Just curious.. Why do you/ Don't you post in the welcome forums?

[Zygen 6,066]

I felt like this was a question that was on my mind that I needed answered. I want to know not only how many people actually post on the welcome forums, but why or why not.

 

So pretty simple all i want to know is whether you post on the welcome forums(By posting I mean like you post atleast more then like once or twice ever I guess. frequent enough that you feel that its justified I guess as posting you be the judge) or not, and why you do or don't.

 

I personally post there because I feel like I want to make sure everybody feels welcomed to the community like I did when i was welcomed. I guess repaying the favor. I also do it when there isn't anything else I feel like posting in. Or when I'm in a good mood and just want to spread the joy!

 

So how about you?

[NavelColt 22,880]

Oh lookie, another chance for me to shamelessly plug how the Welcoming Plaza needs more activity like it used to have, so that regulars become more common |'D

 

I post in a lot of them, but not all of them. I'd say the one hundred characters is one of the reasons. An issue that's being discussed among the staff a bit.

[Charming Knight 56]

I try to welcome some people sometimes im just not always on I post on things that strike my interest and such, i do know that Chaotic Discord did post on mine and welcome me, but just cause we do not post on the welcome intro thread doesn't mean they won't be active, its all on the person, shoot im still shy to get on the forums when i have friends over or any where near, just cause they don't like it and i Don't wanna force them to look at ponies and such.

[NavelColt 22,880]

I try to welcome some people sometimes im just not always on I post on things that strike my interest and such, i do know that Chaotic Discord did post on mine and welcome me, but just cause we do not post on the welcome intro thread doesn't mean they won't be active, its all on the person, shoot im still shy to get on the forums when i have friends over or any where near, just cause they don't like it and i Don't wanna force them to look at ponies and such.

 

Numerous, numerous people have said that one of the reasons they initially decided to stay on the forum and give it a chance to grow on them, was because of all the replies that flooded their intro topic that made them feel very welcome So, it does actually have a big impact on people. It doesn't on everyone, but it does with people who let it.

[Zygen 6,066]

Oh lookie, another chance for me to shamelessly plug how the Welcoming Plaza needs more activity like it used to have, so that regulars become more common |'D

 

I post in a lot of them, but not all of them. I'd say the one hundred characters is one of the reasons. An issue that's being discussed among the staff a bit.

 

Yeah i agree it does feel like it lacks activity. I try to post in most all the threads in there that I can, but I don't end up posting in them all. I do think there should be a lower character min limit in welcome plazza. Just because not everyone is quite as much of a rambler as me.

Then again it might make the person feel as though all the person posting did was be like well ya know I said hey and thats it.

With the current limit I guess the person has to atleast say more then just Hey welcome to the forums and blah blah. Maybe if its only like 75 it might not matter much.

*ahem* anyways thats just my feedback. Its up to the staff of course to decide. I will still continue to post as long as i'm still around and still have the extra bit of time.

 

Numerous, numerous people have said that one of the reasons they initially decided to stay on the forum and give it a chance to grow on them, was because of all the replies that flooded their intro topic that made them feel very welcome So, it does actually have a big impact on people. It doesn't on everyone, but it does with people who let it.

 

I forget exactly how many people posted in my welcome thread, I can't imagine it was more then 4-5 people maybe. However considering it was only a a little over a month or 2 I joined and I already have like 300+ Posts I'd consider I'm pretty active regardless.

I do agree that when people are posting it makes you feel good, even the small amount of people posting made me feel good.

 

And besides it felt more welcoming then any other forums. You don't really get warm welcomes all the time like that on other forums. Maybe other MLP related forums, but not really from other community's

 

I agree it depends on the person though. Which is why I try to be friendly and very welcoming when I can on there!

The more the merrier!

[Titan Rising 2,156]

Isn't it obvious? I don't get post counts. If I got post counts I would spam that section all day long. But since I don't there's no incentive for me to post there.

 

Maybe if they gave me a special badge for posting there I would greet new people.

 

Also I often can't think of a greeting with 100+ characters without asking "hows the weather over there?"

[Zygen 6,066]

Isn't it obvious? I don't get post counts. If I got post counts I would spam that section all day long. But since I don't there's no incentive for me to post there.

 

Maybe if they gave me a special badge for posting there I would greet new people.

 

Also I often can't think of a greeting with 100+ characters without asking "hows the weather over there?"

 

True, I'm sure its a thing that gets people off the hook there alot. I feel as though welcoming then is enough, but I think a little badge or something would always be nice.

As for thinking of something to say I usally just read their post a bit and try and extract some stuff to say about it comments questions and suggestions.

 

Plus I tend to be quite the rambler so I can kinda repeat myself like alot... And say stuff that isn't really relevant.

[Tacit Moon 100]

I only had a few people respond to my introduction thred, but every one of those people that did really ment a lot.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Tacit Moon

[aperture_tech 56]

I am subscribed to the board, and I get an e-mail every time somebody posts a new topic. However, I now rarely post there because most of the time my post became, "Welcome, <insert username>, to the forums. I hope you enjoy! I for one am very glad you joined..." and so on. I would love to just be able to post hello and something short, but then all the new users would just have a topic filled very short replies that really don't give much information. I just really couldn't bother with making unique responses for new users, and didn't want to give some kind of canned response.

@ @Tacit Moon

I think you totally nailed it. I mean, I got a much better response from this community than I have in other communities, but overall, I felt that posting in introductions was more of a formality, and posted there mostly because I had no idea how active the members are here. Overall, it gave me a false impression about activity.

Edited October 9, 2012 by aperture_tech

[3005 332]

Every single topic is exactly the same, and it's pointless to say, "Oh, hey, welcome!" a billion times for every single new member that registers (and that's quite a lot).

[Zygen 6,066]

HEY! uh.. Hi.

 

I just registered on these forums a few days ago, so this is fresh in my mind.

 

Coming from someone that is still kinda shy about being an open fan of MLP,

 

It has a HUGE impact on how you are recieved.

 

I only had a few people respond to my introduction thred, but every one of those people that did really ment a lot!

 

An online community is a lot like a traditional community.

 

If someone arrives and says, "Hi! I'm (so and so) I like MLP and purple is my favorite color! and I really want to be an astranaught some day!"

 

They are putting themselves out there. and if no one says, "Hey, nice to meet you" It makes you feel bad.

 

C. Discord was one of the members that welcomed me, and i believe there were a total of four or five.

 

That was enough to make me feel like I was welcome, but not really enough to make me feel like i was wanted. Two different things entirely.

 

If I had gotten ten of fifteen replies to my welcome thred, (With members introducing themselves and telling a bit about themselves) I would feel a BILLION times more invested in the community.

 

If someone asked me a quesion on my intro thred, "WOW!" boom. Immediately people want to know about me. They want to knoe MORE than what I just wrote to introduce myself.

 

This is a cool community thus far, and i don't really know a lot of others yet. I'm only posting because this topic is fresh in my mind.

 

I don't know about how i feel about welcoming others myself yet, just because i'm not really feeling like i'm a part of this community yet.

 

I got some brohoofs, ane general posative feedback, but i'm still feeling somewhat detached from the community as a whole.

 

Third day and all, Thats probably to be expected. But if i had gotten more greetings and questions... You bet I'd be greeting people right now.

 

 

ACTUALLY!!! HERE!

 

This is the post that made me feel the best about being here.

 

It was genuine, made a suggestion of something i could do, comminted on something that I had written in my introduction.

 

I KNOW that sugar plum actually read my post. And that she made a suggestion based on the things I said. That made me feel good.

 

 

 

 

Its nice to get a perspective on it from newer members points of view! thank you for your input. And yeah there isn't a huge chunk of people who post in the welcome plazza. However I'm sure once you start posting you'll start to feel more and more wanted. Its just that alot of people never bother to participate in that forum section I guess and it can be a thing that effects if people decide to be active or not.

 

I'd like to say personally that I want you here! Its always great to see new faces! and even though I'm somewhat new myself(like 1-2 months) I still love to see newcomers and even better when they become active and contribute to dicussions and even create new discussions about things, or even post art videos and other creations, offer advice there is so many things you can do!

 

This community is really awesome, trust me it may take some time. I think you'll feel wanted after a while of posting! I do agree the welcome forums needs more happy welcomers and I try to do my best like I said, but I don't have time to write stuff to everyone

 

Anyways thanks for giving your thoughts and enjoy the forums! Hope you become and stay active!

 

I am subscribed to the board, and I get an e-mail every time somebody posts a new topic. However, I now rarely post there because most of the time my post became, "Welcome, <insert username>, to the forums. I hope you enjoy! I for one am very glad you joined..." and so on. I would love to just be able to post hello and something short, but then all the new users would just have a topic filled very short replies that really don't give much information. I just really couldn't bother with making unique responses for new users, and didn't want to give some kind of canned response.

@Tacit Moon I think you totally nailed it. I mean, I got a much better response from this community than I have in other communities, but overall, I felt that posting in introductions was more of a formality, and posted there mostly because I had no idea how active the members are here. Overall, it gave me a false impression about activity.

 

Exactly, I do also feel that sometimes I have these "Canned" responses and I feel bad posting them! I really try my best to give everyone equally welcoming posts that express my enthusiasm equally, without making them feel like copy pasted messages.

 

It can be quite hard though. And it is very repetitious with all the new members.

Still even those canned responses I think are very important to the new members. It atleast makes them know that people cared about what they said. Even if it feels canned to you it was still time you took out of your day to welcome them for no benifits of your own.(Not even post counts since they don't go up there).

 

I do agree that responses can feel canned.

Edited October 9, 2012 by Zygen

[Tacit Moon 100]

Yea. I absolutely agree that it can be REALLY hard to give a thoughtful interesting and unique response to people every time there is a new member. I've had to do that before also, and it does get really repetative.

 

But yea! even a canned semi generic response is better than no response at all!

 

 

 

You can have a canned response to those threds, maybe introducing yoursel or something like that, but throwing in something in response to something they said isn't terribly hard. It doesn't have to be something AMAZING! but just

Acknowledging something they said is a big thing.

[Zygen 6,066]

Yea. I absolutely agree that it can be REALLY hard to give a thoughtful interesting and unique response to people every time there is a new member. I've had to do that before also, and it does get really repetative.

 

But yea! even a canned semi generic response is better than no response at all!

 

 

 

You can have a canned response to those threds, maybe introducing yoursel or something like that, but throwing in something in response to something they said isn't terribly hard. It doesn't have to be something AMAZING! but just

Acknowledging something they said is a big thing.

 

Exactly, Aslong as your ackknowledging what they read I think its more appriciated. I know I wouldn't want people blindly responding to my welcome thread without even bothering to read through it(Thats why i liked that people actually responded with information being stated from my post)

 

And yes canned response is better then no response for sure.

[Haven Celestii 9,385]

I've posted in there so much that I just kinda tired of doing for a little while. Imma try to get back into my welcome plaza stalker mode eventually. I love welcoming new people for some reason. Did it back on the EPIC games forum whenever someone made a intro thread for who knows what reason. They don't have an area for that so it was kinda weird. Id also do it to a random post if they mentioned being new lol

So that habit just kinda followed me over here which is why I do it.

 

 

As for the "canned" post....I did have a partial copypasta for my welcomes. That stuff ain't easy to come up with multiple times a day. Mine was only a greeting and a YouTube video. Then I would try and say something about what they said. Then finish with the normal "have fun, enjoy yourself, and stay active! "With different variations.

Edited October 9, 2012 by Haven

[One 498]

I post in them every once in a while, but since I have to get the whole 100 characters, if I don't make it the first try I just move on.

[Zygen 6,066]

I've posted in there so much that I just kinda tired of doing for a little while. Imma try to get back into my welcome plaza stalker mode eventually. I love welcoming new people for some reason. Did it back on the EPIC games forum whenever someone made a intro thread for who knows what reason. They don't have an area for that so it was kinda weird. Id also do it to a random post if they mentioned being new lol

So that habit just kinda followed me over here which is why I do it.

 

 

As for the "canned" post....I did have a partial copypasta for my welcomes. That stuff ain't easy to come up with multiple times a day. Mine was only a greeting and a YouTube video. Then I would try and say something about what they said. Then finish with the normal "have fun, enjoy yourself, and stay active! "With different variations.

 

Well its good that you posted so much! I think your format for posts in welcome plaza is pretty similar to mine. Its probably quite similar for alot of people though especially with the 100 character min.

[Haven Celestii 9,385]

 

Well its good that you posted so much! I think your format for posts in welcome plaza is pretty similar to mine. Its probably quite similar for alot of people though especially with the 100 character min.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it was. That limit makes it soooo hard to post in there sometimes. Slighly part of the reason of my decline. :/

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

I'm an ego-centric, elitist enigma wrapped in a mystery that I hardly ever step foot in Welcoming Plaza unless someone has a username that catches my attention.

 

Yeah, bring on the booing.

 

I kinda feel bad about it and I should do it more often, but I find myself just repeating the same welcome message over and over. Most of the new people don't offer up too much info in their intro post to build a convo off of.

[Page Turner 607]

I post in the welcoming plaza because when I first arrived the number of ponies who came in and welcomed me is the reason i decided to stay.

[NostalgicPony 310]

I wish I could motivate myself to coming on daily and saying welcome to the new comers. However for some reason I just don't have the time or I am to lazy. I love the idea that other ponies are very welcoming though.

[Creamy Arty 6,252]

Posting in the Welcoming Plaza is something I did early on but eventually forgot about. Regrettable. I recently started again and plan to make it a regular thing.

 

Canned responses aren't necessarily a bad thing if you can think of multiple ways to say the same thing. Working in IT, I'm quite accustomed to giving

. Rather than copypasta for each reply to an introductory thread, I type it out even if I know it's going to say essentially the same thing. Usually this results in some differences since I haven't made it a point to memorize a standard response. The most important aspect of any post, whether in the Welcoming Plaza or elsewhere, is sincerity. People will feel encouraged if you take the time to go out of your way and acknowledge their presence regardless of how rote your greeting may be.

 

Remember: there are routine situations but there are no routine people. Just because you've greeted one doesn't mean you've greeted them all. Nobody's background is exactly the same, so pry into their history if you're completely at a loss. It takes two to have a conversation, so offer some details about yourself even if you've told the same tale to countless others. This person hasn't heard it, it's an icebreaker, and sharing part of yourself with that stranger will foster some trust. People are often judged by the company they keep; making yourself look good to a new member makes the whole of the forums look good.

 

If I drop into one of those threads and find that it has plenty of replies that have covered everything I might want to say after reading the original post, I'll still just extend a generic "hello." Maybe I won't post anything if there are already many replies and the thread has been there for several days. Instead I'll just leave a brohoof for the OP. That way he knows that one more person checked in and cares about a new arrival, even if that person had nothing to say.

 

Everybody is capable of doing something in the Welcoming Plaza. You don't have to be eloquent, you don't have to be verbose, just be there and make your presence known.

 

I don't know about how i feel about welcoming others myself yet, just because i'm not really feeling like i'm a part of this community yet.

I get where you're coming from, but don't ever feel like you're too new or not prestigious enough to do something. It wouldn't look weird and nobody would call you out on it. Once you join, you're one of us, there's not much more to it than that. When I came here I skipped out on making an introductory thread in the Plaza and went straight to greeting other newcomers.

[Starshine 16,333]

I once was very damn active in that place with my copy pasta template, yeah I'm lazy like that, but I always try to give each and every thread a simple personal advice.

 

Then three newbies accused me of being spambot, and at least two people in this thread says that my method is "lame and useless" (because giving the newbies helpful links are useless), I stopped immediately :<

[Jokuc 8,173]

I post in welcoming plaza alot. I think it's important to welcome people. I know myself when I joined that I appreciated it.

I try to write different stuff each time so I don't just use a copypasta like alot of people. Though it's hard to make unique posts, so many of the posts I make there are quite similar.

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

I do post there sometimes, but definitely not as much as I would like to... Maybe I'll start posting there more... The only reason I see is that I get sidetracked to other parts of the forum...

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

I post in the welcome forums so I don't forget where I came from, and maybe crack some jokes to break the ice for the noobs. I don't post in every intro thread because then I'd end up churning out the same response to everyone, and sometimes the character limit is annoying in that section. But I pop in there every few days.