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In theory, new user activity will show up in the Review Queue, under "First Posts." But I suspect we're only getting THE FIRST first post, not multiple first posts.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Might it be a bug?

I think it would help us welcome and gently guide new users if we could get notification of all the posts a new user is writing, not just the very first one.

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  • I couldn't find any explicit documentation, but in many Meta.SE and Meta.SO posts I found references to First Posts involving just the very first post on a site. Checking on different users, this is indeed the case.
    – fedorqui
    Dec 2, 2019 at 8:49
  • When a user is new, apart from the "first posts" queue entry we all see a notification under the user profile that says something like "X is a new contributor, be nice", that stays there for some time until the user gets the grasp of the site. That way you can easy tell if a user is new or not and hence guide them properly. You can also just set yourself a rep limit (I did something like that before the "new contributor advice") and guide the users who are under that limit. Nonetheless, being welcoming and gentle is something we should do everytime, everyday and with everybody.
    – Charlie
    Dec 2, 2019 at 9:40
  • Having said that, are you saying that we should be warned of "everything" everything a new user does? Comments, votes, everything?
    – Charlie
    Dec 2, 2019 at 9:40
  • @Charlie - I guess I'm imagining a notification of posts made by new users. I think that might be helpful for me. I've seen situations where someone writes a second or third post, has a rep of maybe 5, and would benefit from some guidance. If you've figured out a workaround or technique that would get me that, in some approximate way, could you post it as an answer? Maybe a query, that I could bookmark?
    – aparente001
    Dec 2, 2019 at 18:28
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    Sorry, I'm terrible with queries. What I have always done is what I said, I just treat anybody under 200, maybe 300 reputation points with extra care and guidance. Apart fom that, I don't think we need to monitor every single action a new user does. I don't think that anybody should feel like the addresee of this song: "Every breath you take and every move you make every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you." :-)
    – Charlie
    Dec 3, 2019 at 7:07
  • @Charlie - I"m not sure why, or what the solution is -- it is not my intention to dump this on your shoulders -- but I keep coming across posts by newcomers that have no welcome greeting. I have written some. But this seems quite different from before. I suspect our former moderators were doing a lot of this sort of welcoming (with both good first posts and not so good). I would like to see everybody chipping in more to welcome new arrivals, and I wonder if the software can do anything to help us do this more systematically.
    – aparente001
    Dec 18, 2019 at 4:31
  • Thank you very much for your welcoming effort. Indeed, being welcoming is a burden we all should carry, not just the moderation team. Nonetheless, I see your point but there's little we can do about software improvements here. You should post this question in MSE.
    – Charlie
    Dec 18, 2019 at 7:16
  • @Charlie - No sé cómo hacían Diego y fedorqui para darse cuenta tan rápido de la llegada de alguien, pero siempre llegaban pronto a dar la bienvenida. ¿Quizás podrías preguntarles cómo hacían para percatar?
    – aparente001
    Dec 19, 2019 at 5:42
  • @Charlie - I have posted something at Meta: meta.stackexchange.com/q/340708/287826
    – aparente001
    Dec 19, 2019 at 18:49

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Providing a "new user" perspective here.

I have had kind of the opposite feeling. There is this "New contributor" sign that still appears next to every one of my posts, even though theoretically I am already "trusted" enough to cast close votes. That feels kind of contradictory...

In line with "assume good faith", I would say that reviewing first posts should be enough. If a new user makes more than one low-quality/off-topic post, there are other ways in which moderators/trusted users will become aware of those posts (flags, close votes...). Moderating according to the content of the posts instead of the person who posted them seems more adequate to me. It is also more welcoming to new users (one feels less welcome if they know that they are in "review status" for a long time).

In any case, I guess this would be a question for the main Meta?

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  • You might be right, this might be a main Meta question. That's what I'm trying to gauge. // I don't think the "new user" label is directly connected to review status. If I write an extremely tight, but well-written answer on ELU (where I have about 18k rep), the system automatically sends it to the review queue -- and I might not even realize it, because the review queues at ELU are overwhelming and I rarely work up the courage to dive into it; and reviewers might quietly vote on it without leaving any comments. In fact, back when I was a new user there, and even a medium level user, ...
    – aparente001
    Nov 30, 2019 at 20:48
  • ..I spent a long time writing poorly documented answers and getting sent to the review queue, because for ages nobody bothered to explain to me what was going on. When one or two people finally started leaving comments, they were in the style "Hey, aparente, what the heck are you doing? With your rep level, you should know how to write a proper answer by now" and worse.. It was a painful way to learn. // Things have been unsettled recently, and I wonder if we've recently been dropping the ball a bit on leaving "Welcome to the site" comments. // I'm glad to hear you haven't felt underwelcomed.
    – aparente001
    Nov 30, 2019 at 20:52
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    @aparente001 I personally do not need "welcome" comments. As long as people interact with me in the same way as they interact with other users, I feel welcome enough. After all, the policy in SE is to keep the content as much "to the point" as possible, and I like that policy (that is why I am here). Of course, I have little experience in reviewing new users' posts, so I cannot really evaluate the pros and cons of your suggestion. That is also why I suggest asking also in the main Meta.
    – wimi
    Dec 1, 2019 at 9:47
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    You've hit the ground running (and welcome!). You're not the sort of new participant I'm worried about. It's the slightly more clueless ones I'm worried about. // I may post on Meta.SE (thanks for the suggestion) after I've had a chance to hear what others here have experienced.
    – aparente001
    Dec 1, 2019 at 12:51
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    I find the New contributor message quite patronising. I feel that we should respond to the post politely irrespective of who posted it.
    – mdewey
    Dec 1, 2019 at 15:21
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    Agreed with this "new contributor" sign being a bit... strange. It appears for a while (not sure how long, I couldn't find it mentioned in the announcement) when you are new to a site, no matter if you've been active in others. In any case, wimi: welcome!! It's been great to see you around all these days with very content so far. Glad to have you joined the site.
    – fedorqui
    Dec 2, 2019 at 11:33
  • @fedorqui thanks! This announcement says that the "New contributor" tag appears for one week after the first post, there seems to be some mistake because it has been longer in my case. Are you sure your link is correct? It looks strange with the nonstandard TCP port ( :xxxxx ) and does not work for me.
    – wimi
    Dec 2, 2019 at 12:55
  • @wimi sorry I pasted a random link I got somewhere else, my fault (copy paste mistakes). I replaced it to the announcement you mention, where I see now this reference to a week. Since you've been a member for 10 days now, it shouldn't show any more, yeah.
    – fedorqui
    Dec 2, 2019 at 12:57
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    I found What are the exact criteria for the “new contributor” indicator to be shown?: We put the indicator on all the posts you make within your first week of posting. The indicator stays on each post for a week. So yours should be gone within few days from all the posts. Your first post, for example, doesn't have it already.
    – fedorqui
    Dec 2, 2019 at 13:25

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