A proposal concerning new Fluther users?

I think that the chilling effect would be too discouraging to new users. What you suggest is a fine idea, but most people want to plunge in and participate right away.

I think it’s an interesting idea, but I agree with @marinelife that it may discourage the people the join because they have a specific question in mind. If they find they can’t ask their question right away, they may decide to go elsewhere instead. It seems like there are a decent number of users that have asked a few questions and then didn’t really come back because they got what they wanted out of the site. Not everyone wants to stick around and be part of the community or answer other people’s questions.

I don’t think it’s such a bad idea – might weed some people out that I don’t mind being weeded out. Seriously.

How about instead forcing new users to click through a series of slides which present the guidelines before posting?

I learned by trial and error and searching the site how things work. I learned quickly that the quality of questions here was very different than what was allowed on other Q&A sites I’d been on. When a few of my early questions were sent to editing, I learned a lot. Most importantly, that some things are just not worth asking on a site like this, and by extention, perhaps they’re not worth asking. It really made me stop and think.

I believe the 3 question limit is a big discouragement to spammers and trolls.

We also have to realize that newcomers have a lot to offer the site. They often come with new questions, new insights into old questions, and sometimes they’re just plain fun.

I’ve seen a number of threads here like this: http://www.fluther.com/95715/why-did-you-join-fluther-and-why-do-you-come-back/ in which there are always some users that came for one question and stayed. I’ve seen it in some profiles of much-loved users as well. I’m afraid we’d miss out on too many great people who would just go somewhere else if they couldn’t ask something right away.

Well I like the series of slide or a video @Fred931 said. LOL . I think this site is fine. The trolls and spammers are not out of control like some site. I think they are doing a fine job. This place has plenty of mods which is nice.If you see a troll or spammer flag it. I am still new sorta. I would of been discouraged if I coulld not ask a question when I wanted to.

I don’t think that’s a good idea for those that come to the site looking for technical advice. I think when most people discover Fluther, especially when we had an influx of Lifehacker users. They came here actually wanting to solve problems that they maybe couldn’t have solved by googleing or that they want to fix but never got around to researching.
I think something like that would push out some users that come here for straight answers to questions, not to answer others.

I mean, the banner I’m looking at right now on the Fluther header says “Ask Fluther” and then gives a “Join Now” button.
“Ask Fluther, but first you have to answer a few questions to make sure you’re a real person and not a teenager or spambot”.

I’m not incredibly opposed to it, but I think there are more quality questions from new users than non-quality ones, a lot of those from people that may not stick around if they had to answer a few questions first.

I can see the disadvantage of the idea now too, being new users go elsewhere when they are met with a waiting period.
So thanks to those that pointed that out, and to you who mentioned the loss of new users who bring something new and extra to Fluther.
I like @Fred931‘s slide show idea though.

If this had been the policy I would have never came here. I came to get a answer and after I received a good answer quickly I stuck around to see if I could return the favor. Then I never left.

Maybe having questions by users that signed up less than 24 hours ago go into a queue for approval. Make a bunch of mini-mods where that is all they can do. Have enough of them that the wait isn’t very long. I see spam get deleted in two minutes so this doesn’t seem like it would be a big deal.

Wahblahmo! I said something which was relevant AND made sense! Woohoo!

@Fred931 hahaha. Good lord. Congrats! I have those days as well.

Is it too much to ask for a modest proposal? I mean, I think we can all agree that calamari is delicious.

Groan @kevbo. Calamari and jellyfish aren’t the same thing.

YUCK! Calamari is fried rubber. @kevbo

@kevbo I think most of us can. Especially with cocktail sauce.

@hawaii_jake, never let the details ruin a perfectly dry joke. (Plus, we are talking about ink.) Is there a name for fried jellyfish? I was too lazy to discern one.

I don’t even think fried jellyfish exists.

@dverhey Yet.

@kevbo : It didn’t spoil the joke for me. That groan was in earnest. lol. As for fried jellyfish, I don’t think they’re edible, but @Fred931 points out “yet.”

Hmm, there are a few Jellies who have admitted to being marinated while Fluthering, some who have been fried for their posts, and those that achieve 10K or above are usually roasted with a loving flame.

I also like @Fred931 ‘s idea of some kind of tutorial. Something that is a bit more interactive than a PowerPoint…maybe include a video clip of Andrew and Ben talking about the history, vision and mission of the site, and from one or more of the moderators of their role. An intuitive FAQ site would also be helpful and would cut down on some of the questions.

I’m with @marinelife & @dverhey It might have a chilling effect on membership growth. One possible suggestion would be to have a pool of experienced jellies who volunteer to play big brother or big sister to new users that want some guidance.

The noob could PM the guide (what’s a good nautical term, navigator?) and bounce off question ideas before asking—find out if it’s already been covered ad nauseum. It’s embarrassing to ask a question only to learn in the ensuing discussion that it has been asked every week since the site went online.

But it should be on a voluntary basis. If they are the kind that likes to just dive into the deep end of the pool, they should feel free to do so.

I joined the site after googling shin splints as I was/am having problems with them and running. I spent the next couple of hours reading through the questions and answers and decided to stay. I am not a fan of the blanket policy of placing every newbie on moderation. It doesn’t really weed out the spammers but it does give many people pause to join. I could see the merit if this was a support site for, say, depression sufferers or some other highly sensitive forum but it is not.

If there are questions that I feel are silly or just plain strange I exercise my right to not read or respond to them.

Newbies deserve understanding and patience.

@ETpro That is a wonderful idea and I would volunteer to do it in a heart beat (even though I’m still kind of new (only been here a little over 4 months)).

@Seaofclouds Thanks, @Seaofclouds. I suspect a number of us would volunteer. If enough did, the demands on any one’s time would be minimal, and it would be an opportunity to meet new members right from day one and perhaps form a lasting bond with some of them.

I only join sites that do not make me jump through hoops first. I would like to see some introductory information given to them, such as you can get some great tips and ideas by browsing the links at the bottom of the page.

I have also asked if there isn’t some way to show ‘similar questions’ when a question is entered, but that seems to be a very difficult task, which I have not seen satisfactorily solved on any Q & A site I use.
’

@YARNLADY I would dearly love to have that too. Unfortunately, it really pushes beyond the state of the art of current site search technology. As of today, it would require a human with absolute knowledge of everything ever asked here. And that pretty much pushes past the capability of the human mind. Computers have a very long way to go before they can duplicate the human ability at intuitive thought and recognition of analogies. So you see the difficulty.

Perhaps just a FAQ tab (right up there with general/social/meta) would help with those questions that seem to be asked over and over again.

@ETpro @YARNLADY So then maybe it would just add a bullet point with the “Great! What’s your question” saying “make sure your question hasn’t been asked before”?

I’m with @marinelife & co. – I never would have joined if the site had made me wait, because while I normally do lurk before jumping in, the reason I came here was because I needed help with a question right then and Yahoo! Answers wasn’t helping.

@papayalily The problem is if the search tool doesn’t work all that well, how do you do tht. Consult Madam Fatima and have here look in her crystal ball for it? :-)

@ETpro I haven’t had problems.

@papayalily I am happy for you, but obviously both @YARNLADY and I have had that proble. And I have seen other users here mention it as well.

@ETpro Really? Interesting. That does shed some light on this thread.

I think it’s a good idea. When you sign up, you are asked to read the guidelines, and answer a few questions first. When you get 20 lurve you canask a question. Or something like that. It’s not asking too much. Many memberships have a waiting period/training period; why not the best website on the net?

@zen_ I like that, but with an addendum: you can ask the one question that brought you here first, but then you must gain 20 lurve before you can ask again.

^ Hmmm. I wonder if the Fluther team is thinking about something, too. They usually listen to us and have made extraordinary changes in the last few years. Perhaps they are thinking about this issue as well.

There must be a a way to balance the desire of newbies to participate without having a disruptive effect on a site that works well.

Reading and answering the questions of others is excellent training to be a jelly.

One question per day would be fairly flexible for newbies until they have earned some specified lurve. I don’t know what that minimum should be. More than twenty would be preferred but no more than fifty to keep it reasonable..

All interesting ideas, guys. We’re listening. :)

I second Dr. L’s motion.

@Dr_Lawrence I think the problem is that then we’re creating users who care about lurve. Lurve is good, but it’s also useless at this point – you can’t exchange it for a mountain bike, nor does it give someone with 30K more privileges than someone with 12. If we have people care about lurve, they’ll be less likely to voice the unpopular opinion or respond with a less than AWESOME answer, and they can’t all be awesome.

Where are these “trolls” at? I’ve been on here since early May and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen what I considered a real troll like I have on other sites. I see many opposite viewpoints, that does not make someone a troll. I guarantee you all of this, if you keep Fluther too one sided on many issues that will be Fluther’s downfall. There are times I have seen many of the older users who are nasty to other jellies, especially when their point of views are different. This does not make someone a troll.

@Jabe73 They’re usually new users who are modded very quickly. The first time I knowingly encountered a troll, it was on Y!A. A girl said that she thought her next door neighbor had a sex slave, and didn’t know if she should call the police. It’s always stuck in my mind.

You can often tell by how they phrase the question. People with opposing viewpoints that aren’t trolls will be genuinely curious as to what others have to say. Trolls won’t – they’re just there to drum up drama.

@Jabe73 We have quite a few actual trolls trying to crack our system. Luckily, we catch them pretty quickly. For instance, just this morning, the one we call pink underwear guy popped up for probably the 15th time. He asks the same question every time, saying he’s a guy who’s just been caught wearing pink girls underwear and tights. This has been going on for like 6 months. Some other persistent ones that come to mind are Boy George girl and windsuit guy. Only the really persistent ones get catchy nicknames.

That is a good idea! But I’m also concerning about new users who ask question for the first time they join this site in order to know people and the quality of answer of this site before they decided to stay.

I like @Doctor_D‘s answer and I think that new users should only get one question per day for there first few days here, so they get to try out asking a question a few times before they can go all out with three.

@erichw1504 & @Doctor_D Hate to be the odd man out, here, but I don’t like that proposal. I think it would make newly arrived users fell like some lower class citizen. The moderators seem fully capable of handling questions a newbie may ask that truly go against the grain. THe rest of us should just take a chill pill is the new user asks a question that’s been discussed repeatedly. They are asking because they weren’t privy to those discussions and they want to know the answer/s.

I strongly feel any changes should aim at making new users feel more welcome here, not less so.

@ETpro I said that was a good idea but I’m still neutral here. I think that is a good since it can ‘persuade’ others,especially new users,to participate in the community even though they’re here for specific purpose. I don’t want this community to enforce such idealism but we can give them a choice/advice,like an invitation to answer more question to experience more about this site,or simply to collect lurve (5 lurve for a bottle of beer!,just sayin’) as a sign of appreciation of this community without having to force them to follow some specific rules.

We won’t really know why a new user left this site but we can reduce the possibility if we appreciate them the way they are,and if we’re less ‘violent’ toward these new users. Each new users are unique and I think our community needs more addition of diverse people.

@papayalily Shhh. Don’t say that about lurve – you’re supposed to care – that’s why it’s there – and the awards too. Keep it down, will ya. Especially with the newbies who are 12 to 14 – they need fluther to be like a video game.

First of all, I love this idea. I worked for a MMORPG for a few years and the situation was much the same; loads of new users, most of them just jumping in, resulting in their wandering around disrupting roleplay out of innocent cluelessness (PS: not saying people here are clueless, but there, they were). A bunch of us wanted to have a short mini-quest before people entered the live game, where they would learn the basics of game play. I was one of the biggest proponents of this, actually, and I think it’s a brilliant idea. However, I am the kind of person who reads the instructions or manuals before diving into something.. and not everyone is like that.

As much as I like the idea, my feeling is that it isn’t keeping in line with the vision for Fluther. We want to welcome new users and honestly, it is very nice to have the community personally guide and help them to acclimate. I don’t disagree that it can be a bit bumpy on the way.

I found Fluther by Googling a question that somehow led me here. The only other experience I’d had with a Q&A site had been Yahoo Answers, so my expectations were understandably low. I came back and asked a couple of questions, the answers to the second of which lead to my double-take of the site. I was so surprised at how nice and smart and well-spoken everyone was. Anyway, if it weren’t for my getting to post questions here as a n00b, I might never have gotten to know Fluther enough to stick around.

@zen_ Said the man who changes his sn every time he gets too much lurve ;-)

@MissAnthrope My thoughts exactly about making newcomers feel welcome here. I would add that the need of understanding mores in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) so far exceeds that of the requirements to successfully integrate into a Social Q&A site that a comparison is not meaningful.

I’d like to answer this with the admission that I lurked here for many months before joining, studying the dynamics and the culture of the site. yes, I knew many of you through your words well before you met me. Now that many of y’all are speaking to me, it’s like meeting celebrities :)
What attracted me into joining was the difference between this and some other sites where the “old guard” dismisses or complains that new users are doing it wrong. Please don’t change the welcoming nature of Fluther and trust that those who really don’t fit in will weed themselves out.

@Blueroses I’m glad you decided to de-lurk. Welcome to Fluther.

@Blueroses @ETpro Seconded.

Thanks! For the most part, you all are great. and I have loved meeting my heroes, in person

I dunno about heroes but welcome to fluther, @Blueroses.

Thank you @zen_ ! I owe my roses to you.

You are welcome.

I’m new. Is this a good site?

@seazen You look familiar.

@rebbel I will only ask unique questions.

@seazen i uze yahoo ansewrs much moer than this stupd site its alot beter

@seazen troll

@Fred931 Assville is friendlier.

@YARNLADY Troll_zen.

@seazen : – )

<spots Zen, dashes over to deliver a huge hug>
Hi Zen!!!! huggles xx

I agree with fellow jellies, changing the site might put off people who found it by accident (as I did myself) from joining and that would be a shame. New people have lots of new opinions.