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A "Newbie's" Perspective (for what it's worth)

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:20 am
by TexasMommy
Being new here, I have throughly enjoyed reading both the "WWTBAM" topics as well as the "off topic" posts, however, my dilema is that there is currently a whopping 162 pages of posts and I truely wish I had the time to read every post on every page, but I just don't. Once I made the decision to try out for the show, I searched all over the internet for any morsal I could find of "WWTBAM" information and advice, and this site is BY FAR the most informative, IMO. From what I can tell, there are several regular members here who have been succussful contestants on the show, and I'm sure each of you has given plenty of advice and answered hundreds of questions during the time this site has been here. The reason I hesitate to post a lot of the questions I have is because I'm sure they have all been answered numerous times before, but unfortunately, they are all mostly buried among all the other posts on 162 pages!! The other thing I noticed is that this main topic heading only goes back to sometime last year, which I assume means all of your old posts from previous years have fallen off or been archived somewhere. That's a ton of valuable information that can't be benefited from anymore and it's a shame to let it all go to waste for the sake of the lack of available space under a single heading.

I read Shade's "Organization" post from last year and while my suggestion is somewhat similar, I am not advocating the complete separation of "on" and "off" topic posts. My suggestion is simply to create a new topic heading like "Previous WWTMAM Contestants Tell All", or something not quite as cheesy, where your valuable advice could be together in one place, where potential contestants could ask questions, and where newbies like me could read each of your individual stories and personal experience so those of us who are curious (as am I) can know who the previous contestants even are, how much you won, any strategies or general tips you wish to convey, and most importantly, what you wore on the show! (lol, but seriously!) You could even have a "sticky" topic in there for those of you who are always graciously offering your PAF services! If you wanted to expand it to include advice for auditions, that would be helpful to a lot of people as well. It would likely take a long time before posts would "fall off" so this would serve as a very informative, non-repetitive "resource room" as well as a suedo "trophy room" where all past "winners" (and future winners!) can proudly share their WWTBAM accomplishments!

I know I'm just a lowly newbie, so if you guys are content with your bored the way it is, then by all means don't change it on my account but I do believe it would be an outstanding addition to an already amazing thing you guys have going here! Take it or leave it! :lol:

-TexasMommy

Re: A "Newbie's" Perspective (for what it's worth)

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:37 am
by earendel
TexasMommy wrote:The reason I hesitate to post a lot of the questions I have is because I'm sure they have all been answered numerous times before, but unfortunately, they are all mostly buried among all the other posts on 162 pages!! The other thing I noticed is that this main topic heading only goes back to sometime last year, which I assume means all of your old posts from previous years have fallen off or been archived somewhere. That's a ton of valuable information that can't be benefited from anymore and it's a shame to let it all go to waste for the sake of the lack of available space under a single heading.
Welcome, TexasMommy, to the madness that is the BAM Bored. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have about the contestant process - even though we may have answered the same questions before, we know that new people come looking for information and we have a number of people (myself included) who aren't shy about sharing our stories and admiring our own cleverness. As to the old posts, this Bored only came into existence in October last year; we have had a rather nomadic existence in cyberspace, moving from one host to another (we started out on the "official BAM discussion board".

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:46 am
by madamemeisha
I have to agree with TexasMommy here. It would be really nice to have one section that's purely for game show/BAM-related topics. Honestly, I don't care what everyone here thinks about Sarah Palin, but I'd love everyone's past stories about their Millionaire experiences, etc.

I know I'm a newbie too, but I think having one section for "random" threads and another for BAM threads would be helpful and appreciated.

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:55 pm
by minimetoo26
I'm not even close to a newbie, but I can see how this place could be daunting and unnavigable for someone who doesn't know all the "secret handshakes." This place is quite welcoming to newcomers (mitigates all those years of inbreeding somewhat!) but all the nicknames and MM and in-jokes and knowing who likes who and who hates who and all that nonsense would be difficult enough to sort out even without the sheer volume of posts. And boy, are we a gabby bunch.

So, if there was a special place for on-topic stuff, or some kind of "So You Wanna Be a Contestant?" FAQ, or an archive, or a sticky thread here for newbies or recent card-receivers to post questions for the resident experts, that could help and we'd stop scaring away some new cool people with our randomness. And politics.

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:35 am
by TexasMommy
I couldn't have said it better! Everyone here seems very nice and funny, too! The problem for new people is that around 75% -85% of the posts don't mean anything to us because we have no clue what you're talking about and with a zillion new posts a day, finding the other 25% that you just "kinda" get is like the perverbial needle in a haystack.

Since there doesn't seem to be much interest from the board moderators to add a "Millionaire" forum, I can only assume that everyone is basically content with the group of regulars and with the current format and do not have much desire to bring in many newcommers. I'm certainly not saying there is anything wrong with that! Personally I think it's pretty great that you started this for people with a commonality and allowed it to transition into a large, entertaining discussion group for friends. It's just that. as new people, we get excited when we stumble upon this site directly before or right after we audition for the show because we think we just struck "Millionaire information" gold, potentially putting an end to our frustration resulting from numerous failed internet searches, and then once we realize the enormous filtering process we must go through to find it, most people, I imagine, give up.

You guys seem to be very welcoming to everyone who visits here, and it is perfectly fine to keep things as they are, as long as you don't mind it when most newbies, feeling like outsiders looking in, decide not to stick around. Who knows, after my show tapes next week, I may create a new WWTBAM site that you guys can post a link to here for those people who only care about show information with the hope, of course, that you experienced people will come and post some of your tips on it occassionaly! :wink:

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:51 am
by littlebeast13
TexasMommy wrote:I couldn't have said it better! Everyone here seems very nice and funny, too! The problem for new people is that around 75% -85% of the posts don't mean anything to us because we have no clue what you're talking about and with a zillion new posts a day, finding the other 25% that you just "kinda" get is like the perverbial needle in a haystack.

Since there doesn't seem to be much interest from the board moderators to add a "Millionaire" forum, I can only assume that everyone is basically content with the group of regulars and with the current format and do not have much desire to bring in many newcommers. I'm certainly not saying there is anything wrong with that! Personally I think it's pretty great that you started this for people with a commonality and allowed it to transition into a large, entertaining discussion group for friends. It's just that. as new people, we get excited when we stumble upon this site directly before or right after we audition for the show because we think we just struck "Millionaire information" gold, potentially putting an end to our frustration resulting from numerous failed internet searches, and then once we realize the enormous filtering process we must go through to find it, most people, I imagine, give up.

You guys seem to be very welcoming to everyone who visits here, and it is perfectly fine to keep things as they are, as long as you don't mind it when most newbies, feeling like outsiders looking in, decide not to stick around. Who knows, after my show tapes next week, I may create a new WWTBAM site that you guys can post a link to here for those people who only care about show information with the hope, of course, that you experienced people will come and post some of your tips on it occassionaly! :wink:

While I do feel somewhat for the newbies who come to the Bored who are looking for only the "good stuff", having everything located in one place has long been a part of our Bored culture, dating back to the days when we turned the official ABC Bored into our own personal chat room. For 8 years, it wasn't a choice since we were on Bored outside of our control.... but after this community has existed for that long in that format, it's just unimaginable to me to change something so central to what this Bored has been about.

And in practical terms, look at how many hits this thread has gotten despite being the only active thread in this subforum for over 2 weeks now. Most of the members over here don't even check in on the subfora we have now. The transcript forum is basically an archive since the transcript threads themselves actually exist on the main forum. This subforum has basically used up its purpose as what improvements were made to the Bored were all done a long time ago. And for the life of me, I still don't know why FNGD is played in its own forum.....

This place does go out of its way to attract and retain newbies, and help them adjust to the ever-daunting task of easing their way into the ways and means of out group, especially since we are so different from many other online communities out there that are extremely anal about what can and can't be done in their little corner of cyberspace. We have gotten and retained more new posters this year than we have in any other year in a loooooong time, and that warms my heart even though I'm rarely on the welcoming committee....

I am open to alternate suggestions for storing important "on topic" information however, whether it be adding more links to the Reference thread, or creating a "catch-all" thread for auditions stories/tips, show stories/tips, etc....

lb13

Re: A "Newbie's" Perspective (for what it's worth)

Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2010 8:22 pm
by Rainbow9286
Is there a page that explains the abbreviations? Some are obvious but not all. Also, what's a llama?

Re: A "Newbie's" Perspective (for what it's worth)

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 6:18 am
by rayxtwo
Rainbow9286 wrote:Is there a page that explains the abbreviations? Some are obvious but not all. Also, what's a llama?
A "llama" is a person that left the show with no money won. This goes way back to the first player that did this when he said that Muhammad used llamas to cross the Alps instead of elephants, and left with nothing.

Ray

Re: A "Newbie's" Perspective (for what it's worth)

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 7:39 am
by TheCalvinator24
rayxtwo wrote:
Rainbow9286 wrote:Is there a page that explains the abbreviations? Some are obvious but not all. Also, what's a llama?
A "llama" is a person that left the show with no money won. This goes way back to the first player that did this when he said that Muhammad used llamas to cross the Alps instead of elephants, and left with nothing.

Ray
Hannibal