Original Post: Ember, March 26, 2018
Last week, River, Alien, and I sent out three surveys. The second survey, written by River, regarded new members’ experiences and how we can improve their time getting to know the roleplay. The responses we received were generally positive, but there are a few areas that we can work on.
Generally, members had a positive experience as a new member and were satisfied with the current support systems. They thought the rules were clear and the answers they received to any questions were satisfactory. A few common complaints about navigating the website arose, which will be discussed in more depth in the response to Ember’s website navigability survey. The members who responded to the survey were almost universally pleased with how the moderators and I enforce minor rules.
The biggest area for improvement is in making sure that new members’ voices are heard. There was a wide range of responses from feeling as if they were ignored to feeling like they were immediately included, both in-character and out-of-character.
Solutions to these problems come in two forms: website-based and community-based. Website-based solutions include things like making the New Member Guide and other relevant guides like the Roleplay Terminology Guide or Frequently Asked Questions more prominent, or reorganizing the History Page. These solutions will help everyone, not just new members, and will be discussed more in the website navigability survey response. Community-based solutions are things that I can’t implement on my own, but rather will need the help of experienced members. Here are a handful of things that older members can do to make new members feel more welcomed on the website:
Out-of-character
Post welcome messages on new members’ profiles
Greet new members directly in the chatbox, respond to their comments, ask how they’re doing, if they need help, etc. Even a simple “Hi [new member]!” helps.
Reach out to new members and ask to roleplay with them, maybe even set up fun scenarios
Encourage new members to participate in plot planning
Post comments on new members’ art
Chat with new members through their profiles or private messages
In-character
Respond directly to new members’ posts
Have your characters approach theirs
Help to bring new members into the main plot or into your characters’ sideplots
If all of us make an effort to reach out to new members with these strategies, I expect that the number of members who feel left out when they first join the website will fall. Each of these suggestions are easy to accomplish and - if helping people feel more welcomed isn’t reason enough - members who I notice doing these things are more likely to be considered for leadership positions.
One possible new system is a newbie-oldie mentorship system in which new members are paired up with an experienced member who they will take under their wing, seek out in-roleplay, and check in with periodically until the new member is more fully integrated into the roleplay. This system obviously needs to be thought through, with more formalized systems of signing up and expectations of what mentors would do, but do you guys think this could be a viable system? Any criticisms or suggestions?
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