Granny is not the only new member who has wandered in during one of Mudcat's less sensitive moments and wondered what the hell they had gotten into. Her exit is a fraction louder than others' have been, but I don't think she even realized that most of us are not even bothering to read this thread, or the ones it relates to, too much anymore. I just wish that new members could somehow get sent directly to the FAQ thread as soon as they join so they could get a heads-up on what to expect. This is a wonderful forum indeed, but for people new to the net or to the Mudcat, it can overwhelm pretty quickly. I hate to see us hang onto just the tougher visitors.

If you care about this sort of thing, perhaps there is a reminder in this situation to us all, that befriending the newer members can help us all, in the long run. This can be done in a personal, one to one fashion, and I do this when I can. But there is a way to do it less personally too if that's your style. I made a template for my desktop that creates an invitation and clicky to the FAQ thread. I'm going to try to remember to use it whenever I start a new thread, as I did with the one I created earlier today. I hope to include links to the other wonderful material piling up now in the Permathreads, as well. Nothing quite like a link to get someone to go to these.

~S~