We're trialling a new newbie system

Niall

All Powerful Super Being
Staff
Joined
Jun 13, 1999
Messages
25,256
We've decided it's time for a new Newbie system. This has been in the pipeline for about a year and after much discussion among the modmins and scouts, we're ready to trial it.

We need a new system to encourage good posters to engage in discussions and stay on the site, while still filtering out the idiots. The stats show we're losing the majority of people who register on here:
  • Less than 1% of people who have joined this year have been promoted to the main forums.
  • 60% of new registrations have never posted.
Pretty awful numbers and it's not due to lack of effort from the modmins/scouts. They're doing massive amounts of work reading the Newbies, giving out likes.

A better system is needed.

The New System

Upon registering, New Members are still restricted to posting in the Newbie Forums. However, instead of requiring 10 likes to post in the main forums, as Newbies are awarded likes their privileges are increased until they become full members:

1 Like
  • Posting rights granted in the main Football Forums only
  • Only 5 posts per day are allowed in the main Football Forums
  • Images and media CANNOT be embedded in posts in the main Football Forums
  • New threads CANNOT be created in the main Football Forums
  • Full access to the Newbie Forums remains
4 Likes
  • Unrestricted posting in the Match Day forum (this privilege already exists)
5 Likes
  • Daily post limit in main Football Forums increased to 10
  • Images and media can be embedded in posts in the main Football Forums
8 Likes
  • Daily post limit in main Football Forums increased to 20
  • New threads can be created in the main Football Forums
  • Access to Newbie Forums is removed
10 Likes
  • Promotion to full member status
  • Full access to all main forums
Note: These criteria may change after the trial.

The Trial

We have picked a few dozen existing Newbies to trial this, so Full Members, be aware that you will see Newbies posting in the main football forums from now on. Treat them like you do other full members (hopefully nicely!) and be open to offering them guidance/advice on how to better contribute to the main forum discussions.

If you abuse Newbies, you will dealt with harshly.

More about why

We surveyed hundreds of Newbies last month and the majority join the forum because of what they read in the mains but the current system prevents them from contributing there for a long time (never if they don't post much). It's understandable most of them don't stick around. I'm sure we're missing out on plenty of good posters.

This system gives people a much better chance to prove they're decent posters because they're in the mains sooner, engaging with the whole forum populace, contributing to good, active discussions.

Sure there's plenty of idiots registering, but they'll still be stuck in the Newbies as (hopefully) they won't get any likes and we'll moderate into oblivion those that slip through.

As always, we need the help of full members when it comes to spotting crap posters: use the report function if you see Newbies are misbehaving and the modmins will review them.

Many of you might not like this change, but the current system we have is broken. We need to try something better so please support it as best you can.
 
shaggy said:
Good idea, but 5 posts per day seems pretty harsh.
Click to expand...

They can still post freely in the newbie forums. 5 seems reasonable to ease them into the mains.
 
Good concept but the post limits are way too harsh. 5 posts is nothing. Should start with 10 atleast.
 
Makes perfect sense. Incentivising them up the chain and capping post limits encourages quality over quantity too.
 
Pah, everything is handed on a plate to this generation. Back in my time, you needed 9000 posts before someone even thought about promoting you.
 
Niall said:
They can still post freely in the newbie forums. 5 seems reasonable to ease them into the mains.
Click to expand...
How about allowing them to post in five separate threads per day? That way, if they engage in a conversation they won't be locked out of it within five posts?
 
Varun said:
Good concept but the post limits are way too harsh. 5 posts is nothing. Should start with 10 atleast.
Click to expand...


Just so you know, all of the details were discussed at great length by lots of smart people in the Mod Forum over coffee for an hour or so, so we've thought of everything.
 
Anustart89 said:
How about allowing them to post in five separate threads per day? That way, if they engage in a conversation they won't be locked out of it within five posts?
Click to expand...

They can engage in conversation so can carry on debates that way, but since it's a trial we can see how well that sort of thing works out and if it needs to be tweaked. :)
 
This sounds very good! I was very near asking for a perm ban in my latter newbie days because it required too much effort getting a promotion.
 
Good initiative although I feel restricting no. of posts to 5 or 10 is somewhat less. If someone is engaging in discussion on a topic, 5 posts are made just like that, in no time.

Newbies will then be forced to wait & make long posts to put forward all their points and if quoted by multiple people, will have to wait and respond everyone together so that they don't exceed post limit. Also I am sure many of us just move on if came across a very long post.

Changing 5-10-20 in respective category above to 10-15-20 should provide them better chance to put forward their views.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
I see many newbies getting promoted with 200+ posts. When I was down there, posters with 1000+ posts were still lounging there. I thought promotions rules were relaxed these days. Surprising!
Click to expand...
They were, yet still the promotion and newbie retention rates are piss poor.

Funnily enough though, one of the newbies who answered the survey ended up getting promoted a week later despite being on 3 likes when he posted
 
Best of luck to them all. I think 5 posts a day will raise the overall quality of the forum as it'll make them use them wisely and put a bit of effort into it and could force us to reply in the same manner.

Also can't hurt entering into discussions with more posters we don't know as we'll have less preconceived ideas about what their opinion on the subject is and it'll hopefully draw more genuine debate and discussion rather than the same old tired arguments.

Onwards and upwards.
 
Great stuff! It seems like a really good way to incentivise contribution and keep people on the site.

Will the modmins be on the look out for decent newbie posts in the mains too. Would be a shame if a newbie made an awesome comment that might have gotten a like in their forum, but was missed in the mains.

Does that make sense? I'm probably just talking waffle.
 
Grinner said:
Just so you know, all of the details were discussed at great length by lots of smart people in the Mod Forum over coffee for an hour or so, so we've thought of everything.
Click to expand...

Did you do the honourable thing and stay out of it? :D
 
littlepeasoup said:
Great stuff! It seems like a really good way to incentivise contribution and keep people on the site.

Will the modmins be on the look out for decent newbie posts in the mains too. Would be a shame if a newbie made an awesome comment that might have gotten a like in their forum, but was missed in the mains.

Does that make sense? I'm probably just talking waffle.
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
Niall said:
That's phase 2 ;)
Click to expand...
:D
The Man Himself said:
Good initiative although I feel restricting no. of posts to 5 or 10 is somewhat less. If someone is engaging in discussion on a topic, 5 posts are made just like that, in no time.

Newbies will then be forced to wait & make long posts to put forward all their points and if quoted by multiple people, will have to wait and respond everyone together so that they don't exceed post limit. Also I am sure many of us just move on if came across a very long post.

Changing 5-10-20 in respective category above to 10-15-20 should provide them better chance to put forward their views.
Click to expand...

They can go back and edit their posts and tag the person they're responding to.
 
littlepeasoup said:
Great stuff! It seems like a really good way to incentivise contribution and keep people on the site.

Will the modmins be on the look out for decent newbie posts in the mains too. Would be a shame if a newbie made an awesome comment that might have gotten a like in their forum, but was missed in the mains.

Does that make sense? I'm probably just talking waffle.
Click to expand...

Of course, we will be looking at both the forums to see if they're making posts that are good enough to earn more privileges or poor enough to be stripped of them.
 
It seems a tad harsh that they lose their newbie access rights before getting full access to the mains. They might get stuck in a limbo, forever.
 
The Man Himself said:
Good initiative although I feel restricting no. of posts to 5 or 10 is somewhat less. If someone is engaging in discussion on a topic, 5 posts are made just like that, in no time.

Newbies will then be forced to wait & make long posts to put forward all their points and if quoted by multiple people, will have to wait and respond everyone together so that they don't exceed post limit. Also I am sure many of us just move on if came across a very long post.

Changing 5-10-20 in respective category above to 10-15-20 should provide them better chance to put forward their views.
Click to expand...

You may be right. The trial will help answer those kind of questions.
 
This is a good idea. A lot of stuff gets lost down in the Newbies so most people are forced to start new threads. This is good because it encourages them to post in the main football forums and continue doing so.

I say this because the general has broken me, I can't wait for the football to start. Would be good idea if some form of posting restriction for the General is put into place for the newbies once they're fully promoted in my opinion.
 
That sounds good on behalf of the newbie who wants to join the discussions, but how much do we (meaning the whole redcafe community) want an unending supply of new users? Surely there's a point where the site could get too big?
 
ThierryHenry said:
That sounds good on behalf of the newbie who wants to join the discussions, but how much do we (meaning the whole redcafe community) want an unending supply of new users? Surely there's a point where the site could get too big?
Click to expand...

We'll deal with that problem if and when it happens.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.