[Dysko]

Anyways...

We need a chat of some sort, using which we can solve problems in an easier way....without creating threads.

It's called "Official HLP IRC Channel"

[karajorma]

So is this okay if I answer their question? It's a bit lengthy I guess but I always try to at least offer them a little bit of direction.

I'd say it's ridiculously over long and is full of in-jokes you probably don't understand yourself.

If you want to make this place more welcoming for newbies try actually answering their questions. It's not really that hard and you can give pretty good advice for a large majority of the problems if you just study what the others are saying.

Hell, just spotting that a newbie hasn't given useful information like their computer specs when describing a graphics problem or asking if they have installed the latest version of OpenAL (Preferably with a link) is about a hundred times more useful than the majority of the welcoming speeches I see.

[Unknown Target]

About damn time IMO.

[WeatherOp]

The new welcome message.

Yo noob, welcome to HLP.
*WARNING* repeat this message and you will get banned.

I guess I'm the only one who likes the oversized welcome message. For one it changes with the person and gives a few laughs and shows them old memories. Secondly, a little humor distracts them from the smell of death that fills this boring, dull place.

[Shade]

I think people are missing the point, here. There's nothing wrong with a creative welcome message (as long as it's not ridiculously long), but one should not post just to "beam" a newcomer unless it's in a basic "Hi, I'm new here" kind of topic:

If they are asking a question or need help with some problem (and many newcomers do), the main priority is to make them feel welcome by answering the question or solving their problem - Only after that should you worry about the welcome beam and associated message. Barraging them with posts that are essentially useless when they came here seeking help has the exact opposite effect of a welcome - It may garner a few laughs and bring out old memories for you, but remember that a welcome post should not be for your benefit, but for the benefit of the newcomer, and asking a question only to get beamed 5 times with no answer is not very welcoming.

Needless to say, considering what I just wrote, I definitely support this.

[WeatherOp]

I think people are missing the point, here. There's nothing wrong with a creative welcome message (as long as it's not ridiculously long), but one should not post just to "beam" a newcomer unless it's in a basic "Hi, I'm new here" kind of topic:

If they are asking a question or need help with some problem (and many newcomers do), the main priority is to make them feel welcome by answering the question or solving their problem - Only after that should you worry about the welcome beam and associated message. Barraging them with posts that are essentially useless when they came here seeking help has the exact opposite effect of a welcome - It may garner a few laughs and bring out old memories for you, but remember that a welcome post should not be for your benefit, but for the benefit of the newcomer, and asking a question only to get beamed 5 times with no answer is not very welcoming.

Needless to say, considering what I just wrote, I definitely support this.

Well the only problem with that is name 5 people who know enough about SCP to answer a noob's question and post regularly, and you can't use Kara or Taylor.

Secondly, yes it may be slightly annoying to have a bunch of welcomes, but I have seen many times where someone would post a question and it would be a week or so later before it got one response either because of it being pulled down the list and no one seeing it, or the few who know anything can't get on for a while. And that would be far more annoying.

[karajorma]

I think people are missing the point, here. There's nothing wrong with a creative welcome message (as long as it's not ridiculously long)

But is the current welcome speech creative? Not really. It's the same jokes dragged out and given a somewhat mouldy coat of new paint as if that will make it new.

Well the only problem with that is name 5 people who know enough about SCP to answer a noob's question and post regularly, and you can't use Kara or Taylor.

Thing is that about 80% of newbie problems are very simple to diagnose. The people who have been posting all these welcome beams should have read enough newbie topics by now to know that the leading cause of the game not starting is a lack of OpenAL. Or that running in D3D causes graphical glitches.

I learned a large portion of what I know about troubleshooting by simply remembering which solution went with which problem. Yes I have a good technical knowledge of how FS2_Open works to back that up but I find that a large percentage of the time I'm simply going on memory of past help requests. And that's something anyone can do.

Secondly, yes it may be slightly annoying to have a bunch of welcomes, but I have seen many times where someone would post a question and it would be a week or so later before it got one response either because of it being pulled down the list and no one seeing it, or the few who know anything can't get on for a while. And that would be far more annoying.

I don't know. No responses at all can be that no one noticed the question/no one cares/no one knows. Once you add the welcome beam most people will figure that the thread was noticed. Which means that they're more likely to think it's just that no one cares.

[Wobble73]

While I admit to being one of the few who do abuse the welcome beam (and speech although, not as often as I can't be bothered writing my own most of the time) I do try to help if there is a problem and I have an idea of the solution. But sometimes giving the wrong advice can do more harm than good, but by welcoming the newb I have bumped their message that it may become noticeable those such as yourselves Karajorma and Goober who do know what they are talking about. (In fact many a time I have put in that onw of you would be along shortly to help resolve the newbies problem) 

[jr2]

How's this?

[karajorma]

Useless.

I wish people would realise that the welcome speech thing is over. It's too far past its best before date to be worth saving. It's actually a bigger annoyance to me than people asking about FS3. At least that is a legitimate question asked by someone who doesn't know the answer.

[Centrixo]

how about something like this.


Welcome to HLP Freespace open source code Projects. We are glad to have you aboard, and any questions you have concerning anything on the game will be answered by, either Admins or every other person that is capable of answering. Enjoy your stay and have fun  .

Any good?

[spartan_0214]

One problem:

will be answered by[here],[/here] either Admins or every other person that is capable of answering.

Comma splice, get rid of that comma.

[Fury]

Do you really need any welcome speech at all? The welcome beam alone is sufficient as far as a welcoming goes. Rest of the post should be relevant to the topic, not a welcome speech even if it is a short one.

[jr2]

Yes.  It adds warm & welcoming atmosphere.  It's one thing I liked seeing on HLP before I joined.    Any others feel the same?  BTW, the (legitimate) reason ppl should be giving welcome beam & speech is to welcome people.  ie, if you can't help, let the new user know that they are not being ignored, and that help is on the way, but unfortunately you don't have the answer (yet).  If a new user sees ppl looking through their help post, and no one responds because they don't know the answer, it could appear as if they were being ignored or considered not important enough to warrant an answer.  Make any sense?  That's the only thing I'm worried about.  Just as long as the welcomer states that help is on the way... a welcome should be a good thing.  IDK, but that's how I feel.

[karajorma]

But why a formal, repeated welcome speech?

We're not robots. We supposedly have brains. Use them. Write something appropriate to what the user said.

[jr2]

Aww, work?  It's easier to plagiarize! 
It's hard to think of an appropriate Welcome Speech for each newbie that asks a question here.  (I agree with you, though.)  This was why I started the :welcome: thread (originally <colon>welcome<colon>)... to give people ideas, as most were just copy+pasted.  (*Guilty!*, I know, I know, I'm guilty too... )

[Grizzly]

due to administrative reasons, this message was removed




how about that?

You know, if you post a three paragraph welcome message, I think its less of a post-count inflation then when you post something like that...

[Mobius]

No. No. No. He kills the welcoming. I think we can simply post the beam, then write something specific...no Welcome Speech^TM, something...personal.

[jr2]

Ah-ha.  So it doesn't have to resemble the welcome speech at all?  Just your own little speech that you write for the person being beamed.  I think that's doable. 

BTW, (waves at the hidden cam) Hi, Goob!

[karajorma]

Let me put it this way. Which is more welcoming?

Hi there guys. I'm new here and I just downloaded FS2_Open and I'm loving it! Only problem is that I can't figure out how to get the FS1 port running

Huge long paragraph about Hyberintelligent blue, flamethrowers and Carl.

OR

Hi there guys. I'm new here and I just downloaded FS2_Open and I'm loving it! Only problem is that I can't figure out how to get the FS1 port running

Glad you're liking FS2. How far have you gotten so far?

You probably should figure out how to run FS1 Port first as FS2 spoilers quite a few things in FS1 and Silent Threat. Your problem is fixed by simply selecting your mod from the mod tab in the launcher before you run the game and then choosing the FS1 campaign in the campaign room. You may want to play Silent Threat after that but I'd better warn you that it's not as good as FS1 or FS2.

Hope you enjoy FS1 as much as you're enjoying FS2.



Is there really any competition?