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WelcomeUsers

How do we welcome users to the site?

  1. Say hi! Add a friendly welcome message to the new user’s homepage.
  2. Leave your name so that they know who they are talking to.
  3. Comment on their recent activity on the wiki, or if they created a page for themselves and left a link to a blog or other website, comment on their recent activity there.

Leaving links to policies and documentation is tricky: If there is a lot of it, it might be intimidating. Generally speaking it would be better to feature these links at a prominent & relevant location on your site, eg. on the edit page.

Point 3 does imply that you’ve checked their recent activity - this is important so you avoid wasting time “welcoming” a spammer or vandal.

Oh and watch their page for replies! New users probably don’t know how to reach you. This is usually not a problem for founders doing the welcoming. But for bigger distributed efforts, this is crucial.

Notes on the importance of homepages: