Hi guys/gals,
I am really at a loss to explain some of the things I see in the forums or on the sites in general these days. I can only use my own life as a template, but are we really that busy with other things now that we don't have time to respond to posts or content added to the site they way we did 5-10 years ago. I was just looking at the Introductions forum for example. One guy who posted back in mid-March had 300+ views (reads) of his topic there and not one reply. 300 people looked at it and no one could take 10 seconds to say "Hi and welcome"?

Due to this I am trying to ponder the best way to help this situation. Perhaps it's just a sign of things to come vs. the old ways of the Net. Was that the Old Republic and now we have the Empire?

Do I instigate some sort of mandatory login for using the forums? This causes problems as it means that Google can index the forums.

Should I make logging in mandatory on 1 day of the month? This could work. Limited drawbacks, etc.

What I would like to see ON THIS TOPIC, is that if you MIGHT have replied to this but you are logged out please respond on this strawpoll link. No logging in required.

http://strawpoll.me/7308602

And if you are logged in you can respond as well.

Thanks,
Jim

Guilty as charged Sir!
I frequently flick through the Intro posts on my way through the Latest Posts, I will make sure that I take the time to respond in future, after all that is why these folks join the community!

Cheers, D

Me too! Gotta' admit, I sometimes wait for an Admin to post the first reply. ... Some sort of weird chain of command, courtesy thing, I guess.

I'll try to do better in the future.

—mike

45 views on this thread and 2 replies - just sayin!

Cheers, D

I am guilty as charged too. If we are speaking up hear, I find the navigation of the forum a little difficult, especially as getting past the "first page" of posts. Once you click on a post to read it or reply, you options to return where you were in the forum is very limited. By clicking on "Latest Post" and you are taken to the top of the forum, or you can hit the "back" button if you only viewed the post, but then your risk the dreaded "We have reset the page......." message, and again, you are at the top again.

I would be nice to be able to return to the position you were in the forum once you view or reply to a post.

Ok, getting of my soapbox.

Kevin

Hi Jim,
In my opinion you should not make registering mandatory. I doubt it would increase posts, and in fact would prevent people to come and read.

In this particular case of greeting newcomers, I think it is a problem of "there is plenty of people here, someone will reply". Usually all technical questions are answered.

From my side, I often leave it for later and sometimes it just goes too low in the list. Will try to be more careful.

I have tried to greet as many new members as possible but I have slipped as of late. I'm not on at home as often and I limit my postings while at work. I can step up more.

My work environment seems to be conducive to me getting on at least once a day. I try to make it a point of replying to introductory posts whenever I see them, even if just to say "Welcome aboard!" I guess I view forum posts the same as any other conversation, and I was raised that it's not polite to not reply when someone introduces themself ("Hi! My name is Phil and I have a modeling problem!")

But at the rate that other posts get updated sometimes the intro posts drop down the LATEST POSTS list so fast that I end up never even seeing them.

Hi Jim

You're absolutely right there, I see the same, both with myself (I blame it on the workload that has increased since I changed jobs back in 2011, that doesn't allow me as much time on here as I'd like) but also from others.

As for the introduction posts, I've never really been onto those to be honest, as I think introductions with a post of a build are much more interesting than just "hi I'm Jon and I'm new here!"

Hopefully I'll be posting more again sometime soon...

Cheers!
Stefan

I know what you mean, but take into consideration, as often is the case, the new guy is not savvy with image posting and the introduction is often the first step in learning that arduous process. I'll never forget how difficult it was for me ... hell, it still is!!!

Cheers!
—mike

Thanks for the feedback guys! Of course all of you are pretty active on the site. Ironically the answers on the poll so far are all people who are either always logged in or most always. So...

Yeah.

Hey you... guy who isn't logged in. Answer the poll!!

http://strawpoll.me/7308602

Cheers,
Jim

OK, I took part in the poll. And got logged out in the process...

True, Mike. I remember back in the day I actually didn't see the introduction forum until I was already member for some time.



And why is everyone always complaining about posting photos? The only thing I don't like about that system is that I have to upload each photo separately instead of bulk. Otherwise, it's just a question of organizing (my photos always have the same name with a number at the end, so I can copy the same link into the post several times and just change the number...)

Guilty as charged, to be fair I'm nit sure of I have ever checked that forum.....well I have now!

Sad to say, I rarely look at the Intro forum. I find it hard to work up the enthusiasm to post a vacuous "Welcome to the site!" without engaging in a fuller conversation, so it gets back-burnered instead of addressed. I just assume others are doing it. (But as they say, you know what happens when you assume...)

Must try harder, but no promises!


On an unrelated note, do the stats allow you to separate the number of hits from logged-in members from those by guests? Be interesting to see what the demographic is in the Intro forum...