Help talk:Welcome tool

For older topics (2009&hellip;2011) see the talk page archive.

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)
 * I came here looking to see if something like this existed - what ever happened about this? -User452 05:54, September 13, 2011 (UTC)
 * While trying to find an answer to this: Admin_Forum:Enhancing_Welcome-message-user, I came here yet again.
 * It really does seem silly that the available variables are so limited. $2 and $3 would be redundant if there was a variable which simply returned the username - a talk page link or a sig could be made if a username-only variable, and it would allow both an introduction as above, and for custom sigs to be accessed. -452  00:00, October 11, 2012 (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)


 * @sysop does not work for me. I update 99.9999% of the time whereas another admin only edits once in a blue moon, and yet his name always gets put on the welcome messages. Why is @sysop not working and how can I get my name and talk page link to appear? Adamantoise 03:33, March 9, 2015 (UTC)


 * Please send the Community Support team a note via Special:Contact, with more details. We'll look into what may be going wrong. Thanks! 15:03, March 9, 2015 (UTC)

Confusion on the welcome message
I've noticed that, and it was only for a short period of time, that rather than the normal "User:Wikia makes the message and signs as a local admin" method, it has been done as the actual local admin's user account is the making the message automatically, and this is on a wiki where no settings have been changed. For example, this welcome message was put on an anonymous user's talk page. Rather then being made by Wikia and using my name, it was actually posted from my user account with my custom signature. The message is even on my own Special:Contributions page. This change seems to have started on April 18, but had changed back to the old method by the 30th.

There was also only one instance where there was no automated welcome message at all, so I had left one myself, 12 hours after their first edit.

If anyone can explain the reasons for either of these, please do. Schiffy (Speak to me &#124;What I've done ) 19:02, May 3, 2013 (UTC)
 * Hey, there were some bugs with the welcome tool, hence that edit, and it's still not entirely fixed. Staff are working on it.TK-999 (talk) 19:28, May 3, 2013 (UTC)

Option to not follow Message Walls due to automated Wall Greeting
Hello,

There are two things that I don't like about Message Wall.
 * 1) Automatically following User and IP Message walls due to the automated greeting.
 * 2) Having to go through steps to remove wall greetings by Ad bot Users and IPs. It appears I just can't simply delete the wall, I used BatchDelete and that appeared to delete it, but again no red indication.

The feature is good for those who have trouble with talk pages, and the pagination and thread collapsing is nice.

-- Bunai82 (talk) 15:53, June 4, 2013 (UTC)


 * If you want to remove the message wall automatic wall greeting entirely, then change MediaWiki:welcome-enabled to  to create user pages, but not automatically greet the users, see Help:Welcome tool.-- ( |  | ) 17:48, June 6, 2013 (UTC)

Anons
I thought anons couldn't edit anymore? --Mai Is Me (talk) 02:36, July 5, 2013 (UTC)
 * I just logged out and could still edit this page. Anon editing is only restricted on wikis aimed at children.  There are many wikis which still allow anon editing, and anon editing is enabled by default on new wikis. -452 (talk) 14:24, May 8, 2014 (UTC)

Default should be OFF

 * 1) This should be off by default.


 * 1) One admin should not have the power to enable this for other admins without each of them agreeing/acknowledging.
 * 2) At the very least, new admins should get a message informing them of the welcome message and supplying them with a link to change it. Ideally, set it to opt-out by default, and let each admin enable.

(unsigned: User:Wc8 17:56, January 13, 2014‎ )
 * 1) The system should NEVER, never, be posting messages in a user's name without that user's authorization.
 * Why? Enabling it by default but allowing it to be disabled makes more sense.  If it is turned off by default, many people may not realise it exists, so they won't know that they can turn it on.
 * If one Admin has a problem with this, then it is up to those admins to sort it out themselves.
 * That's a good point, but again, all admins have the power to change it if they do not like it.
 * I'm pretty sure that the defaults reflect the most commonly used settings. -452 (talk) 14:24, May 8, 2014 (UTC)

"There are two simple methods you can use to find new users"
Those are good methods, but there is a method I've been using that I think is more accurate and efficient than those methods. In the Special:Log, there is a User Creation Log, and that method has been working excellently for me. I'd reccomend adding it to this page c: ỻᶒᶅᶖọᶊᶏᶇᵵữᵴ (talk) 20:42, July 4, 2015 (UTC)


 * I think there's two main reasons it's not mentioned here: it's not related to the welcome tool, and the location a user registered is not necessarily directly related to where they want to edit (many users register on Community Central but have no plans to edit here, as a more extreme example). However, I don't mean to discourage you making use of this :) 14:54, July 6, 2015 (UTC)

Automated Welcome Message
When you receive an automated welcome message from wikia. How does it decide which admin's name it uses? For a very long time, I believed they used the username of the last admin who edited, however I've recently noticed that each day the global bot seems to choose the same admin for the same day, and only switches to a different admin once a different day has started. If there's anyone that knows what I'm talking about and can explain how it works, please explain to me! ―  C.Syde  ( talk &#124;  contribs ) 11:09, November 22, 2015 (UTC)


 * It sounds like you're asking about the first item in Help:Welcome tool, under "Who signs the message"? Does that help? 17:02, November 23, 2015 (UTC)


 * Yes, but I was wondering, since I have admin rights on a certain wiki, and it is set to @sysop, but my username has not yet been used for any automated welcome messages. For 24 hours, it always seems to choose the same user, and then next day it always chooses a certain other user (I believe it's the last user who edited, only it always uses that same admin's username until the next day). I guess it's no big deal, but still, you get users who want their usernames to be used for automated welcome messages, as it gives them recognition. ―  C.Syde  ( talk &#124;  contribs ) 02:47, November 24, 2015 (UTC)


 * Hmm, I believe it should update more quickly than that - could you identify any examples where the welcomer was not the more recently active admin and send it in to Special:Contact/bug? It being wrong by a few minutes wouldn't surprise me too much (since the welcome may have been waiting in a queue), but a few hours or a day shouldn't be normal. Thanks! 14:10, November 24, 2015 (UTC)


 * FYI, C.Syde65, it's been like that for several months now. -452 14:46, November 24, 2015 (UTC)


 * On the Sims wiki it only tends to update once per day, or maybe sometimes not even that. So my name has never appeared in any automated welcome messages, much to my dismay. As for my wiki, it hasn't updated in ages. I can't tell, but there's only me and another administrator on my wiki, and the other administrator hasn't edited since September, yet their name was used the last time an automated welcome message was issued. ―  C.Syde  ( talk &#124;  contribs ) 01:47, November 25, 2015 (UTC)


 * While some fixes to this behaviour have gone live over the past few months, we do have an open ticket to look into some lingering cases where it's still not updating correctly - I'll add this discussion to the ticket to help with the investigation. 14:12, November 26, 2015 (UTC)


 * I've encountered a similar issue on one of the wikis I edit. I'll explain below. The Long Dark Wiki was initially founded by staff member Raylan13 thereby making him a sysop and b-crat. Sometime later Hlymzik and I adopted the wiki. I noticed that the welcome messages were still being signed in Raylan13's name. I messaged him about this and asked if removing his redundant sysop and b-crat rights would be a solution. He did so and it seemed to have worked. However, I soon noticed that the welcome messages were only being signed in Hlymzik's name regardless of whether or not he was the last admin to edit. --

Automated Welcome Message, Again
A few more months have gone by, and it seems that this glitch that stops the automated welcome message from updating which administrator's name it uses has returned. One administrator's username has been used for like over a week now, despite only editing every few days. While on the same wiki, my username hasn't been used in automated welcome messages since January, even though I'm one of the most active admins on that wiki. So not only has this glitch not been fixed, it's now just as bad, if not worse than it was the last time I voiced my concerns on this issue. ―  C.Syde  ( talk &#124;  contribs ) 09:21, June 6, 2016 (UTC)


 * It's a difficult one to fully fix, unfortunately - we've rolled out various fixes in the past that sorted it for many communities, but clearly they did not cover every situation. If you're still running into problems, please send info in to Special:Contact/bug. For now, the workaround is to manually update MediaWiki:welcome-user. 14:47, June 6, 2016 (UTC)

Greedy Jr Mime?
Why is Jr Mime the user who welcomes new users? There are other administrators on this wiki. I don’t think that that’s fair to them. Why can’t it just be  Other administators deserve some credit, too?

(No offence to Jr Mime. I’m just sayin’.) ―PapíDimmi (talk) 05:45, July 13, 2016 (UTC)


 * Because the other administrators do not respond to welcome messages as often as Jr Mime does.
 * What do you mean by “respond to”? Do you mean that users reply to their welcome message, and Jr Mime replies to that message? ―PapíDimmi (talk) 05:56, July 13, 2016 (UTC)
 * If they have anything to ask, or need help to go to the correct part of Wikia, I do reply to these messages. I get a notification for everyone that replies to the automated message. — Jr Mime (talk) &#91;VSTF&#93; 22:44, July 13, 2016 (UTC)

Welcome Message Not Working
So I heavily edited the automated welcome message on my wiki a month or so back and ever since then registered users haven't been receiving messages. I looked at the page that sends the messages and only anonymous users have been receiving messages.

I've looked it up and haven't found anything recent enough to tell me what the issue is. I've considered posting in the forums as well, but I'm not sure where it would go.

Any help would be appreciated. FernFTW (talk) 02:39, February 22, 2017 (UTC)


 * Its a bug as explained in Technical Update: February 20, 2017 would you please send a report to Special:Contact/bug. Minato826 __(Talk to ANOOP) @Wiki-Markup Wiki  04:56, February 22, 2017 (UTC)

Sysops And 'Crats?
Is there a way of setting it to admins and bureaucrats?

Keep On Editin'! (But not in a vandalous way!) Commodore LM  (Write To Me!)  18:31, March 20, 2017 (UTC)
 * Does your wiki have bureaucrats that are not admins? Otherwise, setting the variable in MediaWiki:Welcome-user to  should just work for admins (and bureaucrats who are admins). noreplyz  talk  21:47, March 20, 2017 (UTC)


 * I am the only Bureaucrat there, and there are two admins. I myself have Admin and Bureaucrat rights, however all the welcome messages are from the other admins.

Keep On Editin'! (But not in a vandalous way!) Commodore <font color="Red">LM  <font color="Malachite">(Write To Me!)  16:54, March 23, 2017 (UTC)

Make most recent Admin/Bureaucrat Sig with $3
$3, so will that leave the sig of the most recently active Admin? I'm just wondering, because I need a way to do that I'll Get The Can!-FiveCraft 15:36, March 22, 2017 (UTC)
 * Assuming you have the tool set to welcome from the most recently active admin,  should insert the signature of the most recent admin. Hope this helps!  18:48, March 23, 2017 (UTC)
 * It should do but I know there have been instances where that isn't so. I know one wiki I work on, the welcome tool only seems to update once a day. And often it hasn't used the signature of the most recent admin, though that could just be a problem affecting the said wiki. ― C.Syde  ( talk  |  contribs ) 11:15, March 24, 2017 (UTC)

Messages section reformat
Since anons aren't being greeted anymore, I feel like tables in tabbers format in the Messages section is unneeded. Should it be changed to a simpler, list format, possibly without the tabber? -- Cube - shaped   garbage can  06:39, October 8, 2017 (UTC)


 * Fair point - removed! 20:44, October 9, 2017 (UTC)

Stop receiving welcomes
Hi, is there a way to tell the bot to not send me these messages? It's a little annoying to clear them at each wiki I pass by. Techhead7890 Talk Contribs 10:51, October 29, 2017 (UTC)
 * No, there isn't. Only way to not receive welcome messages is to have the  user right, which only some higher global user groups have. --  Cube - shaped   garbage can  19:40, October 29, 2017 (UTC)


 * Ah, that's alright, thanks for the info anyway. Techhead7890 Talk Contribs 08:52, October 30, 2017 (UTC)

Is it possible to set a non-admin, non-staff, non-staff as the welcoming user?
Is it possible to set a non-admin, non-staff, non-staff as the welcoming user? Because at one point, I tried using the name of a user that wasn't an admin but a content mod as the welcoming user, but when the next user was welcomed, it disregarded the output that I'd added, and used the name of one of the community support staff instead, forcing me to switch it back to @sysop and replace the automated welcome message with my own substituted templated message so that my own username would appear in the welcoming message. ― C.Syde  ( talk  |  contribs ) 23:51, November 14, 2017 (UTC)
 * Looking at the code - yes it should be possible. However, the Welcome tool has generally been sorta buggy since forever, so I don't think we can ever be certain :) noreplyz  talk 00:14, November 15, 2017 (UTC)

Broken default Welcome-message-user
The default MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user ends with $2 rendered as, apparently this should be $3 now (in the code). – Dunnoob &#x1F4A9;  22:14, December 28, 2017 (UTC)
 * Please contact Staff about this issue. <font color="#fff">no <font color="#fff">replyz 07:09, January 2, 2018 (UTC)

This help page is missing lots of info
It lack many specifics about the different <tt>MediaWiki:</tt> message pages that are used, like MediaWiki:Welcome-message-anon vs. MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user. It makes it really hard for new admins to use this tool correctly. -- <span style="border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help;" title="Who?">Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 5 Apr 2018 4:21 PM Pacific

Is there a global rule or a consensus on if we're allowed to remove these welcome messages?
Basically: Are user allowed to manually delete these messages for reasons? I can't find any global policy regarding this act, specific wikis have their own rules: Wookipedia, for example, allows the removal of welcome messages but not other content, others that--while not specifically referring to the welcome message--does not allow any removal of content from a talk page which occasionally happens to include the welcome message. Available information is contradicting or so it seems: So, basically, I'm will remove that pesky automated greeting spam on every talk page that's generated for me, the question that remains...Which user is correct if the removal of these automated welcomes is contested: the user removing or the user preventing the removal? Is there a global consensus overruling that of a wiki's local rules--either when the wiki specifically refers to the welcome messages or merely the removal of content from the talk page in general--or is it a wiki's and/or a local administrator's judgement? -- Theh5 22:33, December 25, 2018 (UTC)
 * Support: The Help:Talk_pages seemingly suggests that it's allowed to delete content from your own talk page--at least when the messages are old--as an alternative to archival, some agreeing factors may be the legal right to be forgotten but it doesn't seem to apply here.
 * Against: But the fact that the authority of a wiki can block a user and prevent edit access to that user's talk page seemingly suggests that you are never in control of your own talk page. Which suggests that an admin' whim, or a wiki's local policies, dictate how you must use your talk page. Similar to rules like ¨be kind, don't curse,¨ so on.
 * Support: A technicality suggests that you do have the allowance to remove welcome messages from your own talk page. To detail that: Users are allowed to archive own talk pages to remove old content from view. Other users--probably--aren't allowed to archive other users' talk pages, because if any user were allowed to do so--and because, as the second point discusses, we lack control of our own talk pages--that technically suggests that, for example, I can archive any user's talk page and they wouldn't be allowed to revert that. If they did, hypothetically speaking, an admin' could merely block that user to prevent the user from reverting my archival of that user's talk page because it is ultimately under administrator jurisdiction, not your own. Which would be anarchy and--I hope--FANDOM does not allow such events to occur, and for that reason we do have the allowance to remove welcome messages, because if we don't; and any attempts to do so would be reverted by an administrator, I can merely start archiving talk pages as I deem appropriate and any user who reverts my archival of their talk pages would merely be blocked. This is merely a technicality and would likely play out differently.
 * Neutral: As discussed further up on this talk page, here, senior level FANDOM users have the authority to preemptively remove automated greeting messages. That feature appears to be currently only available to high-ranking staff. Not sure why, possibly so that it's not intended for low-level users to remove messages but if high-level users are allowed to do so; why shouldn't low-level users be allowed also? Let's end that here, lest we start comparing that to how it's an upper-class citizen's world with no advantages to the lower-class.