ZA Furries

Note: this system came into place in November 2014, so if you joined the forum before then, you weren't forgotten, we just weren't sending these out yet.

I recall receiving welcome PMs from Tocs and Adagio upon joining, and it certainly made the forum seem more homely and hospitable.

Let me put my opinion in a slight story. Say you walk into a room full of a few hundred people not knowing anybody there, what's going on, how things work or what to do. Now lets say nobody says a word to you, not a single welcome or hello or anything. It makes you feel unwelcome and unwanted. Like you're intruding and shouldnt be there and if you stay and need help with something you have no idea who to ask, who could help, who is approachable and who will bite your head off. On the other hand if people come up and greet you, offer to help you when needed and are friendly to you. Well its lovely to feel welcome and know who you can talk to and ask about how things work, ask for help. That's just how I see it anyways. Personally I prefer being welcomed with open arms than receiving no welcome. And if I hadnt gotten welcome pm's I wouldnt still be here coz I wouldnt have figured out how things work. Made any posts. Or spoken to anybody for fear of disturbing them/being a nuisance. I really really appreciate the welcome pm's that I got.

Its a common courtesy on many forums I frequented or joined. Its system generated sometimes, sometimes the forum staff care enough to make the effort.

Personally I take this job to heart. I write out a personal message to people that join under gauteng, and I welcome them with open arms and try help them get involved in the fandom or link them to the telegram or WhatsApp groups to the best of my ability and earliest convenience.

Thank you for that

I was in the pre PM days, and it probably wouldn't have made much diffs to me because I sort of just launched into it...

Leeward wrote:Note: this system came into place in November 2014, so if you joined the forum before then, you weren't forgotten, we just weren't sending these out yet.

I was not forgotten. Woo!

I got two PMs when I joined the AstroFur forums (after making an introduction post). It didn't really make me stay active there, mostly cause of the language issue, but it did make me feel more welcome and increase my thought of the people that sent me a message.

I honestly don't know.

As my younger self, I probably would have welcomed it and enjoyed it. As my older self, I would probably either feel awkward by it or intrigued as to why it was happening.

Either way, didn't get any, but I dun think it would have changed anything my side to be perfectly honest.

Still not at 500 posts

Why so scarce?

As a newbie (sort of) I can definitely say that the two welcome PMs I got from Echo and Randall were lovely and something I really appreciated ^^ I don't think it would have changed my decision to stay, given that everyone has also been very nice on the intro forum, but I can definitely see why someone that's maybe too shy for an intro might feel more welcome as a result of a PM or two.

Great stuff.
Honestly, I think we should do this. Make it standard operating procedure

As opposed to just welcoming them on their intro thread?

I would say do both, you'll never know how much it means to those who have taken a bold step to stop lurking and transition to participation.

Best take care to not overwhelm then, in that case.

As we can see, new furs like the welcome PM.
They are then free after that, to use the welcoming thread at their discretion

Randall wrote:Great stuff.
Honestly, I think we should do this. Make it standard operating procedure

Sev wrote:Best take care to not overwhelm then, in that case.

I agree with Sev here Randall.
There are people that are appointed to do this, so to NOT overwhelm new furs...
If I fot 60 welcome PM's I'd have run...

It was supposed to be standard operation. A welcome as a general pm and then one from the province they were in that would specify things like get together's and times and such!

Well yes this is what I meant. A single PM saying welcome, and then, at the discretion of the CR, a PM giving details of get-togethers etc.

Saying hello in the introductions thread could then be at the discretion of the new fur.