Lots of Newbies... Let's take it easy on them while they learn

[SteveO]

Hey Gang,

The new book is bringing new people to the forums. Many of them are reading the information and attempting to grasp the concepts.

For some people, this process takes a long time. There are a lot of beliefs that come with the scripted life and most cannot just toss these ideas out of their heads. It takes practice.

There are those that will grab on immediately but this is a small minority.

I would like to suggest that we give people time to acquiesce to the process. Perhaps just take it easy on some of our responses or choose not to respond at all.

Some of us have been living this world for a long time. Some are just learning. Others will never join us in the way we think or may not ever be able to build a successful business. Simple respect can be paid to all.

 

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[ZF Lee]

Agreed!
However, UNSCRIPTED is even more of a beast than TMF , so I expect even my own progress time to be cut shorter.

Since UNSCRIPTED was launched, the number of quality posts have jumped. In the next few years, there's gonna be lots of good surprises.

But Kaizen principle in play, huh?

 

[AFMKelvin]

Tough love.

 

[SteveO]

Tough love.

I fully agree that there is a time for the "no nonsense" approach. There is also a time for patience to let people absorb what they are learning. If you are thirsty and drink water you are quenched. Place a firehose up to your face and you can suffocate. How many times have people quit their jobs because they think it is the right thing to do? They hear words and see others with successful businesses but may not be aware of the time and effort needed. Of course it is not a problem for some people. They have a plan and are marching.

 

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[amp0193]

Thanks for posting this.

It's sometimes easy to forget that all of us were in their shoes once before.

My old posts here are cringe-worthy.

 

[Max Gambit]

Your post makes me feel respect, for your attention to the newcomers! This is the first site where I see this approach. I'm very glad that I found your website! Thank you so much!

 

[Scot]

Thanks for the reminder @SteveO.

Like @amp0193 said, my first posts here were cringeworthy too.

In fact, my first post was a question asked of the forum. @458 responded in his typical no nonsense way, but I appreciated his candor.

We were all new here once and didn't know a damn thing about how business worked. We all suffer now from the curse of knowledge. Things that seem so obvious to us are unknowns to others.

As always, this forum continues to be a great community and I have no doubts it will stay this way.

 

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[JAJT]

Great thread, thanks for posting this.

We're likely going to see the same few entry-level questions asked again and again so this makes for a good reminder to put ourselves in their shoes.

Tough love has it's place but it should be used strategically as a tool for teaching the stubborn to think bigger - not as a stick to thwack every hand being raised when innocent (yet perhaps ignorant) questions are asked.

Patience where possible.
Tough love where necessary.
Add value regardless.

 

[mikey3times]

I know I may be overstepping, but I think this needs a BUMP.

 

[Patrick R]

This. All of this. There has definitely been an influx of new members and, as you said, quality posts. However along with this have come many of lesser quality. This may by the "takers" intent, but sometimes it is simply from being too new to the fastlane and forums and not knowing better. I know when I first joined I got some amazing advice from people here that truly changed how I looked at things. The new folks deserve that opportunity too.

...And if they don't take the opportunity then the crushing starts....but only after

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Is this fastlane? *ducks to avoid incoming projectiles...*

Seriously, this is a good reminder. We were all newbies at some point. Welcome Newcomers! (Gosh, it feels like yesterday when I was a newbie myself. Time sure does fly.)

 

[MJ DeMarco]

If anyone doubts the forum's patience for newbs who don't have a grasp on things and may ask a newb question, I invite you to take a peek at the Landfill and review Tanisha's posts.

The Landfill

Time and time again we gave her patience. We gave her reason. We gave her information and a strategy. Instead of absorbing, she took it personally and continued to double and triple down on the same nonsense.

To be honest, I'm not sure if she was real or a troll.

This forum has shown time and time again that we have patience. We just don't have a lot of tolerance once it's clear the recipient is blockheaded.

Once again some would rather be right while they wallow in their servitude, the rest of us prefer to be free.

You either change or you don't; the world won't change for you.

 

[SteveO]

If anyone doubts the forum's patience for newbs who don't have a grasp on things and may ask a newb question, I invite you to take a peek at the Landfill and review Tanisha's posts.

Nothing could be done on that one. She was given an incredible amount of solid advice.

These posts came up around the time that I posted this. All I could do was slap my head and moan.

 

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[jon.a]

Nothing could be done on that one. She was given an incredible amount of solid advice.

These posts came up around the time that I posted this. All I could do was slap my head and moan.

I was wondering about that

 

[Scot]

I always give people the benefit of the doubt. You don't know people's individual circumstances. For example, we had a new user not to long ago who put right in his headline he was autistic and I watch some users act like fools.


Be curteous out there guys. We can't tolerate trolls, but we also aren't the comment section of YouTube.

 

[SteveO]

One of the more frustrating parts of the discussions are the repeated questions. Another are the people that ask but don't really want an answer. They already have their outline. It seems that this is typically someone looking for support or confirmation around their idea.

Sometimes when we answer these types of questions, we can sound like our patience is thin. Especially when many of us respond to the same topic with the same basic answer.

There is a lot of knowledge here. My intent was that we should sound welcoming and without arrogance.

The example that @MJ DeMarco was not the intended target.

 

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[Andy Black]

One of the more frustrating parts of the discussions are the repeated questions. Another is the people that ask but don't really want an answer. They already have their outline. It seems that this is typically someone looking for support or confirmation around their idea.

Sometimes when we answer these types of questions, we can sound like our patience is thin. Especially when many of us respond to the same topic with the same basic answer.

There is a lot of knowledge here. My intent was that we should sound welcoming and without arrogance.

The example that @MJ DeMarco was not the intended target.

When I tire of repeating myself I go create a thread I can point to in future.

This ensures the content generated is guaranteed to already solve a need, and has already been polished a few times till it's fit for publishing.

It's my way of helping people, creating evergreen content that helps people, and not getting (as) frustrated repeating myself.

It's one way of finding a need, refining a solution, and then publishing it.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

One of the more frustrating parts of the discussions are the repeated questions. Another is the people that ask but don't really want an answer. They already have their outline. It seems that this is typically someone looking for support or confirmation around their idea.

The one's that get to me are where they ask questions, usually very intelligent questions, but have absolutely NO intention of taking action.

None. All talk, and no action at all.

It pains me to see people with so much potential not take action out of fear or whatever. I know how inaction goes because I've been there, done that (more times than I care to admit), but it's hard to communicate "why won't you take action?!" without sounding like an impatient arrogant douche.

Thanks for the reminder @SteveO , I needed it.

Is there a probationary period? After 30 days or something, then we can give them a hard time?

(I'm kidding obviously. I hope everyone feels welcome and I'm happy to see all the new people. After all, I've not been here that long really, and y'all made me feel very welcome here. Hope others feel the same)

 

[Andy Black]

The one's that get to me are where they ask questions, usually very intelligent questions, but have absolutely NO intention of taking action.

None. All talk, and no action at all.

It pains me to see people with so much potential not take action out of fear or whatever. I know how inaction goes because I've been there, done that (more times than I care to admit), but it's hard to communicate "why won't you take action?!" without sounding like an impatient arrogant douche.

Thanks for the reminder @SteveO , I needed it.

Is there a probationary period? After 30 days or something, then we can give them a hard time?

(I'm kidding obviously. I hope everyone feels welcome and I'm happy to see all the new people. After all, I've not been here that long really, and y'all made me feel very welcome here. Hope others feel the same)

Worse is the "Yes, but".

Someone asks a question.
Someone replies.
They then proceed to expend all their time and energy explaining why it won't work, instead of working out how it will.

A couple of related threads:

• Yes, but
• How! vs How?

 

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[Deleted2BB3x9]

All we can do is point them in the right direction and not expect too much. It's up to them to figure it out. Sadly, most don't listen.

 

[jmusic]

Another thing to keep in mind is that some people come here and ask a question as a way to try to get free content for their website somewhere else.

This thread is a good example, no one seemed to catch on in the thread but it seems pretty clear to me:

Quick question about making money really fast on Facebook

Props to the mods for pulling weeds and keeping the garden looking nice.

 

[Iammelissamoore]

This is a beautiful reminder.

I will admit though, in cases where I saw 'straight to the point - tough love' responses, it did actually get the person (and others) to positively change their mindset. A lot of, now seasoned posters, admit the tough love got them into the right frame of mind while adding value to the forum.

However, I deeply respect the point we've all come to agree based on OP. We are genuinely passionate about the forum and we look forward to doing well while assisting others in doing same, it's surely a great reminder that we've each been at that point initially.

 

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[G-Man]

Thanks for posting this.

It's sometimes easy to forget that all of us were in their shoes once before.

My old posts here are cringe-worthy.

Mine too. I remember that occasionally when I want to just lay into somebody. I'm working on not being an a**hole. It's a major life goal right now.

Is there a probationary period? After 30 days or something, then we can give them a hard time?

Maybe that's the answer. Those folks usually disappear long before 30 days, so we can get to the same end result without resorting to being mean. Every time I'm mean to someone @SteveO appears out of freaking nowhere sounding like Golf Course Gandhi. That dude ruins the fun every time

 

[SteveO]

I believe that the original wording of this post could easily be interpreted in more than one way. It certainly was not aimed at the value of information or patience of the forum members. I will refrain from posts of this nature in the future.