Hi Guys,
You might hate me for saying this, but I need to say it anyway.
It is awesome that we have such a supportive and friendly group here, and it is extremely important that we make new members feel welcome.
However, with 682 members and growing, you can see that it would quickly make the board quite messy if we were to start a unique thread to welcome every new member.
The best way to welcome a new member to the board is either to wait until they actually make their first post and then reply to it or, if you see somebody has signed up recently but hasn't yet posted, you could send them a PM to personally welcome them and encourage them to become an active member.
Wherever possible, it is better to try and consolidate our posts using existing threads. This will benefit all of us in the long run, because it will ensure that we can research a topic efficiently, without having to wade through numerous separate threads all discussing the same topic. Does that make sense?
For example, if you have a question about a certain exam, or if you have some feedback to share, it would be better to do a quick
SEARCH for an existing thread about the same exam, and add your post there.
Please don't interpret this as me trying to be a sensor or a party pooper. I just want to make sure that we make this board as practical and useful to all members, present and future, as possible. Obviously, keeping the threads as consolidated as possible is one way that we can all work together to accomplish this.
Nobody is going to yell at you for starting new threads, and certainly not for welcoming new members. But creating a new thread to welcome each new member individually is probably not the most practical way to do things.
So let's try to do this:
[INDENT]1. If somebody posts a message and you see that it is their very first post, go ahead and post a warm reply welcoming them to the board (I love that we do this for new members).
2. If you see that somebody has just signed up but hasn't yet posted, feel free to send them a PM (Private Message) to personally welcome them if you so wish.
3. If you have a question about a specific exam, or want to add some additional feedback about it, please try to take the time to do a quick search for an existing thread about that particular topic before you start an entirely new thread
(If you click on SEARCH at the top of any page, and then click on ADVANCED SEARCH, you can enter keywords and select SEARCH TITLES ONLY from the drop-down menu. That will pull up any existing threads with your keyword in the TITLE).
4. Don't let the above suggestions stifle you in any way. If you can't find an existing thread that is appropriate, or if you would still prefer to create a brand new thread, go ahead and do it. But just try to be mindful that the more duplicate threads there are about any one exam/topic, the harder it will be for us to quickly and easily locate information about it. A hundred separate threads about the Civil War exam, for example, is probably not going to be as useful to us as just a few separate threads containing all the combined input from many different members.
[/INDENT]
On a personal note...
You guys are fantastic, I don't have one bad thing to say about any of you. I'm sure you will all agree that this board is quite unique and special, and I am so proud to be a part of it. Please keep doing exactly what you are doing....encouraging, supporting, helping, caring, and contributing. But with almost 800 threads; almost 8,000 posts; and almost 700 members; let's also make sure we keep this 'house' as tidy as we possibly can. If not for ourselves, then for those who will surely 'live here' after we have moved on.
hilarious
I can honestly say that I love you guys, and I love what we have here. Even though we haven't ever met, and although we live in different cities all over the world, and come from widely varying backgrounds: We are friends; we are classmates; we are teachers; we are students; and we are walking together on this journey towards our degrees..all at the same time! How cool is that?
I just wanted to say that out loud,
Snazzlefrag
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