I have sometimes replied to such introductory posts when it appeared to me that the student was interested in computer science as an area of academic concentration, or might potentially be interested in the forum beyond its use merely as a destination for posting a required introduction. I would usually steer the student toward the Python Discourse Quick Start and About Discussions on Python.org pages, and suggest that they look at some of the discussions in the Python Help category. This was done in hopes that the student would gain a sense of how the forum might help them in the future, and how they might eventually use it to benefit others.
See the following for an example of a post that I felt merited a reply:
Provided that these required introductions are confined to the Welcome to Discourse! category, I don’t think they are a problem. However, if all the course instructor does regarding the forum is to assign the students the task of posting an introduction, then it is a missed opportunity. Students who become seriously engaged in learning Python could benefit from this or other forums after they have gained some knowledge of Python. The instructor could facilitate this by asking the students to also look at the pages referenced above that explain the workings of this forum. Then, later in the course, the instructor could return their attention to the forum by looking at some selected discussions that are interesting because they represent examples of how to use and how not to use a forum, or ones that feature an interesting problem or algorithm. The students can then be invited, purely optionally, to post to the Python Help category if, and only if, they are ready to ask a good question or provide a good answer, with any posted code properly formatted, of course.
Would it be prudent and practical for someone with authority on this forum to suggest directly to instructors how they might guide students toward effective engagement here?