Remember the New Members

I am not writing this to start a war with any one person. This is only a general comment, an observation I have made.

I just felt the need to type and share this, and maybe it will help remind some people, or help new members. Either way, I hope this helps someone, and that someone can see what I'm trying to achieve here. I do not want to upset anyone. It's merely a conclusion I have. If I upset anyone, please, forgive me, as it is not my intent.

I wish to remind people to help the new members.
We were all once new members on this help forum.

Often I see that a lot of the unanswered questions for help, are from new members. I wonder why this could be.

Could it be because many of the longer standing members have seen these questions a million times before, and so now don't want to reply, as they feel they are repeating themselves. Could it be that we are so busy, that we don't have time to reply... yet we have the time to read them? Or could it simply be that we just don't know the answers. It could just be that we don't know the answer. I understand sometimes it can be that reason.

Often, yes, the questions that the new members ask, are repetitive to the longer standing members. Often they are hard to understand, because of the multi-cultural set up of the site. But I do not believe this is a reason to not answer them. Those we cannot understand, just need to be asked to re-word their post so we can try to understand them better. Other times, its a fast simple answer for us longer standing members, even if we have answered it 20 times a day before now.

I just want to remind everyone, that once you were a new member too. And I believe that if you did not get the help you needed back then, chances are you would not have returned. In this merry time of year, i want to remind everyone to look out for your fellow Forumotion members, help them.

1 or 2 minutes to help someone wont make the world crash around you, but it may very well help someone who one day, can help you in return.

I do my best... I am still sort of a new member, I haven't been here too long, but when i do get the chance to log in here, I offer as much help as I can... because I know there are times when I need help, and I hope that I receive it.

What goes around comes around, even on forums.

Sorry if I sound like I'm preaching. Please, just remember your fellow members, regardless of membership time. Take a little more effort with the new ones. Encourage them to be all they can be... and together, lets make this place a much easier place to care, share and help each other!

I'll shut up now


Merry Christmas one and all

Yes, i agree with you, some of us "longer standing members" don't always answer questions simplistically because we have already answered it soo many times in that day.
Sometimes its also the fact that we don't have the answer on hand to give it to them intentionally like i have found recently.

Yes, all of us here were once a new member(yes, Evan kilsek the almighty)

We all here are here for a particular reason, to help someone or to get help, or some other reason, we are i suppose like volunteers here, like the vast majority of the staff here, and im sure as we decide to come here by choice, we are allowed to choose weather we feel like helping someone or not, correct?
Well, that's just me.

May everyone have a great merry Christmas, and a prosperous new year of 2009.

Yes, you are not wrong
I am not saying what i am saying is right or above what anyone else believes. It was merely a suggestion, a good will suggestion, perhaps a reminder to some as well.

I also stated that i understand sometimes we don't have the answer.

But as you mentioned, we are all here for one of a few reasons... and in the end, it is HELP, be it to give or take. I think if more people give, the circle of giving grows... do you know what I mean.

you can't blame a person for not helping others. I mean this is a help forum. Not really forced to reply. But I do hope we can help each other out

At no time am I blaming or pushing anyone

Again, this is merely an observation.
Don't be so fast to defend yourselves, when you don't need to. I'm not attacking

I must admit I have passed over new members requests that I could have easily answered but didn't because; the be very frank, they were too damn lazy to do a search to find the answer to their question(s).

I mean really, how many times do we have to see a topic, "how to I add a banner to my site?" or "how do I turn on quick reply?"

But I have to say that I have gone far out of my way to help out the new member. After all Katt, Caihlem, Metal Night, Dragon Man ( and others-sorry couldn't remember names well) help me oh sooo much when I first started.

Kilsek wrote:I must admit I have passed over new members requests that I could have easily answered but didn't because; the be very frank, they were too damn lazy to do a search to find the answer to their question(s).

I mean really, how many times do we have to see a topic, "how to I add a banner to my site?" or "how do I turn on quick reply?"

But I have to say that I have gone far out of my way to help out the new member. After all Katt, Caihlem, Metal Night, Dragon Man ( and others-sorry couldn't remember names well) help me oh sooo much when I first started.

I've got to agree here.
Yes, we've all been new members. I can only speak for myself. I read this forum for 5 months before I actually posted anything. and have still only asked one question which remains unanswered so.....
And i read the rules
And the FAQs
And posts that really didn't apply to me, but I thought "hey maybe I need that info some day"

A lot of the posts are posted in the wrong area, and we know that if we respond to the poster in that area we will be told by a mod. NOT to respond if we know the post is in the wrong place.
Or if we respond by saying it is in the wrong place, they will say we are trying to be a mod.
so......what are we to do?? i like my green warning bar!
AND if we jump in there and answer every question...I'm sure people would say how so and so thinks he/she knows everything.

And alot of time I don't understand whatthehelltheyaretalkingabout!!!!!!
ok....that's what i have to say at the moment

I'm not sure I can exactly agree

When I was a beginner Admin, I had 2 forums; an RPG one for the real, and a test forum to find out and understand. I found out most of everything like that on my own. I only came here when there was a server issue. While I was at it, I asked about Permissions and Groups. I never understood the "how do you have a banner on the forum?" - It's just too obvious

Caihlem wrote:I never understood the "how do you have a banner on the forum?" - It's just too obvious

I think that there are people who are bored to find the "things" they want by themselves. They know that here the members will "run" to help them. They just prefer the fastest way to solve their problems. I think that the support forums mustn't be used for "things" that can be found easily because if the staff and members are having so many support questions of that kind ("how do you have a banner in the forum?") they won't have time for some people who really need support.

I can understand what your all saying.. I see it too
But this was only a general statement, reminder... not a do it for all or die thing.


Sorry I bought it up. I just wanted to share the thought... and maybe remind some.

Although i do have one thing i wish to reply on personally here:

By Psi-chotic!
A lot of the posts are posted in the wrong area, and we know that if we respond to the poster in that area we will be told by a mod. NOT to respond if we know the post is in the wrong place.
Or if we respond by saying it is in the wrong place, they will say we are trying to be a mod.
so......what are we to do?? i like my green warning bar!

I've never been told off for helping someone in the wrong area. I have done so, helped some one in an area i know it doesnt belong to, and the mods then come and close it, say it's in the wrong place, and ask them to do it correctly... but I've never been told off.

Hi Punkerella, and Merry Xmas to you too.
I understand what you mean when you started this topic. I know you are just voicing your opinion and its a good one worth discussing I think.

I know I for one am very thankful that the members of the support forum are so helpful amongst each other because it really does help everyone in the long run. I personally do not have all the answers to alot of topics or subjects sometimes and I am actually learning from these members support in some cases as well.

But also as Psi-chotic! stated I can understand the leariness at times to correct another members mistakes or redirect them without the fear of being repremanded by staff or reminded of the rules. ( But Remember , Members get 3 kind reminders 1st before a warning is received for say another Member Moding others here. ) I was the same way when I 1st joined the support forum. One of my 1st posts here was " What's your favorite Movie" Topic and Caihlem came in so fast and locked it made my head spin! >< LOL I think I waited months again before creating another topic here and was sure to reread the rules daily to not make the same mistakes again.
Now, as staff here, we have an additaional set of rules as to how we run things which must be respected and followed accordingly by all staff in regards to their specific jobs here. I have never had to warn any members about over moding other members or for giving support in the wrong section to a member, yet.. most member are generally very helpful all around here and it really is much appreciated in a sense, it's just a fine line sometimes that members cross from time to time, even after just being reminded numerous times of a certain rule that gets them a warning for such things.
We really aren't here to seem mean about enforcing such rules, it's not our intentions honestly. It's just hard to not be misinterprted as so sometimes.. It's so unfair. it's like a double edged sword so to speak.

I so understand you Nessa
but i feel like your trying to protect yourself as a mod. Please dont feel that you have to
I've not once said that a mod is wrong here... in face I've spoken with you personally and said that i dont envy your position! I think we actually had a private laugh about things

I'm really confused about this helping people in the wrong section of the boards. I help people no matter what area. Some times I do notice that it is in the wrong area... but I still reply. I don't get warned for it.... all I see is that a mod closes it, as is the rules.... but i never get warned for it.

As a mod here, I see so much that you have to do.... I appreciate that

Im sorry, i think my thread had been taken the wrong way

I apologise.

Can this be locked then... since I dont want to upset people!

I agree with Kilsek. There's a reason why we share the same Warning Level color.

Both of us got at least one warning for moderating. And we moderated people becausethey did various things. And these things are also a reason why we don't answer those posts. Hey, 6 months ago it was standard to ignore certain posts, and these posts are kind of those:

1. Topics that are named "Help me", "HEEEEEEELLLP PLS!", "Urgent question! pls help!"
-> Really, why should anyone look in this topic or help at all? First of all, 99,9% of all those posts have been answered in the FAQ or there is a tutorial in the Tips&Tricks Forum!
Beside that it means we have to read the whole post to see if we could help at all, if the title would be saying what's up, we could see if we can help or not.
And third, it doesn't help others for the future. I was these days searching for "meta tag" in the search option here, because I wanted to know something. I got 39 results, 30 had been labelled "meta tag". Do you really think I gonna read 30 topics although I don't know if they could deal with my concern?!

2. The question the people post have been answered in the FAQs before or would be easy found if you use the search here. And yes, it harms me if I have to read to 15 topics just to find the only one that really needs help. I'm not here for retyping the FAQs but to help with everything that haven't been answered before. The FAQs are easy to find and it doesn't harm to look through them! They hadn't been added because the tutorial writer had too much freetime!

3. The question in the post is just one line. It doesn't saything about the problem nor a screenshot or involves anything that would help the helper to understand what is going on. Within the time I ask this person until I got all necessary information to help at all I could've written a tutorial how to use paint.net to make a banner with screenshots!

4. The question is asked in the cruelst english I have ever seen. English is not my first language and I do mistakes, nearly everyone here makes mistake. But if I wouldn't be able to ask my question in english I would use the german help forum! There are dozens of help forums and those people are mainly from the east european countries and a help forum in their language exists! (after all most speak russian or polish)

So, this is the main reason why we ignore those posts and I won't stop at all with this. New members that post topics we can understand and doesn't fit in the 4 categories above get usually answered. If not, it's just because the other "new members" simply filled the forum with so much stupid things we have overseen the topic.

So, your topic doesn't upset me, I just wanted to state that at least one time.

Edit:

Caihlem wrote:I'm not sure I can exactly agree

When I was a beginner Admin, I had 2 forums; an RPG one for the real, and a test forum to find out and understand. I found out most of everything like that on my own. I only came here when there was a server issue. While I was at it, I asked about Permissions and Groups. I never understood the "how do you have a banner on the forum?" - It's just too obvious

Yeah, you're right. I won't start assisting people who are too lazy to read. I'm not here for explaining them how to read

Psi-chotic!:
I will offer you a staff position if you can find me ONE thread where a member is moderated for having helped another member in the wrong sub-section of the support forum...
I've never read such (fill in the gaps)

For the rest;
Indeed, non-explicit titles are a bother. Even if no one does use the Search, I personall would rather help "Problem with permissions settings" than "HEEELLLLLLP!!!!!"...
Then from there on, everyone decides what they prefer and how they see things

Punkarella:
Good topic, don't doubt it

Caihlem wrote:Psi-chotic!:
I will offer you a staff position if you can find me ONE thread where a member is moderated for having helped another member in the wrong sub-section of the support forum...
I've never read such (fill in the gaps)

For the rest;
Indeed, non-explicit titles are a bother. Even if no one does use the Search, I personall would rather help "Problem with permissions settings" than "HEEELLLLLLP!!!!!"...
Then from there on, everyone decides what they prefer and how they see things

Punkarella:
Good topic, don't doubt it

Does this count?
(yes i was mistaken ...I said a MOD would say it, in this case it was you)
https://help.forumotion.com/garbage-f4/how-to-limit-access-to-the-admin-panel-t32390.htm#194886
so, am I full of (fill in the gaps)

Support isn't supposed to be done in the General Discussions

moderated for having helped another member in the wrong sub-section of the support forum

So much you're getting blind

Well said Caihlem (your name is so hard to type, I always put the h in the wrong place )

So I keep on ignoring those topics. I must admit I lately started to help anyone again. But there are some traditions to live. Maybe it helps against this flood of "HEEEEEELLLLPPP!!!!!!!11111" topics.

Caihlem wrote:

Support isn't supposed to be done in the General Discussions

moderated for having helped another member in the wrong sub-section of the support forum

So much you're getting blind

nah...I am OLD and decrepit remember??

It could be because people won't put a descriptive thread title....Something that actually says what thier problem is rather than "Help me now please"...i think that sort of thread title is rude and deserves to be ignored