New members

[Lightwing 12,978]

What I think could be done is that whenever a member signs up to the forum, they get a welcoming pm from a bot that says they should go introduce themselves in the welcoming plaza. And what they can do around the forum and stuff. 

This one was a thing that truly got my eye of all the things that were said on this thread.

I stil have saved my message from when Mailmare greeted me to MLPForums, and it already heads you to the Welcoming Plaza

 

 

 

Hi Lightwing!

 

Thanks for joining MLP Forums and the Poniverse network! I'm happy to welcome you to our community. 

 

You'll find many kind members here eagerly waiting to welcome you! Before posting, I strongly recommend you take a moment to acquaint yourself with our Official Resource Map. It's a centralized hub of resources that should help you from feeling lost. Below is a small list of helpful things to know, to assist in establishing yourself in our community

 

Looking for a way to keep up with the community? Subscribe to the Poniverse Newsletter! Are you an artist? A musician? A programmer? A video editor? Or maybe a fan fic writer?

 

We have a section dedicated to all forms of art, Octavia's Hall. If you enjoy roleplaying, we have a dedicated section for just that! Be sure to read the Roleplay World rules if you're new to roleplaying before diving in though! To keep up with up-to-date information about the site, click the 'Follow' button found in Canterlot Castle!  If you have any questions about the site, just open up a topic in the forum question section and a staff member will personally follow up with you. Want a signature? Avatar? Picture of your OC? Take a look into one of the numerous request threads available in Creative Resources!.  Once you're ready to dive into the magical land of Equestria, start off by introducing yourself on the Welcoming Plaza!

 

*brohoof*

~ Mailmare

 

Encouraging people to go to the welcoming plaza is a fantastic idea, but the idea of forcing them is something that I am against. I didn't made a WP thread until way later on, even when I was an active member, and I honestly prefered it on that way.

The way the community works about welcoming is fine, and althought it could use a bit more of improvement in that regard, I see it as good enought to encourage people to post a thread in the Welcoming Plaza (and as a fact, people does that much more than when I became a member, so that means that it improved with the time).

 

Some people gets turned off by this kind of communities, but I don't blame them. Although encouraging them to be more open at the beginning to ensure a full experience could be good, it could also backfire and feel as kind of "forced", thus increasing that feeling of wanting to not be part of the community.

What do I want to say? I like the system as it is, and a bit more of encouragement could be better on the long term, but not too much to not create a situation of being forced.

[Jeric 46,860]

 

 

This one was a thing that truly got my eye of all the things that were said on this thread. I stil have saved my message from when Mailmare greeted me to MLPForums, and it already heads you to the Welcoming Plaza

 

I can confirm that Mailmare currently sends out a welcome PM to all new members, I can also confirm that the text is something that Administration plans on rewriting some of. When RKA first joined Mailmare may not have been used for welcome PM's. In fact Feld0 used to PM members personally. Add a few thousand members and a manual process like that ... well ... it won't work. 

 

If anyone has specific suggestions regarding the Mailmare welcome PM, I would love to hear them.

[ProjectRKA 2,848]

I can confirm that Mailmare currently sends out a welcome PM to all new members, I can also confirm that the text is something that Administration plans on rewriting some of. When RKA first joined Mailmare may not have been used for welcome PM's. In fact Feld0 used to PM members personally. Add a few thousand members and a manual process like that ... well ... it won't work. 

 

If anyone has specific suggestions regarding the Mailmare welcome PM, I would love to hear them.

Maybe something like the messages feld0 sent to people back then ? Would it be possible to get a sample of it somehow ?

[碇 シンジン 27,433]

I can confirm that Mailmare currently sends out a welcome PM to all new members, I can also confirm that the text is something that Administration plans on rewriting some of. When RKA first joined Mailmare may not have been used for welcome PM's. In fact Feld0 used to PM members personally. Add a few thousand members and a manual process like that ... well ... it won't work. 

 

If anyone has specific suggestions regarding the Mailmare welcome PM, I would love to hear them.

Bot messages are good but, I for one don't feel personally very notified once I realize it is a bot message, I don't know how but I think that the closer you can get the new members to the community it is far more easier to for them to adapt into it.

 

Now it feels that the new members have to make quite big leap and step to get more into the community, It would be nice if some people who want could subscribe into the feed that notifies them when new membersd come so it would be easier to offer help and welcome them more personally. 

 

Bot welcomes are good but they are same for everyone and people can feel that it isn't ver personal welcome and every person is unique and different it is why automatically generated welcomes can't do justice in comparison to personal welcomes

[Jokuc 8,174]

What I think could be done is that whenever a member signs up to the forum, they get a welcoming pm from a bot that says they should go introduce themselves in the welcoming plaza. And what they can do around the forum and stuff. 

@@Lightwing,

 

Funny that you mentioned this.

 

 

Still have it saved B-)

 

Anyway, I don't think that it is a good idea to force members to introduce themselves. I am a member of a bunch of forums. 10+ MLP Forums is the only one I have introduced myself on. Not because I am shy but because I just don't want to. I just want to get into the discussions.

[Light Rain 64]

Here are my experiences:

 

I posted in the welcoming plaza, got a bunch of replies, and most of them were just "Welcome to the forum!" and I think only one person wrote a reply which actually referenced something personal I wrote in my introduction. IMHO if someone takes the time to reply to an introductory post, they should try and make their welcoming post personal, otherwise the whole thing feels a bit shallow. I can copypaste "Welcome" in notepad a thousand times but it won't make me feel welcome.

 

After my thread in the WP I tried posting here and there but so far nobody responded to my posts really, altough I do admit that I feel that my posts were lacking in content. I don't want to shit on this forum because people here seem really nice, but I don't know where the actual discussion is going on. I've seen threads like "what's your favorite color" and I don't know why those exist, there isn't much to talk about there IMO (unless you go meta or start talking about stuff like cognitive psychology or whatever).

 

Then another thread that baffles me is "What happens after you die". Many people seemed to post their views but I didn't see much debate. I didn't even want to start debating people there because I feel that this forum is a safe place for many and I don't want to upset them.

 

Then I posted a thread; I put 1-2 hours of work into writing the OP and didn't get a single reply or even an upbrohoof of whatever. I'm not asking for them if nobody cares, so don't look up the thread, just saying that it's puzzling to me that not a single person was interested enough.

 

All this might be kinda discouraging for new members IMO. I went a bit tangential, but I can't really read the culture here and it makes me unsure of what I'm doing wrong.

 

Thanks for reading!

[SolyWack 482]

Perhaps this has been suggested, but those are some mmo length walls of text up there so.. tl;dr

 

But something we could do is 'suggest' them to make a post in welcoming plaza. Like instead of forcing them, when they make an account and verify it or whatever, when they get the "Congratulations! Your account has been made" we (as in whoever codes this site) could add a button under it saying "Why not introduce yourself?" With a link leading to the Plaza.

 

This way people feel more inclined to introduce themselves, yet if they feel uncomfortable, they can simply decline.