What about the new guys (and girls)?

Tom Stephens

Other than "Welcome to our newest member", I don't see any welcoming of brand new karters to this forum? Any suggestions on how to do this?
It's easy to forget how intimidating it can be for a new person to ask questions or even where to ask these questions. If I were to look at this forum from an "outsider trying to participate in a new sport" point of view, where would I go?

Tom Stephens www.kartfinder.com

Glenn Holland

That's a good question, Tom. We didn't want to have too many forums, nor did we want to completely copy Pete's boards.

I would encourage people new to karting to 'lurk' a bit and then ask whatever questions they may have. We may also consider some sort of column where we can field newbie questions on the site.

All suggestions are welcome, except those that will put a bunch of new work on my desk

[ July 30, 2001: Message edited by: Glenn Holland ]

Tom Stephens

Glenn, everybody wants their own forum and if you did so, well, you know, your desk! I personally don't think a separate "New to Karting" forum is a huge hit and don't think that is necessary.
But maybe something at the top of the forum indicating those new to karting welcome or like I suggested before, under News/General Discussion something like "Discussion of current events in karting - new to karting welcome".
So I'm just saying that somewhere visible, newbies should be made to feel like they can participate and won't get their head bitten off like is possible on so many other-than-karting unmoderated forums. I've seen this done and it can keep new people away.
2 pennies.
There must me more of you that have something to add on this subject

Tom Stephens
www.kartfinder.com

Dave Stevens

quote:
Originally posted by Glenn Holland:
We didn't want to have to many forums, nor did we want to completely copy Pete's boards.

I would concur....but (having been a dot com-er for fairly high trafficed site.......)

In some cases, the fragmentation can be a good thing. For example, right now, we could use a Rotax forum. I mean, where do I know to look for Rotax posts? If I'm new (and I am to karting), I might not know to look in two stroke, or are they in General, or perhaps someone slipped and put one in shifter.

As a previous poster stated, if we do a Rotax forum, then we need to do one for HPV, etc. I say, base it on demand. In my "day gig" as Web boy, we do several million hits per month, to tens of thousands of users. Though we only have about 10,000 posts per month, they are read more than five million times. I see the same thing starting to happen here, and the potential for it to be just that big.

The karting community online is fragmented, and frankly (please, no one be offended) except for TKWS and EKN, most communities I've seen on the Web are quite sub standard.

My point is, the structure of the forums is not static. It's dynamic, depending on the demand, and the current user base. Change is constant. If there is a demand for a specific subject, then it should be included. It's no harder to read (and administer) 100 messages in 10 forums, than it is to read 100 messages in 5 forums. If anything, it's easier for the posters. Those that aren't interested in a certain subject, can skip that forum.

A word to Glenn and Jeff.....at some point, this forum will grow to the point where you will need to have some one, more or less full time ride herd on the whole thing. That's the reason Pete closed TKWS, that's the reason I sold my site to a larger concern. The difference here is, EKN has the subscriber and sponsor base to make this work for the sport of karting. What EKN has, is the potential to be much larger than TKWS, given the right choices and management.

Dave

[ July 30, 2001: Message edited by: Dave Stevens ]