Help talk:Welcome tool

Updates needed
Can some one update with the new changes Thanks --Cizagna (Talk) Central Dofus 22:32, 21 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Done! Kirkburn (talk) 14:05, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Is there a way to turn this off?
Hi, I was wondering if there was a way to turn this function off. We already have welcome templates at my wiki, and we've got a very nice system going. I think we would do better if we didn't have this. Thanks. Gamma Metroid 20:46, 23 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I suggest Special:Contact for such requests. Kirkburn (talk) 13:42, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

How about a $5
how about... $5 - the name of the currently active admin? Would help in crafting messages. &mdash; Morder 22:07, 14 April 2009 (UTC)


 * That's what Help:Welcome tool is about, or is this for use within the text? e.g. "Hello, I'm $5, and welcome to the wiki!". I've not often seen that form, but it does seem like a fairly reasonable request. I'll pass it on. Kirkburn (talk) 12:33, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes Kirkburn that's basically exactly what I was talking about :) &mdash; Morder 07:57, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Suggestion: change default to @sysop, so wikia local administrator is the one whose name is signed
I just went in and manually changed it to @sysop so when a new editor post, it welcomes them from me, and not the last administrator from some other project that did anything there. http://gantz.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Welcome_tool Shouldn't it do this by default? I'm thinking most would prefer that to the current method. You should be welcomed by someone who works at that page all the time, not just a randomly passing stranger. Dream Focus 02:07, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The @latest setting gives a welcome from the most recent admin, staff or helper -- it's not any random person that comes by, but it does sign with a staff member if they come to your wiki. That's set as the default because there are some wikis where the admins have all left a while ago -- if it was always set to have the admin welcome, then people could get welcomed by someone who hasn't been around for a year. But for active wikis, yeah, @sysop is better! -- Danny (talk ) 16:49, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

First contrib on picture
I recently noticed on our wiki that an user has been welcomed for uploading a picture. Trouble is that the inserted code was " Thanks for you edit on ", the : is missing behind "File" to display the file name and not the picture itself... 13:41, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Replied locally. Kirkburn (talk) 15:20, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Dutch Translations
I would like to translate these welcome messages to Dutch. If someone could provide me with links of pages that need to be translated, I would love to do it. - Tedjuh10
 * Please use Special:Contact to request things/report issues. --Uberfuzzy 18:28, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Turned off?
Hi, Is this feature turned off on finnis wikis?-- Wappedia (Talk) ™ 19:07, 18 June 2009 (UTC)


 * It has only been enabled for languages in which we have enough people to verify the translations. That's not yet true of Finnish, but if you look at Help:Attracting Contributors, you can find some advice on building up a community at Wikia. Once we have more Finnish editors, then it will become easier to enable tools like this. Angela (talk) 05:55, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

A section describing MediaWiki:Welcomecreation is also needed in this help article
This is a subtle point that may not affect every wiki but it has affected the one I am presently developing so I will share here and see if there is consensus or not.

As you know the welcome bot may be configured via
 * MediaWiki : Welcome-message-user : to initialize a user_talk page
 * MediaWiki : Welcome-user-page : to initialize a user page

What you may not realize/remember is that after a visitor has created a new account they see a page displaying this MediaWiki message:
 * MediaWiki:Welcomecreation

The default Welcomecreation message invites the new user to edit ... their user page !!!


 * This is a problematic default.

The reason is that the Wikia account welcome-bot only gets triggered after the user makes their first edit at a wiki. Now, if that edit is an edit of the user page then the initialization that was setup via MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page does not take place.

In an ideal world the Wikia account welcome-bot would also be triggered by the new account create activity but, currently that is not the case so some other safe/dependable default is necessary.

For the wiki I am currently working on I decided it would be best to direct such a newcomer to an editor window ASAP. So I created a link to a "Hello World" forum topic designed for the express purpose of being a safe place for any complete newcomer to expeditiously face their first wiki editing experience. See also:

If you do look at the link above and follow the "get started here" link then you will see how I was able to turn that first edit experience into a brief tutorial for the complete novice to wiki editing. An experienced wiki contributor will recognize what that preloaded new section is designed to achieve and promptly delete the preloaded text and replace it with something original.


 * Thanks for the feedback - good point about that welcome message. We agree, it could be improved - this is muppet's approach, for example. Kirkburn (talk) 13:18, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Room for improvement
I rather like the primer/tutorial function served by http://vsk.wikia.com/wiki/Template:Preloads/My_first_edit but it could be enhanced if there was a way to escape the 4 tilde and/or 3 tilde signature special strings.
 * I tried using the HTML code for tilde to produce   but it is copied verbatim into the editor window. viz. ~&#126;~
 * Of course I want the newcomer to type the 4 tildes on their own but for the inevitable case when that does not happen it would be nice if the level 3 heading or the >> Hey you, comment >> properly identified the new user by name.
 * produced no better result. viz. ~
 * The  template plus JavaScript is not suitable for this either.
 * The special variables $1, $2, $3 and $4 no longer have context in that editor window.

So if you have any ideas for improving that first introduction to the plain text editor then please respond here or at my talk page. - najevi 11:33, 6 August 2009 (UTC)