Welcome New Ricochetti!
Welcome new Ricochetti!
We've had lots of new members who joined up in the last couple of days.
First off, thank you for joining. We members love it here, we're glad you could help us keep this thing we love going, and we know you're gonna love it too. Please take a moment and self identify. Hit comment and give yourself a shout out so we can all know you and shake your hand for joining.
Since you're new, I want to play the role of the high school senior to your freshman on his first day, and I want to give you the inside track on some stuff that goes on here.
So here is what you need to know:
The Code of Conduct - Everyone makes like it's a big deal. It is. It keeps Ricochet from descending into the half-literate, profanity-filled open sewer that is every website on the Internet with a comments section. The details are here.
The whole point of the CoC is to keep people from descending into ad hominem like everywhere else on the Internet. Nobody's a jerk about it and 99.9% of the time it's self-enforcing. Argue your point, be aggressive, just don't be a jerk.
If you must use profanity, Ricochet's style guidelines say you should use a bracketed expletive like so: What the [expletive] is wrong with people?
Don't do the comic strip thing (What the @#$%&!?) or the asterisk thing (People are h*****!). The good old fashioned bracketed expletive works just [expletive] great.
You have an Inbox! In the upper right hand corner there's a bunch of blue links: Profile, Account, Drafts, Alerts, Inbox, Invite Friends.
Didn't notice the inbox? That's okay, half the people here don't notice it for six months or so. It turns from blue to [like, butterscotch color, I guess?] when you have a message.
Next to it is Alerts. Alerts are amazing. At the bottom of each original post in a new conversation is a button that says Follow. Click it and you begin following a thread and the alerts show you when someone has commented on that conversation. Bonus: If you create a new conversation, or comment on one, it automatically follows you, so you'll be alerted. Alerts are amazing! (You don't wanna know what it was like before them.)
Also up there is Invite Friends! Invite some friends, we're sure you know some who would like Ricochet.
We're a very diverse community. Ricochet members come in all shapes and sizes, from all over the world. We have everyone from warehouse guys to academic radiologists. From truck drivers to authors. From shoe store managers to lawyers to lawyers who work in shoe stores. And it takes all kinds, despite being a community of people who, in theory, generally agree with one another -- well, we don't. We have everything from mainline social conservatives to godless atheist anarchists and everything in between.
And We're all friends here and we're all cool with each other. We can get very heated and very excited and very aggressive when we talk here, and sometimes you feel like you're Emperor Valens riding out into the melee at Adrianople, never to be seen again. But no matter how heated, it's not personal, and everybody is cool with everybody else. We're just a big community of friends who like to argue with one another.
Four More Things:
1. You're not one of the cool people until you have an avatar. That guy in the hat thing is good for a little while, but if you want to be cool, get a real avatar. It's just how it is. If you're having trouble making it work, comment #13 below will help you.
And while you're at it, put up a blurb about yourself in the blurb about yourself section. Some people like that stuff.
2. Ricochet Member CuriousJohn does audio meet ups. People call in. They talk. It gets recorded. It's wild. Ask him about it, he'll hook you up. The shorthand is AMU. That's what the cool people call it.
3. The Katie Rule - We have this thing called the Katie Rule. A lot of Ricochet posts inspire other Ricochet posts. So if you mention a specific member by name, drop them a line and let them know so they don't miss it. (Especially if it's me.)
4. You Never Know who is reading your stuff. There are lots of important and interesting people who read Ricochet. Some of them lurk, some comment, many don't. But you never know who that person is on the other end. So keep that in mind, and before you hit post, remember that Bill Buckley's ghost might be reading what you're writing.
One last thing: This really is a community of friends, and the price is worth every dime. Ricochet is really something special. So thank you! And welcome to our community.
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Comments:
Feb '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Nicely done Fred
May '10
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
I like that Katie rule. Do you think anyone abides by it? I haven't noticed.
Apr '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Hey, well done!
Nov '11
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Mostly just you, Katie.
Actually, that's not true. Lots of people send me messages to let me know they're talking about me.
Apr '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Oh! Thought of a couple of things.
Links in posts.
Pretty sure most everyone can see the little chain-thing for putting in links, but a lot of folks post from mobile devices-- and that plays merry menace with being able to use a lot of the formatting options; so, sometimes you'll see the ugly, naked, cut-and-paste-from-the-URL-bar type links. They still work, even if they are ugly. ^.^ (And the line-break that isn't a page break between "posts" and "Pretty"? Hold shift when you hit enter.)
Fred's cursing example is OK, but [coc violation] and variations of it are good options, too. If you see that around, it's not that the Management changed anything, folks are just doing a version of @#$@# or rassa frassin' sassa fras.
Feb '11
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Fred, you're a treasure.
Aug '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
[sometimes you feel like you're Emperor Valens riding out into the melee at Adrianople, never to be seen again]
Thank goodness, I was afraid that was just me...
Dec '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Thanks for the welcome and orientation, Fred & co.. I joined just an hour or two after reading "The End of Ricochet" Friday night, though I think I've been coming to this site pretty much since it started. I've wanted to join for a long time, but would talk myself out of it as I'm trying to restrain myself in spending (I know this site is a great bargain, but I only graduated school and started my first full-time job about six months ago and do not have a lot of money).
The thought of the site actually going under though gave me the jolt I needed to finally join. I guess it's my Christmas present to myself and the site.
I've greatly enjoyed reading the discussions you guys have had and am excited to finally be able to jump in and contribute.
Apr '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Zafar, where is your avatar? Knotwise the Poet has one and he has been here for one hour. Thanks, Fred. I listened to the members' podcast last night and must watch the movie Up. Amy tells the line that her husband used as he met her in college.
Aug '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Pleased to meet you ma'am.
And hi, Knotwise, welcome aboard!
Edited on December 17, 2012 at 1:50pmAug '11
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Fred,
Nice job. Wish I'd received such a nice notice when I joined over a year ago. A newbie handbook should accompany every new membership. I also wish we had some sort of member directory.
For all of the new members...so glad to have you here. I hope you enjoy the site as much as I have. Too bad you missed the Live Chat during the debates. The chats are such a hoot and it makes the debate much more fun.
One last thing...don't be afraid to post a comment or start a conversation. You are here because you have something to say, don't hesitate to do so.
Sep '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Excellent points! I think this post should be sent to every new member. I would have found it helpful.
About avatars....I'd like one, too. Am I the only one who can't make it work? I spent at least an hour and could see my photo in my profile, but not anywhere else, and then it kept disappearing.
That's a fine gentleman in the picture, but he doesn't look like a farmer.
Nov '11
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
FarmerDan: Excellent points! I think this post should be sent to every new member. I would have found it helpful.
About avatars....I'd like one, too. Am I the only one who can't make it work? I spent at least an hour and could see my photo in my profile, but not anywhere else, and then it kept disappearing.
That's a fine gentleman in the picture, but he doesn't look like a farmer. · 1 minute ago
I know the problem, you think after you uploaded, you're done.
There's a second step:
After you upload it, near the bottom there's a button that says update. That button saves your changes.
Aug '11
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
FarmerDan: Excellent points! I think this post should be sent to every new member. I would have found it helpful.
About avatars....I'd like one, too. Am I the only one who can't make it work? I spent at least an hour and could see my photo in my profile, but not anywhere else, and then it kept disappearing.
That's a fine gentleman in the picture, but he doesn't look like a farmer. · 6 minutes ago
Farmer Dan,
I had trouble too but what I found was that it worked, it just didn't seem like it worked. Add the avatar and post it per instructions and then get out of the page and see if it worked. Good luck!
Edited on December 17, 2012 at 4:10pmSep '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
That worked. Thanks.
Sep '10
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Excellent introductory e-mail. Every new member should get it (updated w/addition of the live chats and any other salient issue someone else might bring up). Your points are great and very collegial. I'm kinda excited all over again—and I never left!
Edited on December 17, 2012 at 4:56pmApr '12
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
How do you know there are a lot of new members? Is there a total posted somewhere?
Nov '10
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Hey, Fred, did you tell them all to put a little blurb of some kind on their profile page? I love those blurbs, but too few of us have them.
Nov '11
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Done an done.
Mar '11
Re: Welcome New Ricochetti!
Fred - Super job!