Having an "In-crowd"

A way I've implemented at our work forums is 'introduce the newbie'. It's taken off quite well. I assigned a mod that 'doesn't meet a stranger' personality and she introduces herself and learns a little about them. Then introduces them. With some we have paired them off with our more seasoned members that maybe had the same refer or with the same interest. Kinda bring them up to date on some of the history of the forums. Common questions and where to find things. Something in common. After all some newbies don't know what the post button is.

 

My newbies won't touch the "Go Advanced" button because they "aren't advanced." True, actually. (I've changed that title to "More Edit Options.")

 

Another thing that you can do is publicly agree with the new kid or if it's not really a an argument, reply mostly to their posts positively

 

I eventually had to drive out part of my own forum royalty. It was a painful decision, but my only regret now is not doing it earlier.

Some people just want to be in control. Those are not people you want on your forum.

 

I've actually been the victim of this type of "OG treatment." It is more like a "gangsta" thing than most will admit. Basically the people that I came up against felt that I was walking on their "turf." Because I was responding to questions with my opinions they felt slighted because they were the ones that would usually respond to the questions and give advice.

I think the best thing is for mods/admins to step in and remind the "old school gangstas" that new members can have just as much to contribute and without new members the community would more than likely fade away. New members need to be supported so they feel that their contributions are valuable. If they feel supported they will continue to post. If not, they will search out another means for discussion.

 

That's an excellent bit of advice there!

 

How did you make that change? Through code or is there a hack for that?

Thanks!
RR

 

I believe you'd change the phrase "Go Advanced".

I think it's a great idea to change that one, tho.

 

Right... I just don't know where. I believe it is in the Phrase Manager part of vB, but I just didn't want to touch it until I confirmed. :o

Thanks!
RR

 

In your Phrase Manager, Search In Phrases -> search phrases and titles for "Go Advanced"

Edit the one that only says "Go Advanced", copy the default phrase, and then edit to whatever you'd like it to say.

I just did mine last night.

If you need screen shots, I can do that.

 

Awesome. I got it. Thanks!!!

 

Yep ... Phrase Manager search and replacement.

You can easily undo changes to phrases in Phrase Manager. vB did well - most things you can change through the Admin CP can be reverted back to the original, easily. A good thing.

This button appears only with that box, so changing the phrase on that button won't show up elsewhere as something that doesn't make sense. Or not that I've discovered, anyway.

 

the in-crowd of another forum have reached new lows, constantly pestering the mods to make their exclusive general chat thread for their clique a sticky....pointless.

 

'In Crowds' annoy me too. There's certainly one of these crowds at a forum I stopped posting on about a week ago (sadly which I was unwillingly a part of!) lol.

At my community, as it is still quite average in size, we're all quite close knit! I think its the best approach - if a moderator picks favourites, they shouldn't moderate IMO