After signing up for a new site, the thing you are most prominently told to do (to get a badge) is read the tour.
The tour is...bad.
- The top summary is very generic. Out of the 55 words in Science Fiction's version, only 14 aren't identical on every site.
- Only one of the six sections with the fancy animations is about the site specifically — the one about what is on-topic. The rest are all the exact same (except for having a different exampled post shown).
- Out of all the things someone should know before posting, what is on-topic is by far the most important.
- What you shouldn't ask (i.e. Primarily Opinion-Based questions, Too Broad questions) is also only mentioned in the one box.
I propose:
- Having the top summary be much more specific. A lot of people are only going to read the summary — Columbia University and the French National Institute found that 59% of the time people share links without clicking on them — **so it should be as useful as possible.
- Moving the stuff about what's on-topic to the top. It is much more important than the other stuff, especially the thing in front of it; stuff from this section such as "This site is all about getting answers. It's not a discussion forum. There's no chit-chat" could easily integrate into the on-topic section.
This page should more prominently explain what is on-topic, because the first badge you are told to get makes you read (or scroll through) it.