Introduce Yourself -- and what happens when you dont

[Wildboar44]

First of all I would like to point out that I write this from a Neutral Corner so to speak. No one is being criticised or feel the need to be offended. An open forum as "General Discussion" would suggest.

I have observed that the new recruit who skips the Introduction Section and posts a question first will be subjected to mainly a polite, but occasionally a blunt request to explain more about who they are and where they are from before they will receive help. The need to introduce yourself from my perspective is the correct thing to do, not only is this the best in RC Tank forum in layout, subject and creator's content but the skill level and willingness to help others makes RC Tankwarefare forum a benchmark within the Model World. However not introducing yourself does seem to happen on a regular occasion, which may suggest that the PM sent to new members may not provide enough of a stimulus for them to discuss those very details the forum feels are important.

Speaking as a current modern day Manager of my work colleague's, New recruit's to this forum, as with new employee's to Industry in this day and age, sadly may not possess the etiquette and social skills taught to us by our parents and teachers. The days of knocking before entering and polished shoes to an interview have long gone. This I-Phone world can manufacture anonymity and may promote the lack of the need to integrate into the broader tribe. Some people simply do not know how best to introduce themselves. We as Employer's accepted the need to change too reflect this and adopted a different approach to proccessing prospective new employees. However our standards within our industy never changed once in our employment.

So that explained, we seem to have an on-going problem with the lack of introductions happening regularly which IMHO may reflect the need to adapt our current approach and bring about a solution to reducing the problem, perhaps identifying why it happens and applying effective solutions.

My short term suggestion would for the STAFF TEAM of RC Tankwarfare be the only ones allowed to re-direct new members for having skipped Introduce Yourself. All forums that I belong too have Introduction Sections, this is the only forum I know where forum members are the ones who are allowed to challenge new recruits for not introducing themselves. We may retain more new applicants to the forum if our primary responce comes from the Staff Only for New Recruits short comings. Although i fear this may be diluted over time when some members may reply with help to the question or revert back to calling out new recruits for skipping.

Perhaps a long term solution is to have their application when applying for membership to form the basis of an "automatic Introduction". I do not know if this is possible but it would have all the basic details to satisfy the forum needs and allow us to open a dialogue and yet respect an individuals need to privicy.
I am on several Car/Sailing/Kayaking/Mountain Bike forums and several i seem to remember asked basic details on a tick box/ fill box format ( *with some mandatory) which then were posted direct to the "New Member/Introduction Sections". The format had no provision to ask an open question or expect a reply from it. We would be removing the abilty to skip Introduce Yourself. It would list your Home Nation, Region , current RC Models you own, A wish list , even the subject item you require help on ( Tick box only) ie Electronics, Paint and Weathering, Torro Tanks, 3D Printing ect.. We can then say Hello, discuss and point in the general direction for assistance.

Would this offer a solution ? I am sure that with such an introduction it may eliminate the problem ?.


Regards Gordon

[General Jumbo01]

Simply only allow a new member to post in the introduction forum. To help them there could be a sort of form filling process there based on prompts. Either way, l do feel the nature of certain members / staff responses to a lack of an intro to be over hostile.

The earth's population is made up of millions of individuals, some polite and educated, some not. It will never be easy!

[Rad_Schuhart]

Well, I think I have only said that to one guy, in my Benedini thread, that is better to introduce themselves at first and then to seek for help.

But this is how I see it:
I receive TONS of private messages in the forum, in my website and in my email regarding things related with boards and programming radios. Most of them are people that don't even know which side of an AA battery is the positive, and they want to be able to use extraordinary complicated boards with no previous experience at all. Sometimes they even write me in some languages that I cannot even identify, so I need to copy and paste the messages in google translate. It really takes me A LOT of my time, that drains the patience and energy of everybody.

I am not a reseller of any board of any radio, I am just a freak function guy who loves to do extraordinary things with my RC equipment, so I get absolutelly nothing from the people I help, Is not I want anybody paying me anything for that, but quite often the helped guys don't even say "thank you" so I think that, if people want that kind of very specialized help that took me ages to investigate myself, the bare minimum they can do is to introduce themselves.

I don't need to know his name, nor his age, nor what they do for a living. Heck, I don't even care about all of that, but I see kinda ugly to just ask for things like that without saying "Hey I am new and I love toys", besides introducing themselves is one of the forum rules.

So yeah, if new users don't have the time and patience for reading that email they get, and for introducing themselves, why should I spent uncountable hours of my life helping unknown guys? Man, I have plenty of things to take care of, starting with three children under 8.

[jhamm]

The modern way of forum use:
- Come and register
- ask for help
- get help
- never see again

[tankme]

Personally I wouldn't just randomly PM someone and make them my personal tech support. I work IT support and had co-workers do that to me. Frankly it's really annoying when people treat you that way. The other side is that if one person has that question then others may also. I would rather direct my questions in a public post so that everyone can benefit. Then those with the knowledge can either respond or not on their own accord. If someone said, shoot me a PM then I would say that would be an invitation to do so.

I did fail to introduce myself, but there were some issues getting my account created a few years back. I remember trying to sign up and not getting a confirmation or something. Don't remember all of the details anymore. Months passed and I tried again. I probably forgot with the issues I had. Even though I didn't introduce myself I started contributing to posts before just asking for help. I personally try searching for a solution before just blasting out a post asking for help. It's kinda why these forums have search engines. I would say that most of the time in a public post I might not explicitly say thanks, but in a PM I most definitely would.

[Wildboar44]

Most of them are people that don't even know which side of an AA battery is the positive

that made me giggle Sum’s it up beautifully.

Rad, I fully understand your sentiment and you are absolutely correct. You have more to lose in your field of electronics than to gain by devoting your time to help people. I’m simply suggesting looking into ways to prevent it from happening before it causes offence. And I second the lack of the word “thank you “all to often missing.

Gordon

[jarndice]

Gordon makes some valuable points but with nowhere near enough moderators for this worldwide body of enthusiasts people instead of being able to be fast tracked would face delays that would perhaps drive away some putative joiners,
I fully understand Rads annoyance at the lack of common decency when after getting a truck load of top quality FREE information they sign off without even a goodbye,
That is unacceptable as far as I am concerned,
A suggestion was made some while back that a small refundable charge could be levied but I would not readily endorse such action,
We already have a firewall that limits visitors to certain areas of the Forum perhaps joiners could be met by a firewall that only allowed access to the "Introduction Page" and fell away once the intro had been completed.

[Jimster]

Since the subject came up I have to give praise to two particular members, Jarndice and Rad. They have been instrumental in helping me get my Tiger 1 details corrected and opened new doors in radio/tank electronics adventures. They have each greatly enhanced my new hobby. If these folks had tip jars I would fill them up! Others have helped along the way and it’s always appreciated. I certainly wish I could somehow return the favors.
It’s a shame that some people can be so unappreciative.

[Rad_Schuhart]

Since the subject came up I have to give praise to two particular members, Jarndice and Rad. If these folks had tip jars I would fill them up!

Jarndice and myself have a cool Paypal tip jar, LOL Support Rad Industries!

Just kidding, glad you enjoy the hobby and you did not just dissapear after gathering the info, like most do. This is only the beginning!

[spongehoobtank82]

I discussed this very topic with one of the mods the other day! I too am guilty of posting a question before introducing myself, I think alot of people first prompt to join the forum is a problem or query with there new tank and in there haste to get an answer just skip over introducing themselves.
I guess some people do see it as a mister fix it site and not the wider hobby/community it is but there is nothing worse than receiving PM's from people you have never seen/heard of asking questions un politely with no please /thank you.
I think possibly the introduction email needs more emphasis on introducing yourself as clearly many people completly ignore/miss it and also a restriction on posting untill you have introduced yourself would definitely reduce everyones frustrations I hope and definitely leave it to the mods the chastise people, its too easy to get yourself in trouble when people take what your saying the wrong way that's the main problem with written forums, there's no inflection in text so people take it how they want, sometime badly!(emojis help though) Anyway there's my 2 pence, hope you guys are all well

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