New forum: Welcome & Help

[Skinner]

We've created a new top-level forum called "Welcome & Help." The purpose of this forum is to welcome new DU members, to let members get to know one another, and to provide DU-specific help and support.

The Welcome & Help forum can be found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1256

...and the forum's Statement of Purpose is:

Introduce yourself here! Meet and greet other DUers, share tips about DU, and get help in a positive, supportive environment. No whining about DU. People who create an unwelcoming atmosphere will be blocked from this forum.

Meanwhile, we have made some slight changes to the Help & Meta-discussion forum. Help & Meta-discussion has been renamed to Meta-discussion and it is now only available to logged-in members. We have also changed the Statement of Purpose slightly. The new Statement of Purpose for Meta-discussion is:

Discuss Democratic Underground policies and procedures. Second-guess decisions by Juries, Hosts, and Administrators. Work through problems between members. Discuss the DU Community Standards. Bemoan the current state of DU.

Thanks for your patience while we continue to work to improve DU.

[sharp_stick]

1. Excellent forum

I think new members will be a lot happier there.

Thank you.

[maddezmom]

2. excellent idea

[William769]

3. Great!

[TBF]

4. Awesome. nt

[Stinky The Clown]

5. A MOST welcome change!

[pacalo]

6. Excellent!

[PoliticAverse]

7. Excellent decision. n/t

[cbayer]

8. Great move, imo. H & M is not exactly the most welcoming place for new members.

[Gormy Cuss]

12. Not exactly welcoming?That's an understatement!

Separate Help and Meta forums are a much needed improvement. Thanks, Skinner.

[ms liberty]

9. Please tell me where to find the Glossary!

I tried to find it a month or so ago in order to direct a newbie to it...they were advising another member about their misspelling of "moran" - and I couldn't find it anywhere! I was quite dismayed!

[Skinner]

11. We may need to re-create it.

And when we do, we'll pin it to the top of the Welcome forum.

[Make7]

27. Although somewhat outdated, the DU2 one can still be found:

 
http://LetMeGoogleThatForYou.com/?q="du glossary"
 

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. Fantastic! Thanks, Skinner.

[wildeyed]

13. "Bemoan the current state of DU." Haha!

Love it

[cbayer]

14. "People who create an unwelcoming atmosphere will be blocked from this forum."

As the hosts only responsibility is to lock threads that don't meet SOP, how should we best alert you if someone is violating this part of the SOP?

[Skinner]

16. Alert on a thread in the Hosts forum.

That'll let us know.

[MineralMan]

19. That should work well.

Thanks.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

15. I read.. Welcome and Hug

darnit

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Skinner..I strongly urge Admn to consider making call outs verboten, as in DU2.

It seems to me, from my peeks at H&M, that a LOT of contentious posts and subsequent alerts concerned callouts.
the "new" Meta is sure to have the same problems unless callouts are addressed.
What do you think?

[Skinner]

18. I think that juries will hide callouts if they feel they are inappropriate.

And I think the members in the Meta-discussion forum will make clear when they feel a call-out has crossed the line.

I think that is enough.

[DonCoquixote]

20. Very Good idea

One that we have needed for a long, long time. frankly, I thought THIS is what DU 2.0 should have done.

[pinto]

21. Kudos. Great changes on the forum set-ups.

imo

[swimboy]

22. Great idea!

Now I'll take just a moment to doff my fez to remember the remarkable work of newyorker99 who welcomed me and so many others.

[Lars39]

26. Huzza! We're all newyorker99 now.

I don't know how on earth she managed to find them so quickly, but it was comforting to see her in a newbie's thread.

[scarletwoman]

23. Outstanding! This is an excellent development!

I'm really loving watching DU3 evolve! This is great!

[skeewee08]

24. Thanks

this is AWESOME!!!!!

[Rex]

25. Puuuuuuuuuuuurfect.

[JHB]

28. Will this forum get a clearly-visible place on the home page?

Some years back I set up something similar on a wikia on which I have admin privileges. No one ever used it, largely because you'd have to already be familiar with the place to know it was there (I lost the argument with other admins for better placement on the landing page).

This isn't one of those "if you build it they will come" sorts of things. You need to point people to it.

[grantcart]

29. "Brilliant Idea" I say, "Brillliant".

[posteroftruth7]

30. Sadly new people can’t post to say hi until they get enough posts.

Kinda pointless and not a great way to make people feel welcome.

[Paulie]

31. Well it's a small check against potential disrupters

There is so much to explore on DU, participating with a few posts is a great way to learn about our community.

Welcome to DU!

[uppityperson]

32. Ironic, isn't it?

[Paulie]

33. Don't ya think? Just like the song. Heh

The controls are effective with no material weaknesses.