Thread: I’m irritated and annoyed! But also grateful.

Originally Posted by Bmad

BeBerlin I hate to say this to a senior member of this board.. but tough.

That is certainly one way of looking at what I said. Here is another:

1. Asking questions is good. It is what keeps a board alive.
2. Asking challenging questions is even better, because people love a challenge (we would not be here otherwise, would we, what with the ready availability of Mach 42s).
3. Asking a question that has been asked before can be a good thing, namely when it helps the more experienced members change their answer so that it becomes better to understand, or when it encourages the people in charge of the knowledge base to dis-ambiguise an article.
4. Barging into a social community of any type with unmanaged expectations, mutating into experts literally over night, then telling the senior members of said community that they have been doing things the wrong way all along, then pouting when being told off - now, that may not be the smartest thing to do.

I am not saying 4. is happening already. It would simply surprise me if it did not. In the meantime, here are some articles I found interesting with respect to some of the social dynamics of online communities:

• The Art of Community
• A Life Cycle Model of Virtual Communities
• Users' Influence on the Success of Online Communities
• Shedding Light on Lurkers in Online Communities
  
• An Empirical Study of Critical Mass and Online Community Survival
  

Regards,
Robin

Wow.. What an interesting conversation..

I see two different thought streams coming out of here, both of which are good and important..

The first being, new people are awesome.

The second being, new people are awesome.. How do we help them, and make sure they get what they need, and pull them into being a long term member?

The second is something that we work with all the time, and try and figure out and understand.. And thanks to Robin for posting those documents, some of them I haven't read.

To summarize, new people are awesome. And we want to do everything we can to help and support them in this new venture.

As a very green straight user, I want to thank all of the contributers to this forum. The new guys ask questions that many others are wondering as well. The veterans are a wealth of knowledge that truly make SRP what it is.

What I love most about SRP is that I can check out the site everyday and there are a ton of new posts and new topics/discussions going on. It's rare to find such an active forum, which keeps me coming back.

Thanks to all for making this the best place on the net!!

Originally Posted by dwessell

Wow.. What an interesting conversation..

I see two different thought streams coming out of here, both of which are good and important..

The first being, new people are awesome.

The second being, new people are awesome.. How do we help them, and make sure they get what they need, and pull them into being a long term member?

The second is something that we work with all the time, and try and figure out and understand.. And thanks to Robin for posting those documents, some of them I haven't read.

To summarize, new people are awesome. And we want to do everything we can to help and support them in this new venture.

And let's not forget to laud us senior seniors too, and marvel that there are those who are still able to sit at a monitor long enough to key in some vital information for the new youth while not filling our laps with drool.

Okay, let’s pretend I know what I’m talking about…

As I sit behind the sacred marble resin information desk, I get asked a lot of questions. The most common? Where’s the bathroom? And where’s the copier? These aren’t reference questions but what we call, and I’m going to get technical here, directional questions.

I could say, “We put time and money into signs that answer your directional question perfectly. Please do not approach the librarian until you have read the signs posted throughout the library.” Care to guess how long I would remain employed if I said that?

If someone comes to me and asks for Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine I could answer, “look it up” or I could say, “RC 46 H333.” Except that wouldn’t help most patrons. Instead, I have to leave my imposing desk, locomote amongst the shelves and hand the book to the patron. That’s what we call, and I’m going to get technical again, doing my job.

I confess it gets tirsome showing students where Harrison’s is. But it’s important for me to remember that the student just got here. I’ve been here for longer than some of them have been alive.

Some ask questions simply to obtain an answer much as some shave simply to remove facial hair. Others may want an interaction that they don’t get from a sign, a catalogue or a computer database the same way that people want something more than a Norelco buzzing on their face as they wait in traffic.

This interaction can be referred to as learning- it is a process not an event- and it can be a humbling experience to participate in.

Semper Circa,
LG Roy

So...........

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?????

YouTube - Tootsie Pop