If you use the forum search box for "greeters", you'll find the answers to your questions.

When I came on to the site I played a few moves, i thot it was live chess, i got impatient forgot about the game, and timed out after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6.

 Lol.

i know =) i was too lazy to read the messsage =)

When I first came here me and my opponent were playing but it didn't last long as I was mated in 4 moves. :)

i was a greeter but pepole would play one move and resign i didn't mind palying lots of games but surely new players should relish the challenge and play to their potential i think as a geater i got given to many games and i think you need to utalize the chat element of games. oone final off putting thing was i was not able to concentrate on my main games because i had so many extra games

What do you mean by given games ?

the unrated greater games is what i meen

So they start auto with you?

 yes i tghink so in response to dragon27 i think he is right prehaps the chess.com team can have new members pick thruogh a list of greeters and play bwho they want

Please don't hate me.  When I signed up on chess.com it all seemed a bit overwhelming so I left for months. Then I finally got back into OTB tournament play and wanted a way to improve my game; chess.com has fit the bill. It just has taken me a while to explore all the tools chess.com has to offer. My greeter has been a fantastic resource BTW.

I do think this is one reason why they time out but also I think a lot of people are cruising the internet looking for something interesting. They find this site and play a few moves. But when they realize it will take a lot more time, they lose interest and move on. So, they are not necessarily chess players. This happens at most chess sites. The ones who are truly interested in chess will stay.

Out of the two people I've greeted, one of them didn't know you had to submit your move (as apposed to Live chess) and left the site before I could help them - could this be a common thing?

When the site started doing Greeter games, i played quite a few against newcomers, what i found was,  many played one or two moves and never made any more. I even kept a log of who i played, so in a month or so from then, i could see if they were still here and playing or not.

Quite a few who are new to the internet don't/didn't realise that you don't have to join a site to browse it.  Members were joining the site, accepting their Greeter game, and weren't finishing because (in no specific order); forgot username and password, were just browsing, realised it wasn't live chess,

or they didn't really know why they accepted the game but didn't really want to play anyway. I found the most common reply was, that quite a few were either browsing or didn't want to wait for their opponent to move, it wasn't quick enough for them.

On of the down side, and something you may see quite often in being a greeter.
is that newcomers may only make one move in a game and not come back.

If you do get any that are rude, explain to them in a non agressive way that you are there to show them around the site.

If they tell you to "hurry up"  "move"  you might take this as a sign they might enjoy playing live chess instead, then tell them about live chess.

Let them know about adjusting and decorating their homepage using "Themes"
The fact they can play and join chess.com on facebook if they have it.
You basically have one game to let them know as much about chess.com as possible.
There will always be down sides to being a greeter, and there are several forum threads already on this .. might be useful to read through a few :)

But its really satisfying and job well done to see someone excel and grow on the site knowing you helped them get there :)

An experienced greeter is Kohai :P. lol. Umm, wow, this is the first time i'm actually hearing about "greeters", when i first came on this site, by the recommedation of my buddy mwilkinson9, it was a major adjustment. I was already use to playing a live-mode chess from yahoo.com, where they also had a chat system (not advertising for yahoo,lol). I thought it was cool tho, to find a site dedicated to chess.

So, the online chess mode was an adjustment, but not a terrible one as i quickly made use of the chat system and had an opponent that was actually online at the time. Like someone mentioned earlier, i think that getting new players to make use of chats in online chess would help them to really get into it. For me it was like, cool this person is from a different country (and it helps that the flags are there with the country's name).

I remember also, trying to use Live chess, but at the time it was still being developed, i think. So, having new users informed of live chess, like Kohai said, should really be a help.

Wow, this was a long-winded response from me, lol. Well, the last thing i could probably say is that it would just be helpful to see these infamous "greeters" around. lol. If i had a guide from the site, i might not have needed to put my friend thru the "ringer" :P.

Thanks Mark for another interesting post!

Thanks Kohai for saying that; I didn't really realize that I should be more friendly with the new guys (Not that I was mean with them) I just could do better than a simple "Welcome" I guess.

And your welcome, com4gen ;)