Wikipedia talk:Welcoming committee/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

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Archive 5

This talk page is intended to host discussion of how to better welcome and integrate new users into the Wikipedia community. It also, of course, serves as a talk page for discussing what should go on the Welcoming committee page it's associated with.

Old thoughts on boilerplate

One thing to put there (which I'll add soon if noone else does) is some boilerplate texts for welcoming new members. I personally feel that it's nicer to customize your own, but these should give people something to start with.

Old thoughts on auto-newuser lists

Another feature I'd like to see, but which I'm pretty sure would have to be written in by a developer, would be to have an automatic listing here of all new non-anonymous accounts that have been created in the last week or so. This would be useful to anyone who feels like helping a new user enter the community. It would also be a good resource for anyone who wants to follow up on new users to edit and correct their work (which is of course the most likely to contain errors and problems of all sorts.) Isomorphic 12:50, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)

The list is something that a sysop can obtain using an SQL query, but I'm wary of running one at the moment while the servers are dodgy. Once things are more stable I will be happy to provide this. Angela . 15:32, Jan 4, 2004 (UTC)

We need more committees. - Hemanshu 16:20, 4 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Personalized Welcoming

After wecloming this user, I got the idea that we might have welcoming committee members welcome users who are in either their geographic region, or age bracket. I believe this will make users feel more welcome than they do from the stock welcome notice. I would like users to sign up at Wikipedia:Welcoming Committee in two separate sections, their geographic region, and their age group. Alexandros 17:12, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

It's a nice idea but most new users don't state their age or where they're from so I don't see how that would work. By the way, Ugen's been here since August so your welcome message actually duplicated my old one! (Another problem with people blanking their talk pages). Angela 18:31, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I agree it is a great idea. How about by interest? Too bad new users don't list themselves right away. Noldoaran

Well, there's no harm in someone getting two welcomes - a boilerplate-type one whenever someone notices a new user, and then an interest-related specific one by someone who shares their interest. Angela

Good idea. —Noldoaran (Talk) 03:58, Feb 14, 2004 (UTC)

With regard to personalized welcoming, I just had an idea. I'm creating a "new user log" where new users can sign in and put their interests. We'll have to see if new users actually use it, but if they do it'll be handy. That way, a veteran can look at the new user log, see what the user is interested in, and point them in the right direction (and maybe even introduce them to people working on those areas.) Isomorphic 00:47, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I think this is a great idea. Other wikis have similar things on pages like Meatball:RecentVisitors, which seem to work, so hopefully it will here too. It might be good to add a link to this page on the boilerplate welcome message to see if that encourages people to add their name. If that doesn't work after a couple of weeks, we could try adding some false entries, but it would be nice to see if we can get some real ones first. Angela . 07:01, Feb 17, 2004 (UTC)

I wasn't terribly serious about adding phoney entries. It's just that the page looks intimidating right now, even to me. Blank space just waiting for the first brave soul to put their name up. :-) Isomorphic 08:17, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

How to greet new users

I'd like to join the Welcoming committee but I need a tutorial on how to welcome new users. :) Somebody please write one. Is there a standard welcome greeting? --Hemanshu 19:27, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

There isn't any FAQ or tutorial yet for greeting new users, but it's a good idea. I'll answer now and maybe we'll try to turn my answer into a good, formal tutorial later. I can't give any ancient wisdom, but I can tell you what I've been doing and show some examples...

The welcoming committee page is just an attempt to coordinate and improve what people had already doing for a long time. There aren't any formal guidelines but there are some standard messages available here. You can also see what I'm personally using here. If you look at the user pages of the other welcoming committee members, a lot of them have their standard greeting posted.

If you haven't seen it, there's a page at Wikipedia:New user log where new users can introduce themselves. If I'm greeting them before they've signed in, I use a pretty standard greeting and include a request to add themselves to the new user log. Sometimes I'll look at their user contributions, see what they've been working on so far, and customize a little bit based on that. Something like "Thanks for your good work at ____ " if they've significantly improved an article.

If they write a note to the new user log before anyone has greeted them, then I use a message customized to what they've said in their introduction. I might suggest an appropriate WikiProject to look at, or an article to edit. For an example, see what I did today at User talk:Skylark of Space after reading his entry at the Wikipedia:New user log. He said he was interested in (among other things) space and hats, so I pointed him to Wikipedia:WikiProject Space and (I never would've believed this, but...) Wikipedia:WikiProject Hats and Headgear. Similarly, I suggested to Parelle that Diplomatic history could use work, after she mentioned on the new user log that that was her major.

I hope that helps. Go ahead and add yourself to the Committee page; it's not like we're an exclusive club, and it doesn't require you to do anything - it just tells people that you're interested in this area.

Thanks for your interest, Isomorphic 20:22, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

For another example, see what Sennheiser and UtherSRG did at User talk:Yak. A compliment on Yak's work at Cassia (which Yak started and mostly wrote by himself) to start off, then a bunch of useful links from Sennheiser, then some suggestions and a minor correction (phrased very politely) from UtherSRG. This is a great example of how this should be done. Isomorphic 20:33, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the complement, Iso. I took a look at some of the greeting you've done and like what I see, too. I'm going to incorporate some of your technique into my standard greeting (including a suggestion to sign the Wikipedia:New user log). Since I tend to find new users by trolling RC, it's easier for me to use a more standard greeting routine than you would need trolling the Wikipedia:New user log. I will likely incorporate my greeting into {{subst:subst:greeting}}. Probably the wrong place to ask, but can you embed a msg into a subst (or vice versa, etc.)? - UtherSRG 20:49, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Sorry, don't know anything about using When using template tags on talk pages, don't forget to substitute with text by adding subst: to the template tag. For example, use {{subst:test}} instead of {{test}}. This reduces server load and prevents accidental blanking of the template. . My own greeting technique is a decidedly low-tech copy-and-paste job from my user page. That works better for me anyway since I usually modify the greeting a bit for each individual use. Isomorphic 21:08, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I don't think you can use one msg inside another one if that's what you mean. There's the danger it could lead to infinite recursion if it was allowed. Angela . 04:07, Feb 27, 2004 (UTC)

I've just created Wikipedia:Show preview, which I think would be a good idea for everyone to add to their welcome messages, as one of the frequent complaints about newbies is that they neglect to use Show preview and make too many saves. Angela . 04:07, Feb 27, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, that's a great idea. Now added to my greeting. Isomorphic 22:56, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I had an idea last night. Right now, we have an absolutely huge collection of how-tos, policies, FAQs, and such. It's daunting - no new user is going to RTFM through all that, because there's too much and not much clue where to start or what's important. I haven't read even most of it. It's like a computer's user manual - most people won't read it until they hit a problem, and not always then.

On the other hand, people do need information to get started. I've noticed that greeting messages (including mine) have gotten increasingly long as we try to fit in all the most important tips. Those should be welcome messages. By making giant welcome messages, we're implicitly admitting that there's something missing from Wikipedia.

We should create a Wikipedia:Tutorial - a series of pages to walk you through all the basics. This way, we can develop a standard canon of stuff that people should know before they do a lot of editing. I'm thinking things like what a talk page is and how/why to use it, how and when to create wikilinks and external links, how and when to bold and italicize, and some other basic help on formatting and style. We could even walk people through creating their user page, if they haven't already.

We can also include brief explanations of our policies, with some examples. Then, we put an area at the bottoms of the pages for people to practice. These pages won't (in general) replace the pages we've got now - what I want to do is create a distinction between a tutorial and a user manual. The idea is to keep the tutorial short and include only what's crucial, so that people will actually go through the whole thing.

Once it's built, we can start using shorter, chattier welcome messages with only a few links, as long as one of them is to the tutorial start page.

I'll start on this project in the next few days, but I'll be busy in real life, so if anyone else wants to pitch in, I'd appreciate it. Comments anyone? Isomorphic 15:20, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Update: screw real life, project started. I'd still appreciate help, though. My formatting is uninspired, and I'm sure to leave some things out. Isomorphic 22:29, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

What about Wikipedia:Help#How do I do that?? --Hemanshu 22:34, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

It's a good source for material, but it doesn't fill the function I had in mind. I want to cover only the most basic stuff, so that people will actually read through the tutorial in one sitting. For example, a new user doesn't need interlanguage links and doesn't probably need to know much about deletion, so those subjects (which are in help) won't be in the tutorial. Similarly, while Wikipedia:Talk page has lots of good info, the bare amount needed to get started is much smaller, so the tutorial lesson will be shorter. Isomorphic 23:12, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I like this idea. Is there a reason it doesn't have many links? I was thinking of adding some so people know where to go for further information but I wanted to check whether they had been excluded on purpose. Angela . 11:55, Mar 4, 2004 (UTC)

The current state reflects some indecision on my part. At first I felt that links were a distraction - these are new users who generally won't know the system well, and the idea is to go through the tutorial, not to wander off to some other part of Wikipedia. So at first I wasn't putting in any links at all. Then later I changed my mind and added in some, thinking that they're omnipresent on Wikipedia so they should be here, too. I'm still not sure, and I'd appreciate comments from anyone who's interested. Isomorphic 13:46, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I think more links would be useful. If people want to go through the tutorial in the order they are meant to, they can open the other links in a separate window or tab. I'd prefer to give them that option rather than not have the links. Angela . 03:30, Mar 5, 2004 (UTC)

That's what I was starting to lean toward. If you agree, then it shall be so. Isomorphic 03:33, 5 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Help Wanted

I'm trying to create the perfect Wikipedia:Welcome boilerplate--will you help? jengod 00:06, Mar 6, 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit

From #Wikipedia:

[02:45] <TimStarling> can people stop putting the changing attribution page in their newbie greeting messages?

Angela . 02:50, Mar 14, 2004 (UTC)

OK. It's now removed from mine. I'll take it off the boilerplates if it's not been done already. Isomorphic 02:55, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Minor Edits?

My apologies if I missed this elsewhere, but would we prefer to welcome people and mark the welcome message on their talk page as Minor edits? Or should we just go ahead and always make it a regular edit? My only thought is that I've welcomed a few dozen people today, and those are all showing up on the Recent Changes page. --Wolf530 06:34, Mar 30, 2004 (UTC)

I don't know of any policy on this kind of thing. Personally I lean toward making them regular edits, since I prefer to reserve "minor edit" for truly minor edits like copyediting and wikifying, and never for adding any kind of substantial materlal, including messages. There are plenty of people who feel differently, and I've noticed one or two who mark all their edits to talk pages as minor. Isomorphic 07:21, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I always used to mark these minor as I thought there was no need for them to appear on recent changes, but it seems most people don't hide minor edits from recent changes anyway. I now always mark them as major edits as creating a new page is not something minor, and like Isomorphic I try to use 'minor' only for edits that don't change the content itself. Angela . 23:12, Apr 1, 2004 (UTC)

Newbie helpdesk

There has been a lot of discussion at the village pump talk page about whether anons should be allowed post questions on the Wikipedia:Village pump. User:MyRedDice suggested that there should be a sort of "Village pump for newcomers" set up. I think this is a good idea. Are any other WWC members interested in helping? The page, if set up would needed to be linked from ALL the newbie help pages. LUDRAMAN | T 17:27, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I'd be willing to lend a hand. --Wolf530 17:47, Mar 30, 2004 (UTC)

I've created the page at Wikipedia:Newcomers' village pump. It needs to be linked from other pages though. I also posted a question or two as an anon IP, so users wont be frightened at being the first to ask a question, and so they get the idea. LUDRAMAN | T 18:09, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I've thought about something like this on and off for a while, but hadn't gotten around to doing anything about it. I'll watchlist it and help maintain it. In addition to linking it from our various pages, we should also put the link into greeting messages. Isomorphic 04:57, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I think I like the name "Newcomers' Help Desk" better than "Newcomers' Village Pump" though. It's more accurate, and additionally it doesn't imply that newcomers can't post to places like the Village Pump, just that this is the place for newcomers to get help. Isomorphic 05:03, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

The name change is a good idea. Angela . 23:12, Apr 1, 2004 (UTC)

I'd be willing to help. Also, this points out another need, for a standardized user greeting; I'm thinking something like {{msg:welcome}}. That way everybody wouldn't have to continually copy-paste. Meelar 05:04, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

It might seem useful but I have a strong reservation. This would reduce the ability to add any personal touch to a greeting. One of the reasons I've been happy to stick with copy/paste is that I often insert user-specific comments at various points in my message, and I don't always say the same things. For example, my message will be different depending on whether someone has signed the new user log. Sometimes I'll thank a user for some notable contribution, and sometimes I'll leave out tips or links that they obviously don't need.

If I use a MediaWiki message, I greatly reduce my ability to tailor the greeting to the user I'm talking to. Not only that, but MediaWiki messages reduce the personal touch at the other end, since the sender's personality isn't showing at all. I'm worried that having the message available will discourage anyone from taking extra effort, and we'll end up with a situation where we might as well have a bot do our welcoming for us. Isomorphic 05:56, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I agree with Isomorphic. Not only would a

Welcome!

Hello, Welcoming committee/Archive 1, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! take away personalization, but once a newbie responds to the message s/he will see that the message wasn't written out, but only a stanard greeting. It gives a nice touch of personalization to have actual text written on the page. Also, while I'm busy griping about user welcomes, please check out my complaint at Wikipedia talk:Standard user greeting - no one seems to have noticed it. And yes, I'd love very much to help out at the Newbie Village Pump. Excellent idea! --Alex S 17:02, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Sorry for the "me too" post, but I agree with the above that the message should not be over-standardised. Angela . 23:12, Apr 1, 2004 (UTC)

Tutorial

The Wikipedia:Tutorial looks like it's about ready to go live. I'll post an announcement on the Village Pump tomorrow if no one objects. Isomorphic 06:35, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I agree. It's looking really useful now. Angela . 12:01, Apr 9, 2004 (UTC)

Signing articles

I've joined the committee and created my standard welcome text (to be personalised as and when necessary), based on what UtherSRG greeted me with a couple of months back. Following some discussion on the village pump, I've amended the section on how to use signatures, to make it clear that main articles shouldn't be signed. It might be useful for anyone else who mentions signatures to have a look at whether it's clear in what they've said.--ALargeElk 15:48, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Oh, and as I'm new to the committee, if anyone wants to suggest changes to my welcome text, feel free. --ALargeElk 15:57, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Welsoming all users! ........ or not?

I was never really welcomed. First thing I got in my talk was about copyright. Nobody ever asked me do I know anything about internet copyright. I could say that I am from ex-communist country(not communist since 2000) and that somebody could explain me something about it.

I am here since March of 2004.

Avala 20:54, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC)

newbie alerts ?

Hi, no one welcomed me when I joined either.... but it's alright. I'll live.... :-)

I have been running the Opentask the last little while, and I run into quite a number of newbies. Sometimes I leave a greeting on their talkpage. However, I am not really that comfortable greeting newbies. Is there anywhere I can post newbie alerts to notify the Welcoming committee that there is a newbie here that needs greeting ? (Usually, it's a newbie making newbie mistakes...)

Thanks.

-- PFHLai 16:14, 2004 Jul 28 (UTC)

If you're not comfortable, then you can create a template (for example, see User:Meelar/welcopyvio, which is for users who upload copyrighted images. Then, when you see someone doing this, just go to their talk page and enter {{User:Meelar/welcopyvio}}, which expands to the full template. As far as an alert, I'm not sure it would get checked, so I don't know if it would do all that much good, but you're welcome to add a section to the project page. Best, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 16:18, 2004 Jul 28 (UTC)

I haven't encountered much copyvio problems, actually. Mostly articles with weird formats. And sometimes questions about how to do things here. (e.g. see Talk:Eye. User:Si morgan could use a greeting.)

I suppose greeting newbies is not that bad. I am just trying to avoid newbies latched on me (just because of my 4 ~'s on the greeting notice), with questions after questions that I don't know how to answer (hasn't happened yet). I thought members of the Welcoming committe would be better prepared to handle these things. But I suppose I can instead direct newbies to the Community Portal. I see some familiar names there also listed here as members of the Welcoming committee. -- PFHLai 05:33, 2004 Jul 29 (UTC)

If you see someone who really needs help, you could always drop a note on the talk page of one of the Welcoming Committee members. Isomorphic 05:25, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll do that when I see someone in need of serious help. -- PFHLai 05:33, 2004 Jul 29 (UTC)

Other places you might want to place newbie alerts are Wikipedia:RC patrol or Wikipedia:Clueless newbies. Angela . 18:08, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)

Welcoming anon users

Should we be welcoming anon users? I'm not sure if anyone does this already, but I have seen a few anon welcome messages floating around, and created my own a while ago (not that I've used it - see User:TPK/Welcome messages#For anonymous users). Would it be too much trouble? Should only anons who make a certain number of edits be greeted (and asked to join up)? Or would it be better to have a bot do it, or to simply change the bolierplate Mediawiki text on the anon talk pages to include a welcome? I admit it's time-consuming enough to welcome signed-in users, but if an anon sees a similar kind of welcome message, that could well be what leads them to join up, which we all agree is a Good Thing™. TPK 15:50, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Feel free to welcome anons if you want. Personally, I don't think it's worthwhile unless it's an IP that has been contributing for a while and is clearly used by a single person. Otherwise it's quite likely that you're welcoming a dynamic IP or a public machine, and your message won't ever be seen by the person whose edits you saw. Isomorphic 00:17, 10 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Surveying new users

Has anyone ever considered (or is there hidden somewhere in WP's bowels) a survey for new users? It could ask such things as "How did you find out about Wikipedia?", "What made you decide to join up?", "What are some of your first impressions?", "What are some of your ambitions for Wikipedia?", et cetera. Of course, the exact questions mightn't be so nebulous. I think it's very interesting to know what new users think, how they came to be here, what they want to do here; it could also go beyond simple interest. WP could, using the results of a survey (given enough new users can be coaxed into completing it), do things to better streamline the learning curve, or provide better resources for new users, or do things to increase the number of anons who sign up, (exactly what the results could lead to I couldn't say, nor how it would be implemented, but you see the point).

As for the technical aspect, the survey could be hosted in the Wikipedia: space, and a copy-n-paste template provided which the user would add to the end of the page along with their answers. A link would be provided in welcome messages asking (but not forcing) the newbie to fill it out. If someone wanted to go a bit further and provide the survey on another website with a proper UI for filling it out, that could be an option too. It could also be dovetailed into Wikipedia:New user log, as we already try to direct everyone there.

Comments, ideas? What questions might be asked? What could the results be used for? TPK 22:00, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Update: I've create a quick draft at User:TPK/Drafts. TPK 22:31, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Hmm. A survey isn't a bad idea but I'm not sure how much time people would devote to actually reading them. The most useful thing we might get from a survey is some constructive criticism, something we don't usually see on the new user log. Maybe Wikipedia is so wonderful that people don't see any flaws until they've been here a while? We can hope. More likely the page just isn't conducive to griping or suggestions.

I took a look at the draft and it looks like a good start. The only question I object to is the bit about becoming an administrator. If we ask anything along those lines at all, it should be something like whether people want to focus on original writing, editing, or management. Really though, I think that's something people should be allowed to discover for themselves as they get oriented here, not something we pester them about. Isomorphic 18:52, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Well the questions are up in the air, and they could be geared to get more constructive criticism, to be more to-the-point. Prehaps it would be more valuable if the survey was aimed at new users who have made x edits, or been active for y days/weeks, so that the respondees would have some time to get used to WP and form more of an opinion. TPK 05:04, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I'm not convinced on the validity of non-anonymous surveys. A proper research study where the data were kept confidential with only aggregate reports being made would be interesting though. Angela . 04:05, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)

Please have a look on Wikipedia talk:Please do not bite the newcomers#Newbie vanity. --Wikimol 17:46, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Bootcamps

Please take a look at Wikipedia:Bootcamp and comment on its talk page. The first one was very successful; they are currently running every night at midnight. And consider adding {{Bootcamp}} to your welcome messages!

I just came across this and I think it's a great idea - adds a whole new dimension to the Wikipedia Experience™ for new users. Are there or will there be any chatlogs, to get an idea of what goes on without being a n^th wheel at the real thing? T.PK 05:39, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Help with User:Alantheodoresherman

Hi guys, I need help with User:Alantheodoresherman. I'm not a member of this committee and have no interest in helping newbies but Alan is having a rough time coming into Wikipedia. He is kinda lost and the software and our documentation is not helping him much (everything is pretty confusing for newcomers). Can someone please give him a hand so that I can focus on other things? Please join us on the discussion in his talk page. —Ahnoneemoos (talk) 18:10, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Help with User:Maineshepp

I also need help with User:Maineshepp. I approved her article about Lore Alford Rogers through WP:AFC but she doesn't know how to proceed regarding the cleanup tags that I put under the "Recognition and awards" section. This is the email that I got from her:

I am unsure how to proceed on "Recognition and Awards." It suggests need for an introductory section or "wikify" the section. What do I need? —User:Maineshepp

Could someone please help her so that I can focus on other things?

—Ahnoneemoos (talk) 18:56, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Support for Today Article for Improvement - welcoming new editors

There is ongoing discussion about the implementation of Today's article for improvement on the Main Page. It would be good if we could get input from editors at this project over at the discussion. --Nick Penguin_(contribs) 17:03, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Proposal for working with ClueBot

Hello!

There is a proposal at the Village Pump regarding User:ClueBot_NG and WP:Welcoming Committee working together for mutual benefit. Your input would be appreciated.

Thanks --LukeSurl^{t c} 14:54, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

A discussion about new users

This discussion may also be of interest to the welcoming committee. Bazonka (talk) 21:28, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Am glad to be here. Nice for accepting me OJOKOCEE (talk) 18:57, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Proposed Welcoming Barnstar

Hello Welcoming committee. I've proposed for a Welcoming Barnstar to be made at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Wikipedia Awards#Welcoming Barnstar Proposal and I thought it would be of interest to you. Please share your thoughts on this at the linked page. Thank you, --XapApp · talk · contribs 12:21, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Template proposal - non Latin usernames

I have altered the {{welcome}} template to include a short paragraph for users who have non-Latin alphabet usernames, advising them that it would helpful for them to have a latin translation in their signature markup, as per WP:SIG.

You can find it here

Examples (manually edited version of {{welcome}}, I have only just created the template in my userspace) -

I would welcome any discussion and comments.

Cheers,

Feedthepope (talk) 21:41, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Red "contributions" tag

What does it mean when the tag marked "contributions" is red. Does it mean that they have not made an edit yet? If it does, you definitely cannot accuse said user of vandalism. What does it mean?--Gg53000 (talk) 13:28, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Yes it means it's a newly created account and has not made any edits yet. -- œ ^™ 21:21, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Welcoming Committee Userbox

Hey, I'm going to make a userbox for the members of the welcoming committee. That way we'll be able to show others that we are apart of an organization on Wikipedia, while also getting the welcoming committee more known to users.Schoolskater (talk) 14:37, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

There are some userboxes already created and listed on Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/members. If you have a new one, add it there. --Mysdaao ^talk 11:47, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

How to welcome possible advertising user?

Hullo. Just wonder what the best approach is for welcoming a new user that seems to perhaps be advertising? See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Photograph_album&diff=613211811&oldid=582957173 Thanks! Sam Wilson 02:59, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

{{subst:Welcomespam}} --Mysdaao ^talk 02:44, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! (Someone beat me to it in this case, but I'll know for next time.) Sam Wilson 03:10, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Requesting wider consensus for a proposal affecting WikiProject-specific welcome templates

I noticed that in the category Category:WikiProject-specific welcome templates the welcoming messages link to the full Manual of Style rather than a condensed version. I was considering mass-replacing the links to the more basic version, but was looking for any more thoughts on this.

The idea is that newcomers might find themselves overwhelmed, and only need an overview; whereas hard-core Wikipedians can be expected to research this a little more on their own.

Main thread is Template talk:Welcome#Is the Simplified Manual of Style still preferred?. Just looking for any further opinions, if any are to be had. meteor_sandwich_yum (talk) 20:50, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Closed meteor_sandwich_yum (talk) 04:26, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

Welcome + Adventure?

New users may get welcomed by a human, but it is now about equally likely that a bot may invite them to play the WP:Adventure game; sometimes they get both. Both messages offer some induction to Wikipedia in their different ways. A small study indicates that human welcomers are not very good at distinguishing "good" from "bad" editors, but that the selection of who gets the Adventure invite doesn't discriminate at all. It could do little harm, then, for the two messages to be combined: "Welcome! Here are links to wodges of text you can read, or if you prefer here's a link to an interactive game-style activity". Then new editors could decide for themselves which approach would suit them better at the start. The combined template could be sent equally by a human welcomer or by the Adventure bot: best though if the bot could be programmed to only post the template where the talk page was blank, to avoid duplicated welcomes and also avoid inviting already warned vandals. How about it? If people here are in favour I'll put the idea across to the Adventure people : Noyster (talk), 16:43, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

OK, taking to Village Pump : Noyster (talk), 10:32, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Welcomelaws

Template:Welcomelaws has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. G. C. Hood (talk) 16:15, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Suggestion

I am posting a feedback from an IP user on my talk page here. It is as follows:

Hi! Thank you for your welcome message :)

I was wondering if you'd be able to forward a suggestion (concerning the welcome template you posted on my talk page via Twinkle) - Specifically the "please sign your comments..." bit. At the first glance it sounded like I'd forgotten to sign something. I think the following would make more sense and sound more friendly: "You can discuss any article by going to its talk page. If you post on a talk page, please make sure you sign your comments! You can do this by...". Now, since I'm not new to mediawiki, this might end up making things worse for new users, I don't know :P. Do with the feedback as you will! Cheers again :) --134.225.160.10 (talk) 23:14, 2 October 2014 (UTC) Rijin ^Talk 06:22, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

In my opinion this would be a useful change to make to the templates. The proposed wording would be more constructive and more informative for the new user. And we need to encourage use of talk pages, which at present seem to be going out of fashion: Noyster (talk), 16:40, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Changes to Template:Welcome

I thought the Welcoming Committee might be interested in the proposed addition of The Wikipedia Adventure to the Welcome template. Feel free to comment at the discussion I linked to above. --Biblioworm 22:18, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

A reminder

- for anyone who is new to the Welcoming Committee that welcome templates are for new users who have already made constructive edits. New users themselves who simply hover over new registrations to paste welcome templates aren't really being helpful. Be sure to check first what the user's edits were. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 07:27, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Addition to welcome messages

Hello! So since the New User Homepage is slowly being I think the welcome messages should encourage users to check out the New User Hompeage. I think before doing this we should wait to see the result of the RFC related to this (Even though I highly doubt it will fail since so far everyone has said yes). This would help new users get the help they need from their automatically assigned mentor. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 00:00, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

`{{COI-thanks}}`

Discussion at Wikipedia talk:Twinkle § Restoration of poorly designed welcome templates

You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Twinkle § Restoration of poorly designed welcome templates. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 21:44, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

Invitation to RfC on inclusion of Welcome-menu and Welcome-graphical in the default Twinkle menu

You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Twinkle § RfC: Welcome-menu and Welcome-graphical. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 23:58, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

Proposed change to Template:Welcome-t

You are invited to discuss proposed changes to Template:Welcome-t at Template talk:Welcome-t. Perfect4th (talk) 17:49, 19 June 2022 (UTC)