Last modified: 2013-04-06 19:13:01 UTC
Nikola Smolenski wrote at http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2011-April/065145.html > Perhaps it would be helpful if, when creating a new account, a user > could write a short message about what would they like to do on > Wikipedia (this would become their user page). It would give us an > idea on what part of guidelines to present to the new user, and also > very needed insight on why do people just create account and leave. This is a great idea, probably simple to implement. Filing it here so it doesn't get lost. Since users can edit Wikimedia sites without registering, it is expected that anybody actually registering has a purpose in mind and a willingness to join the community. Giving them a chance to explain their motivations will not only deflower their User page since the very beginning, but will probably encourage them to edit their user page further adding more details.
A few notes: * It should be noted in the interface that this reason will be made public on their user page. Like: Short message describing what you would like to do on Wikipedia: [ ....... ] (optional) (will be made public on your user page). * The "registration succesful" page could perhaps include a link like " Edit my user page". * When creating an account the userpage would be created with msg "userpagefromaccountpurpose" containing something like "== What I would like to do on Wikipedia == \n $1". Which wikis could modify as they like.
Agreeing with both the above.
(Although make sure that anti-vandal tools such as abusefilter and RC feeds see the proposed post, otherwise it becomes a vector for unchecked posting.)
As commented by phoebe ayers at foundation-l: See also http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Account_Creation_Improvement_Project
This has already been done for account creation by existing account, but it's not what meant here: replacing "purpose" with "motivation" because otherwise it looks like our standard summary/reason/justification fields. This seems a bit like Translate extension's Special:FirstSteps: https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:FirstSteps Surely not a site request; I doubt it's suitable for core either, but for now I'm moving it to MediaWiki nevertheless.
