Template talk:Welcome

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Template:Welcome is permanently protected from editing, as it is a heavily used or visible template.

Substantial changes should be proposed here, and made by administrators if the proposal is uncontroversial, or has been discussed and is supported by consensus. Use {{editprotected}} to attract the attention of an administrator in such cases.
Any contributor may edit the template's documentation to add usage notes, categories or interwiki links.
This template is in the collection of greetings templates maintained by the Welcoming Committee. For other templates in the collection, see Welcome templates.
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[edit] Art parameter

I think the "art" parameter should be changed to "article" because I was confused when I first saw it. I thought about the actual word "art", as if it was related to the fine arts. I think if it gets changed, a lot of confusion might get cleared up. I don't know, maybe it's just me... — Cuyler91093 - Contributions 05:44, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea to me. Made the change. - jc37 09:27, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
The "art" parameter is a standard one across multiple templates (see {{Wel}}, {{Welcome-anon}}, {{Welcomeanon2}}, for example). If we decide that it should be changed, we should do it across the board for the sake of consistency. This consistency is a good thing to have for things like automated scripts, which rely upon consistent parameter names for programming simplicity. I'm not for or against changing this parameter, really, but I think if it is changed, it should be done to all the templates that currently use it. In the meantime, I'm going to undo your change, jc37, so we can see if anybody else has any input. Ioeth (talk contribs friendly) 15:48, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Radar detector

What does the "radar detector" for positive contributions actually mean? I used it earlier today when welcoming a user, and I must admit that I did not see any significant difference. StephenBuxton (talk) 17:48, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Radar detector is just an example article. If you do use the "art" parameter, it changes second sentence to read "...your contributions, especially what you did for radar detector." Ioeth (talk contribs friendly) 14:30, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] BASEPAGENAME or subst:BASEPAGENAME?

I see that we just call up {{BASEPAGENAME}} whenever this template is subsituted. Wouldn't it be more personal, and also reduce strain on the server (maybe), it we use {{su<noinclude></noinclude>bst:BASEPAGENAME}}? That way, it subsitutes the username. What do people think? Soxred93 | talk count bot 18:37, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

This has been discussed before. Current consensus is that since it would break any non-substed appearance of the template, it is better not to make this change. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 19:57, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
Where/when was this discussed before? This template is supposed to be substituted. Has it been or is it being used incorrectly such that there are many unsubstituted uses? Hyacinth (talk) 02:06, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
AWB just gave me a count of more than 13,000 transclusions. Many people do not subst this template, and "the source will look a little better without the BASEPAGENAME" is a poor reason to break things for them. Kusma (talk) 07:22, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
In this talk page, at some points in time between the creation of the template and this day. More specifically, you can find recent discussions at #Proposed change and #{{BASEPAGENAME}} (though those mostly refer to older discussions which are now in the archives). I disagree with Kusma, though - "the source will look better" is a great reason, just not good enough (unless the associated problems can be solved). -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 09:23, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Heading in template

Headings on talk pages is required by Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines#New topics and headings on talk pages). As such this template must include a heading. Hyacinth (talk) 07:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Apologies for the rollback, that was actually not my intention. To have a heading or not was dicussed excessively on this discussion page. I am not sure myself if I agree with or not. But to state that it must have a heading because it is required per a guideline is nonsense. It can be discussed here (again) whether or not it should have one. Garion96 (talk) 09:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
As someone who uses this template several times every session I heartily request that the headings be reinstated. It's quite annoying to have to re-edit to correct this deficiency. Why we would have Welcome instead is bewildering as talk sections, as evident on most every talk page, don't start that way and it's hardly a good lesson to teach newby editors. Benjiboi 21:16, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
It is the long standing behavior that {{welcome}} comes above the TOC. I think you're looking for {{welcome2}}. Kusma (talk) 22:44, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
Had no clue there was a duplicate. Cheers. Benjiboi 05:12, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
I also prefer the welcome template without a heading. It goes at the top of the user talk page and shows up nicely before the TOC and actual discussions start (like an introduction if you wish).
One issue with "Welcome" being a section would be that if the welcome template is not subst'ed, anybody attempting to edit that section will actually edit the welcome template, which is protected. That would be rather confusing (although not that likely). Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 05:59, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Linebreak addition

Regarding this edit, I would argue that people put stuff before {{welcome}} rarely enough that in that situation they can add the <BR> by hand themselves rather than forcing it on everybody else. Comments? Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 15:23, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree, the whitespace is rather annoying, and I don't see a single good reason to ever use it. -- Ynhockey (Talk) 21:20, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Add hidden comments to the line on the "helpme" tag

{{editprotected}}

[edit] Summary

The section of text where the "{{helpme}}" tag is mentioned should be changed. Some users may place this incorrectly on their talk page. For example: a user would have copied the text directly from the text box on "edit this page" instead of how template tag is properly used.

[edit] What users do wrong

In other words, they would windup with {{helpme}} (which only displays {{helpme}} with a link to Category:Wikipedians looking for help). This only shows the user under the "What links here" for Category:Wikipedians looking for help at Special:Whatlinkshere/Category:Wikipedians looking for help. A user talk page there could probably just have the welcome template on their page (which is why there is a link). If this is case, the user would not be listed in the category itself.

The correct usage would show the following box (which I copied directly from the template itself)

I am looking for help!

Note to helpers: once you have offered help, please remove this template or replace it with {{tnull|helpme}}.

[edit] What to change

Change:
<code><nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[:Category:Wikipedians looking for help|helpme]]<nowiki>}}</nowiki></code>

To this:
<!-- Copy the text as it appears on your page, not as it appears in this edit area. Do not include the "code" and "nowiki" tags. --><code><nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[:Category:Wikipedians looking for help|helpme]]<nowiki>}}</nowiki></code><!-- Do not include the "code" and "nowiki" tags. -->

Lightsup55 ( T | C ) 21:21, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion/comments

I disagree with this change. Regretfully, instructions are sometimes misunderstood, and that no matter how detailed and precise they are. There's a balance to strike between making something fool-proof and keeping a resonable exposition, and I think this request goes too far. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 05:19, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
I think it would be simpler and more effective to simply remove the link to the category page. Currently, we are telling newbies to write something with a link, while we want them to write something without a link. We should fix the visible instructions before adding invisible instructions to make up for mistakes in the visible instructions. Kusma (talk) 13:34, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
Indeed. That link has no use and just confuses folks. I removed it. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 20:17, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
Not really what I suggested, but that would work. Thanks. Lightsup55 ( T | C ) 21:17, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Suggesting wording change to simplify

I suggest changing:

"type {{helpme}} and your question on your user talk page"

to

"type {{helpme}} and your question on this page"

The new user may not know what a 'user talk page' is, and even if they do, no value is added by the extra words.

I am suggesting this change for {{welcome}}, {{welcome2}}, {{welcome-anon}}, {{welcomeShout}}, {{welcome5}}, and {{welcomenh}}. Some of the wordings are slightly different, but I'm only proposing that 'your user talk page' be changed to 'this page'. Thoughts? -SCEhardT 02:26, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

I think it's a good idea. It makes sense, and it clarifies it for new users. I actually had a new user type {{helpme}} on my talk page and then ask their question, so I'm totally in favour of the change. ♥Nici♥Vampire♥Heart♥ 00:38, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Welcome header

Should you make the template be able to make the header (== Welcome ==), so its less work to do? NimiTize 14:49, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Check out {{Welcome2}} :-) -SCEhardT 14:52, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Template substitution

I've noticed the thousands of talk pages that directly transclude this template and have sent in a request for approval of ShepBot to go through and subst all of the ones done incorrectly. The task would start with this one and move to the other welcomes. Is this okay with the editors who maintain this template? Thanks. §hep • ¡Talk to me! 01:12, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Suggesting auto-sign

I suggest "--~~<includeonly></includeonly>~~" be included at the end in order to autosign when substing. --Emesee (talk) 05:43, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Some people prefer to write a personal message at the end of the template, which I think is a good idea. I believe if you really want to welcome somebody you can go through the trouble of putting in the four tildas yourself. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 05:52, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
I'd agree with Oleg; make it personal. §hep • ¡Talk to me! 19:35, 22 May 2008 (UTC)