An Introduction

I've noticed recently a greater number of people coming onto the site and immediately making a fool out of themselves in avoidable ways, probably because of BW being released, although obviously the risk is lower without firebot. So I thought that a short introduction to Smogon should be displayed as soon as someone creates an account, explaining how the forums work, and suggesting that people should lurk a bit before posting. It would be a particularly good idea to explain the RMT, Uncharted and Stark forums. It would cut down on the work of the mods, who keep having to spout the same few rules at each newcomer, and lower the clutter around the site of locked threads and useless posts from people who are posting in the wrong place.

Personally, considering that there are Rules listed at the top of the page (Announcements) for each forum I doubt that a special introduction would fix the issues you discussed. If people don't read the rules (clearly listed) then a special intorduction is kinda useless.

Rules aren't an introduction :/ they're two completely different things. I actually agree with this idea

ginganinja said:

Personally, considering that there are Rules listed at the top of the page (Announcements) for each forum I doubt that a special introduction would fix the issues you discussed. If people don't read the rules (clearly listed) then a special intorduction is kinda useless.

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If we have to spoon-feed the rules by basically forcing new users to read them, than so be it. Announcements, on the other hand, typically enforce changes to rules or give new useful info (hence "announcement"), with the exception of Aeolus' "The Rules" announcement which is well written and necessary. Bad posters aren't initially inclined to read announcements, and hence will not follow the rules, leading to more clutter/cringeworthiness.

Good users will learn to fit in by themselves, and even if they get a warning or two in the process of doing so, that isn't the end of the world. Bad users won't read any introduction anyway.