[squeakland] account signup fields

[Timothy Falconer]

My personal opinion on all this:

Within Etoys:

* username
* password (twice)
* email address
* send me Squeakland's quarterly newsletter
* send me weekly showcase highlights

(general announcements = either newsletter or showcase box checked)


On the web signup page:

(all of the above)

* tell us about yourself
* first name
* last name
* country
* want friends see friends
* public first/last name
* public friend list


The only one I'm not sure about is "country", which might be good  
within Etoys also.


On Sep 8, 2009, at 9:48 AM, Timothy Falconer wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> We're debating which squeakland.org account fields to include when  
> people sign up for a showcase account.   Such signup could occur  
> within Etoys itself ("create an account, it's free!") or on the  
> website itself.
>
> Some constraints that have come up in the current conversation:
>
> 1) we want to limit the fields within Etoys because of vertical  
> space limitations in the dialog box
>
> 2) we want to limit the mandatory fields to allow quicker signup
>
> 3) we want to assure that private information from children remains  
> private (last name, other descriptive stuff, perhaps photos)
>
>
> Here's the central issue at hand, from my perspective . . .
>
> Signup is the key moment for Squeakland and Etoys from a community- 
> building, user research, and publicity standpoint.
>
> It's the time when we'll get the largest number of people to:
>
> 1. subscribe to our newsletter
>
> 2. tell us about themselves (where they live, how they're using  
> etoys, etc)
>
> 3. allow us to later email them questionnaires or announcements  
> (squeakfest), etc.
>
>
> The vast majority of people that signup for a showcase account WILL  
> NOT join the forums, or separately subscribe to the newsletter, or  
> visit the chat channel, or join a mailing list.
>
> The people that will do these things should be considered  
> "enthusiasts", and hence, people that we really don't need to  
> convince ("preaching to the choir").
>
> We could allow people to come back to their profile page and add  
> this stuff, but MOST won't.  Only enthusiasts, people we don't need  
> to convince.
>
>
> Imagine hundreds of people who are mildly curious . . . the signup  
> to check out their daughter's project on the showcase, which is  
> otherwise hidden.   They're intrigued enough to download Etoys.    
> Like MOST PEOPLE, they go to sleep and forget all about it for  
> months.   Then comes our quarterly newsletter, and they read a cool  
> story about Uruguay.   The open up Etoys again and start playing  
> around again.  Maybe this time they'll stick with it.
>
> This is the essence of publicity and marketing . . . the drumbeat,  
> the heartbeat, of our own activity, reminding people we're still  
> here and doing great stuff.
>
>
> So that said, here's the fields we're considering:
>
> * username
> * password (twice)
> * email address
>
> These are the bare minimum, and the only required fields.
>
> More fields:
>
> * first name
> * last name
> * tell us about yourself
>
> These are currently on the newsletter subscribe form.   Currently,  
> none of this collected information appears on the website.  We can  
> keep these fields private in account profiles as well, to protect  
> children.  Nearly everyone who signs up for the newsletter writes a  
> very useful description about their location, interest in Etoys,  
> affiliated organization, etc.   We have hundreds of these comments,  
> which is invaluable for our community-building work.    I'm strongly  
> in favor of keeping the "tell us about yourself" field and not  
> showing it unless explicit permission is given.
>
> * checkbox for newsletter
> * checkbox for general announcements
> * checkbox for weekly showcase highlights
>
> We want as many YES's for all three as we can get.   More YESes mean  
> more audience.   People can always opt-out from any mailing, but  
> it's in our best interest to at least ask them for a YES.
>
> To keep the in-Etoys box short, we could leave these out, but the  
> question remains . . . what's the default?   If all NO's, then we  
> lose a major source of people who would otherwise have said YES.
>
> (I know that most of us have grown accustomed to always saying NO to  
> such forms, but in our case, with our worldwide enthusiastic  
> audience, it's more likely people will say yes, than no.)
>
>
> Other fields we could add by flipping a switch:
>
> * organization
> * address
> * address_two
> * city
> * state
> * zip/postal code
> * country
> * time zone
> * home phone
> * work phone
> * want my friends to see my friends
> * show my first/last name to public
> * show my friend list to public
> * photo/avatar
>
>
> The address fields were used for squeakfest registration, but likely  
> shouldn't appear in showcase accounts, except perhaps for country.    
> Likewise with the phones . . . we shouldn't ask.
>
> The last three are things we could add to the profile, defaulting to  
> the most private settings.   The underlying software has much of the  
> functionality of sites like Facebook, etc.   My current plan is to  
> allow people and groups to "friend" other people, which will allow  
> them to see their private Etoys projects.  Such a thing happens when  
> you "tell a friend" and include a message that's email to someone,  
> which is a great way to build community.
>
>
> Lastly, we have full questionnaire support as well, so we can add  
> any questions we want, though only to the web profile.   Again, most  
> people won't go back to fill out their profile, but we *can* send an  
> announcement saying "Tell us more about yourself, fill out this  
> quick questionnaire", but only if someone has said YES to general  
> announcements.
>
> Anyway, let me know what you think about all this.  We want this to  
> be a community conversation.
>
> Take care,
> TIm
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