Welcome Wagon

I don’t want to take sole responsibility for this for all of future time but I have an idea.Periodically I see the newest member listing with a new member name in it. Seems appropriate but after that … nothing.How bout a Welcome Wagon. Or a welcome thread.Harveyspecter could be our first victim.

Harveyspecter, weclome to Evc.OK now that the formal stuff is over let’s get into it.Who are you harveyspecter? Can we call you Harvey or Spec or something? What’s your favorite color? Do you think viruses are alive? Are genes really selfish or just a bit vain? And what do you think this dark matter stuff is?Come on down. Sit a spell. Put your feet up. Tell us all your secrets.

Welcome to EvC, a place to test your ideas amongst rational people (well...except believers like me. )The rational ones will challenge you (gently I hope) to better understand your own theories and to improve your own belief and/or scientific theory.

I would rather see perhaps a more formal "Welcome Aboard" mechanism.For example, when we arrived at my permanent duty assignment in North Dakota, the base chaplain had a "Welcome Aboard" for all married newcomers (I was one such, so I just forget if unmarried airmen had been included; mere self-centeredness). We got the standard joke of "There are indeed four seasons in North Dakota: June, July, August, and winter" -- what we did not realize at that time (we arrived in July) was that that was not a joke. And we got a Welcome Aboard packet that included a floppy record (they were popular in the late 70's and would even appear as magazine inserts) that opened with the howling of the winter wind ... nobody ever listened to that record past that point.So, I like the idea of this topic, but I think that it should be elevated to a more official function.Welcome aboard. This is what we are about. This is what we expect (ie, point them most explicitly to the forum guidelines). Maybe some kind of heads-up of the kind of give-and-take they may encounter. And requesting that they present us with some kind of introduction of where their heads are at and what their intentions are, etc.That way, maybe their very first posting won't get jumped on so strongly. Or not ... .Just to try to make my ideas a bit more clear, there maybe should be a first stop for newcomers to understand what this forum is about. Something to reduce the initial shock.

A structured formal welcome routine? You may be right but it's too much fun to just jump in and get wet.Right now I would like to hang out a flag for harveyspecter to see if he should come by.

Congratulations, Harvey. Newcomers usually just get flayed alive.