ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:Welcoming committee

WP:WC

Welcoming committee members welcome new users who have already made constructive edits, and help them get started in various ways. There are no requirements for joining us except a good attitude and a willingness to help newcomers get started on Wikipedia.

How you can help

Welcome new users

Our main activity is to welcome new users who have made constructive edits. To do that we post a welcome message on their talk pages (if they do not have a talk page yet, create one for them!). It is best to post a personalized greeting written by you, but to save time you can use a welcome template.

Welcome templates

You can go to Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Welcome templates for a full list of welcome templates, or to Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Welcome templates/Table for a visual gallery of welcome messages.

There is no standard template, but the two most commonly used are {{subst:Welcome}} and {{subst:W-graphical}}. To use them, type one of these on a new user's talk page:


==ସ୍ଵାଗତ!==

{{subst:ସ୍ଵାଗତ}}

or


==Welcome!==

{{subst:Welcome}}

This will make a section titled "Welcome!" and place the welcome message under it. Be sure to place greetings on each user's talk page, not their user page. This will ensure they will receive the "You have new messages" automatic alert. Also please remember that all welcome templates must be substituted, not transcluded.

Welcoming via Twinkle

Twinkle also has a welcoming option.
To use Twinkle, go to the preferences and then the gadgets area. Then, look down for "Twinkle", and click the checkbox next to it. Save the settings, and you have a TW item.
To welcome with Twinkle, click the TW, then click 'wel' and click the template you want to use.

Welcoming etiquette

Your edit summary should simply say "Welcome!", with the edit not marked as minor.

Is the user a vandal?

Before you welcome users, it is recommended that you check their recent contributions. Some new users use their accounts solely to vandalize or break the rules in other ways. If the user has vandalized a page, you should add a warning template, such as {{subst:uw-vandal1}}, to their talk page. Please do not thank vandals for their contributions.

Unintentional mistakes

If you notice unintentional mistakes in the new user's contributions, you may wish to bring it to their attention in your welcome message.

Personalize your message

The best way to show someone that they are really welcome is by being open to their needs. Look at their contributions, and personalize your message accordingly. Examples:

If the new user created a new page, but had trouble with that, point them to the new Article Wizard.
If the new user seems to be interested in a particular topic, point them to the appropriate WikiProject. (To find a good fit, go to Wikipedia:WikiProject, and select the subject area from the directory. It's often a good idea to just use a more general WikiProject, such as Wikipedia:India. Before you recommend a more specific WikiProject, such as Wikipedia:WikiProject Gujarat, check out their talk page to see how active they are—Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Gujarat, e.g., has as of Sept 2009 not had a message by a project member for almost two years. Directing a new user to a stale project will only end up frustrating them.)

Welcome users local to you

A great way to attract new editors to Wikipedia is by welcoming users that are in the same area as you. If a new user sees that there are Wikipedians in his own community he is more likely to interact as well, especially if it's a small town. This of course only applies if you self-identify on your userpage where you are from, but you can also personalize your welcome message by telling the user where you are from on their talk page.

How can I know where a new account is located geographically you ask? Well, unless they self-identify themselves on their own userpage, you can't. But you can watchlist the city and/or neighbourhood you live in, and if you spot a new user making substantial edits to that article, it's usually very likely the user is from that same area. Imagine how pleasantly surprised they may be to see a welcome message from a 'Wikipedia representative' from their own community!

Follow up

If the new user responds to the welcome message on your talk page, follow up with more help. You may wish to suggest adoption.

Most welcome templates instruct users to place a {{helpme}} request on their talk page if they need assistance, so it may be beneficial to check Category:Wikipedians looking for help frequently.

Help improve newcomer resources

In addition to greeting new users, we also design and help maintain pages specifically to assist newcomers in various ways. The pages we help operate and/or maintain are:

Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Welcome to Wikipedia – main welcome page.
Wikipedia:Introduction – Wikipedia introduction page.
Wikipedia:Tutorial – Wikipedia editing tutorial.
Wikipedia:Questions – the "where to ask questions" directory.
Wikipedia:FAQ – quick answers to the most common questions.
Wikipedia:New contributors' help page – a place for new users to post questions and get answers by volunteers who monitor or frequent the page.
Wikipedia:Help desk – where volunteers answer questions on how to use Wikipedia. Many new users go there for help too.
Wikipedia:Adopt-a-User – where a new user can be adopted by an experienced user who will be his/her mentor.
Wikipedia:Your first article – with information about how to create a good first article.

Discuss plans

As an active team, we discuss and implement new projects from time to time. We also discuss new users in general and try to keep in touch with the experience a typical new user is likely to be subjected to upon discovering and participating in Wikipedia. Sometimes the treatment they receive from veterans can be confusing or even traumatic, so we try to come up with ways to prevent this sort of thing. To participate, please see the talk page.

Where to find new users

Here are some ways to find new users:

Check Wikipedia's account creation log – this is especially useful with a quick link to their talk page, as well as an "at-a-glance" sign to tell if they've probably been welcomed already: their talk page isn't red linked!
Check the Newbies' contributions page and help newbies contribute if they are having trouble.
New users can frequently be found at seeking help at the New contributors' help page and Requests for feedback.
You will no doubt come across new users as you work on Wikipedia. You may spot them in the edit histories of pages or on talk pages. If a user's signature or username is in red, that indicates that he or she doesn't have a user page set up yet. That means they are very likely (but not always) a new user. Check their talk page to see if they've already been greeted (though there's no harm in greeting a new user again; you can always say "hi", and offer your assistance).
Check the recent changes. If there is a new user, it will say as an edit summary: (New user account). These users will also be on the account creation log. You can then click on the red linked talk page and then greet them. This is also helpful if you are looking for newbies, vandalism, etc.

Users without any edits

There are many thousands of users without any edits. It is widely accepted (but not required!) that users with no edits should not be welcomed to save on server resources and also because most templates start with "Thank you for your Contributions" (or similar). Furthermore, until edits are made, it's impossible to determine if the user has bad intentions, and created the account purposely to vandalize Wikipedia.

Add yourself to our member list

To become a member of the welcoming committee, please see Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/members.