Hello I’m Emmily I’ve been an ACE since 31 May, 2002.

When I joined there wasn't a lot of help or advice. I was just thrown in at the deep end, that was fine, I could swim. Although I did get a nice Welcome to the ACEs Post from Feisor And I had read this So you Want to be a good ACE I'm sure Vegiman won't mind me saying, it's a little out of date now, but still worth reading. I had to amend this one, as changes were made from when I started it. It would have been helpful to have some additional help and advice, so that’s why I’ve done this page.

Please remember, these are just my views and opinions. (With help and suggestions from a few other ACEs). If you have any questions, the best place to ask them in on the Aces Home Page where you will get a variety of views and opinions.

So what next?

And Subscribed to Aces Home Page where we: ask what we don't know, ask, plea and beg for help, discuss, compliment, praise, congratulate, whinge, gripe, moan, complain and sometimes have a mild tantrum, or something like that. And I'm New - What Do I Do Now? Where you can often find a wondering newbie, looking for help or just someone to chat with

There are other ways, besides posting an ACE Welcome, to encourage a New Researcher to make h2g2 one of their favourite sites. If they have written a Journal Entry, Guide Entry, joined in a conversation or as sometimes happens started a conversation on their own space, a reply to any of these would be a good idea too

Oh and, we only Welcome h2g2 New Researchers. New Researchers from other BBC sites ie 'Get Writing', 'Collective' etc. have their own ACEs. Chatting to them is fine, but h2g2 links might cause confusion.

Suggestions for an ACE Welcome?

Friendliness, in both text and visually, i.e. the use of a few smilies. A selection of newbie friendly links from the following may be useful, maybe just a few in original Welcome, can follow up with other links in following posts.

Informative;
The use of newbie friendly links;
Often, one of the first things a new Researcher wants to know about, is the Smileys and and how to customise their page.
Spicing up your page or Buffy's Guide ML Help Page are more newbie friendly than GuideML Clinic

A good help page;
Feisors Hints and Links for New Researchers is one that is commonly used, though there are others to choose from.

It's a good idea to include The Post and what h2g2 is about - Contributing to the Guide – so a link about writing for the Guide, maybe Writing for the Edited Guide or English Usage in the Edited Guide or Peer Review or Contribute My personal favourite is RandomEditedEntry.

Maybe include a link about h2g2's creator and founder ie A Welome and Thank-You Message From Douglas Adams. or All about h2g2

A lot of current ACEs use Named Entries (click the link, if you're not familiar with them) in place of ID Numbers where we can ie Smilies or The Post They are a selection of nifty little links that can be used in plain text.

I briefly mention the use of the VIEWER Tag, as I think it may 'spook' some newbies if they see their name on another page.

Whenever possible, try to personalise your Welcome Post to the New Researcher your posting to. This is often hard when a newbie has not Updated their Page

You may find it useful to visit New Researchers have a look around there. Experiment with the ‘Dropdowns’ click on a few names.

If you read a few different Ace Welcomes, there are a number of things you may notice. In the Post’s Subject, either the word ACE is used, or Subject ends with 3 dots … This is partly to make it easier for those Aces that check new Researchers, for any that have not received an ACE Welcome. You’ll also notice that many Aces use very similar links, in a different style, each is different and individual. Some ACEs have their own help pages, and offer only the link for that, just another way of achieving the same aim.

Yikesing

Being as it’s ACE’s that has first contact with New Researchers, this also means they’re the ones that ‘Yikes’ the page when it breaks the House Rules. This is not a task any of us relish, but sometimes, it has to be done.

Here are three examples of when I would Yikes:

Blatant advertising - Very occasionally you’ll come across a newbie page where the only reason to have registered was to advertise their company, and probably have no intention of joining the community.

Shock tactics – Again, this is very occasional where the Introduction will contain nothing more than a string of insults and or swear words. Unlikely that this newbie will return

Personal details of under 16s – ie email address, name of school, apparent real name etc. - These are the hardest ones to ‘yikes’. The last thing any of us desire is for an eager newbie to return to their page, and find it’s been hidden, but for their own protection it is necessary.

New Researchers Questions

If A new Researchers asks a question, which you don't know, or unsure of the answer, please just ask either; on Aces Home Page or aceforum¹ whichever is appropriate, I've had to ask many times, and I'm sure I will again in the future.

Bits'n'Pieces you may find useful

Remember if you're using a different skin from the default Brunel (spit) somethings will be slightly different in the different skins, this can sometimes cause confussion.

It could be days, weeks, or even months before a New Researcher returns to their space, so ideally you should never unsubscribe from a Welcome Post. And don't be disheartened if you don't receive a reply; not many newbies reply, but it's the ones that do, that make it all worthwhile.