Project Welcome
- If you are a new user and have a wiki-related question, feel free to ask on the talk page or ask anyone listed below under Member Register.
Project Welcome is an Urban Dead Wiki member group dedicated to assisting new users to become valued members of the wiki community. We welcome all wiki members who share in the goal of enriching our community with new blood, and making this community a more welcoming place for all. It was created on February 10th, 2006 as a response to the increasingly anti-newbie attitude that the wiki community seemed to be taking. It was revamped in December 2012 in response to changing project procedures.
What we do
We perform several activities as part of the Project:
- Welcome new users - Our community can only grow with new members, and so we work hard to welcome any new user who wants to edit our wiki, by going through Recent Changes, and welcoming those we've never seen, and who have never talked to others. See how to do so below.
- Show new people the ropes - If we see a user we've never met before make some mistakes on the wiki (editing templates instead of using them properly), instead of berating or ignoring the user, we'll go straight to their talk page and help them understand what they've done wrong, and how to do it right. No one was a perfect wiki editor straight off the bat, and sometimes a little guidance goes a long way.
- Be a contact point for new users - New users can't know every procedure on the wiki off the bat, and we understand that sometimes the documentation around here isn't easily locatable. So, by showing that we are members by saying so on our user pages, we let new users know that we are available for assistance.
- Encourage tolerance in non-members - Not everyone is in Project Welcome, but the whole community needs to be involved. As much as is feasible, we try to defuse anger towards new members, as a single angry encounter can make someone who may become a valued member of our community leave prematurely. This is especially true at certain wiki flash points. We also encourage users to make themselves open for Arbitration duties.
- Help new users help themselves - Sometimes the documentation around here isn't easily locatable, or particularly useful, even when it is locatable. As such, we try and improve the situation, by making documentation where there was no documentation before, by ensuring that the documentation that exists can be readily found by new users, and by making sure that the documentation that exists is useful to new members.
How to get involved
Project Welcome is an open project, and welcomes any user that wishes to get involved. As long as you're committed to helping out new users, and helping make this community a civil and welcoming place, we're welcome to have you.
Member Register
To officially join, you should place your name below on the Member register.
The easiest way to place your name on the register is to use 3 tildes (ie ~~~). Try to keep the list in alphabetical order as well as keeping the three columns as balanced as possible.
| Project Welcome Members | ||
Message Boxes
We also have a Message Box that can be used to identify users as members of Project Welcome. You can use it simply by putting {{projectwelcome}} on your user page, which will display as
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Project Welcome Member |
| This User is a proud member of Project Welcome, and is dedicated to helping new wiki users to become good and productive wiki users. |
Alternatively, you can use the spiffy new Project Welcome Userbox (so it fits neatly with the rest of your Userboxes) with the codes {{projectwelcome2}} or {{smallwelcome2}}, which display as
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Project Welcome Member |
| This user is a proud member of Project Welcome. |
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Project Welcome Member |
| Need help? Just ask. |
Further, there's a fledgling convention of putting a link to Project Welcome within your signature. You can do this by doing the following:
- Go to the Preferences page, accessible from the set of links at the top of the page (or alternately, by pointing to Special:Preferences.
- Make sure you check the box labelled Raw signatures (without automatic link)
- In the field "Your nickname (for signatures)", put the following (replacing Your name with your user name):
[[User:Your Name|]] <sup>[[Project Welcome|W!]]</sup>
- Press Save Preferences.
This will make your signature look exactly like it normally does, except it will now have W! appended to the end of your name, linking to this page.
Welcoming Procedure
Finding New Users
There are several ways to find new users. Typical ones include:
- Checking Recent Changes for users who have not contributed before. Good signs that a user is new are the lack of a userpage and/or talk page. However, make sure to check a user's contributions to make sure that they actually are new (and are not a user who has been active in the past and is returning, for example). Do so by clicking the "contribs" link next to their username.
- Another place to locate new users is at the User Creation log, where all user accounts are listed in reverse order of creation. However, it is important to be aware that many accounts created are spambots, and thus should not be welcomed. Make sure to check the user's contributions by clicking "contribs" to make sure they are a real user.
Remember:
- Do not welcome spambots. Instead, report them at Vandal Banning.
- Do not welcome users if they have no contributions, as they are potentially spambots, and as nearly half of accounts created never edit the wiki.
- Always check contributions!
Welcoming Them
To welcome a user, just head over to their talk page and leave a friendly message of welcome!
Messages should begin with a new header, like ===Welcome!===. Make sure to include a greeting and a link to this page ([[Project Welcome]]), as well as your signature. It is often nice to have an additional link to your own talk page if a new user wishes to contact you directly.
In addition, it is nice to add personalization to the message, by referencing the page(s) on which they have edited and maybe pointing them in a related direction.
Sample messages
Feel free to add sample messages below.
Welcome to the Wiki!
Hi! I noticed your recent edits to the Example Page article, and wanted to welcome you to the wiki on behalf of Project Welcome! If you have any questions or need any advice, don't hesitate to head over there, or contact me on my talk page. Have fun editing! --Example User 18:14, 24 December 2012 (UTC)
Welcome!
Hello! I saw your recent DangerReport updates, and wanted to say, welcome to UDWiki! If you have any questions or need any help, feel free to visit Project Welcome and contact anyone listed on that page. You may also be interested in seeing where your DangerReport updates go - check out the Danger Center to see all the reports compiled in one map. Have a great day! --Example User 18:14, 24 December 2012 (UTC)
Former Procedure
Formerly, the templates {{Welcomenewbie}} and {{Welcomenewbie?}} were used in the welcoming process. However, after investigation by User:Jorm, it was found that such templates are actually unwelcoming to new users. Therefore, as of 2012, the templates are no longer in use.
Flash points
Project Welcome also identifies areas which new users frequent and where the civility could really be improved, angers can flare up, or policies and procedures can be confusing. We try to keep such incivility and confusion in check so as to make new users feel like the wiki is a friendly, welcoming place. Some such locations are listed below.
Category:Current_Suggestions and Developing Suggestions
These are probably one of the worst areas on the wiki in terms of civility. To many, the attacking of other users and creating a hostile environment is considered an important tactic in "improving suggestion quality". We highly recommend that Project Welcome members maintain their civility at all times, and attempt to follow up on the flaming of others to try and keep the exit rate on this segment of the wiki as low as possible.
Administration Pages
New users often will want an administrative task completed, but will not know where to look or what to do once they get there. Project Welcome members should point new users in the right direction, and attempt to aid them in formatting and procedure on such pages as Deletions, Move Requests, Protections and Undeletions.
