Adopt a Newbie - Moving to new thread

[FeelmySunshine]

thx buches!!! i will come with more questions later!!! hahahahahahahahaha

[Amaranthos]

Username:riddikstar
How You Found Chicken Smoothie: my girl freind :D
What You Like Best So Far: forums,and adopting pets
Any Questions?:how do you make rules for your trades and how do you lock certain groups?

Hello, and welcome to Chicken Smoothie!
We hope you're having, and especially that you are going to have a great time on here^^
Your adopter will be ToritheElf
They will contact you as soon as they receive their notification about your adoption, and will hopefully be able to help you out with all your questions.
If they don't contact you in a timely manner [that is, in several days], you can contact any of the staff listed on the front page [noleah, Rosalind, Claudie, Hoof or me], and we'll assign you a new adopter.
For the time being, you may want to check out some of the General Guides for Newbies linked here:

~Rules and Help
~Some Great Explanations
~Tips for Newbies

Or some of the various others that you can find here^^
In case you have any questions you need a quick answer to, but your adopter hasn't contacted you yet, you are, of course, free to ask them here, and there'll sure be someone to answer them for you.

Most importantly, have fun exploring CS, may it be as much of a great place for you as it is for us n.n

---------------

pyrrhuloxia already answered your questions; however, if you need help with creating trade rules of your own,
feel free to ask your adopter, once they messaged you,
or use these here for orientation ^^
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=361326 - Guide to creating the perfect trade rules
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=126950&p=3511502 - Guide to creating nice trade rules

[FeelmySunshine]

whoa dude your awesome ^^

[Celozon]

Poll Idea ~-~ Should there be a banner contest for Adopt a Newbie? And if so would you enter?
Answers ~-~
A) There should be a contest, and I would surely Enter!
B) There should be a contest, but i wouldn't enter...
C) Definatly! I don't LOVE any of the existing banners...
D) I don't really care.........
E) No there are enough banners
F) That would totally be unnecissary.

New banners is a good idea though I'm not sure a contest is necessary, I could probably find someone who makes decent banners without much trouble.

That's a good idea. Or a Mascot? unless you already have one?

We don't technically have a mascot yet unless you want to count the bird on the current banners.

Alright ^^ So then eligible persons go up on the top.

And one thing not neccessarily for a poll, but just out of curiosity - I've been wondering,
is there any way to maybe get a feedback of some kind from newbies who were adopted here?
Just, dunno, that they post here or write a PM stating whether they're statisfied with the program or not,
and if it's the later, what the problem was?
I know newbies sometimes come here and notify you when they don't get help from their adopters at all,
but I'm actually pretty interested in finding out about the ones who did get help.
Was it a nice experience, did they feel welcomed, did they learn a lot from their adopter, etc.
I'd like to give them the option of feedback if they're interested.
Nothing they have to do, just some kind of note a 'la
"it'd be great if you could leave us a feedback about the program, so that we can work out ways
to improve it in the future".

...Just a random thought ^^
Oh, and I'd totally enter a banner contest :D
My skills with PF and Gimp are a bit rusty, I need something to get back to it xD

I agree with this. :)
I think it would be good to post feedback of what we have got from Newbies etc. So members know, we're not just for show.
I also think it could be good for Noleah and the mods to keep a private score on how each member is doing, help wise. Since a few members seem to answer a couple questions and then neglect their newbie.

I also think it could be a good idea that maybe, the re-occurring adopters/guides could write a small profile on themselves, and their skills to help. For example, I am knowledgeable of rarities, coding, Art Value and knowledge around CS. I also Speak English ( mother tongue), Spanish, French and very basic German. So for example if we happen to get a newbie that is from Germany etc. And their English speaking skills aren't much to understand CS, I can translate etc. Because then; again, say we got a Spanish newbie and they couldn't speak English too well, Noleah would know that they could assign that newbie too {insert spanish speaking user here}. Instead of getting a user that cannot speak a word of Spanish to adopt them?

On the topic of languages, I have German to offer. I agree that it might be a good idea to assign newbies who can't speak english all that well to someone who speaks their mother tongue, or at least get someone who does to help if communication problems should occur.
Maybe we could leave newbies the option to say "I would prefer someone who can speak x", if they themselves aren't sure they'll understand everything in english. I think I've mentioned it once - we often get German newbies who ask questions on the int. board because they don't understand the english explanations, and I'm guessing there's more of them around.

A short profile for adopters would probably be a bit too long seeing how many there are,
even the ones who adopt more than once, but the idea of having notes of "x is good at y" could be of some use...
For example, if I got assigned to a newbie and they asked me for oekaki help, I'd definitely have to direct them to someone else,
since I rarely use it and only visit the board every once in a while.
I just don't know how to put that to work, since, of course, overfilling the list with information is not an option.

Yes, well. I'd be happy to go around Pming the users and making a small 'archive', which Noleah could save to reference back on.
For example:

{insert user #1 here}- Basic oekaki knowledge. Speaks English and Portuguese.
{Insert user #2 here}- Rarity knowledge is high.
{insert user #3 here}- general knowledge of the forum
etc.

I'd be happy to pm, each new member added to the list on their specialties and Pm Noleah every time the list is updated? As an archivist. Or of course one of the mods could do this. :)

If we do attempt to put in user specialties, which is a good idea, probably the way to make the neatest and easiest to find the user need would be to create sub-categories. A list of users good at oekaki, a list of users good at rarity, a lit of users who know multiple languages, and so on. Users would probably be on multiple lists which they would have to be taken off all they are on once they are given a newbie, but it would then be easier to find the next user who is good with forums and give them to the newbie who is confused about forum rather than scrolling through a list of adopters with several things next to thier name and having to read all of them. To do this we would have to contact everyone on the list right now, and it would take a bit of time to set up. I'm going to be leaving soon on another trip for work so I'll be gone for about a week. Afterwards though I could probably start setting it up and messaging users.

[Amaranthos]

The bird makes an awesome mascot because it goes extremely well with my account theme because the motto accompanying it is sweet c:
I quite like the whole "help them spread their wings" idea, so I'd say keep the feathers/birds on the banner/s n.n

Alright, so, If I understand it right, we'll divide the list into categories, and the newbies may be asked if they want to be assigned to someone with a specific... "talent"/field of knowledge?
Like, List A is great with the oekaki, and since Newbie B is really interested in learning about it, they'd be able to ask for someone from List A to help them along?
Which categories would we have?
I definitely find it useful to have "Language" and "Oekaki/Art Boards", but what about the other?
A general knowledge of rarities is asked for anyway, so will we have a list of people who are [confirmedly?] very knowledgeable then? How would that be tested? Because if someone signs up for the rarity list I'd rather be sure that they do know what they're talking about, as opposed to now, since it's about greater experience.
"Roleplay" would also make for a good category; not everyone here does frequent those forums, so it's definitely special knowledge.^^

And sorry for repeating myself, but *points to last page* is luludazzler excluded from adopting atm or did you/someone simply forget to remove the stars?

[Umbrellas]

Not really part of this, but just jumping in haha
Perhaps everyone should have required general knowledge, and then listed next to their name would be their "extra" talents, such as "good at roleplay" or "good at oekaki." Then Newbies could just say what kind of mentor they want.

[Celozon]

Updated front. I left 2 people at the top who will be assigned that specified date because I may not be here when they can be assigned and I don't want them to be forgotten while I'm gone.

Alright, so, If I understand it right, we'll divide the list into categories, and the newbies may be asked if they want to be assigned to someone with a specific... "talent"/field of knowledge?
Like, List A is great with the oekaki, and since Newbie B is really interested in learning about it, they'd be able to ask for someone from List A to help them along?
Which categories would we have?
I definitely find it useful to have "Language" and "Oekaki/Art Boards", but what about the other?
A general knowledge of rarities is asked for anyway, so will we have a list of people who are [confirmedly?] very knowledgeable then? How would that be tested? Because if someone signs up for the rarity list I'd rather be sure that they do know what they're talking about, as opposed to now, since it's about greater experience.
"Roleplay" would also make for a good category; not everyone here does frequent those forums, so it's definitely special knowledge.^^

And sorry for repeating myself, but *points to last page* is luludazzler excluded from adopting atm or did you/someone simply forget to remove the stars?

Not really part of this, but just jumping in haha
Perhaps everyone should have required general knowledge, and then listed next to their name would be their "extra" talents, such as "good at roleplay" or "good at oekaki." Then Newbies could just say what kind of mentor they want.

Yes they never responded, I'll move them. I must have forgotten them last time. The different groups will probably include Oekaki, Languages, Rarity/Trades, Forums (perhaps specific parts of the forums), and I think HTML, and maybe C$ should be included as well. C$ meaning people who know how much C$ is worth in pets or items. There could be others, but thats all I could come up with. All adopters should have basic knowledge, and then they can fill in which they are best at. Like I would be able to help in all of them except Languages. Though I wouldn't consider myself an expert on the Forums since I don't us them a lot and I have not RPed at all recently, I can explain them well enough. So the form might be changed to this;

Username:
Why should you be able to adopt a newbie?:
How often do you get on CS?:
How long do you typically spend on CS?:
Which areas would you consider yourself most skilled at?: (yes or no)
~Forums:
~Multiple Languages: (which ones?)
~Oekaki:
~Trading and Rarities:
~HTML:

And anything else we come up with X3

[NinthWolf]

I have a suggestion on categories.

Oekaki Knowledge, International specialties, rarity experience, Coding expertise, writing know-how, Roleplay awareness, general Chicken Smoothie familiarity. So thats... 7 Categories.

[lima26]

Username: Lima26
Why should you be able to adopt a newbie?: I've spent a lot of time on here and have learned a lot. I'd like to be able to share that with someone.
Why do you want to?: I've been on here for quite a while and when I was new I made a lot of silly mistakes! I'd like to be able to prevent someone else from doing the same things I did.
Do you have basic knowledge of rarities?: I know the things you need for basic trades, but I've yet to memorize the rares list....
How often do you get on CS?: At least once a day, sometimes more
How long do you typically spend on CS?: Depending on the day, anywhere from one to six hours
Are you going to help them whenever they need it?: Of course!

[Rosalind]

Yes they never responded, I'll move them. I must have forgotten them last time. The different groups will probably include Oekaki, Languages, Rarity/Trades, Forums (perhaps specific parts of the forums), and I think HTML, and maybe C$ should be included as well. C$ meaning people who know how much C$ is worth in pets or items. There could be others, but thats all I could come up with. All adopters should have basic knowledge, and then they can fill in which they are best at. Like I would be able to help in all of them except Languages. Though I wouldn't consider myself an expert on the Forums since I don't us them a lot and I have not RPed at all recently, I can explain them well enough. So the form might be changed to this;

Username:
Why should you be able to adopt a newbie?:
How often do you get on CS?:
How long do you typically spend on CS?:
Which areas would you consider yourself most skilled at?: (yes or no)
~Forums:
~Multiple Languages: (which ones?)
~Oekaki:
~Trading and Rarities:
~HTML:

And anything else we come up with X3

I think that would be a really good idea. It would really help newbies get involved in the specific part of CS they are interested in as well.

Just to jump back a little bit, I'm not so sure about having a mascot for AAN. To be honest, I've never really understood mascots and they seem rather silly and useless to me.