# Greeting New Foreros/as



## Bienvenidos

Hi everyone,

   I'm wondering if we could create a system of informing new foreros/as about our site's features, policies, and what our language forums are all about. After reading this thread, I think it would be a great idea to start some kind of greeting system for new foreros/as. For example, a member of the forums can write a brief "welcome" message by PM to new users, inviting them to participate in the forums, as well as explaining general rules (i.e. the homework policies in some forums). I don't know if this idea is realistic (having a  "greeter" to greet all new foreros/as), but many large/mainstream websites do do this. If there's some sort of "log" created as new members join the forums, the greeter can send the default message to each new member, personalizing it (i.e. by saying Hi (insert username here) and welcome to the WordReference.com forums!) The rest of the message would be automated, to save the greeter time. This whole thing would be great in making sure new users take advantage of the forums, and become active members. And I don't think it would be too time consuming, either. 

*

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Sample Message:

Hi *user102*, and welcome to the WordReference.com forums!

We thank you for joining our forums! The WordReference.com forums and dictionaries are an excellent resource for all who wish to explore the wonders of learning a language. To date, we have had more than ____ posts, and over ______ members. Here at WR, you can interact with native speakers of almost any language, including Spanish, French, English, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Hebrew. Most importantly, the forum's services are provided at no charge. Once again, we thank you for joining. Please take a look at our Rules and FAQ before posting: you can also ask questions, and/or make suggestions in our Comments and Suggestions forum.

I hope to see you around the forums! 

Warm Wishes,
*Bienvenidos

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* 
Something like that?
Anyway, let me know what you think. 
If I'm talkin' crazy, please let me know. 

Saludos


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## alc112

I like your Idea. I've seen those "welcome messages"  when I register in other forums. 
Thete, it must be included, as you said, some basic rules and Welcome to the Forums.
I think that simple "welcome to the forums" encourages the newcomer to keep visiting the forum.


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## Jana337

It cannot hurt but... Raise your hand if you read automated welcome messages. 

Jana


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## lsp

Jana337 said:


> It cannot hurt but... Raise your hand if you read automated welcome messages.
> 
> Jana


Not to mention, new members must agree to have read the rules at the time of their registration.


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## GavinW

I don't agree, but nor do I regard myself as anything like a veteran: Those with more experience here may see issues I'm as yet unaware of.

That said, one of the things that has personally drawn me ever more into WRF is the lack of a formulaic, "top-down", mechanized approach to me as a potential longer-term forer@. It gives individual forer@s themselves the chance, the pleasure, and the privilege of greeting new members. Indeed, it was quite a big step for me psychologically when I could see the space existed for me, as a relative newbie, to place myself in the position of a "resident" or "local", and, in turn, to greet total newbies. It brought me on board. So both the greeted and the greeter benefit.

I believe this very lack of a set, standardized greeting procedure itself conveys the message that there is an element of unpredictability to things here, despite all the metrics, the rules etc. This in turn subliminally reinforces the idea that people here encourage foreros to take the initiative in negotiating a wider range of issues involved in virtual communications, replicating more closely, I feel, forms of communication which occur in face-to-face, or "real-life" communications. In short, it is more liable to make both/all parties more responsible for establishing a human communication which goes that little bit deeper and isn't underpinned by, and somehow ultimately reliant on, automatic modes of communication.  

Well, lots of little points there, but one basic, underlying one. Hope it was clear.


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## Bienvenidos

> *GavinW: *I don't agree, but nor do I regard myself as anything like a veteran: Those with more experience here may see issues I'm as yet unaware of.That said, one of the things that has personally drawn me ever more into WRF is the lack of a formulaic, "top-down", mechanized approach to me as a potential longer-term forer@. It gives individual forer@s themselves the chance, the pleasure, and the privilege of greeting new members. Indeed, it was quite a big step for me psychologically when I could see the space existed for me, as a relative newbie, to place myself in the position of a "resident" or "local", and, in turn, to greet total newbies. It brought me on board. So both the greeted and the greeter benefit.
> I believe this very lack of a set, standardized greeting procedure itself conveys the message that there is an element of unpredictability to things here, despite all the metrics, the rules etc. This in turn subliminally reinforces the idea that people here encourage foreros to take the initiative in negotiating a wider range of issues involved in virtual communications, replicating more closely, I feel, forms of communication which occur in face-to-face, or "real-life" communications. In short, it is more liable to make both/all parties more responsible for establishing a human communication which goes that little bit deeper and isn't underpinned by, and somehow ultimately reliant on, automatic modes of communication.
> 
> Well, lots of little points there, but one basic, underlying one. Hope it was clear.



I'm not sure what percentage of registrees actually become active members in the forums, but I believe that a welcome message would increase the chances of new members becoming permanent members. All organizations, including major nonprofits, have some sort of system of welcoming users not only to their site, but to their "enterprise". On the contrary to what you said, I think a friendly greeting makes the user feel more at home, and welcomed, as opposed to just throwing them into the forums without giving them an explanation as to how/why they were created, and how they function.



> *lsp: *Not to mention, new members must agree to have read the rules at the time of their registration.


I'm not sure that all registrees actually _read_ the rules before clicking "I accept".

I think a greeting message shows the new user that the folks at WR are caring, and that we appreciate having newbies around.


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## Bienvenidos

alc112 said:


> I like your Idea....
> I think that simple "welcome to the forums" encourages the newcomer to keep visiting the forum.



We're on the same page here. 

Saludos


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## GavinW

Fair enough!
I'm wondering whether there might be some more "human" take on the message, though, like tailoring it to the newcomer's profile, suggesting which language forums they might benefit most from etc etc... Just a thought. And maybe any kind of basic introductory message would be likely do do more good than "harm".


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## Bienvenidos

GavinW said:


> Fair enough!
> I'm wondering whether there might be some more "human" take on the message, though, like tailoring it to the newcomer's profile, suggesting which language forums they might benefit most from etc etc... Just a thought. And maybe any kind of basic introductory message would be likely do do more good than "harm".



I agree with ya on that one, but we also have to take into consideration how much time it would take to create a custom message for each and every new user. My theory:

Put in the user's name in : Hi ________
And if they don't speak English, the greeting message can be sent in the registrant's native language (Spanish, Farsi, Yiddish, whatever it is ). 

Personalization is key. 

 Saludos


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## Bienvenidos

GavinW said:


> Fair enough!
> I'm wondering whether there might be some more "human" take on the message, though, like tailoring it to the newcomer's profile, suggesting which language forums they might benefit most from etc etc... Just a thought. And maybe any kind of basic introductory message would be likely do do more good than "harm".



Just one quick thought:

Having an actual person send the message is better than saying

Hi and welcome............

Regards,
WordReference.com

If I, a living, breathing human, were to send the greeting message to the user, then the user would know that he/she has someone in the forums that he/she can contact if he/she needs help while learning the ropes. It's great to have a sort of contact liasion in the forum, especially when you're a newbie. 

Saludos


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## TrentinaNE

Bienvenidos said:


> I think a friendly greeting makes the user feel more at home, and welcomed, as opposed to just throwing them into the forums without giving them an explanation as to how/why they were created, and how they function.


No one is thrown into anything here.  It's basic netiquette to browse a communications site for a bit to get a feel for its protocols before posting something.  And there are stickies at the top of every forum page that instruct posters to READ THIS BEFORE POSTING. 


> I'm not sure that all registrees actually _read_ the rules before clicking "I accept".


 On the contrary, I'm quite sure most don't.  You know what, most of those folks wouldn't read the e-mail greeting either.  (Voice of experience here: I've moderated a number of yahoogroups mailing lists.  A very friendly welcome message went out signed by me "personally."  It had no effect on the clueless or the thoughtless, many of whom own computers.    )

I'd rather see a feature that requires messages from newbies to be moderated/approved before being posted until it's clear they do understand the rules.  But the forum software may not support that option, and it does require more work of the moderators (though it might cut back on other work ).

Elisabetta


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## Bienvenidos

I understand all of your points; I volunteer as the Public Relations rep for a nonprofit organization, so I'm always creating pamphlets, letters, flyers, etc. for anyone who is interested in joining our organization, so this idea was kind of second nature to me. Maybe the internet limits the ability to actually be personal when greeting people.

I don't think it would hurt, though. 
Saludos


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## fenixpollo

I like the idea of a personal greeting, if it's personal and not a form letter, but then there's the time issue. It would be interesting to see the data about how many new users there are per day.  Would you greet ever single one, knowing that almost a quarter of them will never actually post anything?  Or would you wait until that first post, and then how would you measure that, and then wouldn't the greeting lose its effect after time, et cetera?

I nominate Bien to be our official greeter. Do I hear a second?  I'm joking, Bien.


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## moodywop

Bienvenidos

I don't know you but I like you already. I wholeheartedly support your suggestion and the admirable motives behind it.

I can't for the life of me understand why it was shot down so rashly by members I respect and am friendly with (there you go - you don't really know people online). Maybe they didn't read the thread you referred to, which posed the problem of the uncertainty about certain rules even among members who have been around for over a year and post daily - like me.

I myself welcome new Italian members at IE regularly. They have all appreciated this human touch.

I haven't seen any of the objectors object to the rude "don't nag!" (sic) remarks given as a reason for deleting an attempt at "bumping" a thread. It would be enough for this touchy wop to storm off a forum in a huff An introductotory PM would often avoid these unnecessary remarks by offering a selection of the most important rules and basic netiquette.


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## panjandrum

I'll but my hand up as someone who read all the rules before I posted first - but then I read instructions for everything as a matter of course. Sad, really.

Many newcomers get a friendly welcome PM already, not as a matter of course, but simply because there is something about their forum presence and behaviour that needs a gentle corrective suggestion. It's worth pointing out that corrective comments that you see on the forum have often been preceded by direct personal PM contact.

EO newcomers are almost always welcomed on forum as well.

Finally, I like GavinW's comment:


> This in turn subliminally reinforces the idea that people here encourage foreros to take the initiative in negotiating a wider range of issues involved in virtual communications, replicating more closely, I feel, forms of communication which occur in face-to-face, or "real-life" communications. In short, it is more liable to make both/all parties more responsible for establishing a human communication which goes that little bit deeper and isn't underpinned by, and somehow ultimately reliant on, automatic modes of communication.


 
I have just registered on another forum to investigate some peculiarities of web searching.
I got several automatic replies.
I have no idea what what they said because I was in a rush at the time and all I wanted was the magic authorisation code.
My feelings towards that forum are determined by the responses of the individuals to my questions, not the welcome pack.


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## TrentinaNE

panjandrum said:


> Many newcomers get a friendly welcome PM already, not as a matter of course, but simply because there is something about their forum presence and behaviour that needs a gentle corrective suggestion. It's worth pointing out that corrective comments that you see on the forum have often been preceded by direct personal PM contact.
> 
> EO newcomers are almost always welcomed on forum as well.


I see this "welcoming" phenomenon happen organically in the IT-EN forum as well.  It makes more sense to me to have it occur naturally, because forer@s genuinely want to welcome someone who seems interested and interesting, than to set up a time-consuming procedure for welcoming every fly-by-nighter.   

Sorry if any of my earlier comments sounded "rash."  My training as an economist and my general experience of human nature make me cynical about the idea that perfect solutions exist.  The law of unforeseen consequences is one we often overlook, but it's a strong one, too.  

Elisabetta


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## fenixpollo

What about having designated greeters in each forum?  Just as there are mods in each, there could be another person (not a mod) who would be part of the "Hospitality Committee".  There could be multiple people in the larger forums (the ones with the most traffic).  Their titles could say "EO Hospitality Committee" or "Spanish-English Hospitality" (or something like that, only creative).    They could each create & personalize a short greeting PM to add the personal touch.   Whaddya think?


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## ireney

I volunteer to greet in Greek all  Greek new comers


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## Bienvenidos

Thank you all for your comments.  

I appreciate any discussion about this topic, so if you have an opinion, keep the posts coming. 

Saludos


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## geve

fenixpollo said:


> What about having designated greeters in each forum? Just as there are mods in each, there could be another person (not a mod) who would be part of the "Hospitality Committee". There could be multiple people in the larger forums (the ones with the most traffic). Their titles could say "EO Hospitality Committee" or "Spanish-English Hospitality" (or something like that, only creative).  They could each create & personalize a short greeting PM to add the personal touch. Whaddya think?


Alright, but official greeters should have the same privileges as mods: cool titles, fresh croissants delivered to their homes on sundays, social security, and of course the envied ability to unsubscribe me from threads. 

A PM sent to every newcomer would have at least one advantage: they would be informed about the PM function...
But I see a flaw in a systematic greeting procedure: there are newcomers we do not wish to stay!  

I sometimes send a PM to recent members, for instance to tell them about the edit function when they seem to struggle with it, or to inform them that a big bad mod will be after them if they don't remove the link in their signature. 

I always say "welcome" if I post a reply to a thread launched by someone who's just arrived, as do many other members as far as I can see (in the French forums). Sometimes the newcomer says "Why, thanks for the warm welcome guys, I'm so thrilled I found this place", and everyone lives happily ever after.  
I like this solution, it's less intrusive or frightening than a PM - yes, frightening: What does this guy want? I thought this was a serious language community, and they're already spamming me when I've been around only two hours? (Ok, probably not everyone would have this reaction).

(I do not really use the phrase "big bad mod". I swear!)


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## Freyja

Well, I'm new here, and in the almost 3 weeks since I joined, not one person, not even a moderator, has welcomed me (except the one person I knew before I joined, but that isn't the same... we were already friends).  I've only posted 12 times, but I have posted.  I may have posted more if I'd been welcomed... but maybe not.  I have had people reply to my posts, but no "Hi Freyja, welcome to the boards, enjoy yourself" sort of thing.

On another board I'm involved with there is an "Introduce yourself" section where newbies can say a little bit about themselves.  It's a nice way to make sure nobody gets overlooked.


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## TrentinaNE

Well, welcome, Freyja!    I see you've posted mainly in CD (Cultural Discussions) which tends to be the "wild west" of the WR forums. Not a place to make chums!    People tend to be more welcoming in the actual language forums.  

Cheers,
Elisabetta


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## ireney

a. WELCOME Freyja!! (better late than never eh?) The thing is, some of us need an "I'm new here" note to actually well, note that someone is new. Anyway, I am sorry for not greeting you.

b. I always had a personal dislike for "Introduce yourself" sections. First of all it makes it sort of "obligatory" for some people to post there even if they don't feel like it. Secondly, what you usually get is a ton of messages saying "Welcome X and I hope you like it here" with small variations. Thirdly, it makes me feel guilty if I don't actually greet every single new person on the board. Now, with a borad of this size, if even a small percentage of the new members decided to post there, I would have had to resort to copy/paste. That would be impersonal.

To me a "welcome aboard" is not necessary. I felt welcomed even without one because of the "tone" of the replies to my messages, because of the fact that many people tried to make sense out of a piece of bad English I had to interpret.
They really didn't have to. It wasn't even as if I asked for them to explain something I didn't understand because I don't understand English well enough. I stated that I was proofreading a book and that expression didn't make any sense to me. Their helping out meant a lot.

In fact, one of the reasons I like the fact that there's no welcoming board is that it shows that this site most definitely is not all that interested in who's a "newbie" and who is not (apparent also from the luck of about 1000000 different "humorous" appelations for each new 'rank' you get as your posts go up).


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## danielfranco

WELCOME, Freyja!
There's a few threads in the Cultural Forums where you can explain why you chose your avatar, or why you chose your nick... There's even one where you can post your photo, if you wish!
If you want to post there, just use your handy search bar from the toolbar on top to find them.


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## Freyja

TrentinaNE said:


> I see you've posted mainly in CD (Cultural Discussions) which tends to be the "wild west" of the WR forums. Not a place to make chums!  People tend to be more welcoming in the actual language forums.


 
LOL, I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks for the welcome y'all.  My post wasn't meant as a complaint (nobody likes a whiner), just the perspective of someone who is new.  And to add to the discussion of automated greeting messages, I wouldn't have read it if I could tell it was a form greeting.

There doesn't seem to be any shortage of members here, so whatever you're doing seems to be working, and probably doesn't need to be changed.


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## panjandrum

There are many of us who will normally welcome someone who is obviously new.
Sometimes we don't notice the post count - it's not something I always check and I mightn't realise the name was new.

Sometimes, by the time I get to see FluffyPig's first post she has already posted 27 brilliant replies elsewhere so I have no notion that she is hovering over her first post desperately seeking a welcome.  Even if I realise she's new, I assume she's already read enough welcomes so I don't bother.


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