Welcome new users

[arantius]

Originally: DevjaVu ticket 86

Greasemonkey can be confusing and intimidating, especially for new and/or novice users. It would be very nice to offer a sort of "welcome" screen to new users, to help explain what Greasemonkey is, what it does, and how to get help.

Especially, the difference between Greasemonkey itself, and the scripts that it run, should be explained. Users should know who to ask for help when they have a problem (often, the script author is the appropriate party).

[avindra]

I agree, as long as it isn't overdone. Providing links to greasespot, userscripts and MDC should be about it, with a brief message.

[Photodeus]

I could code this into the add-on.
I've seen how other add-ons open up a website after each version upgrade or at least show a welcome script after initial install, that functionality would be simple to copy and add into GM.

Only "problem" here is to pick a suitable landing page. Would it be greasepot.net then?

[erikvold]

There is an about:ubiquity page which I believe is only displayed after installs and upgrades, which also provides a link to release notes. I think that these are both examples greasemonkey should follow, with about:greasemonkey

A menu item to this about page could be added under 'Manage User Scripts..." as well.

[Photodeus]

Good info. Never used that add-on, but poking into BSD/Apache/(L)GPL code is always worth doing.

[arantius]

This should be a small change, tagging for inclusion in v.next.

[Martii]

Please make an option to disable it... I would rather not see it every time I migrate to a newer version. Thanks.

[Photodeus]

I haven't committed any changes into my fork yet and won't be working on this for a couple days at least. Unless arantius or anyone else is doing this, I will have a look at this later this week and propose a solution.
And I agree, there must be an option to disable showing the upgrade information page.

[arantius]

It is definitely intended that this is for "new" users -- or in other words, the first time you install GM into a profile, and not when it is updated to another version.

[erikvold]

I for one would like to see the change log automatically when an update is made.

So I would like the option of enabling this, but I can understand that the vast majority of users will probably prefer that this be disabled after gm is installed.

This option should be on the about:greasemonkey page I think though, so that people such as myself can easily enable the feature.

[arantius]

I for one would like to see the change log automatically when an update is made.

Firefox has provided this feature (in the Add-Ons window when it's listing updates it's found for you) for some time.

But I repeat: as I envisioned this feature, it exactly as I put in the title: welcome new users. I want a chance to teach users important things like:

• The concept of a user script.
• The difference between a script and Greasemonkey itself.
• When something is broken, it's probably the script being problematic, not Greasemonkey.
• The right place to seek help if you have problems.

Lots of regular users seek support on the -dev list. Lots of them mail me directly. Lots of them are complaining that "greasemonkey doesn't work" when really, the one script they installed GM to run is what's broken. We should help these users before they realize they have a problem, and everyone wins.

[ocornu]

I support the idea. I personally would try to make this page short and sweet: i'm afraid most people do not read such welcome pages more than they read manuals or EULAs...

About people posting in the wrong list, i believe we should acknowledge the fact that mailing-lists have been mis-named. Whatever we'll do (welcome page or not) there will always be this ambiguity to drag people in the wrong place.
I'm afraid we cannot change their names, otherwise i would highly recommend it. Instead of gm-dev/gm-users i'd go for gm/gm-scripts (or something along those lines). The -dev/-users distinction has been proven not to work in our situation...

[arantius]

Postponing this, as there's no consensus on what this page might contain, and I'd like to hurry an officially baked FFX 3.6 compatible XPI.

[arantius]

http://wiki.greasespot.net/Welcome

I've started a draft of this page. It is already marked "protected" so that it will not be vandalized (as is depressingly common in open wikis). Please provide any feedback here, or at the -users or -dev list and I'll hear it.

[arantius]

Done. d375616

[arantius]

bah, wrong button. closing.