking for a community to discuss things with earlier this year.

Unfortunately this wasn't the first site I found. I spent a bit of time at a couple of other sites, but all they really did was discourage me. Places filled with people wanting to make a million in a month, people offering ways to make a million in a month, and people disillusioned because they still weren't making a million in a month. The capper for me was when doing a site review for someone I searched on their keywords, and whaddayaknow... up first in the search results, before their site even, was an earlier post of theirs to the forum that I would have been just horrified for a customer to see if it were my site.

Then I stumble here somehow... no advertising... a mix of experience and skills so I can learn, and still offer something in return... people who are genuinely interested in sharing their knowledge and in learning themselves.

The best thing I find is actually that people here seem to feel free to say 'hey, I screwed up - here's how not to do it'. I really feel that's a by-product of the anonymity here. I certainly am more willing to say 'here's my problem' when I know there's no extended reflection on my site.

It's flippin' Nirvana I tell ya.

[Marcia]

>converting geekspeak into something more human is often a real challenge

Sure is, and that intimidated me when I first got here (first place I'd ever been around it), though I posted very soon. But the simple translations do come.

I still feel a little intimidated now and then. ;)

[Eric_Jarvis]

namniboose: "One day I will learn html (it's just another language, isn't it?)."

no...it's just a matter of adding a few marks to the content so that the context is shown as well as text and images...it is really easy and most of it is totally obvious

making complex things work right is a lot harder at first...going straight into learning htlm 4 and stylesheets is a lot easier than learning old style html 3.2

[dvduval]

Someone once told me...

No matter how great your theory might be, it doesn't do anyone any good until you can explain it so that even a five year old might understand.

I think it is really important to speak on a level that appeals to both a newcomer and a veteran.

Someone also once told me...

To teach is to learn twice. By teaching others, not only do you improve your own knowledge, but you improve your ability to share that knowledge with others.

Interesting stuff everyone. I'm glad this topic is being discussed. I would be interested in finding out different people's views on the PURPOSE of the forums.