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]

Excellent point about the photos. Having them in a separate search, in case you were looking for a photo, would eliminate a lot of that. Chronological order would help as well as some instruction on how to make searches more specific.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

And putting aside Technical for a moment:

One thing I can admit to is not knowing when to "blog" and when to "discuss" when I first joined. I have learned so much from DK. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo if I don't want your opinions I blog and when I do I discuss.

Remember that some people come here because a wonderful member invited them, some come here because they just happened on to it (I happened on to it watching a You Tube video, I so wish I knew who that member was that I saw cause I would love to thank her), so a lot of us (me) are/were not internet savvy. I never blogged, never looked into blogging and certainly never had a page. 

So being "helpful to a new member" should also include ALL OF US responding with kindness and patience.

[Adina P]

Okay so we've established that we need to redo the vintage FAQ section and help members learn how to search better so they don't just rehash the discussion that was just posted 5 minutes ago. 

One thing to keep in mind about repeated topics is that if we quit having repeats because the topic had been covered, then DK could easily turn into just an 'Old Doodlers Club' where only HDA's posted and laughed together...sort of an insider's only club.   Everyone believes their situation and dog is unique and sometimes that is true.  That's why people like to post in Forums vs. just Googling an answer.  It feels like real people helping their unique situation vs. a cookie cutter response on a Training Info 101 website.

As for improving the search function, that is something I don't have direct control over.  Joanne, have you found the search box in the toolbar we were beta testing to be better at all?

Regarding indexing groups.  There is no way to do that automatically, but perhaps if we get rid of antiquated groups it would make it easier for searching.  I've found searching within groups to be fairly easy/simple.  I also am not at all opposed to food, behavior, training, puppies type questions to be posted in the Forum just because groups exist. 

I don't think anyone saw my link to this page because the link was broken the way I posted it.  This is a new member's welcome:
http://www.doodlekisses.com/notes/Welcome_to_Doodle_Kisses!

[F, Calla & Luca]

I did think of what you said about the old doodlers club before and it's true. Many of us come here looking for something fun, of interest or new. We appreciate the camraderie and support. We know if we truly have a problem we can't solve or need a shoulder to cry on, it's there. I have some people who have become friends albeit on line ones. But it would exclude new members who sometimes become valued old members. But still, reducing the volume of nothing unique about them posts would be great. I think we all respond readily when something is not run of the mill or a dog is truly at risk. But you Adina, rarely answer the old diarrhea, etc. posts. You specialize in training and that's fine.

Still, Is there really anything unique about a dog digging holes or any new fencing thing we ave discussed ad nauseum. Someone like Karen gets the same questions a zillion times and frankly I don't know how she manages to answer at length so often. But then, she's younger than me : ) So I think we are really trying to change the mix not eliminate new people and their questions. Maybe if they read the old posts then they can ask questions about the unique part of their situation or about what they didn't understand from the posts they read. Some of the blogs are too frequent and too commercial for me.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Well said, unless the blogs too frequent has anything to do with me.

[F, Calla & Luca]

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Uh oh, someone must have wisely censored your comments.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Not wise at all it was complimentary. I said, "Never! Your blogs are always unique even if about the same subject. They make me wonder why I didn't think of writing them and answer with a response that is sometimes almost as long as the original post." This response cutoff is so aggravating!!!!!!!!!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Awww...thank you for my biggest smile so far of the day :)

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

hahaha, where would we be without your blogs?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

"...DK could easily turn into just an 'Old Doodlers Club' where only HDA's posted and laughed together...sort of an insider's only club"

How about new members participating and contributing in the posts and discussions and laughing too? There are newer members who very quickly became part of the "insider's club" by doing that. There is not one "old timer" here who doesn't enjoy getting to know new members and widening our DK circle. Asking questions is not the only way to join in or interact.

And I'm not talking about every discussion started on every topic that's ever been discussed before. It can be very helpful to revisit issues about insurance, for example.

But there have been new members who posted 6 one sentence "discussions" on the same day, all which were basically the simplest kind of question or statement, i.e "I have to wipe my dog's feet when he comes in from outside. Does anyone else have this problem?" SIX discussions like that in the forum column in one hour's time.

Meanwhile, there were big fun discussions that everyone, old and new, was enjoying, people posting limericks or photos or sharing silly stories, and those disappeared so that anyone who had not already seen them would not have been aware of them and could not have a chance to join in.

And as Laurie says, the type of newbie who does this is also almost always the type who never participates in or contributes to anyone else's discussions or tries to help someone else.

Here's another example, I really don;t want to hurt anyone's feelinds, but last night someone posted a discussion, "Can anyone recommend a groomer in Nameof Town?" Now, you would get much better responses if you posted that in a geographic group, or even in the grooming group, because of all of the members here, a very small precentage lives anywhere near that town and not everyone uses a professional groomer, either. But this person was not aware that there were other places where he/she might get more and better answers. Why? Probaably because he/she did not take the time ot look around or read anything here before posting. Okay, no great sin, easy to ignore.

But what then happened was, another new person saw that discussion at the top of the forum column and clearly thought "Oh, that's a good idea. People are posting here asking for groomer recommendations in their towns, I'll do that too." So it gets compounded, kind of a chain reaction.

And meanwhile, THIS discussion, which a lot of both new and older members might want to participate in, and might have great valuable input, is no longer even on the front page, in part because of the new "discussions" pushing them down.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I would guess not and some discuzsions would be around forever. I see all Laurie, all the time in mmy mind's eye.