At this time, when someone signs up for a Drupal account, they receive an email from info@drupal... to confirm their email address. I think we have an opportunity to get more information to these new Drupal account holders about the project along with a welcome guide.
I propose we consider an email to go after the account email is confirmed. It would be a helpful guide that includes some (or all) of the following:
You have an account, Now what?
-Download Drupal
-Check out Documentation
-Get some modules
-Ways to Get Involved
-Join the Drupal Association
-and where to go if you need guidance (Issue Queues)
-Elevator pitches for Drupal and/or marketing resources
I'm sure this could be expanded, but I definitely think it would be helpful for anyone who is new to Drupal.
Comments
+1 :-)
This is such a good idea I wish I had come up with it first!
I like the bullets on your list, I would also add encouragement to:
also join groups.drupal.org
a link to drupal.org/hosting [the DA makes some pretty good $$ off of that page!]
and here are two ideas that are implied by your list:
a link to drupal.org/books
a link to drupal.org/irc
Either way you slice it... This newcomer is a fresh opportunity to equip them with the knowledge they need to connect with Drupal in whatever method by whatever channel.
How do we make this happen?
So, lets look at the 'goals'
So, lets look at the 'goals' of what we want this user to do after signup.
Here's my list:
1) Learn Drupal
2) Become a part of the community
So, IMHO, the first step should be to get them to local meetups or camps. Do we have a page listing these?
I'd be wary about sending them to hosting or IRC. Sending them to hosting seems like we're trying sell them something. And, IRC can be very overwhelming for new users.
We need to keep this email short and sweet. 90% won't be reading it anyway :)
http://herchel.com | @mikeherchel on twitter
On hosting - note that
On hosting - note that Wordpress.org homepage says "it's as easy as 1, 2, 3" where 1 is a link to their hosting page.
I think adding hosting into more places in our "new user flow" is totally appropriate. It's a question a lot of our users are trying to answer and we should help them.
knaddison blog | Morris Animal Foundation
Great idea. I agree... keep
Great idea.
I agree... keep is short. Perhaps the email provides links to a set of welcome pages rather than trying to make it self-contained.
Also, I'd suggest adding events in your area, local and regional.
Keep it simple
I have a few thoughts, and will consider this subject further.
I agree if you hit someone with an email like a novel they are not going to read it. The tone of the message should be considered, are we being welcoming, warm?
Some carefully prepared landing pages which start people on their journey would work.
People create D.O accounts for a variety of reason, not just to download source code and start hacking and theming.
I would identify the main groups of people and provide a set of links to help each type out. I imagine some could be business owners creating an account so they can ask forum questions, evaluators, designers, students trying Drupal and other platforms out, content editors etc.
The way we welcome people could be the difference between adopting Drupsl and going with other platforms.
Common concerns like is Drupal secure, how do I get enterprise support, hosting etc could be other questions new users may want addressing. Are there training companies I can use? Who uses Drupal? Is it credible? What is the licensing?
Rather than expect new sign ups to join The Drupal Association, explain what it is by providing relevant links.
Provide links to Twitter and Facebook accounts. Drupal and DrupalCon have both. Getting a like or a follow increases the likelihood that the individual enters the community. Posting on groups or forums can be daunting to newbies.
Promote the Drupal Association email list and consider mentioning The Weekly Drop, Drupal Planet and others. This again could be a landing page, although Assiciation channels should perhaps be embedded in the email.
Paul Johnson
http://www.twitter.com/pdjohnson
Global Social Media Lead for DrupalCon
Before signing up
This may be slightly off topic, and please do tell me off if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but although this discussion is great I was wondering if any attention is placed around the actual process leading up to a user actually registering?
At the moment one has to find the tab "Log in / Register" and then click " Create new account". What follows is a form starting with a warning about anonymous mail services which, for someone who is new, might be slightly off putting.
To provide a better experience to prospective users, and in light of this thread, how about we have a separate welcoming "Create new account"/"Join" page that provides clear information and focusses on the benefits of a user account?
This page can of course hold further information that promotes the DA, other important Drupal aspects and may even facilitate in reducing the information that is included in the new user email from d.o .
Stefan van Hooft
Stefan van Hooft
iCompute
Twitter | LinkedIn
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Not off topic
I feel you are right on topic. I think having some helpful information in that page along with more of a quick guide in the Welcome email would be a good combo to get people what they need from the very beginning.
What's more, at the moment,
What's more, at the moment, when I click the login tab and, well, log in, I get taken to a page at http://drupal.org/bakery/login that tells me "Access denied
You are not authorized to access this page."
Not exactly making me feel loved! :) No idea what I'm supposed to do to fix this. "About drupal.org" should include "How do I report a problem on drupal.org?"
How to get help
Sorry to hear this slef. Is this still happening?
The best thing to do if you are having trouble with your account is to file an issue here drupal.org/node/add/project-issue/webmasters and make the Component as User Account.
This information about where to go when you need help with a problem is under Support.
Next steps
Many great points in this thread. The email needs to be informative, but to the point, warm and welcoming.
So, what's next?
I'm going to do a bit of homework and collect links for welcome pages that already exist and start a wiki with the above suggestions plus the welcome page links that I find. We can build from the good work already done on Drupal.org. I'll post the wiki link here early next week.
I looked at the Getting Involved in the Drupal Community Survey results http://drupal.org/node/1399056 and they are worth considering. My takeaway is that people want to see the human side of Drupal and that a lack of information (who to contact, where help is needed, how to get started) is keeping people from contributing if they are new to the community. I'm sure this frustrates anyone who has worked on the pages like http://drupal.org/start because much of the info is right there.
So a warm welcome email (and helpful text on the sign up page) could help with this "lack of information" that respondents identified.
Idea for a flow
Further to your great plans how about this for a flow?
- visible "Join" button on d.o homepage -> "Join" page with info on member benefits and sign up form -> d.o./start page is shown after sign up + warm and welcoming email is sent.
Stefan van Hooft
iCompute
Twitter | LinkedIn
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Join instead of Log in/Register?
To clarify, we currently have the homepage showing "Log in/Register" tab. Would Join be in place of the word "register" in the same tab?
When you navigate to that tab, then you click "create new account" option, the Join page would have more info/welcome copy? Is this what you were thinking Stayfon?
Join and Welcome
Join
I would suggest to have Join as a tab (replacing Log in/Register) on its own or a button that clearly stands out. The Log in tab could be moved or made into a simple hyperlink since d.o people know where to find it and internet browsers usually remember the log in anyway :).
If Join was a button it could perhaps go above the current "Join the association".
The "create new account" page will be amended/replaced with the "Join" page which holds the member benefits and the "create new account" fields. Somebody who has clicked the Join tab/Button is more than likely interested in joining as a member of the Drupal community so presenting a nice page with member benefits would be suitable I feel.
Welcome to Drupal
The page that follows the Join page, let's call it the Welcome to Drupal page, could be the d.o/start page and since the Country field (on the Join page) is required that page can also show upcoming events/local groups. If they are not already there the Country specific events can also be included in the welcome email.
I hope this clarifies it a bit?
Stefan van Hooft
iCompute
Twitter | LinkedIn
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found an old issue...
I'm not sure if an issue has been created, but I found an old one (Oct 2011) about this:
http://drupal.org/node/1318940
~silverwing
Wiki is now up
I posted a draft of a Welcome Email at the wiki here http://groups.drupal.org/node/243238
Any ideas/edits you have are very much appreciated.
As silverwing mentioned, there is already an issue in the queue about this at http://drupal.org/node/1318940 so it will be great to take a ready-to-go email that has community support and implement it for our new account holders via this issue.
Regarding the other ideas of improving the Create Account and the landing page after you confirm your valid email address, I think we should consider as separate issues for now. We can and should improve them, but one at a time if it's okay by everyone.
Moved proposed text to the
Moved proposed text to the issue queue for final discussion and implementation: http://drupal.org/node/1318940