Help:Welcome tool

This extension is enabled by default on FANDOM.

The FANDOM welcome tool is an automatic process that helps admins welcome new, logged-in editors. The goal is to show new contributors that there's a community on the wiki and to help connect them to admins, so they know where to go if they have questions. When a contributor makes their first edit, the welcome tool automatically leaves a message for them and creates a user page.

The message is signed by the admin who edited the wiki most recently. This is to help the contributor find someone who's available to talk to them if they need it. If no admin has recently edited, the message will be signed by a member of the FANDOM Community Team.

Finding the new editors

Assuming they don't find you first, there are two simple methods you can use to find new users:

Welcome messages are created by User:FANDOM. You can check that user's contributions to see who has been welcomed recently.
The welcomes are shown on the recent changes page after clicking the 'Show bots' option.

Customizing the welcome tool

Administrators on each community can customize the tool in various ways by editing certain pages in the MediaWiki namespace.

Functionality

Who signs the message / disabling the tool

Set MediaWiki:Welcome-user to one of the following:

@latest - most recently active admin, or FANDOM staff if no admins have been active in 60 days
@sysop - most recently active admin (with no fallback to FANDOM staff)
@disabled - entirely turn off welcoming of new users
To have all welcomes come from a single specific user, write only their username in plain text, such as John Smith

Which actions to perform

Set MediaWiki:Welcome-enabled to one or more of the following (use a space to separate them):

page-user - create user pages*
message-user - leave a message to users
page-user message-user - enables both

* Note: this cannot be disabled if Achievements are enabled.

Show welcomes in RecentChanges?

By default, welcome edits are hidden from recent changes (unless you click 'Show bots').

If you would like to have these edits shown, edit MediaWiki:Welcome-bot-flag and replace it with a dash: -

To hide them again, set it to: @bot

Messages

Depending on whether a community uses talk pages or Message Walls, different messages need to be changed to customize the welcome tool experience.

However, in both cases, edit MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page to change the user page that the tool creates.

**Message Wall**
Wall post by admins Posted on message walls.	Wall post by FANDOM Staff Used if the FANDOM Staff fallback is required (i.e. no admin has edited in 60 days).

**Talk pages**
Talk page message by admins Posted on talk pages.	Talk page message by FANDOM Staff Used if the FANDOM staff fallback is required (i.e. no admin has edited in 60 days).

The various variables that can be used in the messages have these meanings:

$1: the page that the new editor edited or created
$2: the talk page of the person leaving the welcome
$3: the signature of the person leaving the welcome
$4: the name of the person being welcomed

Other notes

Welcome messages will not be left for users with flags such as admin, bureaucrat, bot, staff, or helper.
Welcome messages will not be left by admin accounts that also have the bot flag.
Welcome messages will not be left to logged-out users as of September 11, 2017.

Further help and feedback

Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
Check FANDOM Community Central for sources of further help and support
Check Contacting FANDOM for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article
Learn how to use FANDOM in FANDOM University: short how-to videos for all levels of experience

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