My advice to newcomers

[Omega]

I have written this reply today to a posting in another section where someone posted that they believed that they had found another forum to be more active and supportive than ours.

I think that reading it may help newcomers to our forum.

I hope that you find continued support on your new forum.

It is unusual that you say that we are not very active here. That is funny as I chat on to people all the time... There are more people here than I could ever get round to chatting to...

I must admit that I was so surprised by your posting that I could not resist checking to see what you had done to try to make friends with others while you were here...

I see that you have made a total of 84 postings as you write this "Bye" posting on your departure.

Of these, 72 were in threads which you started yourself.

This leaves a total of 12 postings where you made an attempt to relate to others and their experiences... Where you made an attempt to meet people instead of sitting in your own thread waiting for them to come to you in order to support you.

Unfortunately 4 of these postings were all made to threads created and posted only into by an internet marketer who came to our site and made a vast number of one line postings in a very short period of time before the Administrator set his account to prevent further postings and remove his postings from view...

One posting was to a thread last posted in 2006
One posting was to a thread last posted in 2007
One posting was to a thread last posted in 2011

The date of the posting is clearly written in the headings. It is always worth checking this.

This actually only leaves the situation where you made a total of 5 postings over 4 threads where you were likely to meet someone.

It is a shame that you didnt meet someone in those 5 postings... It isn't however surprising.

In forums - just as in real life - people need to work at building friendships.
The best way of getting support is by giving support.

You build your own support network by venturing out and becoming part of a support network for other people.

You say that you are not going to come back to check on this post - but it might as well serve as a lesson to others regarding how not to use this forum to best advantage.

If I had spoken to you as you arrived I would have suggested that you check out the clubs section and the challenges section and make postings in both these places in the hope of meeting people that you could relate to... Join clubs and challenges and see if others join the same ones... Chat to them there...

People can not only start a diary - but go out and visit other people in their diaries... See what they are doing, cheer them on, encourage them... With luck some people will come back to your diary and do the same for you...

I must admit that I am useless at getting round to diaries - as I tend to hang out in the clubs and challenges... We can't all do everything - but you do have to do something to relate to others...

I tend to also suggest that newcomers check out the exercise and nutrition sections as there is lots of great information.

People benefit from looking around and seeing what we have in all sections - particularly in the "sticky" threads that stay at the top of the lists.

Welcome other newcomers - they have arrived just like you, and are most likely looking to build their support network too.

Whenever we find ourselves in a new environment it makes sense to discover the laws of the land - the rules that the forum owner insists that we follow...

It can be hard to find our way around a new place to find them so I will link to them here so that people can easily see what rules they should be following.
http://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/37248-Welcome-to-WLF!-Rules-and-Info-Thread!