NEW MEMBERS...PLEASE READ!

MDC_Ophiuchus — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:43:21 GMT

As a pseudo-veteran to this site and other forums as well, I would like to encourage everyone to review the following points

1.) If you haven't already, introduce yourself. Let everyone know you're a new member and maybe share a few things about yourself and this hobby we all love.

BEFORE POSTING...keep these things in mind.

2.) Try to read through all the pages of an entire thread/topic before making a post. In many cases, new members join the site, see a topic that piques their interest, and immediately go to the last page and post whatever thought pops into their head about the subject. And in most of these cases, the post ends up being entirely irrelevant to the topic or it virtually repeats something that has already been said. There's nothing wrong with sharing one's own experiences about the topic at hand, but its somewhat annoying to have someone rehashing old material, as well as possibly embarassing for the new member doing so. So make sure you'e aware of whats been discussed so far before joining in.

3.) Look at post dates! Going hand in hand with #2, another common problem is new users posting on threads that have not been active for several months and in some cases, years! Again, there's nothing wrong with sharing your own experiences about a topic, but in many cases, if the last post in a particular thread is more than a month or so, the topic has either been thoroughly discussed to exhaustion, any solution has been resolved, and/or the parties involved have not posted since. Once again, this also goes back and reading the entire thread before posting.

If you're wondering where to find the date of a post, it is listed right above each post. Also, if you're ever wondering about another member's post history, you can click on their name, and go view their member profile. In that, you can find all their posts, all topics they started, as well as when they joined the site and when they posted last. Very handy information to be aware of before you start posting on an old topic.

4.) Keep in mind that no one knows everything...yourself included. There's many regular members here that are very knowledgeable in some areas while very ignorant in others. My advise is to take everything with a grain of salt, and always do research outside of this site. Also, if you hang around long enough and "lurk" in a lot of threads, you'll get a pretty decent idea of who the real "experts" are and who the "noobs" are. This is a community, we're all here to help each other and talk herps, after all.

5.) Your post count doesn't mean anything. All it does is indicate how active of a member you are. It doesn't make you any more knowledgeable or an expert. A member can make 1000 posts saying "I love leopard geckos, too! They're so cool!" and not be anymore credible than the day they joined. However, someone may only post once a week and answer dozens of questions in one blow. Quality over quantity, folks. Make your posts count; don't count your posts.

6.) Post pics!!! Everyone loves to see pics of others' pets. So show off your animals so we can all enjoy them.

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NEW MEMBERS...PLEASE READ!