I have put faith 100% in Discourse spammer-spotting abilities! I approve all new users as a matter of course. In amongst the welcome email I include a link to the Introduce Yourself section. Some introduce themselves, most don’t. Ironically, the last two new members left blinding introductions, but that isn’t the norm.
Conclusions I can draw are:
compared to the last forum software, for me, the filtering work keeping out bad players is now negligible, thank you.
This “introduce yourself link” approach hasn’t induced a rise in Introductions. Still, most just want to wander around and ask a question now and again.
As far as garnering more Introductions, could I do more?
I could be more hands on asking outright for an introduction when they have logged in, but I have been a member on a forum in a similar niche to mine, where the webmaster will openly hustle for introductions, politely of course, but despite his best efforts, the numbers don’t bear any evidence that his approach works better than my hands off approach, in that they have 4 figure membership and a fraction have made introductions.
Could I require an introduction as part of the sign up process? I have added that now, as an option at sign up and will keep an eye out.
Use badges as a reward for introductions? Even giving away cash prizes falls on deaf ears in our community!
Later on in a member’s tenure, asking for feedback like you just did, that seems to work!