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Discussion New Member Guide

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Crystal

Crystal

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Good shares, perfect for GW oldies. Can we have a separate welcome for new members who don't have GW history? Here's a start:

Hello and welcome to GWF, a chat forum for life, adulting, gaming and silly blather.

First off, we're open to anyone. Good to have you here, please feel free to make an account (click here to register) and start chatting in any thread that catches your interest. We have all sorts of subjects to chat about and once you get the hang of things you can make your own threads too. There's an introductions forum if you feel like saying hello and giving us something about yourself, but it's up to you. No need to put yourself on the spot if that's not your style.

Most of us are 30 and 40 somethings with good memories of chat forums from 20 years ago. Our forum was called GameWinners, it gave us a space to chat about all sorts, a place to escape normal life, and we ended up with lots of long term friendships. You don't need to know anything about that forum, you don't need to know anyone here already. Many of us don't! We just want to bring back that feeling of inclusion, laidback fun and community that was so nice about chat forums in general.

To get started, all you need to do is find a few threads that interest you and post your thoughts. The notifications will let you know when someone replies. If you enjoy the conversations, the rest will come naturally. Give it a try!

So again, welcome! Hope you find a good home with us.

Here are a few places you might want to check out as you get your feet wet:

-Introductions Forum -- Come and say hello!
-Forum News -- Anything relevant to GWF will be posted here, good for keeping tabs on changes!
-Questions & Suggestions -- Not sure how something works? Need a tip on where to post something? Ask us here, we're happy to help!
-Chit-Chat -- Casual chat forum, talk about anything!
-Help -- Most of the forum functionality is detailed here, take a look!
-Pickem -- Our own pick'em challenge! Multiple sports, regular and post-season coverage. Dive in!

That should give you a good foundation to start with! The rest of the forums are equally as engaging and entertaining and we look forward to having you here with us! Remember -- GWForums is 100% free, not even an ad in sight. We will not ask you to pay a penny to enjoy our content, though you are more than welcome to donate to our server costs if you would like to, with no obligation to do so.

Below there's a list of people happy to chat and answer questions to any newbies who want to reach out.

@Crystal -- General nerd, answers questions
@Mark -- Generally awesome
@Cole -- Make sure you like Dr. Pepper, Reese's and The Simpsons!
@Alu Capone -- May or may not have had 7,000 name changes by the time you read this
 
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Crystal

Crystal

Formerly Apollo
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How's about (and translated for our Canadians -- How's aboot) something like this for an intro:

You found us!

Welcome home, we missed you! We know, this isn't EXACTLY GW as it used to be, but it's our home, our place to kick the feet up and relax with our GW family in full understanding that we're not leaving here. GWF is here to stay and we're so glad you're here with us. Post your intro, let us welcome you home properly and then read up here! We have a lot of things to offer and we know it can be a little overwhelming at first to understand what is what, that's why we're compiling this helpful guide to show you what is where and give you a few early pointers to let you jump head-first into the nostalgia trip that is GWF!

Pull up a chair, grab a grown up sized helping of memories and a side of emotions and dig in!

Here are some of quick pointers to get your feet wet:
 
Marlfox

Marlfox

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Good shares, perfect for GW oldies. Can we have a separate welcome for new members who don't have GW history? Here's a start:

Hello and welcome to GWF, a chat forum for life, adulting, gaming and silly blather.

First off, we're open to anyone. Good to have you here, please feel free to make an account and start chatting in any thread that catches your interest. We have all sorts of subjects to chat about and once you get the hang of things you can make your own threads too. There's an introductions forum if you feel like saying hello and giving us something about yourself, but it's up to you. No need to put yourself on the spot if that's not your style.

Most of us are 30 and 40 somethings with good memories of chat forums from 20 years ago. Our forum was called GameWinners, it gave us a space to chat about all sorts, a place to escape normal life, and we ended up with lots of long term friendships. You don't need to know anything about that forum, you don't need to know anyone here already. Many of us don't! We just want to bring back that feeling of inclusion, laidback fun and community that was so nice about chat forums in general.

To get started, all you need to do is find a few threads that interest you and post your thoughts. The notifications will let you know when someone replies. If you enjoy the conversations, the rest will come naturally. Give it a try!

So again, welcome! Hope you find a good home with us. Below there's a list of people happy to chat and answer questions to any newbies who want to reach out.
 
Crystal

Crystal

Formerly Apollo
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10,298
Marlfox said:
Good shares, perfect for GW oldies. Can we have a separate welcome for new members who don't have GW history? Here's a start:

Hello and welcome to GWF, a chat forum for life, adulting, gaming and silly blather.

First off, we're open to anyone. Good to have you here, please feel free to make an account and start chatting in any thread that catches your interest. We have all sorts of subjects to chat about and once you get the hang of things you can make your own threads too. There's an introductions forum if you feel like saying hello and giving us something about yourself, but it's up to you. No need to put yourself on the spot if that's not your style.

Most of us are 30 and 40 somethings with good memories of chat forums from 20 years ago. Our forum was called GameWinners, it gave us a space to chat about all sorts, a place to escape normal life, and we ended up with lots of long term friendships. You don't need to know anything about that forum, you don't need to know anyone here already. Many of us don't! We just want to bring back that feeling of inclusion, laidback fun and community that was so nice about chat forums in general.

To get started, all you need to do is find a few threads that interest you and post your thoughts. The notifications will let you know when someone replies. If you enjoy the conversations, the rest will come naturally. Give it a try!

So again, welcome! Hope you find a good home with us. Below there's a list of people happy to chat and answer questions to any newbies who want to reach out.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think that's a good idea, absolutely. We want everyone, new and old, to feel welcome here!
 
Mark

Mark

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Marlfox said:
Good shares, perfect for GW oldies. Can we have a separate welcome for new members who don't have GW history? Here's a start:

Hello and welcome to GWF, a chat forum for life, adulting, gaming and silly blather.

First off, we're open to anyone. Good to have you here, please feel free to make an account and start chatting in any thread that catches your interest. We have all sorts of subjects to chat about and once you get the hang of things you can make your own threads too. There's an introductions forum if you feel like saying hello and giving us something about yourself, but it's up to you. No need to put yourself on the spot if that's not your style.

Most of us are 30 and 40 somethings with good memories of chat forums from 20 years ago. Our forum was called GameWinners, it gave us a space to chat about all sorts, a place to escape normal life, and we ended up with lots of long term friendships. You don't need to know anything about that forum, you don't need to know anyone here already. Many of us don't! We just want to bring back that feeling of inclusion, laidback fun and community that was so nice about chat forums in general.

To get started, all you need to do is find a few threads that interest you and post your thoughts. The notifications will let you know when someone replies. If you enjoy the conversations, the rest will come naturally. Give it a try!

So again, welcome! Hope you find a good home with us. Below there's a list of people happy to chat and answer questions to any newbies who want to reach out.
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea. Ultimately, I’d like to link to both upon registration somehow.
 
Crystal

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Mark said:
Not a bad idea. Ultimately, I’d like to link to both upon registration somehow.
Click to expand...
If only we could have an option within registration that shows they're a GW Elder so it auto-applies the Elder badge and then we could auto-PM on registration. Elders get the guide for them, newcomers get the guide for new people.
 
Mark

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Crystal said:
If only we could have an option within registration that shows they're a GW Elder so it auto-applies the Elder badge and then we could auto-PM on registration. Elders get the guide for them, newcomers get the guide for new people.
Click to expand...

That would be ideal… but there’s really no way for us to verify the elders without them either registering under their old name and making their presence known OR a very rigged permissions system. We *could* rig the permissions system to do something similar, for example, if the user’s name is “bob” they’d get dropped into the Elder group automatically, which we *might* be able to rig the conversation system to auto-PM or at least generate a template to manually send.
 
Crystal

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Mark said:
That would be ideal… but there’s really no way for us to verify the elders without them either registering under their old name and making their presence known OR a very rigged permissions system. We *could* rig the permissions system to do something similar, for example, if the user’s name is “bob” they’d get dropped into the Elder group automatically, which we *might* be able to rig the conversation system to auto-PM or at least generate a template to manually send.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's possible, but then we have no guarantee they'll register using their most known GW name or even a brand new one. I certainly don't ever plan on registering Apollo, for instance ;)
 
Mark

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Crystal said:
Yeah, that's possible, but then we have no guarantee they'll register using their most known GW name or even a brand new one. I certainly don't ever plan on registering Apollo, for instance ;)
Click to expand...

Exactly… there’s just too many variables for us to attempt it any other way. I’d love to automate it, but… as it stands now, we’re caught up, so we only need to add them as they register. The hardest part was going through and adding 100+ members initially after creating the group.
 
Crystal

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Hmm. That's good, or we post them both in the Announcements forum and send an auto PM welcoming them to GWF, if you're new take a peek at this one, if you're an old GW member re-joining the family, look at this one?
 
Mark

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Crystal said:
Hmm. That's good, or we post them both in the Announcements forum and send an auto PM welcoming them to GWF, if you're new take a peek at this one, if you're an old GW member re-joining the family, look at this one?
Click to expand...

I think this would be the more appropriate forum for that, it would either be an unnecessary sticky thread or end up buried in announcements.
 
Mark

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Crystal said:
Alright, I've added a fair few links to the first post, we can build around that :)
Click to expand...

Looks good. The only thing I could think to change would maybe be directly linking to the staff page or breaking down which mods to reach out to for which forums specifically… or how to identify them… or what the colors mean. I dunno, something like that to offer a bit more of an explanation to someone who’d have zero clue who any of us are.
 
Marlfox

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In the forum menu on top left, could put a new members link or two there? First thing new people will try when signing up.
_20230818_195925.JPG
Under What's new maybe? Could have "New member info" that takes you to a page where you can pick returning GW vet or new member. Could put a poll there or vote thing so mods get notified when someone has participated, which would be easier for assigning that GW Elder badge.
 
Mark

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Marlfox said:
In the forum menu on top left, could put a new members link or two there? First thing new people will try when signing up.
View attachment 2267
Under What's new maybe? Could have "New member info" that takes you to a page where you can pick returning GW vet or new member. Could put a poll there or vote thing so mods get notified when someone has participated, which would be easier for assigning that GW Elder badge.
Click to expand...

My only issue with this is that I don’t think people really utilize that menu until after they’re already using the forums and acclimated to the layout of them… it’s kinda like the in-forum search features and stuff down those lines. As far as utilizing a poll for elder promotions, that would just over-complicate the same idea of a check-in thread… which we can keep better tabs on than seeing who the newest vote came from on a poll.
 
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