How To Deal With The Newbs?

[juniorm33]

Trouble with that thread was also it was directly linked to, when it would've been better to have one/linked to one in general at the time. Think it may have been Craigix at the time but I could be very wrong, he really got the initial video out there but linked to that beta thread.
That's when it really started to loose it's way in my eyes. Although still a good read when filtering out the noise.
I don't see how it went public to soon, he was asking for some help, got help, they made great progress in a short amount of time.
Maybe it shouldn't have been in the Beta forum but the developer one, not that wouldn't have made massive difference at the time.
Beta implies ready for a lot more testing, than something that was in early stages of coming together.

 

[elwing]

How To Deal With The Newbs?

hum, tar and feathers... anyone?

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

It's quite simple, we deal with new members to our boards the same way as we expected to be treated ourselves when we were new to all this. Be polite and as helpful as we can be.

It's way too easy to say "Use search" and leave it at that, but providing a link to the relevant information would be more useful. If you don't have the time to be helpful, then just leave it for someone else as we have a LOT of board members and no doubt one of us will provide the info sooner or later.

Being rude to people doesn't make this a warm and friendly place at all, so lets try and be a little bit more helpful to those who find us. After all, if you just throw "READ THE STICKIES NUMB NUTS" at them, you will have no moral high ground to stand on when that gets thrown back at you in the future. Nobody knows everything, and at some point you may well ask a question of your own that happens to be in a sticky, and wouldn't it be funny if a new board member pointed that info out to you

 

[Bosbeetle]

hear hear

 

[juniorm33]

Nobody knows everything, and at some point you may well ask a question of your own that happens to be in a sticky, and wouldn't it be funny if a new board member pointed that info out to you

Sorry but your just plain wrong, it would be VERY FUNNY!
Hardly ever see you post on these sides, I do pop into the other forums, and you seem to be a very constructive and active member. You going to pop by more often?

 

[WizardStan]

It's quite simple, we deal with new members to our boards the same way as we expected to be treated ourselves when we were new to all this.

Understood. I'm glad you agree that we should definitely call new users on their occasionally stupid behaviour, and remind them (forcefully, if needed) that they really should search for their answers. Because that's exactly how I want to be treated: if I do something stupid, tell me I'm being an idiot, and don't try to sugar coat it.

Be polite and as helpful as we can be.

Or that could work...

and wouldn't it be funny if a new board member pointed that info out to you

Only if you're the kind of person that gets butthurt over silly little things, in which case it's funny for everyone but the person who took it personally.

 

[second exodous]

It's quite simple, we deal with new members to our boards the same way as we expected to be treated ourselves when we were new to all this.

Understood. I'm glad you agree that we should definitely call new users on their occasionally stupid behaviour, and remind them (forcefully, if needed) that they really should search for their answers. Because that's exactly how I want to be treated: if I do something stupid, tell me I'm being an idiot, and don't try to sugar coat it.

Lol, treat others as you would want to be treated unless you're a masochist.

 

[zombiesatemygoldfish]

Being a forum newb, a soon to be linux newb, and an extremely excited purchaser of an OP, I just want to put a thank you out there for all the patient GP32x forums peeps
Keep up the good work, thanks for all your knowledge, and try not to get a permanent /facepalm mark going.

 

[fiori_musicali]

It's quite simple, we deal with new members to our boards the same way as we expected to be treated ourselves when we were new to all this.

Understood. I'm glad you agree that we should definitely call new users on their occasionally stupid behaviour, and remind them (forcefully, if needed) that they really should search for their answers. Because that's exactly how I want to be treated: if I do something stupid, tell me I'm being an idiot, and don't try to sugar coat it.

I have to say that principally I agree with this approach. Although calling anyone an idiot on first date is never a good idea, and you should save that for when you've earned the mentioned moral high ground and the other party acts like a jerk. There's a bigger issue menacing below the surface than just stupidity, ignorance or helplessness, and that's arrogance. Some noobs act like they are the king and the established forum members are servants, and demand you to invest your time into delivering them easy answers in a nice unambiguous package, per order. The outcome of being undeservedly nice doesn't always evoke niceness in return, as someone illustrated with the grocery store shopping analogy.

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

I have to say that principally I agree with this approach. Although calling anyone an idiot on first date is never a good idea, and you should save that for when you've earned the mentioned moral high ground and the other party acts like a jerk. There's a bigger issue menacing below the surface than just stupidity, ignorance or helplessness, and that's arrogance. Some noobs act like they are the king and the established forum members are servants, and demand you to invest your time into delivering them easy answers in a nice unambiguous package, per order. The outcome of being undeservedly nice doesn't always evoke niceness in return, as someone illustrated with the grocery store shopping analogy.

I prefer to be nice giving someone the benifit of the doubt, if then they do turn out to be a pest then that's another story. I still stand by my feelings that we should initially help anyone who asks for it. After the nice helpful advice, you can politely remind them of the correct procedure in future which will help them to help themselves. This should create an atmosphere of calm and well being whilst being informative and directional

 

[fusion_power]

I'm for a huge "READ THIS FIRST"-FAQ-Popup, whenever you enter the Pandora-Forums. To disable it, you have to register and switch it manualy off into the board options.
Could avoid many redundant N00B-Question-Threads about the Pandora.

 

[Aninhumer]

I have to say that principally I agree with this approach. Although calling anyone an idiot on first date is never a good idea, and you should save that for when you've earned the mentioned moral high ground and the other party acts like a jerk. There's a bigger issue menacing below the surface than just stupidity, ignorance or helplessness, and that's arrogance. Some noobs act like they are the king and the established forum members are servants, and demand you to invest your time into delivering them easy answers in a nice unambiguous package, per order. The outcome of being undeservedly nice doesn't always evoke niceness in return, as someone illustrated with the grocery store shopping analogy.

I think, if someone comes here and happens to ask a question in an arrogant manner, the best thing we can do is answer it and point them to the FAQ as normal.
Then, if they complain about being asked to work or whatever, ignore them.

They have their answer, and most likely if there's no response to their complaint, they won't say anything else, and the thread won't turn into a multi-page argument.

Trying to make an arrogant person not arrogant is very difficult, and a lot more work than I think the forum should feel responsible for.

 

[laurencevde]

The first impression is very important, and if that's being scoffed at, he will think that's the norm, and might do it later on as well.

I myself don't really care about new uninformed topics (just close them immediately after answering. prevents any nastiness), but I do find it very annoying if an interesting thread gets spammed to oblivion with junk. That's something that needs heavy moderation (preferably automatic, with a "useless"-button or so, and collapse those posts, if possible) to prevent.

Oh, and don't forget that there are also non-native-english speakers which can barely form a readable sentence, let alone understand everything that's being said.

We can also make subfora in which only pandora-owners/orderers can post, and try to get as many pandowners to actually register.
Deal with the newbies/noobs/uninformed that are going to get one/have one, in a proper way(they are important), but don't have to bother about the rest.

This forum currently has almost 18000 members, of which almost 140 people have posted more that 1000 times, 1200 >100 times, and about 4300 >10 times. Split that among the different devices, and you see that we don't really have a lot of active users. New users are needed.

And yes, I know I myself rarely post, but I wouldn't consider myself a noob, nor uninformed. Heck, that's why I don't have the need to post, I can find everything myself...

 

[Sphinxter]

The nobs, they must be dealt with.

 

[second exodous]

Oh, and don't forget that there are also non-native-english speakers which can barely form a readable sentence, let alone understand everything that's being said.

I noticed that a lot of the people getting flamed for asking 'stupid' questions don't use English as their native language.

Anyone who has ever leaned another language should understand reading in that language is a pain and there is a reason that they have difficulty reading a F.A.Q., wiki, or even searching for an answer. I speak Portuguese fluently and I still can't wade though technical documents in 100% Portuguese. Even if the question asked is coherent you shouldn't assume that the person speaks English as their first language. Before you jump all over them about how stupid they are or why they haven't used used the search keep that in mind.

 

[may88]

Ahh, then we should include this link in our un-newb signatures to set us apart

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/44746-the-pandora-information-index/

Perhaps in italics....

I'm with UD. Like dflemstr and Gruso, we all add the informative links to our signatures.
This is nice and friendly so we don't have to be.

edit: tripe-o

 

[danielliu88888]

The nobs, they must be dealt with.

nob hill

 

[rabidpoobear]

Instead of a constructive discussion could we have a destructive concussion?

 

[aesir911]

What do other people think?

I think you're talking about me... (we n00bs just want to be loved )

I just find it humorous that you don't want to waste time answering simple questions from "the others", yet you waste so much time yelling at them and posting threads on how to subdue them.

 

[bzar]

Instead of a constructive discussion could we have a destructive concussion?

Go ahead, knock yourself out