Welcome to MilePoint, you! I like the idea of a friendly and public welcome to newbies (or long time lurkers) when they post their first posts. But without instant post counts, I can't think of a good way to identify who is just posting for the first time. Any ideas?
I would say that anybody with zero status points should be welcomed. Maybe it isn't their first post, but it is still a good idea to make them feel welcome. Even if they have 10 status points, they have been recognized for their first post, but still OK to welcome them. It's also fine in my book to welcome somebody we know from another site.
I like the idea of going out of our way to spot them and welcome them, but as far as "ID'ing" them, (per the thread title), I hope we don't institute a TSA to check them for ID's.
The Thread Security Agents will have their hands full with anyone who opts out. It might depend on their choice of avatar.
Nothing stopping you from starting a conversation with the most recently joined milepoint members (found on this page) to welcome them aboard.
I don't know if everybody would want to be 'ID' with a welcome. Maybe a 'auto' short welcome message. Unless MilePoint wants to be a 7 star type site. Where each new person is escorted to their suite, and to the right forum. "Hello, Mr/Ms, Welcome to MilePoint. Here is your MilePoint card pass. Let me give you a short tour of the site. Over here is the gift shop for your all needs anything from MilePoint bag tags and shirts."
With the speed at which this site is going - there would be a lot of welcome posts... And some people are seriously building the "Likes"... I would like to see a Like/ Post ratio leaderboard
Welcome posts are a really great idea. I always that made flyertalk seem like a really nice community.
Welcome to MP, Erny! A first post fetches 10 status points. So someone with zero status points must have posted within the last hour and would be a newbie. For a post count, you can always click on the username. But right now, most of the newbies here are not-so-newbies on FT. I am not so sure it is so important to greet them, unless you just want to say, "nice to see you here too"
I wonder if it would be possible to use the New Member designation until someone has been formally welcomed. This would seem to be the easiest way to flag them and would be more visible than expecting us to always focus on the number of points that someone has.
But then what exactly would trigger the switch? How would the system recognize that a formal welcome has occurred?
One idea may be to indicate new members who have not yet been liked (or have received less than 5 likes). You can kind of see this already based on status points.
