I was just thinking that it would have been nice when I first registered and became a member of Dokuga, for a cute little welcome message to be posted on my wall. I felt lost and a little alienated being new and not knowing my way around the site. I don't know who is responsible, but it would have been a nice gesture posting a welcome note.

That's a great idea, unfortunately our amazing moderators and site admins are totally swamped with running stuff, and fixing problems. The members don't get notices about new members, so there's no way for us to know if someone is new.
I'm sure that there is probably someway to find out who is new and stuff, but I don't know how.
Maybe you should talk with one of the admins or mods about how you can find out about new members or where or whatever and then you could start like a club thing of being sure that new members are welcomed and giving a person to contact for help with learning the ropes so to speak.
I've thought about it once or twice but I've just got too much on my plate most of the time to even hope to be able to do something like that.
Most everyone on Dokuga is friendly and helpful. I haven't actually come across anyone that was unwilling to help when it was asked for.
Either way, welcome, and if you decide to start a club or group or something to welcome new people, be sure to spread the word about it. I'm sure that there are others that would join you in visiting the new profiles and making people feel like they are not alone. I'll help when and where I can, but I won't promise anything as I'm quickly getting to the point that I'm not sure I'll be able to keep writing on either of my current stories.
Good luck!
~Starfyre

I am happy to know that you feel as I do, and if I do start a club or group to welcome new people, you would be the first to know. Thanks for the suggestions, and I hope you continue with your stories.

It's a wonderful idea, but the main problem would be figuring out who, among our new members, is a legitimate member, and who has signed up from a spam account. Spammers are a major problem and eat up a lot of Admin time winnowing them out, banning them, and reporting their IP addresses for blocking. Still, we're committed to keeping as much spam as possible off the forum and away from our members, so it's time well-spent.

The only thing I could suggest would be for you to click on the "Members" at the top of the page. You would get a list of new members, and could then check profiles and see if they look like they're "real" or not, if that makes any sense. I agree that it would be terrific if we could do something like this but, as Starfyre said, the Admins like myself are swamped.

The "club" idea is also a good one, but you again have the problem of trying to figure out what is a spam account and what is a valid new member. *sigh* Sorry you had so much trouble when you started, and I sincerely hope that your experience here is better now!

~~Wiccan~~

Thanks for the information, I have not thought about the spam accounts, and I know that is a serious problem, however I will think about it and when I have an idea about the welcoming committee or group, I will run it by you and others who wish to help, so it can be decided on what is the best way to go about it.

Not that I think we need any more forums for the admin to monitor, however, a nice way to accomplish this and weed out spammers as well as welcome new members might be a new member forum.

A place where newer members could post a little intro about themselves ( again, that's what profiles are for, but nt everyone utilizes them) and ask questions about areas of the site they are confused with. As seasoned members if the site who know our way around we could ell them out rather than having fall on the already-busy admins shoulders.