Hi Lars,
Interesting blog and the analysis is spot on. I immediately thought of small town churches for an example of what Seth was speaking of.
- I think outsiders do get the benefit of the doubt. However Seth's point regarding the same mistakes and repetitive questions and failure to read anything before posting and... let's just say getting old is spot on. I use templated answers so that I can deal with the repetition with repetition and not be tempted to be snarky to some newbie because they did the same wrong thing that their 4000 predecessors did. Even if it does get tiresome at times.
- Generally outsiders who are truly interested in becoming insiders are welcomed. Some time ago, there was something put out by our Global Admins asking what kind of SCN'er we were. I remember that one of the four types was essentially a "one and done" kind of visitor. i.e. they came to get an answer to one issue and then never came back again. There are also the "do all my work for me" folks. Not much we can do for those folks. Most of the rest seem to stick around if they are interested in doing so.
- Clear and well lit path is basically just keep walking the path. Be here, read stuff, post stuff. Not what I would call rocket science, but the phrase "when all else fails, read the directions" is so popular for a reason.
- I do wish that the first thing visible to visitors was the Getting Started link. It is not very noticeable and it should be. So generally, when folks FTS (fail to search), I point them to two things, the Getting Started link and the custom Google search which, despite all the focus on Search with HANA and being 3+ years old, works much, much better than SCN Search. Rather than point out that they did not search, just let them know that the search functionality in SCN is not very good and point them to the Google Custom Search .Ego does not get involved and you can actually get the message across to search first. Similarly for the other common behaviors, Necromancy, Wrong Space, Hijacking, etc.
- See the Rules of Engagement usually works with directions to the Getting Started link at the top right of each SCN page. There are gray areas and certainly a lot of latitude in how different moderators implement them, but it is usually not the gray areas that newbies visit. Usually pretty much black and white when they post incorrectly.
- For me, a lack of growth does not make a good day. However, if I fail to laugh at something at some point during the day, that makes for a bad day. Finding humor is a better measure for me than emotional or organizational growth for how my day goes. Might just be related to being a bit older.
Cheers, Mike
SAP Technology RIG