[OSM-talk] Contacting new users

[Andy Robinson (blackadder)]

Edoardo Marascalchi wrote:
>Sent: 13 March 2008 10:49 AM
>To: talk at openstreetmap.org; talk-it_at_openstreetmap
>Subject: [OSM-talk] Contacting new users
>
>[disclaimer mode on]
>i'm sorry for my bad english, i'm italian and i never attended english
>classes...
>[disclaimer mode off]
>
>I'm here again with the same question as above...
>
>I'm trying to find the new users browsing the map for new edits and
>searching the user name rendered near the ways, but this is a very
>time-consuming way
>
>Can i ask for the n-th time to have enabled the wiki Special:newusers
>plugin and to modify the welcome message to the newly registered users
>at the www website to please him to register on the wiki too and to add
>to their user page the Geographical categories?
>
>[[Category:Users in _your_country|_your_nick_]]
>[[Category:Users in _your_town_|_your_nick_]]
>
>Right now is quite easy to find new user edits in Italy just because we
>are "blank", but in context like London or Nederlands, new users could
>be newer noticed and aproached.
>I think we should be pro-active to new users to help in the first edits
>and to resolve the tipical problems.
>Too often new users register only to the www and ignore the wiki side of
>the projet!
>
>I'm strongly convinced we have to catch the new users in a couple of days..
>

Edorado, I am of the same view. We have fast approaching 30,000 registered
users and only a small number of those regularly contribute to the project.
Encouraging and helping more to do so should be an aim of the project.

However it is not easy to contact new users if they wish to remain in the
background. We could however help the project without compromising privacy
if we obtained a little more information at signup (www) and then provided
those new users with the names of those near them that are willing to help
answer questions. If all users selected their location (dropdown list of
country/city or clickable map), then this would be easy to do. Additionally
users who wish to be "mentors" can mark their own user pages with this
election and the server can do the rest. Neither party need know where the
other actually resides but simply that they have an interest/reside in the
same basic geographical area. That might be same country, region or city. 

We all keep promoting the community spirit of OSM but we don't exactly make
it very easy to be a social community when you first sign up. 

Anyone else have some ideas?

Cheers

Andy


>Edoardo
>--
>Edoardo Marascalchi
>ICT Consultant
>
>website: http://www.edoardomarascalchi.it
>skype: My status <skype:asca_edom?call>
>
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