Consider making the instructions more step-by-step…
Some of the instructions can be difficult to parse as a non-Discourse user - making the instructions more step-by-step might also help non-native speakers follow along in addition to those who have trouble with instructions.
Some examples…
Quoting Instructions
Before
Select the text of whichever ↑ quote you prefer, and then press the Quote button that pops up over your selection – or the Reply button at the bottom of this post.
Below the quote, type a word or two about why you picked that one, because I’m curious
After
Select the text of whichever ↑ quote you prefer
And then either:
Press the Quote button that pops up over your selection
Or the Reply button at the bottom of this post.
Below the quote, type a word or two about why you picked that one, because I’m curious
Quoting Not Found
Before
Hmm it looks like you didn’t quote me in your reply?
Selecting any text in my post will bring up the Quote button. And pressing Reply with any text selected will work, too!
After
Hmm it looks like you didn’t quote me in your reply?
Either:
Select any text to bring up the Quote button
Or: Pressing Reply with any text selected
Note I changed “Press the Quote button” etc to match “will bring up the Quote button” style consistently.
I know it’s not to everyone taste - but we are trying to cover the basics here and ensuring they, the new user you want sticking around to follow.
Not arbitrary - bullets / numbers make it clear the number of steps involved and the options to choose from; this is unclear in the current text without reading the sentence multiple times to find out what you missed.
The bot is meant to be conversational, not a rote collection of bulleted steps. If that is what you prefer, you’ll need to customize the text locally for your site.
Imho the difference between discobot and the classic welcome message is exatly this one.
Welcome message is structured in lists and can be very usefull for technical forums for example (especially because you can add specific sections) . But honestly, for discussion sites, it is pretty boring if you have to read an endless list of things without doing anything only to learn how to use the forum.
Discobot is more friendly and teaches you only the basics steps to use Discourse properly, and especially requires an interaction with the user without being a boring teacher…
My impression is that the challenge is to get users to actually start the track, i.e. to read and respond to the first message. Once they do that, my impression is that the existing narrative works fine.