Serious handicap for newbies, please vote for them and ask to fill in profile!!

Question

I am opening a separate thread for this issue .

I have been observing that since one cannot see the amount of reputation points the member has, they get less voted or welcomed to the forum, as it is not directly visible if they are newbies.

Having the reputation points visible, together with the status of the member, like moderator, member etc, was not only helpful but it seems it was ESSENTIAL to be directly aware if the member needs a vote.

Please also welcome newbies to the site, that is what distinguishes this site, we are striving to be friendly and welcoming

And last but not least...while we are getting the language proficiency back, hopefully, please ask the member to fill in their profile info!!

Please fill in your profile information, thanks and welcome to the forum

• Nice.Thank you - 00fb46c8 Feb 9, 2012

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Answer 1

Heidi said:

Please also welcome newbies to the site, that is what distinguishes this site, we are striving to be friendly and welcoming

I agree 100% that this needs to be fixed. I can't tell you how many people were greeted instantly on the old site because a newbie really stood out. They were greeted and given a vote or two to encourage them to stick around. I would be curious to know how many of our current regulars are here today because of the three seconds it took for them to be greeted in this way.

I have posted questions on numerous other forums for music, Spanish and several other things. I have never, ever been greeted. I felt like a question rather than a person.

In this forum, we respond to the person first and the question second! I hope we will be given the tools to continue in this way.

• graicas amiga, your help is always appreciated:) - Heidita Feb 9, 2012
• Now don't start getting all 'American' on me Nicole lol. Personally, I am a regular here because of what I am learning, not because somebody said "welcome" and gave me a vote. That's why I say that I support this change, but it is only "desirable/nice - billygoat Feb 9, 2012
• to have" What is essential is that all the learning material is error free, people's questions are treated with respect and answered accordingly. A "welcome" is only good if it is genuinely meant. If you have to start telling people to say welcome.... - billygoat Feb 9, 2012
• well, thats another thing lol. - billygoat Feb 9, 2012
• I know your thoughts are meant by the way - that's why you are such a tremendous asset to our forum :) - billygoat Feb 9, 2012
View 3 more commments >>

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Answer 2

Now that lovely has pasted both profiles, one can see the difference clearly, the lack of information will be a serious draw back from the old site.

Please post your opinions on this thread, I will send the link to the webowners.

Impossible? Well, let's try

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Answer 3

I have been observing that since one cannot see the amount of reputation points the member has, they get less voted or welcomed to the forum, as it is not directly visible if they are newbies.

True!!

l mean look at that, this is a pic of the ''answers'' page yesterday!

• The members with the red line are actually NEWBIES who do NOT have any reps, nothing, and their questions weren't voted up either.

• The members with the green line are NEWBIES too, but they only have 10 reps, and their posts ... well no votes and no welcome!

It's not about the points, but voting a newbie is just enough to welcome him, we normally vote newbies and write them a little welcome line to make them feel comfortable with the forum, and not because we are impressed with the questions.

• thanks for yet another screen shot, great - Heidita Feb 9, 2012
• I've noticed the same thing and am in wholehearted agreement here!! - territurtle Feb 9, 2012
• Yeah it never used to be like that :( - rabbitwho Feb 9, 2012

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Answer 4

Well, I would like to help chip in yet not go on a long rant. I completely stand behind you on this one Heidita. This update disables our ability to help accommodate and welcome the new guys/ gals. I truly believe, mostly from reading the newbie feedback, it helps encourage people and keep them around when they join here with suspicions and see that everyone is usually so friendly. Also, the newbies won't know to scroll over our names to see experience (and possible knowledge) and even if they are one of the few that reads the rules, they will probably not remember. Anyways, that's all I'm going to say about this issue but we definently need the member stats back whether in a new look (that is immediately available) or somehow the old one integrated.

Saludos,

DJ ((( d(-_-)b )))

• very nice , thanks a lot dj:) - Heidita Feb 9, 2012
• Yes, we do need to get back the visible reputation / badges / learning points back next to their avatar or nearby. - xocoyote Feb 9, 2012
• I agree - ian-hill Feb 9, 2012

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Answer 5

Although this is a good suggestion and I do support it, I think we need to be clear about our priorities for changes to the site. Yes, this change is desirable/nice to have, but I am not sure it is a 'serious' handicap to peoples actual learning experience. What would be a serious handicap is if nobody answered their questions because they were newbies!

The new release has now been revised to the point where it is almost as good as the previous version. Yes, the 'look and feel' and general user experience still isn't quite right, but at least the owners have made many improvements on the beta version.

What I still see as the major priority for improvement is to ensure that all learning material (eg quizzes, word of the day etc) are completely 100% unambiguous and error free. This to me a major barrier to effective learning - not whether somebody has been voted for!

Ok, now this brings me onto the whole thing about voting. It is not just complete newbies who don't receive votes. I have seen many examples were people have posted questions and received very few (if any) votes. Personally, this is not a problem to me because I am here to learn and not to collect votes - although, of course, it is nice to feel that you are appreciated. However, I think voting in general is a problem. Very often I will vote for people (whether I agree with them or not) because I see that they posted a question or answer perhaps a few hours earlier and nobody could be bothered to even acknowledge them with a vote.

Ok, thats me done........................now please vote for me (erm not just yet though cos I've maxed out on my 200 - just wait a few hours) thanks

ps - I've not mentioned about the profile information being filled in because, apparently, this has now been included. For the record, I do think that information is essential so that answers can be correctly targeted to the individuals perceived competence levels.

• I agree in part Annie, but I do think that not being able to see what someone's first language is is a huge barrier to answering their question and helping them learn. - rabbitwho Feb 9, 2012
• I think we need to be clear about our priorities for changes to the site ??? It is abviously N O T what we users think is imporrtant billy. - ian-hill Feb 9, 2012

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Answer 6

this change is desirable/nice to have, but I am not sure it is a 'serious' handicap to peoples actual learning experience. !

The reputation points were Christopher's idea, I guess he wants the system to work for everybody. I personally think rep points are not important at all, but this is not my opinion here, but what is good for the site

Ok, now this brings me onto the whole thing about voting. It is not just complete newbies who don't receive votes. I have seen many examples were people have posted questions and received very few (if any) votes. Personally, this is not a problem to me because I am here to learn and not to collect votes - although, of course, it is nice to feel that you are appreciated. However, I think voting in general is a problem. Very often I will vote for people (whether I agree with them or not) because I see that they posted a question or answer perhaps a few hours earlier and nobody could be bothered to even acknowledge them.

This is my point, even though some people do not mind about points, it is important to be appreciated, and one of the ways to show appreciation is to vote.

I've not mentioned about the profile information being filled in because, apparently, this has now been included. For the record, I do think that information is essential so that answers can be correctly targeted to the individuals perceived competence levels.

No, this has not been included on the register-form . By default now the languages Spanish and English appear, with a number or 0, but the member has to go and fill in the information , so this is a serious problem , as most of the members do not do that, as was proven before.

• oh right! I thought they had included profile information now. oh well, here you go, have a vote (and a kiss from England) ;-) x - billygoat Feb 9, 2012

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Answer 7

I would like some of the profile information to be visible on the post, like the old site.

Ideally, I would want to see ALL the information, except maybe the "about" paragraph text, because we have so many members, and I don't know them well enough to help properly. It is painful but necessary to click to each user's profile before answering a question.

Instead of discussing if profile information should be "visible" or just "pop up" with mouse hover, why can't we have both? We should have the most essential information clearly visible on the page (it's really not that much space needed), and most of the rest of the information should occur on a popup with mouse hover.

Anyone who doesn't understand the need for this information has not contributed much to the Q&A forum.

• thanks pestta, great post - Heidita Feb 9, 2012
• I agree - ian-hill Feb 9, 2012

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Answer 8

It's also important to vote for a newbie so they can send and receive PM's. Very often, I used to see a new person with many answers and no votes who had zero reputation. They need some or at least one vote to get the PM privilege. This is a good idea, Heidi. Thanks.

• i'm not voting for you amiga - you have too many already :) - ian-hill Feb 9, 2012

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Answer 9

It appears to me that some members want to have the points (reputation / badges / learning points) visible once again next to the icon, while others do not.

Why cannot there be a check box or option in their profile to signal to the system how that particular member wants their screen to show these points or not to show them? This is a way of customizing the look-and-feel of the site for each member.

I suppose this use of having options in the profile to check or not to check, could be extended to other options as well (screen color, font size, placement of icons, etc.) but I think that may get into a "MySpace scenario" where there will be a total "free-for-all" and lack of consistency, viz: It seems to me that the new look-and-feel of SD is sort of like that of the old Facebook or Google+ social networks, clean, with ample white space and consistency across the board.

====== My attempt at the Spanish version:

Me parece que otra vez algunos miembros de este sitio piden los puntos (la reputación / la insignias / puntos de aprendizaje) visible al lado del icono, mientras que otros miembros no lo hacen.

¿Por qué no pueda existir una "casilla de verificación" u una opción en su perfil para indicar o señal al sistema cómo ese miembro en particular desea su pantalla para mostrar estos puntos o no para los mostrar? Esto es un modo de personalizar el "look-and-feel" del sitio para cada miembro.

Supongo que este uso de tener opciones en el perfil para comprobar o no comprobar, podría ser extendado (ampliado) a las otras opciones así (color de la pantalla, el tamaño de fuente, colocación de iconos, etc.), pero creo que puede hacer en un "escenario de MySpace" donde haber una "free for all" completamente y falta consistencia, viz: Me parece que el nuevo "look-and-feel" de SD es un semejante / parecido a que esto de las antiguas redes sociales Facebook o Google+: muy limpia, con amplios espacios en blanco y la consistencia casi totalmente a través del foro (o la tabla).

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