Forum:New features on Wednesday, March 18th

Hi everyone! We have three new features that we're excited to be releasing tomorrow, and I just wanted to give you a quick heads-up with some information about them all. In addition to enabling video thumbnail previews in the Rich Text editor, tomorrow morning, we will be releasing the Wikia Welcome Tool, Category Select, and more Edit Page Enhancements.

Wikia Welcome Tool
Welcoming new contributors is a really important task on a wiki. When a new person shows up to help, we want to make sure that they feel appreciated, and connected to the community. Some wiki communities work really hard to make sure that every new contributor gets a welcome. Unfortunately, it's also a big chore, and there are a lot of communities where it doesn't happen.

Wikia has developed a new feature that will make the welcoming process a lot easier -- the Welcome tool! It's an automatic process that will welcome every new contributor, leaving a welcome message that the community can customize.

When a contributor makes their first edit, the Wikia Welcome tool leaves a talk page message for them, and creates a user page.

Hi, welcome to (Wiki Name)! Thanks for your edit to the Article title page.

Please leave a message on my talk page if I can help with anything! -- (signature)

The talk page message is signed by the admin (or Wikia staff member) who's edited the wiki most recently, to help the contributor find someone who's available to talk to them if they need it. The message is left one minute after the contributor's edit, so they'll get the message while they're still on the wiki.

We've been testing this on a dozen wikis over the last week, and the results have been really positive. On the test wikis, new contributors have been responding to the messages, reaching out to admins with questions. It's helping to create connections between contributors and admins, opening up the opportunity for conversations and collaborations.

There seems to be a real advantage to this method, even for communities that currently do their own welcomes. A welcome message left by a person can happen hours later, when the contributor isn't there anymore. Automating the welcomes accomplishes the same goal, but it's a lot faster, and active contributors don't have to spend time on a routine task.

Each wiki can still have its own specialized welcomes. The whole system is completely customizable by the admins, by editing the following pages:


 * MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user is the welcome message that's left for logged-in contributors.
 * MediaWiki:Welcome-message-anon is the welcome message that's left for anonymous contributors.
 * MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page is the user page that's created for logged-in contributors.
 * MediaWiki:Welcome-user -- You can use this page to change the signature that's left in the welcome message, or to turn the feature off. There are three settings for this page:
 * @latest -- This is the default setting. This means that the message will be signed by the latest admin to make an edit on the wiki.
 * Username -- If you replace @latest with a contributor's username, then all of the messages will be signed by that contributor.
 * @disabled -- This turns the feature off, so nobody gets a welcome message. If you turn it off, you can turn it back on again by replacing this with @latest or a username.

Because the new welcome tool has not yet been translated to other languages, we are only releasing it to English-language wikis for now. If you have any questions about the Wikia Welcome tool, please contact a staff member for help.


 * Great work, staff! — Robin Patterson (Talk) 04:17, 18 March 2009 (UTC)


 * It states that these get added a minute after the contribution. Are they in the job queue or something, as we have seen one on MA this am, and it took 51 minutes to get added.  There have been a few anon users that have edited since then, and no automated welcome. -- sulfur 13:44, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, it goes in to a job queue. Right now things are backed up a little over 2 hours.  We're working to speed things up now. --KyleH (talk) 15:15, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Category Select
On Wednesday, we're also releasing a new Category Select tool site-wide. Using this tool, you'll be able to add categories to pages in two new ways:


 * 1) From the article itself: At the bottom of each article there is a new "Add Category " button, this allows users to add categories to any article without going into full edit mode.
 * 2) From a new category section in edit mode: While in edit mode there is now a separate box for categories which allows you to add categories by simply typing their name and clicking enter without wikitext.

You can still access the raw category wikitext by clicking on the code view link in the right side of the category section. If you would prefer to disable Category Select all-together, you can do so within the Editing tab of your personal preferences and checking the "Disable Category tagging" option. For more detail about this feature, please see the help page.


 * Is there any way to have this give a list of categories that match or something similar? It doesn't appear to do that now. -- sulfur 13:37, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * To do that it would have to have a way of knowing what you're thinking. The best solution is just using simply-named or easy-to-remember categories.  // masterConjurer  ( Talk ) 13:43, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * We have simply named categories, I was more thinking in the same style as the "Search Wikia" dropdown thing works. You'd type the first two or three letters, and it would then list them.  After all, in some wikis, the words may be a bit odd, especially when the wiki is either Fantasy or SF based. -- sulfur 13:49, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * But it's working like that now. Type a letter and wait 0.5s for dropdown. --Marooned 13:54, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * edit conflict: There already is something like that. I use it all the time. Here's how to make sure you have it turned on: in Preferences, under Editing, make sure that "Do not show link suggest" is not checked. // masterConjurer  ( Talk ) 13:57, 18 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok, never mind then. It was taking longer than a half-second or so for anything to drop down, so I figured that it wasn't exactly working.  Heh.  My bad. :) -- sulfur 14:00, 18 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi, I just wanted to congratulate you guys at Wikia for adding this tool! Not only is it useful for every user, but it is really useful for new users, as they don't have to type out all the (talk) 19:07, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Edit page enhancements
After taking in some of the feedback that you provided, we're also releasing a modified version of the edit page enhancements that went out last week. Here is how the edit page on Monaco will change for wikis that do not have the Rich Text editor enabled: These changes will not affect Monobook. If you would like to tweak how these changes display on your wiki, you can find out more information about doing so here.
 * In order to make more room for the edit window, the site notice, wiki tagline, and talk page message notification are not displayed on the edit page. Additionally, the size of the page title has been reduced (rather than eliminated, as it was before).
 * A bar at the top of the preview window now displays with a bright red background to make it clear that the edit has not yet been saved.


 * All looks good. I was missing the page title when giving categories parent categories, because a dragged copy of the page title is often the best starter line. On point about the "edit not saved" notice - above the preview is the best place for it, but it should say "scroll up or down" rather than "scroll down" so as to be correct for people who have the edit box above the preview. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 04:26, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

More Information
If you have questions or comments or need help with any of these features, please contact a Wikia staff member. Thanks! --KyleH (talk) 22:21, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I've got a
question. If we leave a template at MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page, will the template be placed? And also if we want the signature to be inside at table how do we place it? &mdash; 22:40, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Templates are supported; however, please use subst: on your templates wherever practical for performance reasons. MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page is the user page that is created (eg: User:KyleH), and it doesn't accept any parameters.  MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user and MediaWiki:Welcome-message-anon are the User talk pages (eg: User_talk:KyleH) that are created, and they do support 3 parameters: $1 is the first page that the user edited, $2 is the talk page link of the user signing the page, and $3 is the signature of the user signing the page (this only supports the standard MediaWiki signature though; if you want something more complex, you'll probably have to manually enter a signature here).  To enclose the signature in a table, edit the Welcome-message pages and put $3 where you want the signature to appear. --KyleH (talk) 23:11, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Is this fine? Or do we have to put brackets around $3 and $2? &mdash; [[Image:BalisticSig.png]] 23:42, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Just putting $3 should be fine, without the $2. $3 will add your whole signature, so if you've got the talk page link in your sig, that'll appear.
 * Since I see people already customizing, here's the default code for MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user:
 * Hi, welcome to ! Thanks for your edit to the $1 page.
 * Please leave a message on my talk page if I can help with anything! $3
 * $1 is replaced by the name of the page that the contributor edited. $2 is replaced by User talk:Admin-name. $3 is replaced by the admin's signature. -- Danny (talk ) 23:48, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Is it possible to have the "SUBST:" effect on talk pages created, but have the MediaWiki pages still update when the welcome templates do? // masterConjurer ( Talk ) 00:05, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, but there's a trick to it: You need to create the MediaWiki message BEFORE you create the template (or delete/temporarily rename the template before creating the message).  If you do that, MediaWiki won't process the subst: until it is actually placed on a user/talk page. --KyleH (talk) 00:23, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * And then if you update the message it'll break because it'll actually subst it. I think the real solution is to know if the trick we've always been using is compatible with the message. ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) (tricks) (current topic)  Mar 18, 2009 @ 01:36 (UTC)
 * I had assumed that templating tricks would not work, but if they do, my night will be easier. I personally have not checked yet.  // masterConjurer  ( Talk ) 01:40, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Good point.  appears to work. --KyleH (talk) 02:19, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Will you be adding parameters to the User page soon (MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page)? And can you make one that is the user's name? That functionality is useful for creating user specific links for the new user. Example:  &mdash; JeiaraTalk 16:46, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * should be the same as the username, so  should work just fine.  That makes the code a little bit ugly ... you should also be able to use the subst: hack from above to make it a little bit cleaner when it is eventually output (eg.  )  (I haven't, however, tested this myself.) --KyleH (talk) 17:36, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Category Tag question
Has this bug and its update been corrected for monobook, is it going to be disable for monobook ? --
 * CategorySelect is now only enabled for Monaco. --KyleH (talk) 23:58, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Two Questions
I have two questions.

Welcome
We at the Club Penguin and Club Penguin Fan Fiction wikis take pride in manuall adding Template:Welc to every page by hand. Is there a way to disable the Automatic Welcome so that we can continue our proud tradition of maintining welcome articles? —This unsigned comment is by TurtleShroom (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ! 00:23, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Look up. If you add @disabled to MediaWiki:Welcome-user then it will be disabled. &mdash; [[Image:BalisticSig.png]] 00:26, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

MonoBook?
How many of your nifty new features will be available on good old MonoBook? Some of us still use it, and it would be very eaningful to use it there. MonoBook needs to be updated too! Don't leave it in the dust! —This unsigned comment is by TurtleShroom (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ! 00:23, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * We support Monobook for users who prefer the familiar editing environment that it provides, and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Because we are committed to providing that familiar editing interface through Monobook, we are not releasing any new features for it.  If you want to try out the new features, I encourage you to give Monaco another shot. --KyleH (talk) 01:01, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Timestamp
Is it possible for the welcome message to include a current timestamp ? Some users see an early welcome date as a sign of honor or something. // masterConjurer ( Talk ) 00:40, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * The signature used in MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user and MediaWiki:Welcome-message-anon ("$3" parameter) includes a timestamp for the time it was left. It isn't possible to leave a timestamp without a signature though.  (At least I think it isn't; it may be possible to fake it using magic words and parser tags or something of that nature.) --KyleH (talk) 01:01, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Is there someone who would know if and how it could be faked? // masterConjurer  ( Talk ) 01:13, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * To leave a timestamp, use five tildes like so: 02:17, 18 March 2009 (UTC) See? Orngjce223 02:17, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * That is very much not what this conversation was about. // masterConjurer  ( Talk ) 02:49, 18 March 2009 (UTC)


 * The word "current" is ambiguous as to whether you are looking for the timestamp of when the welcome tool left the message, or of the timestamp when the user is viewing the page., 2024 August/27.  I am not sure whether the "honor" is something you want to make use of to make users feel cooler, or something you wish to discourage to better preach equality. -Afker All hail AliceSoft! 02:56, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I mean when the tool leaves the message. // masterConjurer  ( Talk ) 03:21, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Welcome-user
Is there a setting that disables the signature without disabling the entire tool? // masterConjurer ( Talk ) 00:49, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Yup, just remove the $3 parameter from MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user and MediaWiki:Welcome-message-anon. --KyleH (talk) 01:01, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Editor Size
This is about the making of more room for the editor. I find that the editor is already too tall. In order to more easily research the subjects of my edits I often stack windows. Is there any chance that there will someday be an option to shrink it so that I won't need to operate two scroll bars just to see the entire edit? // masterConjurer ( Talk ) 04:46, 18 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Have you checked your preferences and tried all the editing options? I use one that restricts to a nominated number of lines - though recently there have been some funny goings-on. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 05:39, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Depending of how this preference are set, Monaco doesn't fully respect preference settings --

Star Wars Fanon
I'm not exactly sure how this works, but are the changes I made to w:c:swfanon:MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user, w:c:swfanon:MediaWiki:Welcome-message-anon‎, and w:c:swfanon:MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page‎ fine? --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 13:16, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Yup, all of those edits look good to me. --KyleH (talk) 15:16, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

writable staff members
If you have any questions about the Wikia Welcome tool, please write a Wikia staff member. Wish I had known that were possible before, hoooooow?
 * Special:Contact is your best bet--that goes directly to staff members. --KyleH (talk) 15:25, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

The goal is to show new contributors that there's a community on the wiki -- and to help connect them to admins, so they know where to go if they have questions. Won't this be applied even if there isn't a community, and that new editor is a lone contributor there?
 * Yes, this is the case. In many of these situations, however, the most recently active person is a staff member or helper, and putting them in contact with a staff member still helps them out.  Even in situations where the message is signed by an inactive admin, if the user leaves a message on that user's talk page, they'll probably get an email ... perhaps it will even prompt them to return. :) --KyleH (talk) 15:25, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

@latest Isn't working here... A problem I have with it is how it welcomes vandals, we don't want to make them 'feel welcome'... -- Sixorish 14:06, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * @latest will only have an effect if $2 and/or $3 are in your MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user and/or MediaWiki:Welcome-message-anon messages--it replaces the signature and talk page links with those of the most recently active admins. You haven't included those parameters in your messages, so the only effect that @latest has is leaving the tool itself enabled.  Regarding vandals, that is a side effect of this tool, but I don't believe that these welcomes will substantially change their behavior, and I believe that the benefits that we have seen on wikis that do welcomes far outweigh the effects it might have on potential vandals. --KyleH (talk) 15:25, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Leaving a standard welcome message for a vandal and then optionally appending a polite note explaining whatever temporary ban may have been issued is a decent way of turning a vandal into a productive contributor. najevi 18:53, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Welcome-User help
I have simple question about this new tool. We currently only want it to welcome new users who have signed up for an account, not IP's. Am I able to place "@disabled" in MediaWiki:Welcome-message-anon to have it not welcome them, or will it simply welcome them with "@disabled"? Also, can we do the same under MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page so it will not create a page for them? 19:02, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Bug Fixes?
To be honest, I'm slightly irked new features are being released when other features have bugs that need fixing. What's the status of these? --LordTBT Talk! 19:12, 18 March 2009 (UTC)