Smart Mouth Responses to Innocent Questions

[jcb231]

What if there was an automated welcome message that was sent to new members...heck, for all I know there might be one of those already, but maybe it could include information on where to find FAQs (official and unofficial), how to search, and a link to the card gallery.

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by Grungebob

We've made it clear that we want niceness to rule. We also just assume that folks all have bumped into a grump or two in their lives and know how to let it roll. You don't see folks on Sesame street busting Oscar's chops for being the resident grouch. The fact that he is rooted to that trash can proves that he is a local fixture. I see it like that.

Originally Posted by Sherman D

I see what you're saying, but doesn't that lead to a slippery slope? Why is one member allowed to be an exception to your rule?

Well this is a community of people, not automatons. The community leaders are volunteers. This is my personal place of choice to relax in my off time. There is room for personal expression within limits, and our rules are loose enough to not be too restrictive/stifling. I'm less concerned about slippery slopes, than I am about folks having a good time exchanging ideas here. Will this cause inconsistencies? sure! The admins are all different minded individuals with little or no training. We make no claim to be some paragon of internet conduct here... Just be nice/helpful/humble... Be cool. That's the only real message of this thread. As for Cavalier, he's my friend....stinky grouchy friend.

Originally Posted by jcb

What if there was an automated welcome message that was sent to new members...heck, for all I know there might be one of those already, but maybe it could include information on where to find FAQs (official and unofficial), how to search, and a link to the card gallery.

We have Aldin But seriously, this is not about how to correct the noobs, but how to treat people. Automation is no replacement for helpfulness.

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by Grungebob

As for Cavalier, he's my friend....stinky grouchy friend.

I am feeling the love in this thread

[Revdyer]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

I am feeling the love in this thread

I think I can smell the love.

[netherspirit]

Originally Posted by Revdyer

I think I can smell the love.

[Billtog]

I've also noticed a sharp spike in rudeness in the past couple of weeks. I hope I haven't been contributing to it unknowingly, but I've been spending less time here to make sure I don't.

I know how we can solve this problem. This smiley -> is a very expressive one, but comes off as quite rude. I think we should just change it to PRTFC (the P standing for "please"). That was there's absolutely no way anyone ever could misinterpret anything for any reason.

I will be nice to t3h n00bzoxrz!!!11, I promise.

[ninthdoc]

Originally Posted by Grungebob

Just remember who's the law:

Um, I thought I was the law...

Nice Colt, BB.

[RichardD]

What about grammar, though? Surely we're still allowed to flame for grammar? Please? Pretty please?

In all seriousness, GBob is absolutely 100% right. Although there have been instances of new posters inviting a flaming, and doing all that they can do to ensure that the flames don't die down quickly.

And in all honesty, *I* have never managed to do a proper search in this site, absent an easy-to-use search function. OK, I'll look through the likely threads for an answer before I post a question, and I'll try to use an appropriate thread in which to ask it, but I can see where the new guys come unstuck.

Though in all honesty, every forum I've ever been on that *has* a proper search function still gets a deluge of half-baked questions posted to it. At least this place is several orders of magnitude nicer than any Warhammer forum I've ever visited. They don't flame newbies in those places; they flay them alive.

[Billtog]

Continuing on what RichardD said, sometimes the reason you can't find something with the search function is because people give REALLY vague thread titles.

For instance, instead of "Mimring's Special Attack" we have "OMFG? im new hear andi hav a ?"

[Revdyer]

One of the significant questions that this thread raises (and I haven't heard elsewhere, although I did not do a search) is:
Are there people we do NOT want to welcome here on HeroScapers.com?

The answer is "Yes."

We do not want: those who abuse other users for their own ego or pleasure, those who are sexual predators, those who only want to disrupt the site, those who are posting spam, those who are scam artists, those who are here only to create conflict, those who are here only to make a profit, and those who are only interested in other self-serving activities.

That leaves a lot of people who may not do things the way I would do them, or even do them the way I think a civilized person would not do them, who we still want here. We may hope they will learn the ways of the civilized world. We may simply enjoy the way they do not learn such meek and mild ways. But they are wanted and welcome.

Otherwise, there's not much room for someone like me, who is mostly civilized, but every now and then just goes bonkers.

[Nooblar]

About the search function, I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Put a Search link back at the top and redirect it to a page that explains the Google process! It could link to the forum post that is stickied, or it could even get its own new page explaining the process, which I still find a trivial thing to create (hey, I may be HTML literate, but I don't have keys to the site!).

Not to rag on the already-busy site admins, but I honestly think we can work around the broken search with little effort. Unless there's something in the code of this bulletin board that prohibits it (in which case I'm a total artard). Is there a good reason it hasn't been done? Honestly in the dark here.

The reason I mention this here is that a significant portion of questions could be redirected to the appropriate places (though I realize some n00bs will ignore the Search anyway), cutting down on long-term members' frustration and increasing the efficiency of the site by reducing the number of question threads. And regarding "warm welcomes," simply offering a search option would eliminate even the *opportunity* for dog-piling for a good number of new members. Remove the temptation, so to speak.

I repeat: this is not to get upset at admins because their jobs are already pretty busy. I'm just a big fan of things like this working efficiently.

[Grungebob]

I think you all will be pretty happy soon......