Witnessing the birth of new noders

A new, struggling noder needs to be supported and encouraged, not off-handedly thrust out of consideration. Here are a few things you (and I) can do to try and keep their next node from being more problematic than their first:

• Wait -- before voting them down. Give them a chance to learn and improve their work before smacking them with an XP penalty right off the bat. Positive reinforcement always works better than negative, and you can't upvote them later if you downvote them now.

• Blab! -- Send them a /msg suggesting what they could/should have done differently in this writeup, or their next. Be polite -- newcomers will generalize an opinion about the entire E2 community based on the first few people they talk to.

• Mentor -- Refer them to E2 Mentoring Sign-Up, or accept them as a student yourself (if they feel it's the thing for them).

• Suggest -- If there's already a node about this, point them to it. Nothing could instruct them better than seeing a well-written node on the very same subject.

• Assist -- /msg them a few hardlinks that they will likely find useful. (Don't softlink them -- if they're new, they won't know what those mean anyways.) Everything University or E2 Quick Start is best if you're in a hurry, but consider being more specific if the writeup warrants it:
  • Link and Link
  • Capitalize, please
  • E2 HTML Tags
  • Everything Daylogs
  • Everything as a discussion forum
  • "Getting to know you" nodes
  • Don't node what you don't know
  • Your first writeup will be nuked: Don't give up
  • Raising the bar

• Softlink -- Their writeup, to this node. It will help stop other, less patient voters from reacting to the writeup impulsively. Remember, you once were a clueless young noder yourself.

/me hereby promises to try to remember his own advice.