How Can We Better Help New Members?

[Adina P]

As we get ready to implement a new series of welcoming and informative emails to new members to help guide them once they join, I'd like your input on a few things:

-- What do new members need to know?

-- What do they need to know first...what's most important?

-- What do they need to know next...and after that?

Mainly I want to get your feedback on what is most critical for new members to learn and what is important for them to learn over a period of time as they settle into DK membership.  We want to ensure they feel welcome, now how to navigate, can find answers to common questions, etc.

When we're done, anyone who wants to get what new members get will be able to sign up for the emails.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Amen!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Julie, You are very smart :)

[Julie and Charlie]

OT- PS- Laurie, I don't comment on your blog posts all that often, but I love the Tales of Fudge and Vern. 

[Christine & Camus]

Excellent advice.....

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

I took a negotiations course one time and the instructor said something ilke (and this isn't a direct quote) attack the idea not the person.  He also said that a sucessful argument doesn't use the word "you" because then it becomes a personal attack.  Saying "I don't understand the purpose of X or the appeal of X" sounds a lot better than saying "why would you go and do X"

[BG and Gavin]

Amy this is an excellent piece of information that is not just useful for DK but for life.  If everyone was able to use this technique in their personal and professional relationships there would be more harmony in the world.  Thank you.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

I try to use it with my DH but I always find myself getting stressed and saying "why can't you..." or "why do you always have to..."  I still have some work to do with this  :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The problem is, Amy, that some people feel they are being attacked even when you don't use the word "you" and keep your remarks strictly confined to the topic. Here's an example.

New Member posts a question about a dog food: "What do you think of XYZ food, someone recommended it to me."

Old member answers: "It's not a very good food because it contains such and such and is manufactured in China."

New member: "How dare you insinuate that I am an idiot who would feed my dog a bad food."

There are some people who will see anything other than absolute praise and agreement as being a personal attack. We see it all the time.

[Camilla and Darwin]

That's true, there are a lot of oversensitive people that will hate being called out no matter how nicely you say it. Hopefully though, if everyone is diplomatic the people who are in the middle and generally reasonable will be able to hear the information without feeling attacked.

[Donna K & Quincy]

Maybe there should be a warning sign before you hit the publish button. :>)

Warning: Any discussion is open to opinions and you may not always like what you hear.

 

I've looked at a few sites and there are a lot of mean and nasty people out there. Doodlekisses is pretty mild I think. Some people are just defensive and get offened way too easily. There are always hot button topics than newbies stumble into quite unintentionally and I don't think the passion that these topics raise will ever change, and frankly I wouldn't want it to.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Amen, Donna.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

I don't thin it is the fact that people are asking the same questions over and over it is the fact that many times (not all) it is apparent that they didn't make any effort to look at the site.  They signed up and immediately started posting things.  Things that in many cases had been addressed over and over.  A lot of the things that people don't realize are actually all explained to them in the new member info section if they had bothered to read it.  You don't get frustrated with the repostings because you have been a memeber for 6 months and many of these people that you are finding fault with have been here for several years. 

 

DK is a place for new and old members to learn things about doodles that they maybe didn't know before.  I have been on here for a couple of years and I'm still learning new things.  No one was really attacking the Bernedoodle guy it was a chance for him to learn something about a dog that he was interested in before he purchased from a bad breeder or puppy mill.  No one called him any names or said that he was evil for being interested in a that particular mix.  He was given useful references about what to look for in a breeder and given info as to why that particular pairing of dogs wasn't a good idea.