Animation Source Forums

This was suggested quite a long while ago and I think it's time to suggest again.

How about a group of people who volunteer to act as guides for new members of Balto/Lion King/Animation Source?

Basically, all they do is say "Hey, I'll help them!" and as long as they've been here a while and know the rules it all works out fine.
There's no real need for Steet to create a new 'official' group for it.
I saw the same on another forum, when someone new joins one person PMs them and welcomes them to the site and offers any help they may need when joining here. Whether that be asking what the rules are or asking how to make a topic etc.

Anyway, thoughts or extra suggestions?

I love this idea !^^ I think this would really help out new members. In fact, I would love to be one of the people who would help out the new members. I love to help people out so, this job would suit me quite well XD

Hmm..So how would this work? How would one of the group members know about the new members?

And again, I really like this idea !=)

uk, um this is gonna sound really weird, but think that we are psychopathically connected. i swear, that 2 days ago, i had the SAME thought. this type of job idea i got from a site called furry-paws.com . they are called newbie helpers there. the things they do is answer questions, and guide the new members throughout thier first few weeks. the way they are choosen is that they just fill out an application and send it in. anyone who is familiar with the site and doesn't mind getting bombarded with somewhat obvuious questions apply for the job. i think it would work excellently here, considering that so many newer members can be "lost". and no, a special group isn't needed there eitherand it works very smoothly. and yes, as long as they haven't be a nuisence in the past and follow the rules, they should be able to be accepted.

I'm not sure to see how this works.
There are at least 10 new members on the site everyday, and unless you do it only for the ones who create a topic in the introduction board, I can't see this working.
To my mind, the "questions" page is much more efficient, especially because you can search : most questions have already been answered, no need to tell the same things to each person. To me, the only thing you have to refer the newest people to, is the questions page (and the rules)

I like this idea. Seems, I allways get PMs from new members, asking for my help.

Pet peeve, right their. I feel the same way. when people don't search, before they ask a question.
Anyway, I think the suggestion, will work. If theres a will, theres a way.

well exactly, i rember just the other, on some random topic somebody who had just joined posted something about being confused and not understanding how to get around. maybe many of them are members that have never been to a forum before and don't quite get the hang of it right away. and for these types of people, finding a questions section may be a little confusing to get to. just my opinion, but if steet says he doesn't think it'll work then it won't work.

Well, I'm not completely sure where else, if anywhere else, the site 'lists' newest members. The only other way is to use an automatic PM sent to all new members, only thing against that is new members could read it etc. yet it's more likely they'll either ignore it or not know quite what to do first time.
A friendly "hello" from another member and someone to talk to about what to do etc. just seems better.

I don't know if there's a way to set up an automatic PM from several seperate accounts that alternates between every "site guide" to any new member that signs up?

Either that or only for each new member that posts in intro's or something...

well exactly as you said, they would ignore the pm, just like they do everything else (including the thread on sms and the main rules thread) but also as i said, people who are new, can sem to feel quite lost in the sea of threads and subforums and such, and can get easily confused. something such as a newbie helper, could simply get pmed by a newer person, that was unable to find the questions section for some reason. and thus, questions section would still be used, but a lot of uneeded posts by confused newbies concerning already answered questions could possibly be avoided. just a thought...

no, the site furry paws that has this newbie helper thing going on, they are people who are there FOR new members to message, not the other way around, which is the way your comprehending it, lowin. see, when someone first joins the site, they make sure that newbies joining know what newbie helpers do with links on some basic pages, like "need help, contact a newbie helper" and it takes you to a special stats thing to tell you how many of the helpers are currently online (a list of all the helpers currently online). and seriously, i wasn't saying ALL members seem to be lost, acccually i know many who fit right in with the forums (most likely from past forum experience), but there still seem to be quite a few struggers that dont exactly catch on as quickly as some, and those are the type of members a newbie helper would be there for. in fact on that site, OwnedByAGoldenRetriever is a newbie helper, and knows a bit more about this i'm sure. message them if you have more questions about newbie helpers, becuase im not one, so i wouldn't probably know as much. and i for one agree that it would be a great thing to test, and could always be removed if it didn't go well.

Just my thought. The best we can do is, help them, in a PM. If they are lost and need help. Giveing them, a kind PM, pointing out what to do, will help.

Well maybe there could be links to PM members that are willing to answer any questions and help, somewhere that new members would find\see easily. For example :

Member12, is willing to answer any questions you may have. Click here to send them a message.