A forum for newbies?
- aesling
- Mad Scientist
- Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2005 10:55 pm
- Status: Human McNugget
- Location: Wall Rose
A forum for newbies?
After a discussion I was having recently about the influx of new members to the org, and how not all of them put all the effort they could into improving/don't know how to improve it occurred to me that it might be helpful to add a forum dedicated to new editors. Sure, we have stickies, and the technical help forums, and even a place to post betas, but I think this falls short of the benefit we could gain from having a centralized place for new editors to congregate and discuss self improvement, constructive criticisms, and any questions they might have that might sound stupid to more experienced editors and get them made fun of in another forum. For example, how often do we just tell a newbie to go read the guides? But if they are confused about the contents of the guides, unless they already know some people in the amv community? Also, I think it would help get new editors get more involved in the community right away, in a way that many don't manage to. Overall, this would be a way to improve and strengthen the community by making new editors aware of the issues and ideas that we are already know, so they can hopefully avoid more newbie mistakes, and get people wanting to improve themselves so we can hopefully have better overall quality of amvs coming out in the future. I also thought maybe we could make it a requirement for members uploading to local for the first time to visit this forum before the upload could be confirmed, but I have no idea if coding for something like this would be feasible.
Obviously, just offering constructive criticism to new editors in the announcement forums doesn't do the job on its own, because often these new editors feel like they are being attacked because either they don't have the proper context/perspective in which to put the criticism or other org members are harsher than they need to be because they are so sick of seeing the same mistakes over and over again. I think a forum like this could offer new editors the chance to get the constructive criticism they need to grow, but at the same time offering them the support they need not to feel totally intimidated and discouraged. I'm sure there are more experienced org members out there that would be happy to help people out in this forum.
Obviously, just offering constructive criticism to new editors in the announcement forums doesn't do the job on its own, because often these new editors feel like they are being attacked because either they don't have the proper context/perspective in which to put the criticism or other org members are harsher than they need to be because they are so sick of seeing the same mistakes over and over again. I think a forum like this could offer new editors the chance to get the constructive criticism they need to grow, but at the same time offering them the support they need not to feel totally intimidated and discouraged. I'm sure there are more experienced org members out there that would be happy to help people out in this forum.

- BasharOfTheAges
- Just zis guy, you know?
- Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 11:32 pm
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- Location: Merrimack, NH
So, catering to people that don't know how to lurk moar and show some effort to learn on their own by reading? What you're suggesting is lowering our social expectations for a group of people that prefer to not improve and to not do the leg work of actually browsing and reading (or god forbid using the search function). The people that do want to learn are actually doing it and not just saying it as a defensive reaction - actions speak louder than words in that respect. It may sound elitist, but if someone can't grasp basic concepts that are constantly explained over and over again (and they're not just having a language barrier issue) maybe they need to be doing something a bit simpler - like mastering long division.
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- Kionon
- I ♥ the 80's
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At first that would be my reaction, however, the fact is, we just spend too much time at one extreme or the other, usually along old/new lines. We, as the regulars, tend to pander to each other. Whenever a known editor/studio group produces something it's an entire thread of /gets without any constructive criticism. We're all guilty of it. I've done it probably twice today alone.BasharOfTheAges wrote:So, catering to people that don't know how to lurk moar and show some effort to learn on their own by reading? What you're suggesting is lowering our social expectations for a group of people that prefer to not improve and to not do the leg work of actually browsing and reading (or god forbid using the search function). The people that do want to learn are actually doing it and not just saying it as a defensive reaction - actions speak louder than words in that respect. It may sound elitist, but if someone can't grasp basic concepts that are constantly explained over and over again (and they're not just having a language barrier issue) maybe they need to be doing something a bit simpler - like mastering long division.
Then there's the other side of the coin, where we're tired of seeing the same mistakes, as aesling says, and we don't make them, so when a newbie comes along, we don't construct, we destroy. We're either entirely unhelpful like "uh, yeah, this one didn't do it for me" as if the issues are stylistic, or we run into a rapid fire succession of (this is what I tend to do), "you need to get rid of subs, change your aspect ratio, compress your audio, kill the watermark, stop using xvid/divx files in windows media maker, and read the fucking guides." The first leaves the newbie with the impression they just failed to make something popular, not that they failed to live up to their responsibilities as and editor. The latter leaves the newbie's head spinning, and they're more likely to ignore us, less likely to learn at all.
I think you (and me too) have way too high of expectations for the newest crop of members. These are young teens, who have been spoiled by bittorrent, windows movie maker, and youtube. There wasn't none of that crap back in 1998 </Everclear>. For some of them, they can't remember a time when editing was expensive and difficult, even for the simplest of transitions or effects. They do not remember a time before rapidshit or mediafire or megaupload or senduit. And they certainly don't remember how hard some of us worked to make Golden Donut a reality. They just take it for granted that the site allows them to upload whatever they want, as long as it's not too sexy and it's not too violent.
If you don't want to be part of the newbie forum, that's fine. But I personally think it would be helpful. I'd be willing to put in the time. I used to do it. I used to think I had a shot at most helpful. I've written guides and stickies. I've been getting angrier and more sullen as I've felt that the most people seem to have your opinion. Oh, well, if they can't figure it out, screw them. I have nothing against calling a spade a spade when someone is completely unwilling to learn, but I want to reward the effort of the ignorant but willing. If that means I need to explain what aspect ratio is in every post in the newbie forum, so be it. At least it'll keep it out of announcements or general amv, and you need not be bothered by it.
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