Default first discussion for new users?

chr!s

Hi party people... Just a quick question! Is it possible to set a discussion as a default starting point for new members? In order to stop the lurkers, I want to make every new user introduce themselves on the forum. Basically, you register and then when you log in, you have to fill out this introductory discussion - or you can't access the rest of the forum. Is this possible? Thanks in advance.

Wanderer

Hey chris, I was thinking exactly the same thing!
This would make a good add-on.

chr!s

I'm just sick of non-contributors reading all the posts and then keeping silent. If anyone can help, you will receive many blessings and good thoughts!

MySchizoBuddy

whats the point.. they will make that first discussion and never comment again. go back to being lurkers.
the result u will have 10,000 registered users and 10 people commenting.

you should read this article called "10 ways to increase comments on ur blog"
the advice will work for forums too

Vincent

whats the point.. they will make that first discussion and never comment again. go back to being lurkers.
the result u will have 10,000 registered users and 10 people commenting.

The thing is that that first post will influence a user to start posting at least a little bit, therefore it would help a little bit

The only thing that i would be careful about is to leave the sight of the front of the discussions available to someone who hasn't posted before so that they would know that there are people actually posting

chr!s

Yeah, I understand your point about having 10,000 users and no-one posting, but the aim is to stop people just logging in, leeching information and then disappearing. There were several 'high profile' members on the forum I had set up, but they never contributed anything ever, despite logging in several times daily. An encouragingly-written 'Introduce Yourself' discussion got most people to speak up, but there were still a bunch who kept silent. A suggested monthly culling of all lurkers just seems too negative for me.

snowcrash

It's an interesting idea to try out, forcing new users to post, though the downside maybe it will actually turn them away from the forum?

If you believe the Pareto 80/20 principle, then it's likely that 20% (or even less!) will contribute 80% of posts (ie. out of all those that are registered). One measure of a successful forum can be that it gets numbers big enough so that the 20% form a significant group. (Hmm, I wonder if that's what occurs here at Vanilla?)

Unless you create a closed community there will always be lurkers. And if they increase post views, that is usually a good thing?

Anyhow, sorry, this doesn't actually contribute to the addon(!)

jimw

Maybe you could use the Application Discovery extension to take why they want to join your forum and make a post out of it. Or maybe modify the registration process to check how many posts the user has made. If none, then "force" him to post? You could even extend this to add a timing check for number of days since his last post. Does that sound like what you would want?

chr!s

Yeah, that could work... Anything that makes the '0 posters' realise that contributing is the way forward is a good thing. I really don't mind losing those who can't be bothered to introduce themselves. Quality, not quantity!