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Member Introductions

Member Introductions serve as the base for a Member to show themselves to the Community. Your Introduction is the first Post you made when you joined the Community. Your Introduction allows the following to take place:

1. You can talk about yourself, without making other Topics go off topic.
2. Alert us to their schedule, for example: going on vacation, away for a business trip, etc.
3. Ask questions about how the Community works or gain help from Support.
4. Interact with other Members gaining friendships in a free and open manner

Some Patterns

I don't know if others have picked up on this but if a person joins and makes a lengthy detailed Introduction then two things are likely to happen:

1. That is their first and last Post, then they delete their account
2. They never go beyond that one Introduction and phase out

Whereas if someone is concise with their Introduction and keep it brief they are more likely to actually participate in the Community and continue as a Member for a long period of time.

Anyone else notice this?

Introductions Member

I have noticed, that I have noticed similar things, other places. In this forum/site, JB and other authorities will notice certain traits and tendencies of new posters, patterns into which most seem to fall, probably because by this time, the site and its functioning is pretty well established and routine, so, by chance, there are only so many results that will likely be obtained from new members being introduced into the "environment".

Although some more active, veteran members also tend to be able to get this same handle on trends like this, these kinds of observations may bypass casual (even if long term) members or especially relatively new people. I think this is a case-by-case basis, per website, and the details and behavior are specific to each website, for the most part, so lengthy introductions at other sites may have entirely different dynamics and likelihood of continued participation, due to the rest of the site's features and functioning.

Here I can understand to an extent, as some will no doubt simply be curious people who have happened onto the site and/or felt the urge to make a pressing post, more like a single blog "core dump", and once done, they lose interest and forget about it, which is probably more a general tendency of that person, than anything having to do with ID.

Many simply have seen the site/forum as simply another one to join to see what it had to offer them, to entertain them or methods to allow them to entertain themselves, and finding little in keeping with their own goals, they leave, or their behavior itself is incompatible, which more often is the case with younger posters, with more immature or irreverent attitudes, but can easily include older posters who feel, in general, more freedom on the internet, to act in ways that are perhaps different than they do in normal life, and aren't able to appreciate the stability and level of consistent maturity maintained by the forum rules.

Others I have definitely seen become confused, frustrated and insulted, and suffer from information overload, being confronted with the very strongly emphasized requirement to make an individual introduction post, then familiarize themselves with what, to the average surfer, is an inordinately large number of rules, some of which probably seem unusual or even baffling. The apparent forum bots and corrections and editing and administration, each seeming to have their own particular styles and leniency and level of cordiality, strike many as out-of-place and extremely strange, with no particular explicit "authority" or equation of them as administrators or moderators, and for some, worst of all, are impersonal automatons which probably strike them like a "phone tree" where user input and replies are all automated.

Lastly, the forums themselves probably seem "busy" to some, with counterintuitive categorization and hierarchy, as well as different types of stickied threads and announcements and multiple sectioned threads, some of which are meant to also serve as the only categories in which to post, in some headings, while other headings freely allow the creation of new threads. The somewhat distracting odd graphic, coupled with the seeming inconsistent "last post" date and time for different forums, could be more and aesthetic turn-off than anything else.

Those are my guesses.

Member Introductions Feedback & FAQ News Community

Jpatt you should become an analyst, if you are not already one. Although you have touched on general reasons for people coming here / leaving I have learned from experience of running some 25+ Communities that the same happens in all, it is not unique to here. The point I'm making in this Thread though is those who focus on these elaborate Introductions rarely go beyond that. For some reason I believe they feel that by putting such an elaborate history that they will become the center of attention whereas our Introduction system is just a means to find out why the person joined and what they are interested in so that the correct Bot / Member(s) can respond with the related links.

Introductions Member

I don't think I put a whole lot into my intro. I don't think I put a whole lot into any one thread here otherwise I wouldn't have the time to post in other places. Maybe they get themselves so worked up over their intro that their bummbed out when its time to post elsewhere in the site.

Introductions Member

Update: Within each Member's post is a simple button called, "My Intro" which does two things:

1. It helps Members understand the purpose of their Introduction.
2. Finds that Member's Introduction so they can befriend each other in the right place.