Great idea! Include mandatory bike fitting, how to swim in cold water and hot to apply for the Bikini Support Crew at the Man's Tri.

Ironically, this post is duplicative :)

I saw a thread earlier this week (couldn't find it); Tribro is putting something like this together, or at least made the suggestion. I remember it b/c I had some kind of smart-a** response to what should be included.

Hi theShiba,

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you on this point. I don't think it's necessary. There is already a Newbie forum discussion section where newbies can go and ask questions, silly or not. I understand you don't like reading the same question over and over but that's what makes this website special. As a newbie, you can ask the "numb feet" question and get a honest respectful answer. You've got to remember we were all newbies and one point in our careers and we all had serious questions that we wanted serious answers to.

For me if I see a a post that a newbie may have asked and it's about "numb feet" I read it because I get a kick out of it. One of my very first posts was about "numb feet". I was scared that I was not going to be able to bike because of my feet, so I asked the question and got an honest answer. That's why I like this website...people want to help. If I see a redundant question I just don't read it , plain and simple. It may create clutter but so what. Clutter to you may be a helpful answer to a newbie.

By creating some seperate newbie FAQ section it seems to me your ostracizing the newbies. They want to be part of the discussions, become involved, learn and get better. Even if it means asking repetative questions. Again we were all newbies. We didn't have a clue about triathlons, trifuel, forums or anything related. We were a sponge wanting to soak up any and all information. Lets not push them aside just because we may not like to read the same old questions.

Please don't take my post the wrong way either, I just feel for the newbie. I still consider myself a sort-of-newbie and really appreciate this website and forum for a lot of my triathlon questions. I don't post much but I read a lot and I (or newbie) don't want to feel like I can't ask a question, any question without being shunned. Thanks for listening.

I've been reading this post over the past day and thought I should respond as a newbie.

There are hundreds of links on the web to answer several of these questions. I've looked at a ton of them but sometimes the answers aren't clear. I joined this web site in January for the Training Log. Just recently (I think up to 17 posts) I began to use the forums. I know some of my questions are obvious, but since I'm new, the answers aren't obvious to me and I love to be able to ask these questions and get some honest feedback from people who I know are long time triathletes and are going to give me an honest answer no matter how stupid the question is.

When I first looked at doing a triathlon I read and heard that triathlets are the most helpful athletes that you may ever meet. And that statement has been proven to me time and time again. I was in the pool back in February and I was having some trouble. A couple in the lanes next to me were both triathletes and came into my lane to help. With their help I was able to go from swimming maybe a half mile before being done to swimming a mile and still having a lot left in the tank.

I tell that story to illustrate how I feel about this site. If we have a FAQ page and tell newbies, "don't post that question, go to the FAQ" we won't be the most helpful athletes on the planet, but looking like we don't want to be bothered. I think it's a good idea to have a FAQ page, but let's not have it as a substitute to asking the question.

Just my 2c

Well - I will add real quickly, that when I made the suggestion to Tribro, it's not meant to be mutually exclusive. Having a section of the site dedicated to answering the "usual" questions doesn't preclude people from being in the regular forums and even asking those questions. I the cases where I've seen it work (and the "niche" snowboard carving world is similar in many respects to the tri world) it was used more as a guidepost. Newbies could go there, get an understanding of definitions, learn in a very open manner, as the regular posters often posted content there.

See this link for the way I've seen this work well.. http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/welcome_center.cfm There are very technical "how-to" articles and very non technical "this is what that means" stuff, and it often worked to help spur debates out on the forums. Most of that content was developed by peeps on the boards, who in general flushed out their thinking on the boards first, then wrote it up for the newbie page.

A lot of it has to do with how you use it too. There are several, let's just call them less friendly boards, where the "roll of the eyes, - go read the newbie section" response is highly predictable. I think here, with the excellent spirit generally shown, it would be more like, "well, here's an answer to your question, and on the beginner's page you might find more details," which could be a nice addition.

I am not for an 'all encompassing' FAQ type section. The answers get stale, and seasoned forum peoples wont see the updates/new questions as often.

If we want to hassle the new guys, they would be better off on slowtwitch.

I also like to read the newest new person's 'tired old questions'... its fun