Post
by Tsunami Jones » Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:20 pm
Howdy.
Ok. I'm posting in this for several reasons. The biggest one is that I don't want to think that everyone is being completely ignored here by us. I have been paying attention to this thread since it was first posted.
First, I'll say it right off the bat, I do not specifically care for the idea of a "newbie forum" per say.
However, I definitely do agree with certain points, especially the feelings expressed by a few of you about the lack of an introductory area. I think that such an area would probably be very useful, BUT, it should not be a place for massive "coddling" or even mentoring. But it should be something that can
1) Introduce a new member to the community. The closest thing really we have at the moment is when someone releases their first video or asks a question, and sort of attaches it on.
2) Be able to answer basic questions so that new members can be introduced to the rest of the website so that they can find the correct places to seek help in, etc. IF an editing question is going to be answered here a link to the proper portion of the site should be posted in addition to any answer given, so that the member can be made aware of what is available on the rest of the site.
They should not be forced in anyway to actually post there. Why?
It's stupid. I don't care if anyone is insulted by me saying so, and I'm not going to bother arguing it if you think that it's not.
But here's why I think it's stupid: I've been on forums where this is a requirement, and it does several things, the largest of which is it cuts a user off from the rest of the site. This is espcially bad if the site has portions of it that are targeted to specific needs.
Let's say a member has actually read the guides and looks at the forums, and even knows his stuff and can edit decently well, but has never posted on the forums. He suddenly has a problem, with oh, an AVISynth script, and decides to go on the forums to recieve legitimate help only to find out that he can't post in the part of the site specifically for his trouble, but instead has to post in a section for "noobs." It doesn't help him at all, but instead punishes him.
A portion of the site like this should not punish members, but should be there for those who actually need it.
So basically, I'm pretty much for an introductory forum (which would obviously be a bit more properly targeted/moderated than the last one to keep it more focused).
However, you have to be aware that the stupid questions will still be asked elsewhere on the site from time to time, etc., and also that many people simply don't read regardless of how obvious it's made.
Last edited by
Tsunami Jones on Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.