We have just had in influx of new “regulars” lately, and it just got me to thinking. It was like two years ago now, but it took like months before it felt like i was excepted in the community as a regular contributor. What do you think the average time frame is for some one to be an excepted regular?
hard to say really, I think it can depend on the size of the community, if you have smaller community its probably a bit easier, with larger communities its much more difficult.
lol ? i’m talking about HWF specifically. For me, i think it really just depends on the person. Obviously a more easy going person will be accepted sooner than some on who constantly contradicts everything.
I can only speak for myself, but agreeing or disagreeing with the masses doesn’t factor much for me in terms of people “belonging”. Really, it’s more about being reasonable, rational, and at least somewhat amiable.
thats pretty much what i was trying to get at.
It varies from forum to forum.
Some are more wild, like [H]ard|OCP (although it’s not as crazy as it used to be), but some are better controlled, like PC Perspective (formerly AMDMB.com). A lot of it comes down to the management, IMO. There will be troublemakers anywhere, but mostly, it’s how you handle it. I’m doing some management training at work, and how you communicate and word a response is very critical in terms of respect. “GTFO of the forum!” responses and the like don’t go very far (sometimes the sentiment may be necessary with certain people to get your point across) so, while there is the authority to clobber someone, wielding that power ‘because you can’ isn’t the best modus operandi.
Partially, it helps to remember that we were all n00bs at one point and that mistakes happen. Basically, cutting people slack goes a long way. A “Hey, if you’d fix this problem, that’d be gre-attt.” is better than “A numb nuts, you fscked up rule X!”
That sets the stage for the user base and tone of said forum. The people there get a sense of how things are supposed to be. I hear people complain about the admins and mods in certain forums being jerks, and these people aren’t troublemakers. That’s a bad sign, and if you understand business, it’s bad customer relations in a sense. Nobody wants to go to a forum with a crummy set of mods. While we appreciate mods that are knowledgable, a cool head and mature attitude is a major plus.
Right-o. I’ve been very impressed by how maturely some people here have handled negative criticism. Now they’re actually regulars, and model HWF members. So, like B said, it’s all about balance and maturity.
Yes, i’ll agree, to me though, HWF is a special case, for as small of a community that it is, its still pretty diverse and we all know each other fairly well. For me, it felt like it took a couple months before my opinions held any merit. I guess thats what i’m getting at.