Introductions (newbies)

[Mr. Javi]

I had a suggestion, I see lots of new people singing up and logging in to ask a question, but we never know who they are or for that matter what year their Aurora is. I figure we should send an e-mail to all the newbies that have come through here and remind them to do like a formal introduction in the INTRODUCTION thread.

So at least we hopefully get them to stick around a bit longer here at ACNA, rather than just getting an answer to their problem and them leaving.

I'm not trying to sound mean or disrespectful toward all new members, but I'm getting private messages from people that I have not spoken to, I don't mind answering back, but I would like to know what Aurora are they driving, you know. ACNA supposedly has over 1300 members, but you know that not even half are currently active, if we really had this many members, man this place would be jumping.

I mean we can only make this ACNA Community a little better for all of us.

My 2 .

[Aurora40]

Well, that's typically how it goes. As a site gets bigger, you get a lot more people who only come in order to get a piece of information. They have no interest in joining a community. I'd say if you can get about 10% of those people to actively contribute, that's pretty good.

I can look into the email thing, I don't know if ProBoards supports that. I doubt it will make a difference, though.

[Mr. Javi]

aurora40 said:

I can look into the email thing, I don't know if ProBoards supports that. I doubt it will make a difference, though.

At least that, my guess is that many newbies don't know that they can introduce their selves, a little direction would not hurt.
Thanks Aurora40

[mission008]

if you really think about it...there are about 20-30 of us that are daily contributors. the rest are just randoms...at least thats what it seems like to me. I like the introduction idea

[A-boy95]

yea i agree, im not trying to sound like an a** but just dont come on ask a Q and leave, it just rude.

[scottydl]

I understand the annoyance, but we don't want to make the forum too restrictive... I mean, it is supposed to be free and open to anyone for reading or posting. Believe me, I would love it if everyone that visits would post an Intro and get involved in multiple forum discussions. I'll admit that I have joined forums before just to ask a question or two, or read posts for a couple weeks and then haven't returned... JeepForum was one example, when I was considering buying a Jeep and had a few questions. Since I didn't buy a Jeep and was already involved in other forums that I like better, there was no real reason for me to stick around. It's just part of how the system works. Newbs learn the unwritten etiquette of forums as they contribute more.

And last but not least, there is no way (that I know of) to send mass e-mails through Proboards to *just* new members.

[Mr. Javi]

Or how about like a memo of some sort, to remind them to make sure they stop by and introduce their selves. I know there has to be a way to announce, there you go an "Announcement", like a sticky.

Just though t I ask, if it works, it works.

[skifast]

Javi,

How much of an introduction do you want? Just about the car, our personal life(work, family, etc.)? Let me know and I will update my introduction post.

Mark

[mission008]

Or, if a new member is only coming on for an answer on a couple questions or so, then why cant we set up some sort of Guest account where they can only PM a certain amount of times and then once they've reached that limit they will either be forced to sign up or not contribute.

thinking back, i went to a website before just for the sole purpose of finding and answer to a problem i was having with my 79 MGB, and I just asked and I dont think Ive ever returned there after getting the answer

[Mr. Javi]

skifast said:

Javi,

How much of an introduction do you want? Just about the car, our personal life(work, family, etc.)? Let me know and I will update my introduction post.

Mark

Info on their car would be nice and location, I think a sticky might work in directing the new members to the right place.

[scottydl]

javidogg said:

Info on their car would be nice and location, I think a sticky might work in directing the new members to the right place.

Only problem is knowing where newbies are going first... where should the stickied post be? We like to think an entire section of the forum called "Introductions" is self-explanatory, but obviously not as we've seen.

[Mr. Javi]

Maybe they need a memo before they began to post or ask questions.

[Aurora40]

Like scotty said, that only works if people read what you put up. Someone who just wants to ask a question isn't going to read those things, and isn't going to do them even if they did.

As far as a guest account, nothing limits people from registering, so they would have no incentive to use that and it's associated limitations.

We could allow guest posts, but in my opinion that will simply invite spam and such.

Basically unless we limit/approve registration, nothing will make any difference. But I'll look into how we can "contact" people with what the desired behavior is.

[scottydl]

javidogg said:

Maybe they need a memo before they began to post or ask questions.

That is a good idea, but we are limited by Proboards who controls the registration. I don't think there's any way to insert a memo into the registration process. Modifications like that are one of the reasons we created v2 last year... so we could make any changes we wanted... but obviously that didn't work out.

[Aurora40]

Javi, new members will now get a PM that welcomes them to the forum. There's no current support for an email.

[Mr. Javi]

Yeah that's cool, thanks for your help. We are getting a lot of new intrusting Aurora owners, so hopefully they will stick around. Thanks Aurora40.

[aurora57k]

Jun 26, 2006 15:45:08 GMT -6 A-boy95 said:

yea i agree, im not trying to sound like an a** but just dont come on ask a Q and leave, it just rude.

I guess that is kind of like panhandling huh? Don't even get a thx alot of the time.