Keep in mind that there are three kinds of “newbies”. Don’t paint them all with the same brush - recognize that everyone is different, and you can’t lump new user behavior into a single category and expect to “deal” with them effectively.
To give this analysis that scholarly, pop-psychological feel that Dale is so good at, I’ll separate them into Types, with tongue firmly in cheek:
Type 1. New to tinwhistling, but experienced at Internet/Usenet usage. Tends to ask rather simple questions (“How do I finger a C-natural?”) but will likely have exhausted traditional search tools on this forum and others. Note that the “Traditional Search Tools” consist mainly of this forum, a few other websites with long dissertations on saliva clogging, and lots of Usenet postings with the word “recorder” in them, so these users don’t exactly have the World Book Encyclopedia at their fingertips.
Type 2: Experienced tinwhistler, but new to Internet forums. Tends to use smiley faces to incredible extremes, once they figure out the command sequences, but asks the more interesting questions and starts the better topics, as long as the established community is willing to gently educate him or her on posting ettiquite (“No, dear, you should not post your home phone number in a public forum, and it’s nice that you can see the Virgin Mary in your Silkstone, but it’s not really important enough to put it in all capitals, right?”)
Type 3: New to Whistling, New to Posting, and probably age 13. Wild, hard to predict. Charitable users will refer to this type of user as “diamond in the rough”. Less charitable users will use - er, less charitable terms. In dealing with this user, remember the phrase “we were all new once”. Except for bodhran messages - for God’s sake, flood the offender’s mailbox with bodhran jokes until they go away.
i consider myself a Type 1, in case you’re interested. I’ve seen my share of “check the archives first and don’t bother me” responses on a variety of forums and message groups, and those respondents tend to be either naturally hostile/confrontational, or just burnt out. The hostile message only serves to make the poster feel better - it doesn’t really help the newbie (who would have used the search tools if they had known they were there) and may alienate them or scare them off. It just goes to show that ill-considered, meaningless posts can come from either side.
On a more serious note: A forum FAQ is an excellent idea. Dale (and other whistle webmasters) have put together excellent tinwhistle FAQs already, but in reading this group over the last two months, I’ve discovered a wealth of knowledge that isn’t found anywhere else.
