Suggestion: Click-through Tutorial for First-time Posters

Having recently noticed several forum posts that essentially contain no content, other than the topic starter saying "Hello," I thought perhaps it might be useful if Tom's implemented a click-through tutorial or "fill-in the blanks" layout for all first-time forum users.

I believe it could be done much like a support site's boxed layout, in which users enter their system's information (hardware), followed by their issue, whether they believe it's hardware or software related, the symptoms, and any attempts they've already made to correct it. Think of a "Yes/No" check-box followed by an "If so, describe" box opening after checking yes. Of course, all fields should require information, and perhaps even work in a series of drop-downs that won't continue to open until the previous field is completed.

If something like that is deemed too cumbersome either for the web dev, or potentially even for a first-time user, then you should at least direct them to a proper "How-to" which they must read and confirm an understanding of in order to post. Think something along the lines of an EULA which requires confirmation, followed by short but proper examples of someone asking a support question. Again, require confirmation of the user's understanding. It should continue to explain the difference between asking a Question and creating a Discussion.

In all honesty, I (and probably others) tend to completely ignore posts like these:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] oots-flash
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] y-problems

I do realize that the lack of information new posters include can sometimes be attributed to a language barrier, but that's another issue...

This is definitely something we can try to implement in the near future. I'll send it over to the devs as a feature request.

I like the part about sending them there at registration. They'd only see it once, which should be enough.
To send someone there when clicking the 'ask the community' button would need a cookie set to indicate they've already been there, did that. Might slow down loading and we all know how much that dis-pleases anyone.

I too noticed the OP's of the "Hello" threads didn't respond to replies. As to why that happened, who knows? We can speculate from now til eternity...

It's been so long since I registered here that I can't recall if new users even have to respond to a confirmation email to complete their registration before they can even ask questions on the forums...

'Tis wonderful to see that useless form gone from the new beta home pages. The only people who used it seem to have been forum illiterates!