I did a search and found that the topic of newbies quitting games was talked about a while back.  I thought I would make a suggestion.

I've noticed that everyday I start about 5-8 games with new people, and everyday it seems like I stop 5-8 games.  Right now I have 10 games with newbies, and everyone of them is 0-1 moves into the games.  That actually surprises me because I thought I had at least one game going with a newbie (actually it looks like the guy I was playing just beat me).  This is starting to get quite annoying.  I feel like I'm helping out by trying to help out new members but I'm starting to think maybe the site might want to think about sweetening the pot to those who help out.  I mean I'm not doing anything onerous but it is annoying to spend time welcoming a bunch of people each day, and then having to acknowldge that they've quit (unless there is something I can set so that I don't know that I game has ended, but that wouldn't really work because then I might not notice a game that had ended that I am interesed in, like one where the other person checkmated me when I didn't expect it, and yes that does happen to me...all too often unfortunately.)

On another corrospondence site I voluteered to welcome people there also, but never welcomed a single person.  I'm not sure what the criteria was to choose who could help people, but I do know that if you welcomed someone and they became a premium member then you got one month of premium membership free.  I was think something like that might help around here, because with the recent increase in the amount of welcoming games that I'm getting there can only be two things going on, or maybe both at once.

1. Allot of people are joining.  (This is obviously true by watching the membership increase daily.)

2. Allot of people are quitting welcoming people. 

I have no way of knowing if #2 is correct but I think that it is.  For two reasons

1. It seems like I've had a sudden increase in the amount of people that I've welcomed.

2. I know that I have asked people if they are welcoming people, and they all said that they were but they have stopped because it just got too frusterating.

This may sound self serving, and perhaps it is.  However, right now I'm a premium member, and I plan to stay one no matter what.  However, if something doesn't change I'm not going to be welcoming people very much longer.  By giving away a premium month for every person that joins the site will show that it values the efforts we make as welcomers.  In addition, hopefully, people who are free but active members might be more motivated to become welcomers.  

Just a thought.

An interesting idea.

Several people might play a 'greeter game' against the same new member. Would they all be entitled to recognition?

When free members decide to become premium members, their greeter games may be a distant memory, and may be just one tiny factor in their decision.

There is a positive side to playing brand-new members: their fresh-faced, naivity (in contrast to the world-weary cynicism of some established members) may remind us of the enthusiasm we initially experienced.

Greeting is a vocation. The last thing chess.com needs is slick, cold calling specialists who tell you anything to get you to sign up.

I forgot to add:Thanks swordoflaban for making new members welcome - and for reminding the rest of us that this is a role we can all help out on.

I don't know how it would work.  I just know they did it at letsplaychess.com.  At least that is how I remember it.

I don't mind playing the new people, I mind having to greet them and then acknowledging that they didn't want to play.  I'm being such a whiner about this, but if it is annoying me, and it is, I just think it might be annoying others, and I do know that it is annoying some.  And I think that it is important that someone welcomes those who come here.  I know I was invited and I had a friend already here who was willing to show me around and get me aquainted.

I just started two new game, and acknowledged 2 games that I won on time after 1 move.

Another thing, although I'm figureing how to work around this is it clutters the games that I would like to look through.  You know I remember that great game I played I want to show it to a friend, where is it in these thousands of games that I've won.  Is there anyway to get rid of them from my archive?

It's true about the cold call artists also.  However if it's truely a vocation, then I'm pretty sure it's not my vocation.

i think this is a fair suggestion and something we will definitely consider!

The best way to welcome new members is to tell them to go $&#@% themselves and that you only accept challenges from people rated 2500 or higher!

It looks like I am at my saturation point.  I have set my level at 10 welcoming games.  I just quit two and started two.  However, one of the new games just made a move so maybe that game will continue.  When I started this thread I had "played" 166 welcoming games, now I've played "175".  The server may do an update at night or something.