Hope you don’t mind! I liked this post so thought I’d pull it out into a new topic here in Community, so we can share about our experiences.
Since writing the post, did you do any experimenting with using automation to send messages automatically to your members?
I am considering setting up similar messages here on meta, to help guide new members as they join. Currently we have nothing special set up at all and just rely on the default messages that are sent as members join and move up in trust level.