Idea -- Due to some newbie's ignorence of the FAQs

[gailoraanf]

Hi everyone.

I have an idea, and... uh... yeah.

When I was a newbie, I didn't read the FAQ's because I never knew where they were. And then, I was going to, but I forgot. Sooooooo, I am proposing the following.

This will also take away the ability for newbies to claim ignorence. Some continue to say that they didn't know, or they didn't read the post that told them to read the FAQ's.

I have this forum, and one of the options is to send a PM to everyone on the forum, right? So why not send one with a link to the FAQ's, and a welcome message?

Sure, it'll also go out to all the old members, but they'll get over it. You could post a note at the bottom, saying "if you are an old member, and got this message, feel free to ignore it" or something like that. Also, every time someone joins, they should get that message unless you disable it.

You could write "Welcome to the forum, new member. Enjoy your stay and make sure to read the FAQ's" and post a link.

Just an idea.

[thesuki]

What happens when NEW new people show up? Can't send a community message every time we get a new member.

[hoagiegal1970]

Well, that's what the news fader (at the top of the forum on the main board) is for.

Do people ever look at that thing? They should. The rules are right there.

[NumbuhInfinity]

Isn't it possible to auto-send a PM to a person who just registered? Or is that VBulletin?

[Stardrifter 8]

numbuhinfinity said:

Isn't it possible to auto-send a PM to a person who just registered?

Yep, it is. We had discussed implementing it when we went on that upgrade spree a few months ago. I started to make it but the actual PM to send out was never written. The code can be found here: support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=codedatabase&action=display&n=1&thread=1143797778

[numbuheightbitstar]

That auto-PM should also include a link to the rules.

Also, the FAQ and Rules should all be stickied. Its rediculous that I have to go back three or so pages to find the rules topics (and no, that there's a link in the news fader is no excuse--its too darn easy to miss it there).

[Shwoo]

Aren't they stickied already?

[numbuheightbitstar]

Nope, neither the rules nor the FAQs are stickied. I just checked.

[hoagiegal1970]

The rules are stickied in the Newbies board.

EDIT: The FAQs are also stickied; they're just not called FAQs. It's called the Newbie Help thread.

Stardrifter, I think putting both of those in an auto-PM is a good idea. Or at the very least, stickying both of them on the KND Main board, since everyone goes there.

[destinyinevitable]

...I have a code on the proboard I run so that the rules are actually at the top of the board on every page. Much harder to ignore.