One thing that I noted right away, when I had first joined, was how little activity the Introduction board recieved, so I purposefully never bothered to create an intro for myself, and instead clutzed around 'til I found some sort of RP that I felt I could enjoy being a part of, and started my RP career from there. Perhaps, to an extent, this limited my ability to really connect with a wider range of members, but I can also attribute that to my own lack of wanting to talk to people :lol

As someone who blundered in here one day, not entirely sure what to expect, I can definitely say I was rather intimidated by the users around me who had 1000+ posts under their belt, as well as 500+ days, which did kind of make me feel exceptionally "newbie" with my 0 days and 3 posts. I hadn't recieved much of a "welcome" (from my own lack of wanting to introduce myself, but again, whats the point if I'm going to recieve 1 response, 3 at best?) and felt distanced due to my lack of experience. Perhaps this could've been curbed if I was given more opportunity to interact with veterans, since at the time I wasn't aware of the Discord, and the Chat was gradually dying.

However - one thing that I have to note is that I had to put in the effort to get people to recognize my username (even if there are only a few who do), which I did feel was rewarding, rather than having all these friends handed to me upon my logging in for the first time. There is still a respect I hold for more veteran members, especially those who have been around since (pre)Guildfall, which has grown as I've gotten to know some of them. Moreover, as a new user, the insentive for me wanting to stay on this forum was how much I friggin' love to write, not whether or not I could get my name out there and make as many friends in as little a time as possible.

Giving new members the means of learning their way around the site doesnt entirely seem necessary, to me, given how (relatively) basic the format is and how I picked it up in probably under ten minutes. Same with the actual act of roleplaying - I just had to look at a couple of other RPs, as well as the guides we have already, and I felt like I was good to go, with the exception of learning some of the more complex number systems, and such.

Getting the community involved with the newbies is something that would take a good deal of effort, and a means of gratification, beyond the satisfaction of bein' a cool guy. Then again, maybe it wouldnt, so long as we can get enough attention drawn to the issue and enough action being taken by the community as a whole.

I don't really have much suggestion as for what we should do, though I do like some of the point system concepts that have been thrown out there. Just my two cents on the matter.