I'd like to put together a welcoming committee here on ATP.

The purpose of the committee would be to welcome new people via treemail to the site, and be available to answer questions should any arise.

Qualifications:
1)friendly and helpful
2)available most times (meaning you check in at least once per day with time to answer tree mails)
3) a good familiarity with ATP's features

This might be a good way to make new friends here on ATP!

I'd like to see a small group of people.

Of course, I will also be available to help out as well

Please tree-mail me if you are interested! Thanks!

Hmmm, well, I enjoy welcoming new members when I see a new face, often checking their profile to double-check when they joined up so I don't embarrass myself! :>)

Great idea to have a Welcoming Committee though! It would be like giving newbies a mentor they can call on when needed if they don't understand something, eh?

Shoe

I offered to join the committee if it is set up. Although I'm not exactly a "newbie" I still get lost and need a mentor at times myself.

One good thing about helping out "newbies," is that a lot of times you learn something new yourself!

LOL, I'm at the age where I learn stuff and ... quickly forget it.

I met the first 2 qualifications....but clearly not # 3..... not yet!!

A big "Thank You" to all who have contacted me!

I got caught up in other stuff today, but I'll get back to all of you tomorrow!

I'd be happy to send a welcome treemail too. I could help folks navigate the site. But if they had any technical questions I'd be lost for an answer. I still ask those questions too! Just ask Dave how long it took for me to learn to just put photos on the sidebar of the seed forum!

But, in addition to receiving an email from another member, I still think it would be good to have a welcome tutorial somewhere on the site that could help newbies maneuver. It could just cover basics, like navigating the site, treemail, how to find members, basic BB codes commonly used here, that sort of thing. I think new members would feel more at home if they had all this info at their fingertips immediately.

One thought... there could be a "Welcome New Member" forum where people could be directed immediately on signing up. A sticky thread could give some pertinent information like I mentioned in the previous thread. Then, new members could ask questions on that forum and a the "few friendly faces" could be moderators who would commit to moderating that forum and answering questions just like we do in moderating other forums. All ATP members could participate. And there would be a permanent place on the site to revisit/relearn things like BB code for new and old members (me!).

This could be in addition to a welcome email from that "friendly face".

Karen

I like that idea Karen. Being an "older" member I still have to hunt and peck and bother people for the BB codes myself.

One thought... there could be a "Welcome New Member" forum where people could be directed immediately on signing up. A sticky thread could give some pertinent information like I mentioned in the previous thread. Then, new members could ask questions on that forum and a the "few friendly faces" could be moderators who would commit to moderating that forum and answering questions just like we do in moderating other forums. All ATP members could participate. And there would be a permanent place on the site to revisit/relearn things like BB code for new and old members (me!).

This could be in addition to a welcome email from that "friendly face".

Karen

This.

Every message board I've ever belonged to (and I've been playing on internet discussion boards since the mid-90s) has had a section set aside for new members to introduce themselves and read the rules of the road. I looked for something like that here when I joined last summer. It looks like ATP leaves it up to the individual forum moderators to have something like that, which works, but...

I absolutely loved the thread where Ann pointed out we had a new member and everyone got to welcome her and get to know her. I think newcomers will get a better feel for the site if the welcome threads are all in one location that everyone can see them and welcome the newcomers. There are lots of forums I never go into (ok, most of them), so there are lots of people I might never meet.

I also think it's more new-user-friendly to have a designated welcoming area

Yes, and as I said, there could be moderators there like on other forums who would commit to following the forum regularly and everyone else could chime in.

We've had a lot of new people join recently. A few days ago someone couldn't get the "watch" feature. Why? She didn't know she had a home page let alone finding it. That's understandable I think, because she had no place to go to find out. A welcome forum would be a great place for easy things like that and all new members could learn that stuff.

But I also think a welcome treemail from the welcome committee would be nice in addition to having that forum and I'd be happy to help.

Karen

I agree, I think Karen has put forth some good ideas!

It's always nice not to be the lone radical.

Karen

Hardly radical!

I still agree it is a good idea.

One of these days, we'll get around to it, really!

Well. I maybe could help....

Okay where did you find that little smiley guy. I like him. Charleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnn where'd he come from

Your turn to explain it, Charleen.

type the following, Cherie

a space, a colon, the word welcome, a colon, and a space, and it will appear as if by magic.

Just make sure not to put any spaces between the colons and the word "welcome."