Often when new players login and look at Global Chat,
they don't see anyone talking, so they think noone is
around playing the game. Perhaps it would be good if
Foldit kept a record of the last 10-20 posts made to
Global and Veteran Chat and copied these posts into
the Chat windows whenever a new client opened. Then
folks could see some of what they missed before they
logged in, and new players would see the types of
things other players often discuss/ask in Global Chat.
Another idea is to have some posts automatically
appear at regular intervals, at least in Global Chat.
They could be like fortune cookies, giving single
line bits of advice about game-play, shuffled and
displayed at random. They could appear every
10-15 minutes, for example.
The first post could always be the same and appear
when a new client opens. It could say something like
below (put each "LINK: http" on its own line so it
will be clickable):
Welcome to Foldit! Global Chat is a good place to ask
your questions about Foldit. Usually other players are
around who can answer them. New players should
start with the Intro/Tutorial Puzzles. Later, do as many
Beginner Puzzles as you can until you collect enough
Global Points to access Veteran Chat, where more
advanced things often get discussed. Finally, when
you feel ready, take on some of the Science Puzzles.
Click on the links below for more help:
LINK: http://foldit.wikia.com/wiki/Foldit_Wiki
LINK: http://foldit.wikia.com/wiki/Get_Started_Playing_Foldit
LINK: http://foldit.wikia.com/wiki/Intro_Puzzles
LINK: http://foldit.wikia.com/wiki/Beginner_puzzle
Happy Folding!
Each random bit of advice could be an actual quote
from a Foldit web page or the Foldit wiki, followed
by a clickable "LINK: http" line pointing to where
the quote can be found. Perhaps limit each quote
to a certain number of characters, like Tweets on
Twitter.
We've got the logging capacity already in the recommended external IRC (IceChat). Keeps a daily log of all activity in each channel. Very easy to scan for tips.
One random bit of advice for Global Chat could be as below:
If you have any questions about Foldit, this is a good place to ask them.
Something along these lines would be to create a smart bot. Most of the questions are repetitive and, like FAQ, could be whittled down to the important ones that would serve the most people. The smart bot would respond automatically when a live person is not around.
Thanks all for this input. I'll keep this in mind ;)