Thread:Talk:StructuredProfile/Red linked userpages or redlinked talkpages?/reply

I believe that there are currently a couple other experiments being run by the Account Creation Project team that involve automatically creating User and User_talk pages - specifically with the goal of avoiding the "redlink" problem described above. In some ways, the impetus for this project is driven from that - if we remove the redlink notifications, then page patroller difficulty increases radically so we need to look into ways to avoid that.
 * I am currently of the mind that providing default User and User_talk pages for new users is a good idea, if only so that we can show them that these things exist at all. The sooner new users understand that discussion pages exist is better, in my opinion.
 * As far as templates are concerned, I am very leery of them. We have some research that tells us that "manually saying mean things" to new users is far, far preferable to "dropping a template on their talk page".  Templates are rather forbidding, generally, and overall poorly designed.  Most are blocks of text which instantly cause users to drop into "scan" mode.
 * It might be better to connect this with WikiLove to help show appreciation.