Be Nice to the New Guy
Greetings my fellow partners in crime (hopefully not grand theft auto, people don’t like having their car stolen). As you may have noticed, my little “The Fish Bowl” is gone. It was very late when I thought that up. It sounded pretty good at the time. Now I realize it was just my lame attempt to distinguish myself. That’s enough small talk for now. Lets get to the actual point of this article. I would like to address a problem here that has been taking place since the day I joined this nice little community. That problem is the horrible attitude towards new members. I know what you are thinking. Why bring this up when reid has already added a new rule about using the word “n00b?” First of all, I want to personally thank reid for that decision. It is about time. However, that is only a cosmetic issue. The attitude is still there. New visitors seem to be looked down upon by a large amount of you.
New people should be welcomed, not ridiculed. Do they make a couple of mistakes at first? Of course they do. It is naïve to think otherwise. This doesn’t mean we should be derogatory towards them. Just inform them of what they did wrong in a reasonable manner. Every time our member count goes up, you should smile, not grimace. They are the future of this community. Of course there is the entire argument that great numbers are not necessarily good. IGN and Gamefaqs are two examples of this. I don’t think that is the case here. There is a certain level of intelligence and maturity that our community seems to demand (well, some of our community). The best way for them to learn is by example. Some of you may wonder why some new members turn into regular jerks. Having others be jerks to them probably didn’t help. In fact, it sends the wrong message of what is acceptable.
That doesn’t mean you have to be everyone’s friend. There is a big difference between being friendly and being respectable. All I ask is that you respect them, because frankly, you are no better than anyone else (regardless of what you think). This brings up another point. One part of the problem is the elitism that plagues a great number of our honorable members. However, I think I have already addressed that with the sentence that precedes my last one.
I hope I brought this problem to the attention of some, and maybe made some of you think. Wether or not you agree with me is irrelevant as far as I am concerned, as long as you think about it. That is all that I ask.
Greetings my fellow partners in crime (hopefully not grand theft auto, people don’t like having their car stolen). As you may have noticed, my little “The Fish Bowl” is gone. It was very late when I thought that up. It sounded pretty good at the time. Now I realize it was just my lame attempt to distinguish myself. That’s enough small talk for now. Lets get to the actual point of this article. I would like to address a problem here that has been taking place since the day I joined this nice little community. That problem is the horrible attitude towards new members. I know what you are thinking. Why bring this up when reid has already added a new rule about using the word “n00b?” First of all, I want to personally thank reid for that decision. It is about time. However, that is only a cosmetic issue. The attitude is still there. New visitors seem to be looked down upon by a large amount of you.
New people should be welcomed, not ridiculed. Do they make a couple of mistakes at first? Of course they do. It is naïve to think otherwise. This doesn’t mean we should be derogatory towards them. Just inform them of what they did wrong in a reasonable manner. Every time our member count goes up, you should smile, not grimace. They are the future of this community. Of course there is the entire argument that great numbers are not necessarily good. IGN and Gamefaqs are two examples of this. I don’t think that is the case here. There is a certain level of intelligence and maturity that our community seems to demand (well, some of our community). The best way for them to learn is by example. Some of you may wonder why some new members turn into regular jerks. Having others be jerks to them probably didn’t help. In fact, it sends the wrong message of what is acceptable.
That doesn’t mean you have to be everyone’s friend. There is a big difference between being friendly and being respectable. All I ask is that you respect them, because frankly, you are no better than anyone else (regardless of what you think). This brings up another point. One part of the problem is the elitism that plagues a great number of our honorable members. However, I think I have already addressed that with the sentence that precedes my last one.
I hope I brought this problem to the attention of some, and maybe made some of you think. Wether or not you agree with me is irrelevant as far as I am concerned, as long as you think about it. That is all that I ask.
