Forum Thread
Adopt-A-Newbie
Forum-Index → Suggestions → Implemented → Adopt-A-NewbieMy idea is that we could have asubforum under introductions or something similar to that for a place where older users or anyone looking to help out Newbies, could post a thread, offering to help them!
Why would we need this, you ask?
Well pretty much, this idea has nothing but positive outcomes. It could help the newbie and the odler users spark friendships, help newbies understand the site and what to do, and help newbies see a reason on why to keep coming back! All they would have to do is post under a user's thread saying they want to be adopted or something like that, and it would work like that.
To help a newbie, you could pretty much do anything:
-offer advice
-send a plushie
-gift starting PD & suggest them what to save/use it for
-friendship
-show them what each forum section is for, answer their questions, etc.
By having an Adopt-A-Newbie section, it would also help the "Help" forum for when Newbies have questions that were answered before, they would just have to ask their "Adopter" instead.
So what do you guys think? Support? Neutral? No Support?
Add-Ons:
*More users will know about the wiki -- Mojoryan2003
@Mojo, yeah you did haha.
From personal experience of when I joined, I posted my introduction and had no one welcome me. So I was rather unlucky as a newbie. MojoRyan, on the otherhand, found me and started helping me a bit. As did AutobotPhoenix, another friend of mine on here now. There's plenty of users who go unnoticed and unhelped as much as they could need it.
A lot of users seem as those they don't get the warm welcome they deserve here at PokeHeroes, so why not try to make up for that by having a place where they can see people are welcoming them and offering them help?
On average, I'm seeing 1-2 reply posts per introduction thread made, even sometimes no posts as in my case. There's people like you and Mojo who make feeds to help those new users, but depending on how many friends you have, that can sometimes even not be much help.
Sorry if I seemed to be mean, I wasn't trying to be. Just trying to explain further on why a subforum would be more helpful than just feeds.
Of course the idea basically is kind-hearted and I do like this point of view. But we also have moderators that does a great job here. :-) Moderators does the job you're talking about. (excluding gifting pd I guess xD ... but I really don't wanna know how much pms they get everyday with quetions about ph..) They are the contact persons if a user needs help. They don't only judge, they help and explain and of course they sometimes post a wiki link. ;-)
A new subforum would just be another help/suggestion forum in my opinion. We all can currently answer in this subforums to support the mods. If we want to help then we can do it without this suggestion.
Another thing is.. those helpful actions, that you are talking about, are reality. But mostly they aren't public. I think there's a reason why problems and questions are discussed via pm and palpad.
But what I would support is a public list in the forum that includes usernames of users who are "oldies" and known in the community for friendly and helpful behaviour. maybe for this persons should be voted by the community. :P
erm.. and sorry when this maybe sounds rough... but in my opinion most people know about the wiki already. The link isn't well hidden on website. :P some are just too lazy to read it (same with the rules...) - it's easier to ask, because in this forum you'll most of the time get a quick answer.
Hoarding:
(30 DP )
332/500
72/100 (20 DP)
Like say New User asks how daycare works and how to get eggs? They could link the Wiki and say, search it up under "Daycare" and let them go on. Check back in a little bit, see if they found it on their own, and if they didn't help them more by maybe linking the actual Daycare wiki page. And if they STILL cannot find it, then just tell them or something. It would clear up the repeated questions in the 'Help' section.
I feel like this would also take some stress off the Moderators though now that I think about it. Because Mods are always helping users, having to clean up and monitor the forum, and so on. I know they are there to help, but maybe we could try to help them with their jobs.
The subforum would be by all choice. The new users could choose to accept the help of one member, or do it on their own, orr even just continue on with posting repeated questions. But with your suggestion of having it by the "oldies" who are well known, well, I don't exactly like that one to be honest. It just seems a bit unfair to the users who would want to post a thread saying they want to help. What if it went by trainer level? I mean, most people who have a higher trainer level tend to know a lot more than a user with a low trainer level. Like say the cut off level was 13. That's the lowest level you could be to be able to post your thread.
The only problem I could see with if this was implemented, is that new users could try to post their own threads begging to be adopted, or new users would beg for PD and gifts
-New users would rely on others to tell them everything instead of finding things out on their own, teach a man to fish if you will as apposed to giving a man a fish. I'd rather have new users look to the wiki, explore the site, earn PD, and grow as apposed to being babied. When I saw people start don't get me wrong, I too donated to them and gave them Pokemon, and sometimes I still get messages from those people asking me for money they could earn themselves or rare Pokemon for free.
-New users might use this sub forum just like they do the intro section: for spam and two worded posts. Either to say "Come click my eggs" or "I need money for this and that give it to me" or "double post double post double post until I get what I want or reported" or "how do I hatch my eggs?" or "how do I get honey?" things like that. Not saying all new people are like this but a majority of them tend to be because they simply don't know or maybe this is the first site they've used a forum in and don't have a common sense for things. So now there would be two forums for newbie spam and already answered questions: the intro section and this new sub forum.
-We do have a "newbie" section of the forums of course where they introduce themselves. If you like you can always go there and write a message saying "Hey, welcome to the site! My name is so-and-so and here's some starter money here are some links for you such as the wiki, the help section, the minor updates thread, ect. good luck!" So really you can do that already.
- This can be done without another sub forum, just write in the introduction section for example "Hi, I'm a user who has been here awhile and I'd like to help you."
- This is what I mean by babying new users. By saying "Hey instead of looking in the Help section just rely on asking other users because they'll tell you." How about instead just write "Search the forums for your answers" this teaches users to self provide as apposed to running to their favorite user with all their questions and problems.
-Making friends doesn't mean having someone hold your hand when you first come to a site. Granted people might get friends from this, but it might cripple users as well. They may look to their adopter and have that person be their best friend forever, instead of actually branching out and exploring the forums and making friends that way. Coming from me I got friends because I asked questions, had people answer them, I searched the forums for "How do I get honey? (Haha)" and found users that way. But if just one user is a fountain of information then people may not branch out and try and make friends. They may just cling to their adopter.
-How long is new anyway? What will happen if a user hits level 10? Do they get disowned? Do they still count as a newbie if they're a slow learner? How long will they be able to ask for PD and Plushies and Pokemon until you say "Alright, you should be used to the site now, go do things yourself." And what if that friendship between new user and adopter was built on the fact the adopter gave that new person stuff? And once the adopter stops, the new user is angry or confused. That might leave them with a bad impression. How long will the user be babied until it's okay to tell them to do things themselves? Will they know how?
Now I'm not saying helping new users is bad, or crippling, or horrible. It's just if you're going to do it, do it because you want to take the time and check the intro forum and want to help a new person. Go out of your way to check the help forum and answer questions. If you see a new post in the introduction thread then introduce yourself to the new person maybe? Maybe give some PD? You don't need to make a sub forum for them to come out and say "Help me" because if they're new chances are they need help. And if they don't want your help then that's okay too. Instead of making a sub forum for users to spam and beg and plead for stuff, just go to them and hopefully they won't spam these requests else where. And of course if you're going to help new users try and put emphasis on them helping themselves, as apposed to begging other users.
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They
laugh because they know you're sad
They sing because they know you're angry
They attack because they know you're scared
They picked on you ever since you were young
They laughed until sanity you had none
You had nothing while they had their fun
And yet you still call them your friends
Thats a sad life you're living
And I bet you want to escape it, badly
They sing because they know you're angry
They attack because they know you're scared
They picked on you ever since you were young
They laughed until sanity you had none
You had nothing while they had their fun
And yet you still call them your friends
Thats a sad life you're living
And I bet you want to escape it, badly