Template:Welcome
Hi there!
Welcome to our wiki, and thank you for your contributions! There's a lot to do around here, so I hope you'll stay with us and make many more improvements.
- Recent changes is a great first stop, because you can see what pages other people have been editing, and where you can help.
- Questions? You can ask at the Help desk or on the "discussion" page associated with each article, or post a message on [[User talk:{{{1}}}|my talk page]]!
- Need help? The Community Portal has an outline of the site, and pages to help you learn how to edit.
- Please sign in every time you edit, so that we can recognise you!
I'm really happy to have you here, and look forward to working with you!
Using this template
To welcome a new contributor who has a user name, add this to the user's talk page:
{{subst:welcome|Your user name}}
Then add your usual signature at the end (using ~~~~), with or without an intervening personal message.
(For an "anonymous" contributor, use {{welcomeIP}} instead.)
Use of "subst:" prefix
Using the prefix before any template name copies the template then cuts the connexion. If you omit the "subst:" the result copies just the same but will not be editable and will always show the current version of the template - probably not a good idea for a one-off welcoming message, although it is useful for many other templates.
Edit it to make it more specific to this wiki
For example, it could say "Welcome to the XYZWV Wiki". You could add a link to a page you particularly want new users to look at. You could use the "upload file" link to add a new picture that is meaningful (or funny!) to your visitors, and change the code [[Image:Example.jpg]] to the name of your new picture.
Make another one just for you to use
On your user page you could create a link to something like [[template:welcJG]] then make the resulting page a copy of template:welcome and modify it any way you like. Then you can type or paste {{subst:welcJG}} on a newcomer's page and not need further personalising.
Auto sign
You can get the template to automatically include the user's signature, but it will only work when it's substituted. If it's transcluded the four tildes will show. I guess you have to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages; you can easily include the subst: code in MediaWiki:Newarticletext, but you run the risk of experienced users just transcluding it.
PAGENAME
A good idea is to include the pagename magic word, that way the user feels like it's more of a personal welcome. This can be either directly transcluded, or substituted. There are problems with both options. For direct transclusion, the welcome will show the full pagename (e.g. User talk:Name/Archive2), if it's ever archived. For substitution, the whole template needs to be substituted for it to work. Otherwise, the pagename magic word will show. The same problem is faced as with auto signing; more experienced users are likely to just transclude it.