New system doesn't match people who need help with the people who want to give it
Preface: this answer is from the point of view of one veteran Stack Overflow user.
I've spent the past few weeks thinking about how we can do a better job of handling questions from new users (folks with no past history to speak of on our sites). This is challenging, because there are two goals which don't cleanly align:
...etc...
- Welcome wagon - help new users settle in, provide them with advice and assistance as they learn to use the site. It's nice if this happens reasonably quickly, but not critical.
It doesn't really seem to me that this new system is much better than the current First Posts queue in terms of helping newbies learn how to thrive on the site. More often than not, veteran users are going to be clicking on "Needs Improvement" rather than "Looks OK" on new posts (especially questions).
"Needs Improvement" Actions
Bold emphasis mine,
If this question Needs improvement, please edit it to improve.
If you can't, consider downvoting, flagging or closing - and leave a comment for the author to let them know what they should fix!
There are a few problematic things with the 2nd line:
Reviewers are encouraged to downvote, flag, and close, and optionally leave a comment...instead of leaving a comment, and optionally downvoting, flagging, and closing. There are some veteran users who would rather use a softer hand towards new users, and give them benefit of the doubt, by engaging with them a little before scaring them away with close and downvotes:
Other close reasons (e.g. unclear what you ask, too broad) should not be instant in my opinion, better leave a comment first asking for details or asking to improve quality, and only after a while vote to close, if the OP can't be bothered.
So as written, the reviewer advice basically says to go right ahead and immediately fire off close and downvotes, even without a comment as to how the post can be improved.
Which brings me to the next problem...
Many veteran users still won't leave a comment. For many reasons,
- Comments take too much time to type.
- Reviewers want to avoid getting into conflicts with the users they're close/downvoting.
- Etc?
This doesn't really improve the perceived friendliness and helpfulness of the site for new users, who may have just gotten off on the wrong foot.
What happens to posts in the 2nd review phase
Bold emphasis mine,
If a flag, close or edit action is taken, the post may be dequeued immediately without waiting for further reviews. Voting may implicitly do this as well, if it causes a post to become ineligible.
Some veteran users just don't want to hand-hold. Probably a lot, actually. These are the users who will just be firing off close and downvotes, usually with no comment to the OP. This is no different from the way things currently are...and because these actions take the post of the queue, they no longer have anyone else reviewing them.
As I've already pointed out in the previous section, however, there are some veterans who are indeed willing to hand-hold newbies. If most veterans are going to be dequeuing posts that need improvement with close/downvotes and without comments to help the OP, then these other more welcoming users are less likely to be able to find these new users who could use their help.
Basically, the new system does not match up new users with veteran users who are willing to hand-hold them. The kind of veteran who will leave a comment like:
Welcome to Stack Overflow! I see that your post is a little unclear, could you please provide more explanation as to how you're trying to use your foo to bar the baz so that the shazbot makes it to the derp?
instead of just a bunch of close and downvotes with silence. Which I think you kind of already mentioned here,
There's really no extrinsic motivation for doing anything in the Welcome stage. I'm mostly fine with that; I think this is too complex, too personal for extrinsic motivators to have any positive effects. But there's a possibility that we'll see interaction with first-time users drop even further.
