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)
 * 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? 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)

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)


 * I Changed our wiki's link to the userpage to  , so they get preloaded the default content of their userpage. This could be a solution. --Ciencia Al Poder (Discussion) en WikiDex 08:19, 16 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)

This system needs to be updated to use these default templates
This system needs to be updated to use these default templates that are being installed on all new wikis: Yes I'm having a hard time at moment with this system to produce content on the user's talkpage with template-calls "intact"... -- ©TriMoon™02:10, November 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * Template:WelcomeIP
 * Template:Welcome
 * Our local version using our current MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user

Did I do it?
So I did my edits and posted it on 2 people's talk pages... will it go automatically now whenever someone makes an edit? --Girl U. Dontno 08:35, January 5, 2011 (UTC)
 * If you edited the mediawiki messages listed it will. Happy editing, --Sarah (Help Forum) (blog) 18:57, January 5, 2011 (UTC)

The Welcome tool stopped working
Hello! I'm a sysop from EarthBound Wiki, and recently we've been having problems with the MediaWiki greetings. Between greeting User 64.252.194.23 and User 113.246.241.120, the user Wikia's messages ceased to follow the "@latest" in MediaWiki:Welcome-user, instead linking to a non-existent editor, User 127.0.0.1. I tried to change MediaWiki:Welcome-user's text to "@sysop" to see if that would help, but it still links to 127.0.0.1. I've gone through the changes that occurred between the two events, but there was nothing that would cause the Welcome tool to fail. Thanks in advance for help, Ant1pr0t0n (Talk) 06:57, July 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * My apologies; I'm not used to having forums. I moved this here. Sorry for the inconvenience! Ant1pr0t0n (Talk) 07:58, July 19, 2011 (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)