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Will there be a newbie section when community goes live?

Posted 11 years ago
Just thinking outloud:
I was struck and amused by a comment on mathgroup the other day to the effect "The answers here (mathgroup) seem very useful, but I can't understand them".

I am wondering if it might be attractive to have a community place for beginners to ask simple questions and to get a "beginner-type" answer.

For example, a beginner-type answer might be
listOfSquares[n_] := Table[i^2,{i,1,n}]

Whereas a non beginner-type answer might be
listOfSquares[n_] := #^2&/@Range[n]

Both types of answer have their place, and seeing them both is instructive; but a beginner's question with only a non-beginner's answer will not  be very inviting.

Such a group would benefit from extra moderator attention and/or curation; it may not be worth the extra effort in the long run.
POSTED BY: W. Craig Carter
That’s a very good point, Craig. When the Community will go public we will observe for a bit its dynamic and based on that we’ll introduce some aiding structures for new users as needed. These could be some special groups, information sections, or/and perhaps, some indicators on new users posts that will encourage community members to treat them differently – with greater tolerance and support. But to narrow this down, we first have to see the site dynamics in real settings, out of beta. If anyone has some interesting ideas on the topic – please comment on the thread.
POSTED BY: Vitaliy Kaurov
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