I think PM's might be good -- from any of us, or all of us, saying HI! Who are you? I'd like to learn more about you! That kind of thing.
And/or a new thread on that, a "Welcoming New Members II", maybe. (That one has become more along the lines of "Welcoming Abuzzers to A2K...")
I think PM's might be intrusive. Some people aren't posting because they'd rather just read.
Another Welcoming thread or an Open House thread ~ I like that idea better.
Is there a way of forcing new members through an introductory thread or gateway, before they move on to the forums, you could give some pertainent info there, as well as give us time to say "hi"?
This has become an interesting conversation. Fruitful thinking. I too felt a bit like an outsider on Abuzz, but not for long. Someone said earlier that you have to be a little bit pushy to get noticed. And if I'm anything, I'm pushy (but I do try to control myself, ralllly I do.) Actually, I was welcomed very nicely onto one of Ridinghood's treads but still felt left out because of the way everyone there seemed to know each other already. But I proceeded to start a thread about abortion which led to some good contacts and started the cafe thread as a way for people to contact me because I didn't want to post my email address. It blossomed from there. Still, sometimes, I have my bouts with feeling misunderstood or left out. Usually I realize that my fears are mostly old ones.......and no one really knows about them but me. I tell myself to prove my fears before I assume they are in fact true, and it is rarely the case that I can, so then I usually I get better quickly. So eBeth and Sozobe are right, I think, we're all out here alone and it's easy sometimes to misunderstand in this medium. I always struggle to give everyone the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. I'm very glad Rae, mysteryman and chatoyant spoke up about this. It's produced a valuable discussion. Maybe we should start a thread.
Like Rae (Hi, Rae, we haven't met much...), I was just learning about the internet when I subscribed to the NYT online and eventually clicked on Abuzz. That was mid 2001.
I had used a computer since the early eighties, but it was an old one, followed by another old one, and I didn't use a computer at work, to learn about the internet from others. So I was almost a babe in the woods when I joined Abuzz, albeit an older babe.
I remember the first person to welcome me was Phoenix, I think literally right away. I remember Roger trying to help me out with some of my complicated befuddlement.
I remember lots of people who knew each other, but I guess I expected that. Everybody seemed to be from Boston. I heard things about Nutella and other references that made no sense to me, but I read a lot of threads and didn't really feel personally left out. I started to feel like an old hand within a few weeks. I think I had gone fairly early to the cooking category and had people be nice to me. I did get to feel connected, mostly to individual people, and sometimes batches of them, like on the art threads and the cooking threads and book threads.
I do now email back and forth with an increasing number of people that I met on abuzz, from diverse threads.
I still feel like an outie - occasionally - within threads or parts of threads are self referential chat, but I often enjoy them since I know the people better.
Interestingly, when I checked out Raven's Realm a few times, each time, for the few minutes I was there, I would find mostly chatty threads with people I didn't know, or know that well, or subjects that weren't my key interest. It wasn't that I didn't like the site, but it didn't engage me when I could zip back to Abuzz which I had gotten more and more involved with.
And Chatoyant, I remember you and like your new name and your avatar!
I have been loving being on Able2Know, and couldn't be more pleased. I think the level of discourse, courtesy, and friendliness in general will help to ward off some of the universal "outieness" that occurs for people.
I think the first person to welcome me here was Douglas, from Brazil, not an abuzz member. That was nice.
Smiling, New Haven. I should welcome you, since I was here slightly earlier, but you have waaaaaaaaaaay more posts than I do, so thank you, thank you!
Lots of good ideas here. I like the PM option. I got three welcome messages, the first from Phoenix within minutes after I registered. Ummm, Phoenix, do you live here or something?
Hey osso, so good to see you! You are one that I felt a sort of kinship with on Abuzz too. And if you ever want to argue .....
Yes, it's fun to PM. Maybe I'll write a poem on PMing.
Well ... isn't that nice of them ... do they bring you food too? Because, you see, if they don't, you won't have to take so many potty breaks.
Sometimes it takes a while to work out the details, chatoyant. They just didn't think of it yet.
Chatoyant:
Phoenix has an IV, so she doesn't need fluid breaks. As far as the potty business, I can't imagine what she does!
Well, I have this pipe which goes out to my garden............
Nothing smells as lovely as a rose garden.
bb
