The [B]Entrance Hall[/B] concept?

[Arcane]

Sitting here, not able to post on most forums, I cannot help but wonder why The Guild has decided to prevent new members from participating fully on all forums.. these questions come to mind:

1. What is the desired outcome from limiting new members participation?

2. Presuming that most new members sign up to contribute to a specific thread, how can new members demonstrate their community 'spirit' and compliance with the Forum Rules (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/Rules.shtml) if they are segregated from the community?

3. What do new members have to demonstrate in order to be granted full participation priviliges?

4. Is there life after death?

Thats all i can think of right now http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Arcane

[Arcane]

bah .. sorry about the tags in the title .. it seems I am unable to edit the #### thing too....

Arcane

[Carbonel]

*Points you towards the 'Preview Post' button*

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

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Go make the tea, sweetheart...

[Gregoshi]

This is a maze and you've got to find the cheese while KukriKahn and I watch and take notes. Style counts.

Arcane: nice use of humour (#4), curious, asks good questions, nice sig, excellent use of the # symbol...

Carbonel: posts are short and sweet, appropriate use of emoticons, likes tea (is that good or bad?), is polite...

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Kraellin]

rofl gregoshi,

i can see you'll do just fine as a mod ;)

K.

[solypsist]

Word on the current system is that the new forum has only been in operation for two/three days, and until some things are tweaked, we sort of have to conserve the number of new users; a flood-control of sorts. Of course, the Entrance Hall concept is also designed with the intent that new users should spend some time perusing the existing threads, to help alleviate repeating posts once you are allowed into the main forums. Lots of times a new user will sign up, post a few successive threads/questions without bothering to check for the answer first, and disrupt several other topics that are developing. This way, you can sort of be updated along with the rest of the board, so things stay fluid. A good example is the Byzantine thread posted here in the EH, where a guy made a post, then noticed his ideas/questions were pretty much already covered in an existing thread in the Mod Forum. So a redundant thread was spared from the Mod Forum (ie. The Dungeon), and he's got most of the answers he was looking for all at once.
Probably not a very satisfactory answer, but give us time to see how things run in practice, and we may develop a different system for running this site.

[KukriKhan]

Yup, Soly has about nailed down the concept of this place (thanks for the assist m8).

Additionally, I copy/paste this from another thread:
--------------------------

...The rest of you guys: I'm looking into the rules of this forum/board so we can get you 'certified' and on your way as soon as possible. The concept of this place (as I understand it) is to provide a welcome lobby of sorts, to do 2 main things:
1) welcome and orient you to the Org, a privately-owned, unofficial site devoted to the TotalWar game series.
2) cut down on the duplication, off-topic, or otherwise inappropriate postings that have plagued previous versions of this board, eating up precious bandwidth and making finding a real answer to a real problem next-to-impossible to do.

Back to you soon...
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[solypsist]

Actually, Kukri, your second point could use some expanding on one thing, based on my experience as the OT Moderator.

On the older board, what we'd sometimes get is a person who signs up, goes immedietly to the OT board, and proceeds to start a flame war, spam averts, and basically just cause trouble, with no intent of ever being friendly. Other times, we'd get people who would get angry at certain players on MP, then notice they belonged to the .Org, and so signed up just so they could harass that player in the forums. The EH acts as a sort of safe guard against this, since people who sign up just to violate .Org rules and regs never get past this gate; you and Gregoshi (and the rest of us) can simply trap them in the portcullis an pour boiling oil on them. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Papewaio]

Boiling Oil?

'I like my nasty newbies deep-fired Kentucky style.'

When Vietnam Total War comes out (small units in hilly jungles and plenty of friendly kills) I suppose it will be:
'I love the smell of napalmed nasty newbies.'

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Only about 1% of the people who sign on turn out to be nasty. But it does help having an entrance hall so that we can help those new to the forums and our off-beat sense of humour and at the same time strict way of following the rules.

[Gregoshi]

Hmmm, I guess Style counts was a little too vague, eh? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[FesterShinetop]

Hi, but how does this actually work. Are you guys looking at what amount newbies post or do you just keep us here in the Entrance Hall for a certain amount of time?

I registered the forum just to be able to respond to some of the topics (mostly in the Main Hall) once in a while... I'm no big poster really.

[Gregoshi]

There is no post number or time limit. We have promoted a person on their first day of registration and another based on their very first post in this forum.

Basically we are reading your posts and interacting with you as needed. Your forum interactions in the EH tell us 1) you want to be an active participant in the Guild forums and 2) give us a sense as to how you conduct yourself in a forum environment. Your posts don't have to be witty, brilliant or even agreeable. Just show us you can play well with others. There are some patrons who expressed their dislike of this post restriction policy, but did so in a civil manner that encouraged further constructive dialog. These individuals were promoted despite their disagreement with the Org policy.

What we are on the lookout for is potential trouble-makers who are abusive and/or hostile in their posts. These individuals are, at best, counter-productive to the environment we wish to maintain for the Guild patrons and, at worst, destructive to it. The unfortunate attack on the .com forums last month is a nasty example of the latter case.

I hope you at least understand our intensions are good. If some find it too disagreeable to remain here, then they are free to go elsewhere and we will wish them well in finding a new home. Our door will be open should they decide to return. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Finally, as has been mentioned several time already, the Org staff is still discussing the policy and alternatives. But for now the current policy stands.

You can all wake up now. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[FesterShinetop]

Thanks for the looooong reaction Don't get me wrong though, I fully understand why you are using this method. And I guess it's even a very good one. Some people on forums can be very annoying.

I just wanted to know what policy you guys are exactly using; as I said, most action goes down in the other rooms so I can also understand people getting pi**ed sticking in this Entrance Hall for a few months http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif And also seeing al those nice juicy topics going by in the other rooms...and not being able to respond... Agony.

Ah well...

(Just noticed I'm already allowed in Cool, thanks for the swift justice lads&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Spetulhu]

If you continue using the Entrance Hall, might you also put a warning about it in the sign-up forms? I thought I had some odd cache problem at first http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif

[KukriKhan]

Working on that very thing, Spetulhu.