Feedback The intro for new people

[Bloffy13]

I'm with you there Discord. I am only on this and the Delica Club forum and I am hard pushed to keep up. Everyone has something to offer, an anecdote, a life experience, even a dopey one-liner (Gee, I wonder who I am referencing there?!?!)
I found this site 12 months ago and come here most days and I have read pretty much every thread since, and I have seen little or no separation or distinction between newbies and old farts. I know people have been referred to old threads but always with an explanation and never as a throw-away or fob off line.
Let's face it. Most of us have some sort of affinity with the bush, whether you are a city slicker with aspirations of a tree change or the biggest hick who thinks the local general store gets too busy on a Saturday. And I think I could count on one hand, with a thumb to spare, the number of bushies I know who don't like to sit around, chew the fat and have a yarn - and even they like to sit in the background and listen.
There's nothing to fear but fear itself. We have awesome mods around here who, I'm sure, would digitally pommel ANYONE who was unfriendly, unwelcoming or thought they were above anyone else.
Cheers
Bloffy

 

[AussiePreppers]

Sorry guys I should have been a little more clear with my post, although covering what I wasn't intending is a great side-effect. I do realise that people will sign up just to keep track of threads, lurk, etc. I was wondering moreso about the people with what looks to be an incredible intro, for example the girl that only uses primitive tools and wants to live in the bush for months at a time, and that is one of many, many interesting intros i've read. Those people you kind of expect to want to post.

Thanks again for the great replies.

And as for Bloffy... just continue to tell him where to go

 

[Bloffy13]

hey, I represent that remark.
Cheers (I think)
Bloffy

 

[Benny]

On a separate but similar subject, am I the only one feeling like the usual 'Welcome' post from current members (us) is becoming a waste of time with so many intro's & as mentioned no follow up posts on their part?

 

[AussiePreppers]

A good point on the issue, they do sometimes get responses... I was hoping that with some tweaking, at least to test, that 'success' rate could be improved...

 

[auscraft]

On a separate but similar subject, am I the only one feeling like the usual 'Welcome' post from current members (us) is becoming a waste of time with so many intro's & as mentioned no follow up posts on their part?

Yes and no .
Welcoming a new members is not a big thing to do, most people greet new people in their day to day life. I think to those new members who do continue and be active do actually like to see they are welcomed. I have 'recieved PM's from New members thanking and just asking general questions so I do see it as an important first step.
I see the question to be more two fold
the first is why do they become a member?
next why aren't they returning or contributing?
if I understand the OP's original question correctly we want to encourage their input/sharing so the other question is , what can we do to encourage participation in the forum and not just be a member.
From what I see is we have 3 groups of members first there is the active , next is we have members who actively log in but do not write anything and lastly the member who rarely logs in or never does again after joining. I would be very interested in hearing from the second group, is there something we can do to encourge you to join in.

 

[Mountain man]

Hi guys, another newbie here. I signed up because I couldn't see the pictures. My account was activated pretty quickly but now trying to post photos they have to be approved by a moderator. Will this be for every photo? Definately takes the momentum out of a conversation when you have to wait (5 hrs so far) for someone to approve the pictures.
I hope to become a contributing member. Cheers Steve

 

[Hairyman]

Hi Mountain Man,
First I have heard of photos being approved by a mod I'm pretty sure that its only temporary, need a full moderator to comment on that though.
Contributing members are what makes a forum work so bare with us.

 

[Bezerker Viking]

Hi guys, another newbie here. I signed up because I couldn't see the pictures. My account was activated pretty quickly but now trying to post photos they have to be approved by a moderator. Will this be for every photo? Definately takes the momentum out of a conversation when you have to wait (5 hrs so far) for someone to approve the pictures.
I hope to become a contributing member. Cheers Steve

I think this "photos to be approved by a moderator" is to stop people or "bots" signing up and posting photos of porn/advertising type things automatically, which I think may have happened in the past, not sure. Number of user posts recorded may have an effect on the ability to post photo too, again a Mod or Admin would have to confirm.

Bezerker

 

[Mountain man]

Well it is approaching 24 hours now. I know mods can't be available 24/7 but I think the whole validation of accounts would rule out a bot getting through. Oh well. Steve

 

[Skandiman]

You could always start your own forum and set your own rules! Mods have other things happening in their lives!

 

[AussiePreppers]

You could try uploading them to an external site (imageshack etc) and link to them with the IMG tag. 640px on the longest edge looks nice.

 

[Mountain man]

You could always start your own forum and set your own rules! Mods have other things happening in their lives!

Yes you are right, I was not being critical just questioning the reasoning behind the photo rule when no other forum I am involved in is like this. Just offering up a possibility as to why new members might go and spend their time elswhere??? Steve

 

[Corin]

Whilst I am a moderator , I have been away for many months. We never had to approve pictures in the past and I am not sure I know how.

But I will look into it now. Sorry you have had this experience!

 

[Bloffy13]

On the Delica Club forum I think you had to have 10 posts before you could post pix just to cut out the d1khed factor, spammers and those who just wanted to burn folk in a nasty way. I always think of this sort of thing as like a cool off period. Don't worry MountainMan, we are keen to hear and see everyone's skills, adventures and thoughts.
I'm not a mod or otherwise but the best stories come from fresh minds. Hang in there. it's an awesome site which can only improve with a wide base of members with a wealth of experience to share.
Cheers
Bloffy

 

[Blake]

Hi Mountain Man,

Not your fault. I think the issue is to do with our anti-spam software. It is a bug of some kind and should not be happening. There is no restriction on new users posting images. I have made some changes and I hope this will fix the issue. If it continues please PM me and I will keep working on a solution for you.

I will mention also that if you are able to do so it is appreciated if users can post their images to a image host such as photobucket. The reason for this is to reduce server storage and bandwidth. Its my objective to do everything I can to prevent ads on the site and this helps us reduce overheads which means we dont have to resort to ads to pay for server fees.

 

[gelandangan]

Yes and no .
Welcoming a new members is not a big thing to do, most people greet new people in their day to day life. I think to those new members who do continue and be active do actually like to see they are welcomed. I have 'recieved PM's from New members thanking and just asking general questions so I do see it as an important first step.
I see the question to be more two fold
the first is why do they become a member?
next why aren't they returning or contributing?
if I understand the OP's original question correctly we want to encourage their input/sharing so the other question is , what can we do to encourage participation in the forum and not just be a member.
From what I see is we have 3 groups of members first there is the active , next is we have members who actively log in but do not write anything and lastly the member who rarely logs in or never does again after joining. I would be very interested in hearing from the second group, is there something we can do to encourge you to join in.

Not wishing to open can of worms, but here is my thoughts about posting numbers.

LOL never mind..
what I wrote surely is a thread killer..
so again I retract..

 

[Simon van der Craats]

If you were new to this site like me, then I would like to make comments only after having tried to do something first.
So I went camping recently at a friends property with some equipment (like when on Army exercises and I operated out of a 4x4 FFR(Fitted For Radio) and Trailer) in my car loaded with equipment such as my swag, folding chair, Esky, KFS(KnifeForkSpoon), cup, plate, frypan, Pot, Kettle to put on fire, gas BBQ just in case, well I had a good weekend and did it again with my brother and his kids a couple of weeks later but the next time I wanted to carry less equipment in the car, so I decided I needed to put together a emergency carry kit first like what is demonstrated by Dave Canterbury or Jamie Burleigh from "The Pathfinder School LLC" (Wildernessoutfitters and SRI) , and test it out by going somewhere and doing something basic like setting up an overnight camp, first I needed to put together the basic items e.g. 100% wool blanket, ground sheet, Tarp(Hootchie), Knife, Lighter etc. I am nearly ready to do this now and decide to intoduce my self on this blog and ask for advice on where to go and where I could get the last few items from, but even though I have been a member for a while now I could not figure how to post on the intro thread, I was able to reply to the thread "how do I" and now this thread, so if you could fix the software so new members could at least post to the Intro Thread it might be a great way to start using this site

 

[Bezerker Viking]

Not sure about now but back when I first signed up I had to wait for Corin to activate my account . . .
After it was activated I remember going to the intro thread to do an intro and not being able to see the "+ Post New Thread" button.

 

[Wentworth]

If you were new to this site like me, then I would like to make comments only after having tried to do something first.

Hi Simon, I can completely understand being hesitant to post before actually practicing bushcraft.
But I would still encourage new members to post with any questions they may have on projects you want to try. It's a friendly place and no one will shout you down here.
I look forward to your photos and trip reports. It sounds like you've got your gear dialed in now. Nothing motivates me like seeing other people getting out and trying things.