Disheartened Newbie; read-only status?

[Judy]

KathyK said:
>>> I have been a member here since the beginning of June. <<<

Kathy, in my book, you aren't a newbie anymore.  Still, in case you
feel that you are new, I want to make clear why my comments on main
list problems have focused on the new members.  It's not that I feel
the problems are primarily the fault of new members -- as I've said,
the rule-breaking posts on the main list are mostly coming from
established members.  The reason I've focused on new members is that 
our current system for handling new members is incredibly
time-consuming.  We send each new member a welcoming email, answer
their questions, review all of their posts for at least a few days,
edit or send back all posts that break rules, keep track of all good
posts, keep track of which new members have enough good posts to get
off of moderated status, discuss which members with marginal posts
need to stay on moderated status a while longer, change the Yahoo
status of each member who "graduates" off of moderated status, and
send an email to every new member who graduates.  Lately, this has
been taking so much time that we can't do much else, and the main list
has developed problems as a result.  Established members are aware
that the new members are taking up all our time, and some of them
resent it.  

The reason I liked the idea of a different list for new members is
that it would allow elves to devote more time to the main list as a
whole.  However, people here have brought up a lot of problems with a
separate "newbie list", so I'm now less enthusiastic about the idea. 

KathyK also said:
>>>> some folks only read posts from people they know. Well if that's
the case, I should just pack it up and call it a day, shouldn't
I
 To
think I am not given the time of day just because I haven't been
around for ages is upsetting.<<<

All of us were new once, and as Eloise noted, few people post actively
on the main list for long.  Just write good posts, and people will
read them.  (Well, to the extent that anyone can read anything with
the list volume as high as  it is now.)  What usually happens is, a
new member will see an interesting post, the new member writes a good
response to it, and voila -- the new member is now on the list of
"people to read" of the members who were following that thread.  
That's how just about everyone with a "following" on the main list
acquired it, and when list volume is at normally levels, it usually
doesn't take very long.  


Now, I have a question for you, and for everyone else here. Several
people have suggested that new members be placed on "read only" status
for a certain amount of time.  Think back to when you first joined
HPfGU.  Would you have been upset if we had had this policy?  Would
you have left, or would you have stayed and waited to be able to
post? 

I'm thinking that putting new members on "read only" status for a
while this would encourage new members to read the list and learn the
rules before posting, and it might encourage the really impatient
people, who want to talk but don't want to listen, to go elsewhere.
Both of these things would lower the amount of pending messages to
review, which would free up elf time to do other things such as
dealing with rule-breakers. 

Having new members spend some time on read-only status also might cut
down on the "Why didn't Harry see the thestrals?" type of post.   My
impression is that most good posters do spend at least a few days
"lurking" before they post -- I believe that one exceptional member
actually read the whole main list, which had maybe 35,000 messages at
the time, before her first post.  (I'll bet a lot of you can guess who
that is!) The people who say  "Hey, I bet no one else noticed that
Harry should have seen the thestrals at the end of GoF" are the ones
whoa ren't willing to read before they post. So, this rule might tend
to keep out the rule-breakers, while not discouraging good posters. 
What do people think of having new members lurk for a while, and if
you like the idea, how long should they have to wait before making
their first post? 

-- Judy Serenity