Should we have an 'introduce yourself' forum?

[Perry Ge]

Lots of new members are introducing themselves in various forums, which is wonderful, but the threads are kind of scattered all over the place. Would it be a good idea to have a specific 'introduce yourself' forum or sticky somewhere dedicated to those kinds of posts? Another forum I'm a member of does this and it works pretty well :D.

[::John::]

This one (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=118137) was used quite a lot - it still gets found and used from time to time.

[_aravena]

Never knew it existed. I have no idea where my first post is...

[ryandavid__]

would anyone actually bother browsing the 'introduce yourself' thread if we had one? sounds like it'll be full of posts, and no replies.

[Anke]

I quite like it when first-posters introduce themselves in a new thread with a question, because they are usually inundated with answers very quickly and this forms their opinion of the forum, which is usually a very good one. If there was an introduction thread, no-one who was a regular here would read it and the new posters might think that the forum isn't listening to them.

[Bill Roberts]

It's a nice thought, but I too, have doubts that a specific forum for introducing yourself would work.

I think Anke has pretty much summed it up here. Let's just encourage people to jump in on any thread that interests them.

[Cadwell]

In my opinion, no. I just joined a new forum which had a "welcome posts" area. It was full of threads with sub-witty attempts at getting a new and original variation on the theme of "Hello" as their title. Each post was answered by the same half dozen members who all wrote variations on "welcome to the forum".

In all it was a fairly pointless exercise and to those who might think it was genuine an welcoming I am afraid it seemed anything but. It was more mechanical if anything, people were going through the motions because they felt they had to. I don't think POTN needs that.

[thekid24]

Agree with statement above.

Just jump right in...dont stick your toes in to test the water;)

[Keith R]

Another "no" here.

Birdforum.net has an "Introduce yourself" forum and it's pointless - nothing but page after page of "Hello, I'm Keith, I'm from England and I like birds..." postings followed by equally inane "Hello and welcome - you'll like it here..." responses.

Why?

In fact its only demonstrable purpose seems to be to allow certain "serial welcomers" to bump up their post count.