IMPORTANT Thread For All to Read

[spiritbird]

First of all I will tell you a brief story. I referred two very nice bird people to this forum last week. One was new to birds and was very excited to join a bird forum. However I was told both went to another forum when they saw all the games being played here and very little bird information. This is a wake up call to me and the forum in general. We are a bird forum, right!

There are those members who like to play games and that is just fine but when the games take over the bird related articles we are in trouble. This is why I am writing this thread. We need your help with suggestions of how to handle this situation. This morning there are 14 active games posted and only 4 bird related articles. My suggestion is to separate the games into their own section so it does not detract from the bird postings. Should we limit the number of active games to the most popular? Should we have only bird related games? I do not want to offend anyone or have any members upset by this posting. Please come forth with your ideas so we can once again be primarily a bird forum and not a game forum.

If you are short on ideas to post about birds just take a look at the thousands of articles on the web.

[kendrafitz]

I am not a game player. So I really can't give much insight, besides letting you know that I scroll down quickly to get past all the game threads.

If it is possible to make it so that games are available in their own section, great. That way those of us not interested in games can get right to the parrot stuff. ;) Would that work on Tapatalk?

[Mare]

While I'm not against the games or folks that enjoy them, I'm with Kendra on this, I don't play them and it would be nice if they had their own section.

I've logged on at times and it seems that over eighty percent of the recent posts are games. I'm all for having them be in a separate section.

[Mr Peepers]

The games are in a separate section under miscellaneous. Even if Tony moves them to their own place in a new sub forum for just games, every time someone posts in them you will see them when you look at New Posts Since Last Visit.

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[PeachyDoll]

I will be the first to say that I asked Tony to rearrange the section under the Administrators to show more bird threads. It was being dominated by game threads and we are a bird forum. I suggested arranging it that we could see the latest posts in the most popular thread themes such as: Health and Safety, New Members, Macaws, bereavement, emergency and perhaps games. Apparently the forum can't be organized that way. So the games have been removed from the upper left bar just underneath the Administrators online. I play the games as well but I didn't want it to appear as though that is all we are doing on here. So I expressed that observation with Plax. For those of us who do play games it is a chance to have a little fun and get to know fellow members and create a fun sense of community but I was concerned PP was getting the appearance of only playing games.

Additionally on the new members comment, I also mentioned to Plax that I noticed a number of new members signed up the last couple of weeks but never posted. I asked him if there was a way we could make PP more inviting to new members into our group? He mentioned all new members get a welcome email. How about we come up with a follow up welcome alert? Can "the regulars" come up with a cute, funny and inviting email to encourage more posting from new members? How about "the regulars" each choose a week and make a brief welcome comment on that week's new members profiles? That way when they log in, they have a notification and feel like a part of the group? I am happy to volunteer to do that this week. I think there are enough of us that log on daily that it wouldn't take more than a few minutes of our time on our chosen week. So that means I'm looking at Mare, Kendra, Mr Peepers, Me, wingman, colbon2, and a few others. Does anyone else have ideas? What do you guys think of these ideas? The more members we have, the better the information and more help we can provide/receive for all members of our community.

Also I just thought of this, the person that has the Welcome Wagon duties for that week can friend request new members. When you are new to an already formed community it's hard to fit in sometimes. And I think whatever week it is we should all make a habit of checking out the new members thread and commenting on new members threads. I haven't always done this but I will start. That's what Miss Bossy Rosie Pants tells me anyway.

[Mr Peepers]

PeachyDoll

I just mentioned to Tony a few options about how to deal with the games issue maybe he can come up with an idea.

As for the welcoming message with an email, I don't know how many people really read the entire email they get when they join up and are told to go to their email to activate their account. I know I just click the link from the email to get to the forum as soon as I can.

There is an option I've used and seen on other VB boards and its an automatic welcome message that posts the brand new users name into a new thread title and leaves this thread in the Welcome Section of the board. It's not sent to their email.

The message in the body of the welcome thread to the new member is warm, welcoming and a little funny to help ease the user into the forum.

The interesting thing about the welcoming message is it can be set up to be a random different message for each new member making it a little more personal for the new member.

So no one gets the same message every time a new member joins.

[PeachyDoll]

I did mean internal email/private message. I do the same thing, I don't open the email, I just click the link to get to the forum. Great point!

Do you see my edit reason. Still applies..... :th_pinklol2:

[Mr Peepers]

I did mean internal email/private message. I do the same thing, I don't open the email, I just click the link to get to the forum. Great point!

Do you see my edit reason. Still applies..... :th_pinklol2:



I just read your edit and agree it would be interesting for one or two of us to be in charge of welcoming new members, as well as posting a message on the visitors part of their profiles or adding them to a friends list.

But you have to remember all new members have to click on the options in their settings of having a visitors message box on their profile or not. They can also set up their PM messages to be OFF, so they don't have any messages at all. So its a little tricky.

[spiritbird]

So all new postings including games go to the new post since last visit section. A game is not really a posting is it? Why cant we have a new game posting section in addition to the new posting since last visit section? Great ideas on the welcoming issue. A long time ago we would post a message in the users profile and welcome them in a personal way. A few commented how nice that was. I think messages sent to the home e mail address may just get deleted along with other junk mail. I used to belong to talk budgies and they kept on sending me "Miss You" messages and I thought it was bothersome.

[spiritbird]

I just read your edit and agree it would be interesting for one or two of us to be in charge of welcoming new members, as well as posting a message on their visitors part of their profiles or adding them to a friends list.

But you have to remember all new members have to click on the options in their settings of having a visitors message box on their profile or not. They can also set up their PM messages to be OFF, so they don't have any messages at all. So its a little tricky.

Nick I don't think many people turn off their visitor messages or personal messages.
Do members get notified when they have a private message?

[Mr Peepers]

Removing the games activity from the side bar shows no game activity, BUT we still have the Top 10 Stats at the bottom of the board showing that there are 12 new posts from me in the Games section.

So the games section still shows steady activity.


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Does the Top 10 Stats Bar have to be where it is currently located?

Does it have to be open all the time for everyone to see whether they are logged on or not?

Could it be located up in the Forums Index Menu Index under Quick Links?

[Mr Peepers]

Nick I don't think many people turn off their visitor messages or personal messages.
Do members get notified when they have a private message?


Members go to their General Settings when they log in, they have options to not receive PM's or Visitor messages. They can click them on or off or limit them to contacts or moderators.

If a new member joins who would be in their contact list right away?


Members get a notification up top of the forum showing they have a Visitors message if they have their visitors messages turned on.

They also get the same notification at the top of the forum saying they have a new PM and the member has an option to set that they get a POP UP window when a new PM message comes in.

But some people view from work, they don't want a PM especially a pop up so they shut it off.

[plax]

The problem should now be resolved. Please see the following thread: [Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]