Marc Riddell wrote:
I am going to suggest something as a possible remedy for the problems you brought up.
When I first joined the WP Community I not only had no idea how to maneuver within WP (and, yes I had read all of the intro stuff) my computer skills consisted of point & click anything beyond that and I had to scream for a computer tech. From day one, this wonderful WP Community Member came out of the woodwork to help. They answered the 1000+ questions I had, and actually helped me to format my User Page. I was very grateful for this, and it also gave me an indication of, and made he very comfortable with, the WP culture.
So, how about this: When a new person registers to join the WP Community they are automatically assigned, designated (whatever term you want) to an established Community Member. This established Member would act as their mentor for a given period of time. And any questions or problems the new Member may have in the beginning could be mentored by this person.
If an idea like this has been proposed before & rejected, I would love to know why. If it hasn¹t as yet, what do you think?
Your lack of technical skills is a far more tractable problem set than the lack of social skills exhibited by some others. ;-)
I've raised the idea of mentorship before, but the results have been no response, and not outright rejection. I don't know whether on a practical basis it would work at all. Assigning the right mentor to the right newbie is not an easy task, because there can be so many different incompatibilities. Some people do just fine quietly figuring things out for themselves, others, like you, are really helped by a little technical guidance, still others may have absolutely no problem with the technology but need a more personal intervention of someone who can help to calm them down or run interference with single-minded admins.
I don't know if the idea would work, but I need to maintain an open mind.
Ec