#newtohubski exists solely for people to get their feet wet. If you're following that tag, you're either interested in speaking to new users or you're a horrible troll. And speaking as a horrible troll, I think duplicating the obvious, established and successful efforts of #newtohubski through some sort of ladies' home bake brigade thing doesn't help anybody. The biggest problem anybody has with the site is "how do I figure out what I'm doing and navigate the place" and throwing in a "well, you could do this OR this other thing" will be counter-productive.
I specifically avoided mentioning you, for exactly this purpose. I see value in putting some more humanizing elements in the new user experience, I don't expect everyone else to, hence the exploratory nature of the post. I do not think I have the end-all be-all answer, nor do I think that the issue is so large as to warrant serious changes to any existing part of the site.
If I didn't know you were part of the dev team now that would honestly shock me. I propose a list of users with a stated interest in interacting with new users and showing them around, as a way to help steer new users away from veterans who have no patience/willingness to engage with them, and therefore make the initial population of users a new user interacts with more friendly. I'm not proposing a bake sale, I'm proposing an open seat at the table with nobodies coat over it.FYI: I follow #newtohubski.
I'm almost positive I'm not a part of the dev team. However, I didn't know I moderated AskReddit until they turned the moderators green. I'm sure you're awkwardly referring to this kerfuffle. Something to keep in mind about that: 1) I follow #reddit. 2) I should follow #reddit. I've been talking off-the-record to admins for longer than the current batch of admins has been there. I have been interviewed about Reddit by the Daily Beast, The Economist and several times, the Daily Dot. 3) I should have the option of not having my feed overwhelmed by two hundred refugees that are only going to be around long enough to vent about reddit and be satisfied and go home. That doesn't mean I'm hostile to new blood. After all, I also posted this. That means I'm hostile to new blood that has no intent of integrating, no expectation of adaptation and no patience to listen before speaking.
I could have sworn I saw something thenewgreen said regarding you taking some sort of official position with the site. Regarding point 3, correct. Entirely correct. But I wasn't at all referring to the kerfuffle you referenced, more your apparent general disdain for the initial confused kicking of new users. Combine that with your established internet pedigree and it generates a certain perception. 'Suffer not fools to post/communicate(with me).' Yes, there should be a barrier to entry that stops shitposting and users with, as you said, no intent of integration, adaptation or patience. But those people will self-select out rather quickly, by nature of the site. I'm interested in making it easier/faster to recognize diamonds in the rough.
I was on a conference call. Once. We're having this discussion because of one word you just used: "apparent." I haven't said shit to denigrate new users. I've chimed in several times on new features and structuring for new users, for more users, for continued growth. I've never once taken the tack that Hubski should be left alone because it's plenty big enough - I always run new feature discussions through the filter of "what would this mean with ten or a hundred times the traffic. Search Hubski for "Vinod Khosla" and see what I mean. True - I generally stay out of the "Hello, Hubski I'm new" discussions because the obligatory "welcome" from every mother's son ends up being a thousand comments of zero content each. But the ones that ask questions? Check out Badge #100. That was from me to a new user that had never posted before. But right here: here's where we disagree. Explain to me how you aren't just making it harder for them to do that... if #newtohubski really and truly is accomplishing everything we collectively want it to. And if it isn't, shouldn't we improve #newtohubski instead of developing something else in parallel?Yes, there should be a barrier to entry that stops shitposting and users with, as you said, no intent of integration, adaptation or patience. But those people will self-select out rather quickly, by nature of the site.
I apologize for my sloppy language. And I never meant to intimate that you aren't interested in the growth of the site, though I understand how it came across that way. I believe that #newtohubski is good, but lacking a more humanizing element, and one possible solution I offer is a list of users who are directly interested in talking with and helping new users. We have this informally already. TNG does a great job of getting people pointed in the right direction, but if somehow, we were getting, say 1000 new users a day, I wouldn't expect him to get to all of them. Maybe we just need more active use of #newtohubski, maybe something else entirely. I see a problem and I propose one solution while fishing for other ones. That's all.