Thanks @JammyDodger & @Heliosurge
I get the “overwhelming” message because all of our users have a compromised brain and in the early days disorientation and fatigue leaves very little capacity for anything. quite often language processing and sometimes visual capability is between temporarily and permanently damaged, dexterity is often a problem as well.
That’s a good reminder about TL0 I’ve tried to discuss on here that the mindset of sw authors affects usability and in our case that software author mindset wasn’t tuned for our community. Entering 5 topics is a cognitive load the some won’t equal.
They’re precisely the people that we’re most concerned to reach out to
TL4s are a bit strange. We have 11, five have not been seen this year, five have never given or received a like two are the same person / combined read time of 2 hours in 2yrs! 2 are 100% non-technical but regulars Who have been around a long time but have shown zero use of even recategorising a post. One admin person only visits the forum to put uncategorised posts in a category - Not something we care about as a community. Our users are tolerant & kind - I have never flagged a post (although I have PMed about three times to ask ”are you okay?”) and I bet 99% of the population would know that you could
All of the caring for the community is done by the members so we need mechanisms that can be made accessible either to tl 3 or two and three or 1&2&3.
Good shout on badges list!
I knew it but I hadn’t “processed” it ( due to my own cognitive impairments) !
In theory there are 29,000 basic ‘users’ (28,000 abandoned IDs?) & 235 member and 50 regulars.
Certified 33 !
Given like 640
Welcome 840
Editor 230
Emoji 333
@mention 150
It’s the drop-off rate between “creates an ID and looks around on day one to never comes back” - possibly because they don’t have the everything to get to the point where they get value (navigation, stamina, dexterity with screen or keyboard, read and understand…, Conventions such as the editor and markdown!!)
In part that is discourse UI, Which maybe we could slightly overcome with a better UX
Good point about receiving (lots of/any!) PMs - maybe a post with an @mention the day after they sign up?
Yeah a welcome post would be good. I have written one, made it a wiki and several people have contributed but we haven’t managed to get anyone to pin it yet after about 6 weeks. Currently a bunch of us link it into a reply to people’s first post.
This enquiry is a bit researched before I raise more in the forum
Data explorer might be an answer - takes me back to the mid 80s select star from table! “Every candidate key is a determinant…” I still have copies of codd & date and stuff by Stonebreaker!! 
I’ll read the other references if I haven’t already read them and any other “how to reach out to new users” and usability enhancements that anyone can suggest would be welcome input to the discussion I intend to hold there
Thnx