Site tour for new users

[denise]

So, I figured this would be a good place to start brainstorming :)

I'm in the process of putting together a site tour for new users: a simple overview of what DW is, how it works, what you can do, how you can find interesting things to read, etc.

I have a very vague idea of what it should include, but I haven't yet decided anything about how it should be structured. I thought that before I come up with anything, though, I'd toss it out to y'all and see what you thought, so as to avoid prejudicing the conversation and brainstorming with my ideas.

So:

* Putting yourself into a new user's shoes -- both someone coming from LJ and someone coming to DW from other backgrounds -- what would you expect to see in a "getting started" type site tour?

* How would you expect it to be structured?

* What would be the most effective things to include that would make you say "oh, wow!"

* For those of you who are relatively new, what were the first pieces of information you sought out? What were the most helpful things to know? What were the things that drew you to DW in the first place?

Comments

[jportela]

I would add listing some examples of active/general communities in Dreamwidth, for populating the reading page ( as done by damned_colonial here: http://damned-colonial.dreamwidth.org/462906.html ).

Maybe 3 big steps could be shown for a quickstart:

* Read
** Add suggested communities to your circle
** Find communities with your interests
** Find people you may know / with your interests
** Use your reading page

* Share
** Reply to entries on your reading page
** Write your own thoughts on your personal journal

* Live in community
** Write on a community
** Add people you liked reading to your circle
** Chat with them in IRC
** Report bugs and suggest the features you would like to see on Dreamwidth

Don't take these steps literally, just an example :P

Dreamwidth's diversity statement should definitely be there too.