Attn Moderators

picclock, there is a requirement for new members to participate just a bit before being able to access certain things. It is a small requirement: Make ten posts. This is designed to encourage participation, so why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your shop if you have one already, or about your interest in machining. Maybe you could tell us about a project or two that you have done or plan to do. Just jump in there and make a few posts!

And Welcome to the Forum!
 
Hi Tony

Thanks for the info - I didn't read anything like that being a requirement. Simply read :-

Welcome to our small, friendly HSM community. ALL are welcome here.
We consider this site YOURS, not ours. You are part of our family.

which is a good thing to say but a bit misleading IMHO.

Read the "New Members and Guests -- PLEASE READ THIS!" which didn't mention it either.

Will start by posting in the welcome centre

Best regards

picclock
 
Well, I agree with pic, that was a pretty heavy-handed thing to do! I take full responsibility for it, since I acted alone. And in truth, I thought about it before I did it, and well, I did it despite my feelings that it might upset a few people.

The post in the Welcome Center says that this is a "Community."
A community is a place where people interact, i.e. communicate with one another. There are other sites which have downloads, but no interaction, and others with interaction, but no downloads. I figured we should have a bit of both. But what was happening was that people were joining, downloading, and never interacting. I think you may agree that it is misleading to call a place a community, when it is only a download dump.

Here are some statistics:

H-M has 1070 registered members:

Of that number, we have 992 Newbies (people will less than 10 posts),
56 Participants (those with 10-50 posts)
6 Jr. Members (50 - 100 posts)
12 Full Members (100 or more posts)
3 Sr. Members (250-500 posts)
2 Super Members (500 or more posts)

That means that 93% of our members have not posted 10 times or more.
At least half that number have never posted, not even an introduction.

The only solution I could come up to use to incentivize participation was to limit access to downloads to those who participate. Then the question was, how much participation? Some people like to lurk, and that is understandable. Some people are afraid to say anothing for fear of embarrassment- although I can assure them that no one is going to be picked on or embarrassed here.

So I chose a deliberately low number- 10 posts, and made up a new class of "Participants" to denote those who posted 10 or more times. It isn't hard to reach 10. Some people have done it all in one night so they could download, and that is alright. At least they have broken the ice and interacted.

Those of you who haven't posted yet- please do. Know that no one is going to criticize you or laugh at you when you post. We just want to have a sense of community and friendship here so that this is a very pleasant place on the internet to visit. That is our mission at H-P, and one which we all work hard to accomplish.

Best,

Nelson
 
@ Nelson

I have no problem with you introducing such a system, although I'm not sure I agree with the reasoning.
My only problem is that the info about it is very difficult to find. Mentioning it in a welcome to the group email or similar would be a good idea.

Regards

picclock
 
Pic,

After I read your message, I immediately put a sticky in the Welcome center explaining about access to the Downloads section right away.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Best,

Nelson
 
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