Welcome PM

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With the recent upgrade I now have the ability to send newly registered members a welcome message, something I have high hopes for. So here is the final draft of my welcome message (sans the links on words like forum rules, FAQ, etc. They'll be there in the real thing). Comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.

Welcome to Boards o' Magick!

Hello and welcome to the Boards o' Magick community, provided by Sorcerer's Place for your enjoyment. The purpose of this message it to make anyone who reads it go from to .

NOTE: You REALLY do need to read ALL of this. If you do not, the first mistake you make will almost certainly be something that is covered here. So, to spare us all the trouble, please read this. Pretty please, with a cherry on top? Thank you!

We know that being new at anything is always hard. Here we will try to explain to you how things work around here so you can start posting as soon as possible. First and foremost, you should read the forum rules, if you haven't read them upon registering. Moderators and administrators strictly enforce these rules, and it is imperative that you read, understand and acknowledge all of them before you start posting at Boards o' Magick. All of the most common mistakes people tend to do are covered there.

Secondly, you should read the frequently asked questions list. Practically everything you most likely want (and need) to know about these boards is covered there. Registering, gems & ranking, custom avatars, portraits & titles, common acronyms, smilies, private messaging and much more is all explained there in detail.

Now that we're done with the most important things (whew!), just a few more general tips that will make your stay here much easier:

* Before you post in any forum, carefully read the description of that forum to see if what you want to post there is actually appropriate. (Forum description is the text below each forum title on the forum listing page, but can also be found inside the stickied Forum Guidelines threads on top of the thread listing in every forum.)

* If English isn't your first language (or is, but you slept through all the elementary school English classes), please bookmark and make use of this spelling checker on the text you want to post, BEFORE you actually post it on our boards. People are much more likely to respond to text they can understand in the first reading. And you will be much less likely to become the unfortunate recipient of the GMotW plaque. (See FAQ for more info.)

* If you want to chat in real time with many of the regular visitors of this message board, read this to find out how.

* Do not delete this message, but store it for future reference.

Congratulations!

You are now properly equipped to deal with anything you might come across while exploring the Boards o' Magick. We hope you will soon become as integral a part of our community as many other people already are. Following the above guidelines, you simply cannot go wrong.

Finally, if you have any questions related to Boards o' Magick or Sorcerer's Place, do not hesitate to ask. We are always here to help. Please don't think that simply because we state our rules in advance, we are overly strict in enforcing them and that we don't tolerate mistakes newbies tend to make. Nothing could be further from the truth. The worst thing you have to fear here is getting a warning PM from one of the moderators or administrators. Only repeat and deliberate violations of our rules are strictly sanctioned, but never anything that may happen with casual posting. In short - you don't need to be afraid to post for fear of making mistakes. We don't bite... much.

 

Ok then, we'll go with this.

 

Nope... but I'll edit in the links into this one so you can use it for reference.

 

I don't want to scare them too much right away.

 

Well, that would kinda kill the intention of familiarizing them with rules and so on. I don't think they'd take it very seriously unless the message itself was written in such a manner. And there is a smiley at the end, after all.

 

OK, I edited it to make it more friendly. How does that sound?