Viewing post #206845 by fiwit

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