Welcoming our New Members!!

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Korrie

Korrie

Moderator
Just a reminder to all.... Its almost January and we always get alot of new people around New Years. Lets do our best to welcome everyone! The average person only gets 2 replys when they sign up...if they are lucky! Thats unacceptable in my book. Lets try to remember how we felt when first joining the forum and support each other!!
 
I agree I do think the ratio of views to responses is a bit dismal, and I try to help out whenever I can. I'm gonna really honest here, though. Lately I've become much more restrained in posting because out of every seven or so people I take time to post advice and/or encouragement for, maybe one person sticks around so it almost feels pointless. Granted, it doesn't take more than a few seconds to post a quick hello and welcome, but personally, wherever possible, I strive to make more sincere and substantive posts, so it doesn't feel so mindless and mechanical.

I'm not saying its completely futile but I think many posters are suffering this same "Greeter's Fatigue" I've gone through. Ultimately, the board retention rate is not something we can change or control, but I thought I'd just offer some insight into the situation.
 
(As a "new member" myself I would like to point this out because it's been on my mind for a while)

Remember that this is a support forum. The support and encouragement should continue even after the new member signs up and posts to greet everyone. Whether you've been here since 2005 or since 2010 treat everyone with respect. Try not to undermined their opinions or points of view because of a "new member" status. Always motivate improvement and advocate discipline.:grouphug:Lets support each other! ^_^

Now I have a question. How long does a new member title last?
 
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I think you need more than 100 posts to go from 'new member' to 'junior member', but I am not entirely sure.
 
I have joined this forum on 24th nov.The experts are very co-operative and reply very soon. But one thing i have noticed is that the reply to views ratio is very less. Thanks
 
As a newbee, I would like to comment. I noticed that some of the threads that are at the top with recent responses were started long ago and the person who started the thread made 1 post and never came back. So the responses are being made to someone who is never going to see them. Would it be possible to delete threads after a certain period of time if there is no recent activity or make them "read only?" I did notice that the recent responses were made by new posters who probably didn't realize they were responding to a very old post. I do like to read some of these old threads just to see what information was given, but I try to watch so I don't respond to something too old to matter.
 
Goal2Bhealthy said:
As a newbee, I would like to comment. I noticed that some of the threads that are at the top with recent responses were started long ago and the person who started the thread made 1 post and never came back. So the responses are being made to someone who is never going to see them. Would it be possible to delete threads after a certain period of time if there is no recent activity or make them "read only?" I did notice that the recent responses were made by new posters who probably didn't realize they were responding to a very old post. I do like to read some of these old threads just to see what information was given, but I try to watch so I don't respond to something too old to matter.
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The problem with deleting some of the oldest threads is this forum has in the past been frequented by some highly knowledgeable people who went out of their way to give a lot of excellent advice. There are for example over 17,000 posts by "Steve" who was highly knowledgeable - but has not posted here for quite some time. This archive of postings is actually one of the greatest assets that this forum has.

Closing threads would prevent unrelated things from being together - but sometimes it can be a good thing for things to be grouped together.

Some threads that started a long time ago may be long dead - but others may be very active. Sometimes posters leave the forum and return after a couple of years too - and they would want to use their own old threads. My own diary falls into that category.

Any solution involving examining every old thread would tend to be fairly labour intensive. The forum is moderated by volunteers who are not paid and lead busy lives. They tend to be kept busy trying to keep the place free from spammers and of course trying to look after their own weight problems. I doubt that they would have the time to try to take on such a task.

Probably the best solution is that people learn to read the date on postings... It is fairly obvious when a posting was made and the quantity of postings that the person involved ever made.
 
I can imagine it would get frustrating to greet new people only to see most leave, but it's also somewhat intimidating to come to a forum, say hello, and not get any replies (my thread is very young still, so I'm not taking it personally). Still, even if all you have to say is "hey, welcome" it beats saying nothing. It may not be personal or in-depth but it lets us know that you read our thread and we're welcome here. Just my two cents :)
 
I do try to pop in to welcome most people - but like everyone else on the planet - I get busy days when I hardly get a chance.
 
A forum like this thrives on its membership and I have been made to feel very welcome by you guys already. I will do my best to make others feel as welcome as you have made me feel.
 
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