A couple times today, and in recent reviews of Sindome on other sites, the Game-Help channel has come up.
I think this channel is great, and a lot of the time it provides excellent answers to new players questions. However, in looking at some of the feedback and reviews, it becomes apparent that we aren't doing enough here.
Telling people to FOIC and leaving it at that is not useful. This is why I added @good-answer so we have a carrot for good answers. But it hasn't improved as much as I would have hoped and so now we will have to have a stick.
If you aren't being helpful on Game-Help, do not answer. No answer, in this case, may be better than giving an answer that seems like we are gate keeping knowledge from new players or are just 'in the in crowd' and don't care about the experience of new players.
This is not subjective. There is a way to provide an answer to a question you cannot answer without making the person who asked it feel silly for doing so. Remember these folks often don't know our rules, and patiently explaining them to them and pointing them to resources that could help, including the video tutorials, is the entire purpose of the channel.
I know it can be frustrating when you get the same questions over and over. When that happens, open a thread on the BGBB and discuss ways this information could be better surfaced to new players before they ever get to the game help channel.
Do not be abrupt with new players. If you do, I'm going to see it, because I've asked several players to flag unhelpful answers to me so that I can straight up ask you to get off the channel.
You do not need to be on the channel if you do not want to be, ya know? But when you are there you are a representative of our community and if you want more players to play the game with, you have to be patient, kind, and understanding. That's how we build our community.
To all of you out there already doing an excellent job, thank you for your hard work and diligence.
-- S
