Member Introduction Posts + Group Posts

[danieloneiroi]

Hi, everyone!

I hope you enjoy what this group will become. It's still brand-new and needs members.

I invite all new members to make introduction posts!

Please put your SB username in your introduction post, even if your DW name is the same. We've 'seen' each other on Swap-bot, so let's meet again on the group. Your DW name does NOT have to be the same as your SB name but please make sure all of your posts have your SB name attached, even in comments.

Put your other social media or art links in the intro post, as well! You can include your Tumblr, IG, Pinterest, Etsy shops, whatever. Maybe summarize each, like

My Tumblr - random subjects, some NSFW art
My Etsy - I sell craft supplies and handmade pin cushions
My Personal Blog - Open to everyone, mostly about dogs

You do not have to put in your location if you don't want to. You can be as vague as you like. 

You can put in Music (or whatever you are watching) if you want. I like finding new stuff! Maybe someone will also be interested.
 

Tag your posts with " introductions " so we can read through them all at once. They'll be more easily searchable.

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Group posts

Comments should stay on for group posts.

I will slowly add information posts from NB-SB Notes on Livejournal, the tutorial blog. I'll open those to comments from members only.

Please post about fun stuff on swap-bot and related things!

Do you have a favourite youtube video or tutorial? Do you want to post it? Tag it with tutorial

Feel free to post photos of your recent swaps, even if they aren't in the NRB group! Tag them with swap photo

Once we have 20 members or so, I'll probably start doing Wish Lists where members can message each other ON SWAP-BOT for addresses. They will be announced in the NRB group and tagged wish list

NRB Group + What Group Cleanups Mean

[danieloneiroi]

I run a group called Newbies + Ratings Boosters, NRB. Hi! I'm the admin, NigatsuBebe on SB!

Chances are, if you are here, you first heard about it through NRB.

NRB has very low entrance and retention rules. Anyone can join! But NRB is specifically MADE for new people with few or no ratings, or who had poor ratings and are trying to improve them. If you are okay with the perception of "riskier" (but low-stakes") swaps, by all means!

Here are the rules to join:

- Must have a well filled-out profile. Here is a post on making your profile and what I am looking for.
- No 1 ratings in the past 6 months. If you get a 1 rating, respond to it publicly and try to resolve it. Here is a post on what to do with low ratings.

That's it. That's what you need when I sweep through the group. I do that every few months, most recently today.

I don't care if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. I can't talk- I've been gone for years at a time. I'm chronically ill and need to take increasingly long breaks. I worry about the long-term future of the group, the bonds I've tried to create (as small and impersonal as they are,) and even the future of swap-bot itself. If you have no 1 ratings in the past 6 months and have a filled-out profile, you're fine. Read the group info for details on swapper 'safety' and flake/bot prevention.

Why keep a profile when my ratings are bad?

On SB, it is better to KEEP your 'bad' profile than to make a new one. Making a new profile is seen as deceptive and is often the mark of someone who is trying to get people to send them lots of things before flaking on their end of the bargain, before disappearing before anyone can rate or report. The soonest anyone could rate below a 5 is at least 2 weeks after the deadline. Therefore, if you have a longer-term profile with low ratings and it shows effort to make things up, it is often better and more "honest" than another profile.

There are people who will not want you in their swaps or to trade with you because of a rating lower than something like 4 or 4.25. We tend to disagree on this view. I decide ratings with a more nuanced view.

These are just facts of life. Not everyone will want to trade with you. It sucks. It does. I don't know how to be nice about it, except that we're adults and we need to get over these things. Find the people who DO want to trade with you. Join groups FOR newbies or swaps that HAVE low ratings requirements. Build up your numbers through your actions. You can click on a star rating and see when the last 1 rating is. That is how I check whether that 1 was in the past 6 months. If your overall rating is 4.85 or something and your last 1 was back in idk 2021, whatever. That was 3-4 years ago. If someone is still mad about that, that is their own problem, not yours. New year, new you. Start racking up 5s to show current history.

Take people's feedback when you don't get a 5. I've certainly had a few swaps where one of us didn't do particularly well. My scale broke and I didn't realise it was off. I forget that not being OVERLY emotional and DEMONSTRATIVE in text to a weird freaking degree reads as being a bitch to people (or these days, being an AI.) I'm autistic, people. That's about 1 in 65 people, so get over it. Don't go making up people's emotions based on a whole 3 sentence message about a resend, decide that your interpretation of hostility is correct, and then lash out based on it. Geesh. ::rolls eyes:: Sometimes, it's just that a swap was misinterpreted. The description wasn't specific enough. Or the other person sends something way off from the swap description. Don't get angry. Look into it. One user had a stroke recently. They were very clearly perhaps not doing as well as they thought they were. We just embraced them after talking with each other because we know how terrible it is to be sick and then isolated, perhaps unaware of *why* things are going wrong. Just do some digging, okay? Ask questions. Delve!

(it's this scene from "Rosencrantz + Guildenstern are Dead" I'm thinking of.)

Is there anything I can do if I have a recent 1 rating? How do you decide who to drop from the group? Can I rejoin?

Yes, read on, and yes- usually.

When I do sweeps, I check every single users' profile, including those I've invited to the group but who haven't signed up. <3

I make a list of every user that has a 1 rating in the past 6 months from when I did the sweep. If I have time, I tackle that list right then. If not, I send out a group message about the sweep and any group updates. Every time, I tell users that if they are one of the people on the list, I will message them individually. I do not name users in these group messages. Not everybody's business. I don't tell people who I drop unless there was some ridiculous, egregious thing that affected the group- which hasn't happened so far. I just say that those people will be informed, and sometimes, how many people were dropped. If there is/are people on suspension, I'll say that, but also not "who." Just that I'm keeping an eye on it and I'll be checking by ____ date.

That message goes to everyone in the group, including me.

For individuals with a recent 1 rating, I look at some things:

- have I messaged this person before? What about?
- is this recent rating in NRB? do they have any 3s on an NRB swap? (this means I need to message the recipient and possibly Angel.)
- did this recent 1 rating get responded to publicly? (read the post on low ratings + what to do. do that.) 
- is there a history of this? did they rack up a bunch of low ratings in a short period of time?
- are they in swaps right now, despite some recent low ratings- just not anything I am hosting right then (assuming I hosted something.) It will not keep you off the radar for long, y'all. c'mon. I actually admin my group.
- what's going on in their lives? sometimes there's a really reasonable explanation. like they had 6 ratings in November 2024, all 1s, and they lived in Georgia. And they haven't logged in since the end of October. ... (Hurricane) Helene. followed by Milton. crap. One person almost died from RSV a few months ago. I'd say that's serious. 

Cut people some freaking slack, dude. Yes, ratings do mean something. Yes, you should rate honestly. But also, yes, you should give people a chance to return and make things right.

I gather information along the lines of that list and send an individual message to them. No one is dropped or suspended without an explanation.

If they've been gone for some months, I will likely drop them from the group. They haven't responded to previous low ratings with more than a week to do so, and they haven't logged in for over a month? They are not going to suddenly respond to me. Wish them well, itemize the 'infraction,' inform that they're being dropped from the group, and invite them to rejoin when they return.

If the user is clearly active and hasn't publicly responded, I'll message that person and the trading partner to get individual perspectives on what's going on. No one gets absolute narrative. The active user has a few days to respond. No response, they get dropped. Try to resolve things between the other swap partner. If the user is willing to respond publicly and try to fix the rating, or has shown that they've attempted to resolve the issue but the rating persists, cool! Please stay! 

Users with low ratings have a 'suspension' period, usually 2 weeks or so, to do these things. It isn't like a TOP PRIORITY THIS IS THE BIGGEST THING IN YOUR LIFE NOW issue. But I do need a resolution soon. Other group members deserve that, too.

The tradeoff with a newbie + low ratings-focused group is that users do have to be dropped or suspended. Yes, every time, yes, over just one rating sometimes. It sucks. I know it doesn't feel fair to some people. The whole point of the group IS to fix low ratings but that doesn't mean allowing someone to rack them up with impunity at the expense of other members. And I literally mean "expense." I do not care that it's "only about .75USD" for a 1oz envelope, plus the cost of whatever is in it. That's how skimming scams worked in the 90s: they would roll off a few cents or pieces of cents here and there, and rack up the cash. That was the back story of the movie "Office Space." So no, it isn't millions of dollars. And that doesn't even count the energy and effort people put in, the extra time they could be enjoying their lives otherwise, any gas money for the post office. But it's my group and I say that we all play by the same rules. We gotta prioritize protecting the group and that means drops + suspensions.

Here's the flip side: you can always REJOIN.

Yep! As long as you meet those TWO rules above, you can join again! You got dropped last year? Do you have 1s older than 6 months? You have a profile? You can join again! It is literally a "ratings booster" group. If you had low ratings 6+ months ago, you can boost those ratings.

My opinion is that *some* people double-profile BECAUSE a few low ratings, no matter how long ago, "stain" their profile forever and people don't want to trade with them. I don't like it. It's a BS puritanical cultural extension of thought to say that someone should be exiled from the group, for any 'sin,' no matter how small or how long ago, is never forgotten and has tainted them forever. In the words of the late, great George Carlin, "It's bullshit and it's bad for you!" I don't like that attitude. I've been on SB for a very long time, so I'm going to do something about it. I have my OWN group with my OWN friends (okay, swappers, whatever) and I can do WHATEVER I WANT! so there! and pretty much everyone is welcome to join, too.

Happy swapping, y'all.