Onboarding

Mar 6, 2022 8:27 pm
It's still not right. People are still going to games and join a game.

Ideas for simple changes?
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Mar 6, 2022 8:33 pm
Maybe a checklist with links to things the system knows you haven't done and sentences to explain why things are a good idea. On that two week nagging thing (or whatever it is)

Introduce yourself
People are more likely to want to play games with you if they have a better sense of your personality.

Upload an avatar

Talk to the GMs in the Games Tavern
There are often interest checks and games advertised in the Games Tavern.

Take the tutorial

Join the discord
Dunno. Spitballing here.
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Mar 6, 2022 8:34 pm
Put a large notification with a link to the games tavern on top of that page and tell people to head there?
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Mar 6, 2022 9:26 pm
Adam says:
It's still not right. People are still going to games and join a game.
Either fix or remove the page?

So long as the main menu has a Games entry and that has a big Join a Game button that looks like it is the official way to... um... I don't know, join a game... people are going to go there to join games, no?

I have not looked at the discord link, so I don't know what the actual problem is, though.
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Mar 8, 2022 4:56 pm
I agree with @vagueGM, until the Games page no longer says "Join a Game," we're always going to have this problem. I think the Games page needs an overhaul.

I think @Adam 's suggestions about notifications are probably a good idea too though. It's so hard to remember what it was like trying to navigate the site for the first time, but I think these type of notifications would have been helpful!
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Mar 11, 2022 4:31 pm
I was checking out the FAQ page (might be one of the first stops for some new users) and noticed this is the second question (after what is PbP?):
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I signed up for the site...now what?
There's a lot you can do! The first thing we recommend you do is head to the My Games page and edit your LFGs (Looking for Group). Letting people know what you're interested in playing also helps us gauge what games people are into.

We recommend your next stop should be the forums! RPGs are social games, and building community is one of our main goals. Head to the Introductions forum and tell us a bit about yourself, how you got into gaming, what kind of games you play, and how you found us.

You should also fill out your profile. Click on your name in the upper right hand corner of the site to go to your User Control Panel. Here you can change your timezone, add an avatar, fill in some information about yourself, and generally customize your user experience.

From there, there's still a lot to explore! You can Join a Game, Create a game, explore the Character Library, or check out the Music Library.
Some observations:

1) The first thing it tells people to do is go to the My Games Page. Since the first button on that page is a big red "Join a Game" button that links to the games page, it's not surprising that some new users find themselves there and join a game. There's also the Games Tavern button, but at this point, it might not yet be clear what the Games Tavern is. New users might think, "Okay, first I join a game, then I go to the Tavern to play it."

2) It recommends changing LFG status on the My Games page. My understanding is that sends an email notification when a game of that type is created, but I'm not 100% sure because there's no explanation of what it does, so it's probably also confusing for new users. If that's what it does, it could be useful. Although, it could be easily confused with the LFG feature on the UCP profile. So I thought I'd point this out.

3) It does recommend exploring the forums next and posting on the Introductions forum, which is great because they will then get bowl's intro post, which has a ton of useful info! But if they followed the first suggestion above before reading further, they've been taken away from this suggestion and are now following that path. I think it might be better for this to be the first thing that is recommended.

4) The very next link at the bottom of the answer is to the Join a Game page, so again, we're pointing new users to that page.
Last edited March 11, 2022 4:32 pm
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Mar 11, 2022 4:35 pm
Very good point. That text needs to be updated badly
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Mar 11, 2022 4:49 pm
bowlofspinach says:
Very good point. That text needs to be updated badly
...and the styling. I obviously missed that page on my travels (and tools/music).

FAQs aren't part of the code. They're data that admins can edit. I'm not sure we have any admins (other than Keleth) though.

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