- Joined
- Dec 18, 2009
- Messages
- 5,998
Welcome new member! Your first impulse as a new "red name" Uey is probably to rip off your pants, drink a tumbler of tequila, run around uncoordinately destroying random valuable things, dry hump a pallet of garden gnomes, evade the highway patrol by jumping a GTO over a train, and wake up two days later in a pile of your own filth underneath an expressway overpass three counties over from where you started. Good on you!
Your second impulse is probably to dive into your new game with your new guildies and totally make friends and enjoy life. Also good--carry on!
Your third impulse may be to explore the forums, and you may perhaps feel a strange desire to help out in your new community. You may ask, "hey, can I help interact with and vet new applicants?" The answer is yes; yes you can, Padawan!
You start by just jumping right in and chatting with applicants in the forums. Although only officers and community leader-types have the power to vote applicants in or out, any member may help vet applicants. Crazy, right?
You may also encounter and interact with applicants in game. If so, and you have stuff to say (good or bad, or even just that an applicant is present and seems to be serious about applying), jump into their application and speak up. It helps the officers a lot.
Remember, we are our own last line of defense against letting goons, drama queens, trolls, dudebros, L33T Kidz, and other Un-Unrepentant types through the door!
There's no real formula to chatting with applicants or probing them deeper (giggity!). Everyone has their own style.
Here are a few pro tips though:
Now get out there and kick ass, Tiger! Share your own tips 'n tricks for vetting apps!
Your second impulse is probably to dive into your new game with your new guildies and totally make friends and enjoy life. Also good--carry on!
Your third impulse may be to explore the forums, and you may perhaps feel a strange desire to help out in your new community. You may ask, "hey, can I help interact with and vet new applicants?" The answer is yes; yes you can, Padawan!
You start by just jumping right in and chatting with applicants in the forums. Although only officers and community leader-types have the power to vote applicants in or out, any member may help vet applicants. Crazy, right?
You may also encounter and interact with applicants in game. If so, and you have stuff to say (good or bad, or even just that an applicant is present and seems to be serious about applying), jump into their application and speak up. It helps the officers a lot.
Remember, we are our own last line of defense against letting goons, drama queens, trolls, dudebros, L33T Kidz, and other Un-Unrepentant types through the door!
There's no real formula to chatting with applicants or probing them deeper (giggity!). Everyone has their own style.
Here are a few pro tips though:
- Apps 101. If you are interested in vetting applicants, start by reading some other applications and getting a sense of our style and how we ask questions and chat with people.
- Learn from the pros. You may notice that some members have a particularly good way of starting conversations, getting shy applicants engaged, getting momentum to build in a conversation, etc. Feel free to steal their tricks and use them in your own app vetting.
- Timing is everything. I like to avoid coming in late on an app that already has a lot of posts and back and forth going. You may just want to hold off until you can get in early on a new app.
- Don't bite off more than you can chew. I like to concentrate on maybe max 3 apps at a time. Otherwise you start forgetting who was who and maybe your start phoning it in. Keep it fresh and fun for applicants as well as yourself.
- Finish what you start. We expect applicants to be active and follow up in apps. Likewise, if you start chatting with an applicant, you should come back to their app regularly and try to help keep moving it along.
- Be constructive. Not all apps, or applicants, are great at first. If you come across a stinker app, take the high road and try to steer the applicant into doing better. Applicants who are true U material will step up and do better if they see you are stepping up and helping them in their app. Those that aren't will go elsewhere.
- Be genuine. Don't just bust out form letter questions on new applicants. Read their app, find a foothold, and build off of it. On some weaker apps you may have to start with one of your generic boiler plate questions just to get a conversation started, but don't start there if you don't have to. Be suave, baby.
- Don't shit where you eat. I don't know how this piece of advice applies to application vetting either, but it's always good general advice for life. Don't bring a knife to a gun fight. A Smith and Wesson beats 4 aces. That sort of thing. I can probably stop now. Yeah.
Now get out there and kick ass, Tiger! Share your own tips 'n tricks for vetting apps!
