Moderation in everything, including moderation

[JLarsen]

Pat, could you embed a welcome video in the registration process if we created one? I believe most people would watch that (people love videos, especially those who hate reading), and it could make a good difference. I'm thinking of about three minutes of quickly covering some cubing and then covering aspects of this site (forum, wiki, chat).

Definitely. That would be a great idea.

That's the best idea I've seen so far. I think that could really make a difference, depending on what's said in it. I wouldn't say, try and actually teach them anything in it, but more or less tell them about all of the features of the site, give external links below the video to all they could ever want, and maybe just give them just a little tidbit on forum etiquette. If you give links to other videos as well, I think newcomers will indeed watch a couple of them. Like Tox I k's (spelling?) reviews of most of the cubes, maybe a couple of the millions of lube your cube tutorials on youtube(badmephistos lube expriment is a great one), some assembly videos for various cubes, tutorials for the main speedsolving methods, and possibly even give a thread to each, that way any questions about the video, or maybe a topic not covered, could be answered there. Perhaps even a sub forum of Beginner's Central devoted just to that? Sort of like the how-to thread. Hmmm....I bet that would be a cool thing to tell about in the video, that way the newcomer would want to check it out, and then find himself immersed in all of the general knowledge they need, perhaps then cutting off a couple of those repetitive questions. By any stretch I'd say it's much better than closing the forums to certain people.