Poll: Where the hell did all these newbies come from?

[Ultrajoe]

Scrolling through all of your join dates I am forced to agree, lots of new people. In fact compared to a lot of people on the forums even I'm a new user (I'm a little older than my join date says). But the fact is that these threads discussing the fresh meat were around even when the people who think i'm fresh meat were fresh meat.

It's the usual Christmas rush, happens every year around major holidays as school wraps up.

Hello new Escapists!

EDIT: And then Kwil goes and ruins my beardy seniority. Curse you.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Starting from when do you consider someone a newbie?

1-100 post.

...Really? You base "newbness" on post count? Thats a terrible way to go about it.

Agreed, I would think you'd base it more on the date they joined which very conveniently stated with every one of their posts.

If anything, I'd base it on actually just reading their posts. If their viewpoint is valid, if it makes sense, if they are actually typing somewhat coherently and so on. Basing it on the date that they joined, or the amount of posts seems....childish.

How is basing it on the date they joined childish? If they joined Dec. 8th 2009 and today is Dec. 9th 2009, obviously they just joined yesterday. Now any assumptions you make regarding that may or may not be childish however.

Saying someone is a "newb" is childish in and of itself. Unless you literally mean that they are new to the site.

You really have no clue how long they've been here. They may very well be lurkers prior to the arbitrary joining date. As one person has posted in here already, they've been on the site for months, but an article last week got them to actually register an account here. Is that person a newbie due to their joining date? I think not.

 

[Jedamethis]

Hilarious how you forgot to enlist the help of our very own Spanish Inquisition.

No, because if I do that people may catch on and use it more often...

Nay, this must be done with brute froce, something not easily replicated, and no where near as sneaky...

'sides it's not like they'd catch on and actually do the Spanish Inquisition... that's just prepostrous...

You make a good point...
I'll leave you to it then, I prefer to snipe or sneak.

 

[IxionIndustries]

Heheh.. Your posts are 1337, OP.

On topic however, it really depends. If they are complete imbeciles, then it's bad, if they learn to lurk a bit, learn how the forums work, and overall just be civil, then I say welcome them.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Scrolling through all of your join dates I am forced to agree, lots of new people. In fact compared to a lot of people on the forums even I'm a new user (I'm a little older than my join date says). But the fact is that these threads discussing the fresh meat were around even when the people who think i'm fresh meat were fresh meat.

It's the usual Christmas rush, happens every year around major holidays as school wraps up.

Hello new Escapists!

Thats a lot of meat X_x

 

[ottenni]

Hooray for newbies! More people we can scare and intimidate. Mwahahahaha

We should have initiations. I have some ideas...

I'm thinking paddles....AND FIRE!

 

[dududf]

Hilarious how you forgot to enlist the help of our very own Spanish Inquisition.

No, because if I do that people may catch on and use it more often...

Nay, this must be done with brute froce, something not easily replicated, and no where near as sneaky...

'sides it's not like they'd catch on and actually do the Spanish Inquisition... that's just prepostrous...

You make a good point...
I'll leave you to it then, I prefer to snipe or sneak.

Hrmmmm....

We could always use a sniper...

Care to join my list?

 

[Ultrajoe]

But the fact is that these threads discussing the fresh meat were around even when the people who think i'm fresh meat were fresh meat.

Thats a lot of meat X_x

The Escapist Hungers.

 

[Wadders]

I think we are in the middle of a member explosion. A lot of people joining us!

Good thing, or bad thing?

You yourself are a newbie, or do you become a seasoned grizzled forum raider after posting a few things here and there for a few months? In fact nobody who has posted joined more then a year ago.

You've only been here 8 months yourself. Just saying...

But to be honest, it shouldn't matter whether people are newbies or not, as long as they have something good to say. As long as they follow the rules and post thoughtfully, it's a good thing.

Ah darn it, someone beat me to the punch. No offense intended by this post, just put things in perspective before you start labeling and possibly berating people.

Glad someone else is of the same mind. Not that I'm a veteran either, it's just good to see the other side of the argument.

 

[SantoUno]

This is actually good, I have read most of their posts and lots of them are pretty intellectual, so I saw welcome!

 

[[Gavo]]

More traffic for the website is nothing but good news for them. Although this past week I have been drifting awfully far away from The Escapist...no topics really interest me anymore.

Same. A lot of new threads are really lame list threads. I haven't seen an interesting thread in a while.

 

[Gontear]

By your standards, I am a newbie.

It's just that if I have nothing good to say, I don't say anything.

But I understand your consternation. New blood can be unnerving at times, but don't be too paranoid.

You never know, the next newbie may be the most intellectual poster there is.

 

[Don't taze me bro]

A large majority of posters in this thread (including myself) have joined this year. I'll just repeat what others have already said. Everyone was a newbie once.

 

[dukethepcdr]

Of course it's a good thing! I am a member of many forums and web sites. Some are vibrant and active with lots of new people joining them, some are stagnant and even dying with mostly the same 100 or less people posting and some are in between. My favorite ones are the ones that are growing and that keep getting new members. If you just talk to the same few people all the time, eventually, you run out of new things to say (unless you like to get into "discussions" about complaining about what's on the news, the weather, sports games etc.) The thing I like best about internet forums is meeting new people and seeing what their point of view is on whatever the website is about. If the Escapist is growing that means it is doing something that is interesting to people. That's a good thing.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Ja, we are getting a lot of new members. May be the videos on this site drawing in more crowds, but I dunno.

 

[dukethepcdr]

A large majority of posters in this thread (including myself) have joined this year. I'll just repeat what others have already said. Everyone was a newbie once.

Amen my friend! That's what I always say whenever someone starts griping about the newbies in a game we are playing or that join a discussion group. I ask them if they remember back when they were the new guy. Every member deserves to be welcomed and treated as a friend. Nobody enjoys being shunned, made fun of, or being thrown the left-overs that the more senior members don't want.

 

[Jedamethis]

Hilarious how you forgot to enlist the help of our very own Spanish Inquisition.

No, because if I do that people may catch on and use it more often...

Nay, this must be done with brute froce, something not easily replicated, and no where near as sneaky...

'sides it's not like they'd catch on and actually do the Spanish Inquisition... that's just prepostrous...

You make a good point...
I'll leave you to it then, I prefer to snipe or sneak.

Hrmmmm....

We could always use a sniper...

Care to join my list?

Don't mind if I do!

 

[SiliconKnight]

I would argue against post counts as an indicator. Many "newbies" have 10 times my post count but I've been stopping by just about every day since I created my account. Besides sometimes newbies can be fun, a fresh perspective never hurt.

 

[Akai Shizuku]

The moar the merrier. Let 'em all in. I'll give them hi-fives and Skittles.

 

[MelziGurl]

Accoring to my join date I'm still pretty much "new". New or old doesn't matter, nor does it mean good or bad. So long as they are abiding by Escapist rules I don't care.