A brief description of the Guide position.
"Guide" is the formal title for members of the welcoming committee. A Guide's key responsibility is to greet every new member with an individual post written just for them. All Guides will be expected to greet every single new member that starts a thread in Introduction Central from the time of their promotion.
The idea behind this is to make a new member's first impression of the forum a great one. Too many forums settle for just having whoever feels like it posting a quick "welcome" on an intro topic and then leaving it again. Well, that's not gonna happen here.
Guides will be expected to introduce themselves to new members, remind them to read the rules, and make it clear to them who's in charge (at this time, myself and AMAC). If the new member has provided any personal background on themselves, it is also grounds for writing a longer and strongly personalized introduction. Returning to the thread later to see if the new member has replied and to follow up if they have is also strongly encouraged.
Guides should also serve as shining examples of the ideal forum citizen: active, friendly, responsible, and respectful of the rules. In addition to their role in welcoming new members, they will also be seen as mentors whom other members (both new and old alike) can freely come to for non-technical help that does not require any administrative or moderative privileges. Guides are not moderators in any way, shape, or form.
Because the work you do for the community is incredibly valuable, Guides get a few perks over regular members. These include double the standard amount of space for private messages (that's 500 messages!), the removal of AdSense ads, and the ability to change their user title (the little caption that appears over avatars). Pretty sweet, I know.
That's about it. Only apply if you're legitimately willing to commit to this. Guides who do not fulfill their responsibility can and will have their rank taken away, along with all the Guide perks.
And P.S.: If you didn't have the patience to read this post through, you're probably not ready for guidesmanship.
