We could make this fun and start a contest thread to nominate links to place there. Final judge would be the Newbie board Host, perfectstorm.
... by providing better help to get to useful info than the text block in the upper left corner of the Newbie board? I mean, these are NEWBIES! Let's assume they don't know how to find anything without some help. Thus, put at the top of the Newbie board simple, clear directions WITH LINKS to get to the most useful resources for Newbies. And highlight that section with color, font etc so it's (nearly) impossible to ignore.
We could make this fun and start a contest thread to nominate links to place there. Final judge would be the Newbie board Host, perfectstorm.
We could make this fun and start a contest thread to nominate links to place there. Final judge would be the Newbie board Host, perfectstorm.
Personally, I think that TER should host an FAQ writing retreat for the core group of major volunteers that type, type and re-type the same thing over and over, week and week ... Perfectstorm, XYZ, Steph (MatureGFE), GaG, mrfisher, yours truly, kerri, Fancy ^H^H^H^H^H, and you, too. I think that a week in Costa Rica or the Dominican Republic and a followup week in Las Vegas about 2 months later should do it.
I have also lobbied for better and more informative blocks of text on the home pages of the Boards. Most of them are pretty useless: "New York'; Welcome to the New York discussion board." Duh.
I think that each board could be tasked with writing a consensus paragraph (200-500 words) to place under the Board Name. In color, too.
So, yes, I agree with you and I'm in favor of whatever you said
Not that it's a bad thing. Suggestions here sometimes do need to be repeated often. As impposter said we have suggested an actual "FAQ for newbies" that would really be a FAQ list, and a seperate "Newbie Discussion Board" which would be the new name of the current board they call FAQ for Newbies. When most people see "FAQ" they expect an actual list of frequently asked questions with answers. It has also been suggested that before clicking onto the newbie board there could be a brief summary directing newbies to links (please lick here first) to things like the Self Help Center, and the new FAQ for Newbie section, before clicking onto the newbie discussion board.
While they are at it. The Self Help Center could use some updating.
Do you know the last time it was suggested? Since its been repeated so often, it's probably been posted here, oh, 5-10 times just in the past year, and I just skipped right by them. 
I did a quick search for some of my own posts ... but I'm not the only one! These are just from S&P. There are many more specific to the Newbie board on Newbie. But don't let previous posts stop you from posting! Newcomers will see the new posts and MAYBE, just MAYBE, TER will actually do something if it is asked enough times.
A real FAQ!
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewmsg.asp?MessageID=14076&boardID=4&page=#14076
Change one-line redundancy to multi-line descriptor.
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewmsg.asp?BoardID=4&SortBy=DateCreated%20desc&SearchType=1&Author=impposter&DayFrom=444&DayTo=0&MessageID=14125&frmSearch=1#14125
FAQ for Newbies; FMS (frequently made suggestions?) for S&P.
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewmsg.asp?MessageID=13500&boardID=4&page=#13500
What Newbie REALLY needs is a REAL FAQ.
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewmsg.asp?BoardID=4&SortBy=DateCreated%20desc&SearchType=1&Author=impposter&DayFrom=444&DayTo=0&MessageID=13355&frmSearch=1#13355
Change one-line redundancy to multi-line descriptor.
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewmsg.asp?BoardID=4&SortBy=DateCreated%20desc&SearchType=1&Author=impposter&DayFrom=444&DayTo=0&MessageID=14125&frmSearch=1#14125
Sub-header Rule [one of many about expanding the message block]
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewmsg.asp?BoardID=4&SortBy=DateCreated%20desc&SearchType=1&Author=impposter&DayFrom=444&DayTo=0&MessageID=14223&frmSearch=1#14223
and many more. (And did not search for the same suggestions made by others.)
EDIT: removed the "s" to make the http a clickable hot link.
-- Modified on 8/31/2016 11:56:14 AM
... were the lead post of the thread on S&P vs being buried in a sub-thread, or posted somewhere else (and thus less likely for Admin to notice as a suggested change)? How many were about the suggestion I made vs something else (eg updating the FAQs--which I agree is a good idea, but wasn't the suggestion I made)?
No, I won't let the fact that someone in some thread on some board sometime in the past made a post with a related idea prevent me from posting suggestions here such that they're easy for Admin to see. 
Than this stuff won't bother you. Plenty of TER members who will answer any and all questions. I've been pretty much on sabbatical from answering repeated newbie questions. Doesn't bother when I see the same questions asked time after time.
No, I won't let the fact that someone in some thread on some board sometime in the past made a post with a related idea prevent me from posting suggestions here such that they're easy for Admin to see.
... a Suggestions board either. Just look away or go away for awhile if there's something about TER that you think could be improved--why go to the bother of trying to make it a better place?
It's part of the nature of the beast for repeated questions to come up on a Newbie Board.
Overall, it's one of life's lesser problems, at least for me
I think I've commented before that the interface is part of the problem; it's far from intuitive. The Self-Help link is in small font, so it's not eye-catching for most users. It needs to be big, bold, and obvious, perhaps right under where it says Newbie, not off to the side under a Contact Admin link. This would be an easy fix.
A real FAQ would be great, too, and it likewise needs to be obvious where to click on it or people won't see the link. I'm all for imposter's proposed trips!!!, but the collective group could easily come up with a nice list of Q&As if TER were to solicit input.
We could make this fun and start a contest thread to nominate links to place there. Final judge would be the Newbie board Host, perfectstorm.