Why not have a section soley for introducing yourself? I had no clue there were 22,000+ members. An intro forum is always good for a welcoming.

Zak

I thought we had one here (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=8).

I don't see anything in the description that tells news users that they can introduce themselves.

I can't recall right now seeing anyone introduce themselves in there, I may be wrong.

discuss anything not related to above or below forums.

There's the description ;)

uhm sure, but if you removed the "Web Hosting Forum" you have the same situation.

I just think its more welcoming to join a forum, and have a place where you can introduce yourself. Many times I have joined a forum, looked around, and didn't find anything I wanted to comment on at that particular time. I moved on, and never came back.

With 23,000+ members, it seems evident that seems to happen here.

Zak

So lets say 5 people join a day. Lets say only 2 of them start hello threads. That is two new threads a day with no content whatsoever in them.

spam++
postcount++
content--

Originally posted by Acronym BOY
So lets say 5 people join a day. Lets say only 2 of them start hello threads. That is two new threads a day with no content whatsoever in them.

spam++
postcount++
content--

Spam? I'm not sure if I see your point?

Sure, the post count goes up, and RS has to provide extra resources-- I think they are in a fine position to do that.

Just a suggestion. I personally find it welcoming to be able to post a hello thread, and have 20 people respond welcoming you to the thread.

I like WHT a lot, but I don't see it as a "community". Could be due to the extreme growth, but I think theres more that could be done to enforce the "polite" rule.

Zak

Zak, webhostingtalk.com is very much a community.

As for "intro" forum - I personally don't see how that's necessary. The "introductions" and "welcomes" don't really mean too much. A community is based on discussion (or the quality of), not greetings or welcomes.

A good way to introduce yourself is to go into the main forums, and join in the discussion with good questions or answers. You do much more if you answer a few questions posted by others, than to simply say "Hi, I am here..."

Peter

Zach, I still don't see why you think the lounge isn't an appropriate place to say hello?

Originally posted by akash
Zach, I still don't see why you think the lounge isn't an appropriate place to say hello?

I think its perfectly appropriate, I just don't see people doing it, because it doesn't say in the description that thats welcome.

As I said, no big deal. This is forum is for suggestions, so this is what I suggest.

Zak

Originally posted by ZBoca


I think its perfectly appropriate, I just don't see people doing it, because it doesn't say in the description that thats welcome.

As I said, no big deal. This is forum is for suggestions, so this is what I suggest.

Zak

Ah I see now....maybe instead of creating a new forum, we should just change the description to read:

Forum for general conversation, share interests, have a laugh, say hello or discuss anything not related to above or below forums.

Originally posted by ckpeter
Zak, webhostingtalk.com is very much a community.

As for "intro" forum - I personally don't see how that's necessary. The "introductions" and "welcomes" don't really mean too much. A community is based on discussion (or the quality of), not greetings or welcomes.

A good way to introduce yourself is to go into the main forums, and join in the discussion with good questions or answers. You do much more if you answer a few questions posted by others, than to simply say "Hi, I am here..."

Peter

I agree 100% with you Peter. The community is about its members and the content they post. (I turn off sigs and avatars and stuff for a reason at every forum I go to.) Hello threads are totally devoid of content.

And usually if someone makes a very nice first post, he or she will get recognized for it. I have seen it often at other forums, when a knowledgable person makes a well written post about something, people take note it is a new member and they usually receive a reply as well as a short welcome. The other instacne is when they start a thread asking for help and they are new. They will suaully get a few welcomes as responses there.

Examples of welcomings:

A tiny flame, but still a nice welcome (http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=174096756&m=6910953835&r=1050993835#1050993835)

A welcome as well as explaining the rules a bit as he didnt adhear to them all (http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=57909216&m=3940981835&r=2270932835#2270932835)

Thread starter was looking for a game (http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=39309975&m=5770961835&r=1820932835#1820932835)

Mac welcomings (http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=6450939635&r=1100959635#1100959635)

Those are just recent ones (past few weeks) I found by searching for "welcome to Ars". I am sure that there are a lot more there with things such as welcome to the forums or to Arstechnica.

Back to the point, a seperate thread for people just to say hello doe not add to content.

Originally posted by ZBoca
Spam? I'm not sure if I see your point?

Lets define spam:

1. <messaging> (From Hormel's Spiced Ham, via the Monty Python "Spam" song) To post irrelevant or inappropriate messages to one or more Usenet newsgroups, mailing lists, or other messaging system in deliberate or accidental violation of netiquette.

It is possible to spam a newsgroup with one well- (or ill-) planned message, e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on soc.women. This can be done by cross-posting, e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam both groups. (Compare troll and flame bait).

Posting a message to a significant proportion of all newsgroups is a sure way to spam Usenet and become an object of almost universal hatred. Canter and Siegel spammed the net with their Green card post.

Spam doesnt just apply to enlarge your penis emails that you get.

Definiton number 5 is also worth quoting:

5. <chat, games> (A narrowing of sense 1, above) To flood any chat forum or Internet game with purposefully annoying text or macros.

2-5 hello threads, per day would be annoying. Maybe one a year I can deal with, the rest is just noise.

Originally posted by Acronym BOY


Lets define spam:

1. <messaging> (From Hormel's Spiced Ham, via the Monty Python "Spam" song) To post irrelevant or inappropriate messages to one or more Usenet newsgroups, mailing lists, or other messaging system in deliberate or accidental violation of netiquette.

It is possible to spam a newsgroup with one well- (or ill-) planned message, e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on soc.women. This can be done by cross-posting, e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam both groups. (Compare troll and flame bait).

Posting a message to a significant proportion of all newsgroups is a sure way to spam Usenet and become an object of almost universal hatred. Canter and Siegel spammed the net with their Green card post.

Spam doesnt just apply to enlarge your penis emails that you get.

Definiton number 5 is also worth quoting:

5. <chat, games> (A narrowing of sense 1, above) To flood any chat forum or Internet game with purposefully annoying text or macros.

2-5 hello threads, per day would be annoying. Maybe one a year I can deal with, the rest is just noise.

I don't think that a hello message describing yourself is irrelavent or annoying? I think that positive replies welcoming someone into the "community" is perfectly relavent, and with warm replies will probably urge the user to continue to post--- this will result in more content. 23,361 registered members, and my guess is maybe 500- post on a regular basis. I may be wrong, but I think that shows something should be done to get more members involved. I'm very happy with WHT, but if people are registering and not posting, RS is simply wasting their ad dollars on promoting this site.

This is my opinion, and my suggestion to create a warmer community.

Pull up a chair and grab your favorite beverage. Talk about sports, politics, news, your favorite joke, stories, or any topic of a social nature. Have fun and get to know your fellow members. New member introduction and welcome.
This is the description for "Geek Yak" on GeekVillage forums. (http://www.geekvillage.com) GeekVillage is definitely not a giant like WHT, but its a very tight community.
I think that it would work to add something to the WebHostingTalk Lounge to invite new users to post introductions, but with so many users, that forum may go nuts with introductions.


"Spam" generally describes forum posts about anything that's irrelevant or inappropriate.

Spam can include posts that continuously invite members to visit a certain Website, or a situation where a member posts a large number of messages in a short amount of time. In short, spam is any content that you don't want to appear on your forums.
Source: http://www.promotionbase.com/article/850
I don't see your reasoning in classifying topics of this nature as "spam". I suppose some would think that it may be innapropriate, but if this is a community, it's completely appropriate.

Zak

sorry--double post.

Zak

Zak, it sounds like you are looking for sentimental incentives to join a community.

I don't want to say that I agree or disagree about your way of living online. However, personally, I feel that the value of a forum is its content, not chit-chat. I was drawn to webhostingtalk.com not because of the friendiness (actually, the members here can be very rude sometimes), but because of the fact that the content and the quality of participation is excellent.

You should feel compelled to frequent webhostingtalk.com not because you were welcomed here, but because you enjoy the values of discussion. In other words, you should join for the contents, not the chit-chat/hello/welcomes...

A forum that encourage chit-chat will ultimately degenerate into a pool of "hello, I am login here today" posts. On this basis, I must say that I don't support "intro forum."

Peter

Originally posted by ckpeter
Zak, it sounds like you are looking for sentimental incentives to join a community.

I don't want to say that I agree or disagree about your way of living online. However, personally, I feel that the value of a forum is its content, not chit-chat. I was drawn to webhostingtalk.com not because of the friendiness (actually, the members here can be very rude sometimes), but because of the fact that the content and the quality of participation is excellent.

You should feel compelled to frequent webhostingtalk.com not because you were welcomed here, but because you enjoy the values of discussion. In other words, you should join for the contents, not the chit-chat/hello/welcomes...

A forum that encourage chit-chat will ultimately degenerate into a pool of "hello, I am login here today" posts. On this basis, I must say that I don't support "intro forum."

Peter
If you feel this is how I "live my online life", have a read at my posts-- they are certainly not chit-chat posts.

My point is, RS has allocated a nice amount of money towards advertising WHT, so it can grow even more which will result in more content. There are 23,000+ members, and while WHT is big, there is no where near 23,000 active members. I think this may be due to the flaming, immaturity, and the simple fact that people sign up, and don't see a place to make their first post, so they move on.

I'm just suggesting that we have a place for first-time visitors to make their first post. This would build a tighter community, and as a result, everyone would benefit not only from the wide of variety of personal experiences/content, but also by building business relationships. The fact is, only a small majority of the registered members are compelled to posting on WHT. RS is putting a good amount of money into adverting WHT, but the members are not "converting" into active members.

This is my opinion, and by no means reflects what I expect to get out of WHT, or my "online life".

Zak

Zak, I apologize if I sounded judgemental - it is not my intention to tell you what you should think.

Now that you have clarified your point, I would like to continue the discussion. Basically, it seems that the question revolves around whether an intro forum would result in more active participation from all the inactive members.

First of all, let's distinguish between two types of a participation - discussion-based, and chit-chat-based. By discussion-based participation, I mean that members post contents that are useful; questions that are provocative, etc... On the other hand, by chit-chat-based participation, I mean posts that are simply useless, such as ":D," "me too," "that is funny," etc...

My conceron for an intro forum is that it will only bring in more chit-chat-based participation, thus diluting the value of other wonderful discussion. The way I see it is that people who are able to participate in discussion will be discouraged ("so many chit-chat going on..."), while at the same time this just gives the opportunities for a lot more posts to be made that aren't really that useful. (I welcomed 20 new members today, 18 of which will not post again...)

Also, I don't know if you knew this before: a large percentage of webhostingtalk.com readers are just lurking around. I frequently read comments like "I have been lurking around for a year, but I have just registered to post in this discussion..." So, if someone is looking for a place to break the ice and post his first post, he can always find a place (besides the intro forum).

What do you think?

Peter

Originally posted by ckpeter
Zak, I apologize if I sounded judgemental - it is not my intention to tell you what you should think.

Now that you have clarified your point, I would like to continue the discussion. Basically, it seems that the question revolves around whether an intro forum would result in more active participation from all the inactive members.

First of all, let's distinguish between two types of a participation - discussion-based, and chit-chat-based. By discussion-based participation, I mean that members post contents that are useful; questions that are provocative, etc... On the other hand, by chit-chat-based participation, I mean posts that are simply useless, such as ":D," "me too," "that is funny," etc...

My conceron for an intro forum is that it will only bring in more chit-chat-based participation, thus diluting the value of other wonderful discussion. The way I see it is that people who are able to participate in discussion will be discouraged ("so many chit-chat going on..."), while at the same time this just gives the opportunities for a lot more posts to be made that aren't really that useful. (I welcomed 20 new members today, 18 of which will not post again...)

Also, I don't know if you knew this before: a large percentage of webhostingtalk.com readers are just lurking around. I frequently read comments like "I have been lurking around for a year, but I have just registered to post in this discussion..." So, if someone is looking for a place to break the ice and post his first post, he can always find a place (besides the intro forum).

What do you think?

Peter

I certainly agree to some extent, and I apologize for sounding a bit defensive.

In any case, I do think that due to the populated forums, WHT posters tend to get completely off subject, and Intro forums may encourage that. I think that users should welcome to introduce themselves, because there is an obvious problem of getting new users to continue to post. I'm not sure if this is from the past, and I know to some extent it is to be expected, but I think there are some small things that could be done to encourage new users to post. I see posts every day that end with "don't flame this post". I find that distastful, and I think the first place to start would be by having a warm welcome into the community, and enforcing the stated rules. Don't get me wrong, the mods here do a great job, and I REALLY like being a part of WHT, but I think there are some minor things that can be done to create a tighter community, in which everyone can benefit even more.

As akash suggested, possibly a solution would be to simply add it into the WHT Lounge description. This way I wouldn't expect the quality content to be diluted by irrelevant posts.

Zak