Wikipedia talk:Standard user greeting

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Wow, I've caused a neat TOC bug. { MB | マイカル } 20:50, Aug 28, 2003 (UTC)

and created a hideous message. :) It's a bit overpowering. Angela
I've fixed it (wow did I have to put a hell of a lot of <nowiki> tags!). It's supposed to be powerful looking and attention grabbing. It was my point. If you want to look at the weird bug, go look at http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Standard_user_greeting&oldid=1358945.

Contents

[edit] To-do list included

I don't see what good it does to include a to-do list in a welcome message. Users should come to Wikipedia, learn about it at their own page, and edit articles on subjects that they're familiar with. Giving a first-time user a list of things to do seems overbearing and might confuse some newbies by making them think that they're "required" as a Wikipedian to work on assigned tasks. I say that Opentasks be deleted from the Standard user greeting. --Alex S 23:29, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I've never liked it much, but others seemed to so I didn't make an issue over it. It's overpoweringly large, and like you say it seems to imply that we're assigning people work. I support removing it. Incidentally, has anyone paid attention to how often the tasks listed are actually completed by newbies? Isomorphic 05:07, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Hmm... No one has replied in disagreement. I'm tempted to just take the to-do list off of the page... --Alex S 19:20, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I don't think it's as important now that it's included in the Community Portal, but if people want to use it in their welcome messages, I see no harm in letting them do so. Angela.
For the reasons above, I'd discourage it, but of course ultimately its up to the welcomer. Αλεξ Σ 16:00, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Shouldn't pages be self-explanatory? After all, even if at the beginning someone knew that this page is linked to from a page that gives the purpose of this page, you can't prevent others from linking to this page, and therefore you can't be sure what the context is. This is a page with 'Stnadard user greetings.' Are these posted to user pages? --Voodoo 00:58, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] user page use

till we *) asked on the pump: should "we have Wikipedia:User page in our standard newbie welcome message?".

[edit] Page title

Shouldn't this page be Wikipedia:Sample user greetings, not Standard user greeting; because it doesn't give, nor should there be, a one-size-fits-all "standard" message. TPK 13:26, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

If someone wants to take a look, I'm developing some messages at User:Hypernovean/Welcome messages. Any comments are appreciated. TPK 04:05, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Welcome template

I created a Welcome template {{welcome}} at Template:Welcome. Hope this is useful. Please feel free to modify the template as needed. Advantage: Easy to type. Disadvantage: does not have user name, link to talk page of writer, cannot be quickly modified to e.g. mention the latest contribution. The user my also be a bit confused when he clicks the edit link. Comments and changes are welcome -- Chris 73 | Talk 04:47, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I just noticed this. We had talked before about making such a thing, and the concensus was that it wasn't a very good idea. It's completely impersonal, since it has none of the greeter's personality and doesn't reflect the person it's being sent to either. If we wanted to go that direction we might as well have a bot do our welcoming, which would be a lot more efficient and have roughly the same effect. Isomorphic 13:44, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Even the personal ones don't look personal. As long as you stick your sig at the end, that's the best we're going to get. --Will2k 16:34, Aug 30, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Add Wikipedia:Show preview

From my own experience with newbies I strongly recommend making

Remember to use the [[Wikipedia:Show preview|]] button before you save.

an integral part of any welcome. Or some other phrase to express even more clearly that if they want just to see how it looks, they needn't save, and shouldn't save every few minutes anyway. --Malyctenar 09:53, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Including a link to the Glossary

I almost never lift a finger to welcome new users, but as gratuitous advice to those kind souls who do: The page Wikipedia:Glossary still has some holes, but I think it could help many newcomers cope with the Wikijargon they encounter. JamesMLane 23:54, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Vitiating NPOV in welcomes

It is not good to present WP policies in a welcome, and also vitiate one of them - "your unique slant on "neutrality"" - my addition to the first paragrapah bears upon that, I suggest making it explicit is not just instruction creep. Midgley 15:16, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Table of welcome templates

I created a table with the welcome templates and a "preview" at Wikipedia:Welcome template table. If you think your welcome is unusual enough to merit inclusion, go ahead and add it to the table. TheJabberwock 00:22, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Also, my welcome template, which is more customizable and personalized than the standard templates, is now ready for use. See User:Iamthejabberwock/Welcome if you're interested. TheJabberwock 03:21, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

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