How can we make DaniWeb more welcoming to newbies? - Page 2

@ mike_2000_17

I'd quit before you have time to fire me. That is, if you could afford me in the first place.

Who will want to hired you in the first place if you can't take criticizes? If you can't ask that question then you know what's my answer.

BTW, if you took more than 1 minute to write your posts, you might manage to put one coherent sentence together. And not ruin a perfectly nice thread in which people are discussing various ideas (whether you like them or not, or whether Dani is gonna use them or not). Learn to communicate your point of view clearly, coherently, and without pissing over everybody else.

it's actually 10 minutes but my internet when off and plus my firefox crash on the site. I had to copy my sentence textpad before firefox crashes.

I mean Firefox being crashing like this for a month and all you are complaining. I have a right to complain because I'm still new to the forum but for you, you are a Moderate? Right? you have years of experiences why don't you do something about it.

[deceptikon]

I'm all for calling it like you see it, LastMitch, so I'll ask: are you drunk? Where did all of that vitriol come from?

Anyway, now that you've insulted a valued member, a moderator, an administrator, and Dani herself, hopefully that vented the hate and we can return to a civil discussion. If not, well, the rules are very clear. ;) You may consider that your first and only warning, and as a sign of good will I won't edit or delete any of your posts in this thread thusfar.

@deceptikon

are you drunk? Where did all of that vitriol come from?

1) This is the reason why people come and go! Over the years, it was bad but it gotten better that's why I sign up to become a member. I have doubts now

You are a developer at Daniweb, have you fixed Firefox? So I was to tell someone to go to DaniWeb to find answers and tell them that don't use Firefox because it will crash. Do you think people actually will go to DaniWeb.

Anyway, now that you've insulted a valued member, a moderator, an administrator, and Dani herself, hopefully that vented the hate and we can return to a civil discussion. If not, well, the rules are very clear. ;) You may consider that your first and only warning, and as a sign of good will I won't edit or delete any of your posts in this thread.

Is that a threat? I do live in the city and my coworkers and friends who are not members dont' like people intimidating me especially when I spend most of my time figure and learning scripts at work and at home learning something from other DaniWeb member.

@deceptikon

If I feel you telll other Daniweb to ignore my thread not helping just the heck of it to get back at me because you have the power to do that. Then this is awful.

[deceptikon]

This is the reason why people come and go! Over the years, it was bad but it gotten better that's why I sign up to become a member. I have doubts now

Could you specify what "this" refers to? I still have no clue what your beef is.

You are a developer at Daniweb, have you fixed Firefox?

Dani was working on that particular issue, you'll have to ask her what the status is.

Is that a threat?

Yes. Yes, it is. Our rules clearly state what's expected of you as concerns behavior. I couldn't care less who you are or what you do outside of Daniweb, here you follow the rules or suffer the consequences. Nobody is exempt.

@deceptikon

Could you specify what "this" refers to? I still have no clue what your beef is.

Have you actually read threads over the years not in Community Center

Insults, more insults, not helping, arguing, threads left unsolve because people insult a script.

My beef is that everytime I search for something all I read is arguing, Insults, more insults, not helping, arguing, threads left unsolve because people insult a script.

Unless you can delete all of those threads... maybe things will be much different?

Yes. Yes, it is. Our rules clearly state what's expected of you as concerns behavior. I couldn't care less who you are or what you do outside of Daniweb, here you follow the rules or suffer the consequences. Nobody is exempt.

Then why you called me:

are you drunk? Where did all of that vitriol come from?

Don't that rule apply to you too?

Did I call you a name? No, then I think I need an apologizes from you.

[deceptikon]

That was a serious question given that it came from left field and struck me as the ravings of a belligerent drunk, but I apologize if you were offended.

Since we're asking for apologies in name calling I'd ask you to apologize to Vernon for calling him an idiot, but I'll be satisfied if you create a new thread with your specific grievances so that this thread is no longer derailed.

Of course, you're still welcome to offer constructive suggestions as requested by Dani in the first post.

[VernonDozier]

Deceptikon and mike_2000_17 already noted the ridiculous vitriol. I'll just point out that if you are going to call people idiots and get offended at their posts you might want to actually take the time to read them.

Your post...

I found it an offensive that you think the presumably vast of majority of IT professional are in the 20’s? I’m in my 30’s

Mine...

Presumably the vast majority of IT professionals are at least in their 20's

There's that pesky phrase "at least". I believe that if you are in your 30's, that would qualify as "at least in your 20's". It would also include people in their 40's 50's, 60's, 70's, etc. If you're in your 30's, start acting like it.

Why do I have the feeling that no one has placed you in a position where you have the ability to fire people?

@deceptikon

This what he said:

The questioner askers on Daniweb, as a whole, are not IT professionals. You quite simply will not last as an IT professional or programmer if you're overly sensitive about someone chiding you over a transgression.

I'm an adult, I am working as a IT professional. I find it very offense especially someone make a statement like that.

Calling a name is one thing, making a statement is whole different ball game.

That is very discriminating and a bold statement.

If someone put that on Twitter that will be a nightmare for Daniweb. Everyone who sign up as a member and who post one or two will get upset and If I'm upset right now imagine what other member like me or other non-member come and read something like this?

[deceptikon]

I think you're being overly sensitive here. I want to believe that it's an honest misunderstanding and not just an excuse to stir up trouble, so please take it up with him privately rather than derailing the topic of this thread.

Thank you.

[chrishea]

Dani,
I think that it seems repetitive because the major category has an amalgamation of topics from the subcategories (e.g. Community Center conatins items from Geeks Lounge and Community Feedback). I'll get over it. Only a minor thing.

@ deceptikon

I think you're being overly sensitive here. too

I'll keep doing what I'm doing learning at Daniweb. Post a thread a learn something from some other Daniweb member. I won't be posting anymore at Community Center. It's useless now. I'll be doing what other members do come and go. Leave me alone, that's all I want. I'm not starting trouble but now leave me alone!

[TrustyTony]

I am very happy about comments made by mod/admins and Dani on this thread. LastMitch is expreciencing quite strongly about response to his threads. I do not know if he can be counted as newbie as he likes to be called IT profesional. That he shows of course by the standard of his postings by which everybody can form an opinion on him, like for everybody of us. I agree that these last posts did not give me any new ideas of how to be more welcoming to newbies and help their growth to contributors and sharers of information and experiences.

OK, now the childish ramblings seem to have stopped and people have stopped rising to the bait. how about getting back to the issue?

Two ends, as mentioned previously: welcome new members (not necessarily noobs) and retain current members.

Welcoming new members - big splashy email. How about a return to badges and promo stuff for new members to place on their own sites? The first 'rank' for a new member is what? 'newbie poster' or something? Some may feel that that's a little condescending. OK, it's directed at no. of posts, but not many people like to be called a noob/newbie.

I like the idea of upvoting questions - something I should do more of myself. What if a good question gets a 'star' of something extra which means a 'mod/admin liked this question'. Unfortunately these types of questions are few and far between on the php forum - they tend to be rehashes of previously asked questions.

If we take the php forum as an example, there are about 3 or 4 what I would call 'experts' regularly contributing (I do not consider myself as an expert), so high level threads are a bit difficult to support. And, as reported previously, most sought-after solutions usually already exist in other php-dedicated forums (SO, being particulary useful), blogs and sites.

So how to engage and entice higher-skilled programmers? What about a return to code snippets - create the best login snippet etc. Post your code and let the community rip you to shreds - as poor old sknake found a few years ago! However, timely requests on a topic (snippet contest on a very small scale) may engage the intrepid. Snippets could be posted and then honed and 'perfected' to build a generic (or specific) solution. WHo knows, I'm just typing out loud here.

Do inactive members receive "you've been inactive for ... weeks" mails. I'm sure they do...

How about merchandise? THis has been mooted a few times over the last few years, but I've yet to see a merchandise link so I can get my DaniWeb mug. The donation button needs to come back. You buy into something, you'll be more prepared to contribute.

I particularly like Davey's articles. Long may they continue. I like articles with opinion, not just wishy-washy reviews that score everything 3 out of 5. :)

The activity page is invisible. Unless you click one of the understated links in the profile page. Why would somebody ranked 944,749th bother with these? Can they be made more relevant to the new members? Posts/week? View 944,741 - 944,760 so user casn see their progress over time? Again typing out loud

[Dani]

Welcoming new members - big splashy email.

We already send out "We Miss You" emails to members who haven't visited us in awhile.

How about a return to badges and promo stuff for new members to place on their own sites?

There's a link to the Member Badges in the footer ... they're the same as always.

What if a good question gets a 'star' of something extra which means a 'mod/admin liked this question'.

That's synonymous, IMO, with a moderator giving reputation and having it weigh a hugely decent amount, as compared to the reputation power of an ordinary member.

So how to engage and entice higher-skilled programmers? What about a return to code snippets - create the best login snippet etc.

We're currently running a code snippet contest across the months of June and July. See Davey's thread in the Geeks' Lounge about it :) $500 in prizes. It's also currently being announced during this month's community newsletter (going out this week). We'll be doing a press release about it next week.

Do inactive members receive "you've been inactive for ... weeks" mails. I'm sure they do...

Yes

How about merchandise? THis has been mooted a few times over the last few years, but I've yet to see a merchandise link so I can get my DaniWeb mug.

We have a lot of the merchandise stacked up in the office in boxes, and we're currently paying Shopify for our storefront, but we never finished customizing it or getting it live! The new site relaunch kinda took over and it got backburnered for a few months.

I particularly like Davey's articles. Long may they continue. I like articles with opinion, not just wishy-washy reviews that score everything 3 out of 5. :)

We're working on bringing more editors into the fold. We have a couple of reviews out now, actually. It's just really hard to find good reviewers who are closeby and available, since all of the products get shipped to the office.

The activity page is invisible.

Noted.

Posts/week? View 944,741 - 944,760 so user casn see their progress over time? Again typing out loud

I'd love to do some graphs with this, but I've yet to figure out an algorithm to be able to track historical progress of each member without a lot of storage overhead.

There's a link to the Member Badges in the footer

<sarcy>Oh - that link was so hard to miss! I feel like a fool now.</sarcky>

That's synonymous, IMO, with a moderator giving reputation and having it weigh a hugely decent amount, as compared to the reputation power of an ordinary member.

I agree, but it's not visible or ego-boosting enough if the rest of the community can't see it (unless they go snooping into the user's profile page). Again, just typing out loud.

I'd also ask the question, apart from posting questions / answering questions, 'is there enough to do?' To the initiated, the answer would probably be probably. To a new user? Who knows. I can hear the immortal lines from the Life of Brian sketch, 'What have the Romans ever done for us...' :)

I think you're a victim of your own success to an extent as this site strives to be all things to all (level of) user(s). I think it will attract fly-byers and beginners in the main due to its catholic (small 'c'!) nature. Does the sister site concentrate on the advanced stuff?

[webecedarian]

I'm not a regular, so my input won't be as pointed or valuable, but you might want to rethink part of the design. For starters, why do you call them "articles"? They're not articles - they're "posts" or "thread." You might want to think about whether the forums are too splintered - or, in the case of the Community section, not splintered enough.

I'm not a regular, so my input won't be as pointed or valuable,

I think you're exactly the sort of person that we should be listening to. What do we need to do to make you a 'regular'?

[webecedarian]

Well, thank you, Diafol. I think I'm an unusual case. I found my way here when I had a specific question, and perhaps a couple more questions since then - but this site strikes me as being for people far more techie than I am. Your nice answer made me take another look, though, and it now does seem to me that tech forums are too splintered and the Community/Geek one not splintered enough. A sign of too much splinter is when there are no new posts for a long time.

Speaking as someone who has registered at quite a few forums, I can say that:
1.Something is very screwy with this posting mechanism. Why does it keep erasing what I'm writing? Why is there a window underneath with the same text? Why when I click to reply on the last page does it give me a different form? It must it very frustrating to try to post. And, by the way, why don't you have a "quote" mechanism, in case there's a reference to something specific in a long thread?
2.Instead of one Geek forum (maybe not the best name), what if you had one forum for sheer off-topic sociability, but another one for issues related to tech/internet? For instance, a forum where people could discuss the politics of internet regulation or the ethics of Wikileaks? I rarely come for real tech-talk, but that might make me stop by more often.
3.For small tweaks, I'd stop calling posts "articles," I'd stop labeling posts "new" (what does that mean, anyway?), I'd stop what ever it is that makes every black out if the cursor runs over an ad, I'd stop saying "Reply to this article" at the bottom, when what I think it means is "Post this reply."

But that's just me. As I said, I think the others here are a lot more tech-savvy than I am.

But that's just me.

Yes, but we need to know. I hope more ''just me's" contribute to this thread - sorry, article!.

Your first and third points have been debated vigorously. IMO, DW must face reality if more contributors like yourself are getting mad/confused with the editor or peeved at the use of the word 'article'. I won't weigh in with my own opinions here :)

[deceptikon]

Why does it keep erasing what I'm writing?

That certainly shouldn't be happening. Can you provide reproduction steps as well as your browser and operating system (including full version numbers)?

Why is there a window underneath with the same text?

That's the live preview, it shows what your post will look like after you submit it.

Why when I click to reply on the last page does it give me a different form?

Could you post up some screenshots?

And, by the way, why don't you have a "quote" mechanism, in case there's a reference to something specific in a long thread?

Our quoting mechanism is totally unintuitive if you're used to other forum, but it's otherwise very natural. Simply select what you want to quote from the original post, then click into the reply editor and the selected text will be pasted in with Markdown quote tags.

2.Instead of one Geek forum (maybe not the best name), what if you had one forum for sheer off-topic sociability, but another one for issues related to tech/internet? For instance, a forum where people could discuss the politics of internet regulation or the ethics of Wikileaks? I rarely come for real tech-talk, but that might make me stop by more often.

The Geeks' Lounge is our Misc forum. Perhaps it's not the best name, but that's what we've used for the last ten years. ;)

3.For small tweaks, I'd stop calling posts "articles," I'd stop labeling posts "new" (what does that mean, anyway?), I'd stop what ever it is that makes every black out if the cursor runs over an ad, I'd stop saying "Reply to this article" at the bottom, when what I think it means is "Post this reply."

Yikes, tons of stuff there. Anyway:

1. Posts are posts (or replies), threads are articles. This isn't new nomenclature, but the recent switch from threads to articles has caused a few raised eyebrows. I'm amenable to changing the display names as appropriate for discussion threads, but Dani makes the final call on all things UI.

2. I'm assuming that you're talking about the purple NEW icon next to articles with new posts. And that's really all it is: a way to differentiate between articles with posts you haven't read, and those that have no new activity.

3. The black out effect isn't anything we're doing, that's probably an effect of your browser. Do you use Opera?

4. Now we're splitting hairs. I'd go with "Submit this reply", but once again, I don't make the calls on UI design. ;)

[VernonDozier]

The black out effect isn't anything we're doing, that's probably an effect of your browser. Do you use Opera?

Deceptikon, I think webecedarian is referring to this. Dani said she added this effect.

http://www.daniweb.com/community-center/daniweb-community-feedback/threads/423090/fade-effect-when-hovering-over-ads

[deceptikon]

Deceptikon, I think webecedarian is referring to this. Dani said she added this effect.

Ah, I see. My bad.

[pritaeas]

I'm assuming that you're talking about the purple NEW icon next to articles with new posts. And that's really all it is: a way to differentiate between articles with posts you haven't read, and those that have no new activity.

Would be nice if the "mark as read" actuallly works (yes, am aware that this and the related bugs are on the list ;). But it may avoid confusion.

[Stuugie]

I'm a newbie and I feel welcome! I know I don't have much to offer (yet) but I will once I feel more comfortable with my .NET coding practices. For forums like this to be successful, the gurus and long term members (whatever they may be) need to be actively helping noobs out (which I'm hoping you all do). The other forums I frequent have seen success because people like helping people. This site seems (at first glance) to be of the same type of site! I am hopeful.

I'm curious, will I always have to type in an answer to a questions just to post or is this a noob action that I must do until I hit a certain number of posts?

[deceptikon]

I'm curious, will I always have to type in an answer to a questions just to post or is this a noob action that I must do until I hit a certain number of posts?

It's an anti-spam measure. It'll go away quickly as the requirements are very lax: 15+ reputation points or 5 posts + 5 days since joining.

[Stuugie]

Thanks for that decptikon. Everytime I have had to deal with these types of anti-spam measures, I feel inclined to answer but answer wrong. For instance, right now I see the question "Are you human" and I wonder what will happen if I say no? Hmm. LoL, apparently I cannot post if I am not human. Now I have to figure out the device on the computer named after a rodent! That's a tough one! ;)

[Stuugie]

After using this site for a day now I have to say that I like its funcionality. However, I don't much care for how my screen blacks out when I hover over an advert. While I know that adverts are important and generate $$, I find this kind of advertising somewhat annoying. Other than that, you have an excellent site cscgal.

[poojavb]

Could you please tell how the reputation points increases???

Even after posting threads to help our daniweb friends or when others mark the thread as solved or even vote us up I dont find my reputation point increasing....

There is a joy within us when we see that the thread is marked as solved and the reputation points also increase, if we have helped someone....

But if it does not happen that interest could be lost....

This is not only for newbies but also the existing members....

this is according to my experience....I just feel the joy and the enthusiasm to post threads to help others....

The site is excellent for me to surf and find everything handy....

[TrustyTony]

Somebody must hover over arrow and type comment to the text box. They influence by their reputation power, so some newbies do not give you point as they have not yet power to influence other's reputation. Old timers have around 12-17 points positive power, and some 3 points negative power