Hello and a question

[chilipepperjeep]

Greetings to all, and thank you =D> to all of the kind folks who have answered my admittedly newbie questions.  

By way of introduction I’ve been working with computer technology in one form or another for nearly 30 years.  One of my first IT jobs was as a mainframe computer operator working with computers that today my Palm Pilot easily would beat in every measurement of processing power.  My favorite memory is getting the assignment to run the “FLI” procedure.  That meant we were going to be getting a visit from a big wig.  The FLI procedure did nothing more than “Flash the Lights Impressively”  :D  The big bosses would walk into the ice box like conditions that was the computer room, see thousands of lights flashing on and off in an “Impressive” manner and then quickly walk out, feeling like their money was well spent. :sign5:   (today’s computer rooms just don’t have the same flair.[-() But, before I start sounding too much like my father remembering how he used to work on Model T’s I’ll quit here.  :-#  

I do have a question about how this board is run.  Within minutes of signing up I received a very nice welcome from Huntress. Was that message automatic or actually written by her? I’m hoping it’s an automatic system you’re using, because I’d like to do the same for the users on my board (running phpBB)

[COBOLdinosaur]

Not a bot.  That was just Sandi paying attention.

I have never thought about an automated greeter; too much like Walmart.  I think you could probably fire something off the process that handles the verification link, if you are doing verification.  If you are not doing verification, then you should be able to do a PM instead of an email off the back of the registration.

If you have access to cron you could just set up a small PHP program to check the db for new members and pm them; with cron running is say every 15 or 30 minutes.

The way we always impressed the three-piece suits was to print a core dump on the console as they were walking in, and then examine it very closely, nod and smile.

[rdivilbiss]

Welcom to the site.

We use a semi-automatic welcome at the lounge, (lounge.expertsrt.com), aka: suspended experts.  A person (could be Huntress) will personally verify your membership and you get an e-mail with a lot of useful (??) information.

However that is usually followed with a personal notice in the forum with many well wishers posting.

You need a human touch in the process somewhere.

There are a few of us here who understand FLI.

[Huntress]

Hi chilipepperjeep!  Your friendly neighborhood greeter here.  I personally send a pre-formatted note to all new members as soon as I see the notification.  Sometimes I don't do it right away due to work or family stuff but on a good day you might get it in minutes like you did.   :D

[coral1]

I do enjoy the stories about the "old computers", and spent many fine hours listening to a guy I used to do work for, tell tales about his days working on early radar and computers.

Welcome aboard.   :D