Making it Better: The future of WP

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^Though interesting, the thread HAS gone a bit off topic and a general discussion about bullying. Many of us faced that, so did I but we need to focus on how we can make WP a better experience for our loyal older as well as newer users. Speaking of which, thank you to those who take the time to welcome new members and maybe get to know them better.

Back to the topic of how to make WP a better place - I agree with environ that we also need to make an effort to welcome new people into the forums.

There is a consistent and ever changing members who do welcome new people when they identify as such. That is a very positive thing that WP is doing.

But after that, the person is left on his/her/their own to figure things out. Amity has written a good introduction as to how WP works and if we could figure out a way to get that a bit more official. Can it be made a sticky? And perhaps in the welcoming thread, newcomers could be directed to that sticky.

Following the introduction and welcome, I think new members are left to sink or swim. Getting from newcomer to integrated member is an unclear process.

Perhaps I just need to pay more attention to the "levels" displayed above the avatar and from their pay more attention to the newer folks.

All the new users really need to do is comment in threads and we'll get to know them better.

^ perhaps that should be mentioned then in the welcome threads? I think some new people might be shy, awkward or in crisis. They might need some encouragement to post.

I wasn’t really popular when I had only 50 posts. I would comment on something ....and the thread would die.

There is the tendency—like anywhere else—for newcomers to not be trusted. I had to “earn” the trust of members, so to speak.

Though I do find this occurs less often on WP than in most places.

I believe a lot of this is tied to how we're generally poor at integrating ourselves and others socially. How often do cats form herds?

Unfortunately this means even if we're in circumstances that might enable social behaviour we still struggle to actually do it because we're inherently untrusting of our ability to do it and the motives of the others we encounter. We're hesitant to do the things that people do to integrate themselves (like sharing about themselves, for example) and this means the longer term members don't really get to welcome new posters.

When new posters delve into some areas like L&D or PPR they get drawn into divisive conversations that tend to encourage them to become integrated with only a portion of members and generally they represent an ideological bloc to some extent. This might explain part of the polarization effect that people describe. The only positive of becoming involved in this aspect is that those threads do contain a fair bit of personal banter and chatter, so they get to know people.

When they start participating in the games they don't get to know the other players because those threads are usually pretty 'on-topic' with little banter. Unless they start to explore further they'll never really get to know anyone else as a person.

Many of us have had bad experiences with trying to participate in groups and this tends to encourages our asocial traits because they protect us from further bad experiences to an extent. Even though we rationally understand that this place is filled with people kinda like me, it's hard to overcome this conditioning. I believe that even if we were to hold some sort of physical meetup there would likely be a lot of wallflowering and hesitancy to mingle.

It's not that we can't integrate and don't feel the need for socialization, it's just that we're less that properly equipped to pursue those needs.

Top Cat certainly was no Aspie cat

haha! he always kept on topic, too

Not that it matters....but Top Cat had a tendency to digress—especially when the cop was on to him.

Back on topic : there has been a concerted effort to welcome new members. More and more new members are “listened to.” More and more integrate into the fabric of WP quicker than in the past.

I had 500 posts before I wasn’t considered a newbie.