I’d like to suggest new members on forum get a tag to their first post, visible to fellow members. I’ve seen this on other forums.
Like if :NewUser: post for the first time, we get a message like “This is the first post of :NewUser: - let’s give a welcome!”
It could even be another one “NewUser hasn’t posted in a while - welcome back!”
It will make it easier to encourage each other to acknowledge the contribution of others. At least for myself, I used to try to welcome new members, but many of us won’t know unless we are told. Makes it more friendly and encourage participation.