- 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
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
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
Messages
The text that is used in welcome messages can be customized through MediaWiki pages. There are separate MediaWiki pages for messages posted by admins and Fandom staff and also different pages for messages to be posted on Message Walls or talk pages.
To edit the content of the user profile that the tool can create, you may edit MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page.
| By admins | By Fandom staff | |
|---|---|---|
| Wall post | MediaWiki:Welcome-message-wall-user | MediaWiki:Welcome-message-wall-user-staff |
| Talk page message | MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user | MediaWiki:Welcome-message-user-staff |
Welcome messages by Fandom staff are only used when no admin has edited in 60 days.
The 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 (or message wall, if enabled on your wiki) 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 in certain groups, including bot, staff, helper or VSTF.
- Welcome messages will not be left by admin accounts that also have the bot flag.
- Welcome messages are not left to logged-out users as of September 11, 2017.
-
{{SUBJECTPAGENAME:$2}}will not translateMessage_Wall:AdminBobintoUser:AdminBob. If you need to reference the user page of the admin the welcome message is being attributed to, useUser:{{PAGENAME:$2}}instead.
See also
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
