Users New Member "To Do" List
 

Suggesting a "To Do" list again. This will help personalize the users' experience and offer some type of direction for new users to get started with.

A to do list is more beneficial than the faq or browsing around to figure things out. A lot of new users ask the same "how do I" or "how did that person do that"* etc. questions. Why not present them with a to do list to help them get started.

The to do list should have the ability to dismiss each item by the user and dismiss the to do list altogether if not needed.

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--MAD-- posted this suggestion* and it deserves it's own thread.
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I think what would improve a new user's experiance when joining a vB community is having a list of things to do. Atm once you are registered* a new user wouldn't know where to go from there and what to do. Information about social groups* profiles* VMs* blogs* profile options etc would improve the users experiance. As vB expands* the things a user needs to know about will grow. For those less techy* they will find it hard to settle in well.

I love this idea. Users could be prompted to complete a step or dismiss it. Here are some examples of good steps:

1. Fill out your profile
2. Select a profile picture
3. Select an avatar
4. Post a message in the Introductions forum
5. Sign up for our newsletter
6. Take a tour of things you can do here

Administrators should be able to add* remove* and re-order steps. For example* and admin could add the step "Post in forum x" or "Reply to thread x".
davide101

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Great idea. The to do list should be global to the site since new members often don't know their way around at all. Show it in/under the navbar. Maybe notices could even be used for this if there were more flexible notice criteria. In 3.8 notices will be dismissible* so that will take care of dismissing one of the to do items. To make this work with notice criteria* we'd need (at least) the following new criteria:

1. User has never seen this notice (and hasn't dismissed it). (with the option to make it not retroactive so as to not affect current users)
2. User's profile field x is empty.
3. User has no avatar
4. User has no profile picture
5. User has never started a thread in forum x (introductions forum)

But to make this work with notices* we'd need a way to group the notices that make up the "to do" list* and give it a title/explanation.
sockwater

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Exactly. I agree again. For me* a much more sophisticated Notices System will be a KEY element in building a much more active and user-oriented community. Like explained and requested in depth overhere by customers: Flesh out the "Notices" system. Hopefully vB 4.x will give us at least the WYSIWYG editor for notices...this week it was -again- a frustrating experience to spend to much time on trying to write a simple notice... only HTML is possible and the handy WYSIWYG is nowhere to be found...

Why such a feature-heavy platform like vBulletin doesn't offer context-sensitive inline help for it's enduser is beyond me. Oddly* it IS available in the AdminCP for us admins* but the enduser is left in the cold. That's why I have been requesting this for the last couple of 4 years: [User Interface] More INLINE Help for users
Grover

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I like these ideas. My feeling is that we are probably alienating potential new members (and new members) without any guidance.
Don Kuramura

So true. There have been many times people would ask me how did someone get an avatar* signature* or how to edit profile styles.

Even with the faq's and hand written tutorials* some people are still lost until you send them a link. I've even coached over the phone to friends and family.

A "To Do" list with links to where to do these things could be added ourselves. However* it would be grand that after each to do item was finished it disappear from the list. The rest could be canceled off if a member did not want to do that item.