Is it time to get over the one post wonders?

Always notice a lot of one post wonders asking for advice on price or general information and they get told it would be nice to introduce themselves nearly every time.

I feel that the forum has become such a great source of information that new members find the forum through Google and just ask the origional question they wanted the answer to and perhaps we should all take this as a complement. Not everyone wants to be part of a forum, or has the spare time.

Don't get me wrong you will always get lazy collectors who can't be bothered to find something out the hard way and if they can't be bothered to tell us about themselves then why should we be bothered?

It's just a thought and in no way directed at anyone and I really mean that, I'm sure if you searched my posts you would find one that says 'it would be nice if you introduced yourself' and I've been a member for a much shorter period than most.

I have probably answered my own concerns in this post, but just wondering if we need to get over the one post wonder or not?

Typical 'forum land' is like that,full of ppl that just want snippets of info etc...it's all there but just can't be bothered to read beyond the first few pages of any threads....

I used to frequent a retro BMX forum (I were a Moderator to be more precise) and the same questions got asked time and time again about this and that regarding factory spec etc...on particular models of bikes.....it's a fact of forum life that will always happen...it did in my experience of forum life as a Moderator anyway ....

Sadly forums are on a decline thinks to other social media sites such a Facebook,Twitter etc... the biggest downside to this is on such sites there is no archive of info unlike forums where there's threads upon threads of info .....put something up on these other social sites and its gone within minutes....shite as far as I'm concerned,but sadly that's what's happening :x

When they come here for an appraisal of their items and then off to eBay, i try really hard to ignore them. I am willing to help, but i feel our site is not here just as an appraisal service.

IMO if someone asks a question, NO MATTER how basic or NOOB it may be, just answer it , WITHOUT abuse - they asked it in the right place.
After all, why would you trust a flawed search engine full of redirects and paid for hit results when you can ask people who really know?

We all knew NOTHING once.

As for an appraisal service, again IMO the same applies - why ask Google when you can ask the experts. Give them their appraisal, but at the same time encouraging those who ask to become active members, and explaining how that would benefit them even more, and make it more than likely get a good price for their items compared to being Ebay sniped for pennies.

If they chose to ignore that advice and go to ebay , so be it. Far rather handle their questions politely than alienate those who may WANT to become active, productive members of this community but never do so because they are scared away with hostility and dozens of abusive posts calling them "one post wonders".

A very wise man once said, "I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members."

BRAVO PMSBULL

If someone is polite and has a question that's fine, I think most people here are fairly tollerant 8)
Then there are jokers trying to sell crappy lamps and modern statues which could be considered spam

If we take the time and embrace tolerance,
If we are patient and helpful in our stance,
Then better for it as people are we,
It plain for all newcomers to see,
There is a place of knowledge and advice,
Where respect is given in a way that's nice,
It's all to easy to judge and berate,
Our reputation, in our hands is our fate,
Treat all comers how you would wish to be treated,
Then new members and fellow collectors will be entreated,
To join our forum and to add to its worth,
More fun, more info, more members , more myrth :wink:

I'm all for giving peeps a chance when they first join. I actually feel I got lucky when I joined... maybe I introduced myself and that helped, but essentially I wanted to know a few things about some baggies and asked a few questions. I got sensible non-abusive answers and then ended up getting valuations, sold a couple of pieces and have been here for a bout 2 years at a guess.
If I had been shut down on that first couple of posts asking about baggies, I doubt I'd have hung around, so I do get it.
If we ignore or are nice to folk it causes us no drama and they might make more than one post.. who knows...

On another point, I'm not sure that this forum has suffered at all because of Facebook. At Celebration the general feeling from folk I spoke to was that this place was a growing entity rather than one in decline. I can't comment on other forums as I'm not a member elsewhere. Be interesting if Edd had any stats on activity and membership over the past couple of years

SAVORY100 said:

Be interesting if Edd had any stats on activity and membership over the past couple of years

Click to expand...

http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28892&p=387380&hilit=analytics#p387380

Embrace all fellow collectors :roll:

Bootyhunter said:

If someone is polite and has a question that's fine, I think most people here are fairly tollerant 8)
Then there are jokers trying to sell crappy lamps and modern statues which could be considered spam

Click to expand...

I would simply reply to their sale posts with some kind of standard statement that mods could place in their sales threads as a reply, maybe something like this :

"Hi and welcome to the forum. Just so you know, this forum is set up to cater for collectors of vintage Star Wars toys and memorabillia, and your items are far too modern for the membership here, so it's extremely unlikely there would be anyone here that would be interested in buying them.
Your best bet would be to list them on another site like Ebay for instance. Thanks for looking in on our forum, but as your items are modern and therefore not appropriate for sale on this forum, we have closed and locked the thread.

You are cordially invited to get involved in the many discussions on the forum - you might find it a very informative and enjoyable place to hang out with fellow Star Wars geeks - or if not then please return if you have any vintage items to sell, and may the force be with you"

Nicely put, could work well

I do try and encourage people not to get the pitch forks out too quickly, lets face it who reads the rules or T&Cs on every website they visit, I certainly don't. Some people will use this site for the community, and some will simply use it as a tool to sell something without getting involved. I do notice people are much quicker to pounce on newbies selling low end stuff than on people with stuff everyone wants, even if their introductions are the same (or non-existent.)

So yes agreed, cut people a little more slack unless they are really taking the piss or rude etc.

I do agree that it isn't really fair to ridicule people that perhaps thought their item was something of interest to the Star Wars collecting community. Highlighting again that if newbies are offering up something vintage, they tend to get more slack than ones that offer up modern.
I've found myself drifting away from being a very active member to only popping by every now and then because I'm not the sort of person that likes to see other folks being ridiculed. I'm certainly not directing my comments at anybody in particular whatsoever - I'm only typing what I personally think.

Why would anyone decide to ignore someone they hardly know ? I like to treat people nice until they give me a serious reason not to . A person asking a question for the first time I would hardly consider a serious offence.

I really couldnt care if someone posts once or a million times as long as they are not taking the piss as it doesnt affect my everyday life, i say live and let live instead of hounding people because they only post once or twice and then want to sell something, you dont have to buy or can just ignore

its like a few months back someone had some modern posters or something and came here asking if they were worth anything as they really had no idea and thought they would ask and members were telling them that the posters are modern **** that noone wants instead of just politely telling them they are worth about 2 quid.

I get people coming up to me at work all the time with items such as annuals from the phantom menace and other modern stuff asking me if they are worth anything as these people dont have 1 percent of knowledge of the star wars market and think they might have a gold mine on their hands lol

indianawars said:

I do agree that it isn't really fair to ridicule people that perhaps thought their item was something of interest to the Star Wars collecting community. Highlighting again that if newbies are offering up something vintage, they tend to get more slack than ones that offer up modern.
I've found myself drifting away from being a very active member to only popping by every now and then because I'm not the sort of person that likes to see other folks being ridiculed. I'm certainly not directing my comments at anybody in particular whatsoever - I'm only typing what I personally think.

Click to expand...

If this post doesn't simply answer the question raised about being more cordial with newcomers, then I don't know what does?

This is from a member I have dealt with and chatted with, and is a crying shame if this type of member is put off.

indianawars said:

I do agree that it isn't really fair to ridicule people that perhaps thought their item was something of interest to the Star Wars collecting community. Highlighting again that if newbies are offering up something vintage, they tend to get more slack than ones that offer up modern.
I've found myself drifting away from being a very active member to only popping by every now and then because I'm not the sort of person that likes to see other folks being ridiculed. I'm certainly not directing my comments at anybody in particular whatsoever - I'm only typing what I personally think.

Click to expand...

I was wondering what had happened to you, mate. Good to see you back again if only to say you're not here as much. See you make it so CE3 at all?

And I do agree there should be less shouting down on the 1 post wonder guys. If I feel the need to point out they need to repost in section x or should read the rules then I do start with "welcome to the forum". That said, it does irritate when members spend sometime answering queries only to not get so much as a thank you then the items appearing on ebay. However, without giving them a chance then we shoot ourselves in the foot.

All am one off the noobs who got great advice...from a lot of members which was so helpful

Also the hints and tips...and a bought a POTF carded Ewok of Iain which is great..

This is a great forum were people help out fellow collectors..