User talk:Audacity/Welcoming committee

Archived Welcoming Commitee- and welcome template-related discussion from User talk:Audacity.

Thanks & Help

Your changes to Template:Good Job are great; thanks. Since you seem to be an expert on templates, could you help me with User:Iamthejabberwock/Welcome? When I use, for example, {{subst:User:Iamthejabberwock/Welcome|user=|article=Wikipedia|topic=Rush|portal=Music}} - for welcoming an anonymous user who edited Wikipedia, is interested in Rush and might want to visit Portal:Music - it produces a result that looks good, but contains the original variable formatting: {{{anon| }}}. Could you advise me of a way to either (1) stop this formatting from being included or (2) switch to a more effecient method of varying the contents of the message? Thanks, TheJabberwock 02:14, 7 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. I'd suggest combining the 'user' and 'anon' parameters into a 'type' parameter. Something like;

{{switch
|{{{type}}}
|case: anon=<text for anon>
|default=<text for registered user>}}
...
This will automatically produce your username {{switch|{{{type}}}|case: anon=(or IP address)}} and the date.

If you set '|type=anon' in the call you'd get the text for an anon user. If you set 'type' to anything else, or don't set it at all, you'd get the text for a registered user. --CBDunkerson 11:16, 7 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, sorry I misunderstood what you were looking for. I hadn't looked into suppressing 'code' on substituted text before, but there is a way to do it. What you need to do is add a parameter that you place after the {{, but before the template name, on every template call. For example, {{{{{hide|}}}switch|<whatever>}}. Then, when you call the template you set that parameter to substitute the template (i.e. |hide=subst:). You can't just put 'subst:' directly in the code of your welcome page because if you did it would evaluate at THAT time without whatever parameters you are passing in, but if you pass in 'subst:' as a parameter it'll evaluate at the same time and you should get text only. A bit convoluted, but that's the only way I can think of to do it. --CBDunkerson 21:59, 7 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the mods to my welcome template

Thanks for fixing up my welcome template. Feel free to make any other improvements you feel necessary. Now I have to go fix my monobook due to your changes. :P Thanks again. MyNam e IsNotBob 13:51, 29 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome templates

I have found a much better way to put an automatic SUBST in the welcome templates other than typing {{Some Welcome Template|nocode=SUBST}}. Just put {{<includeonly>SUBST:</includeonly>PAGENAME}} into the message. Then it will only SUBST the pagename on the user talk page, and not in the template, and you don't have to put nocode=subst. But, the problem is, if you don't SUBST the welcome template, then it doesn't work. --George Mon e y^{Talk Contribs} 23:23, 2 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't know there was an entire section of a page devoted to <includeony> tags. The page is here. --George Mon e y^{Talk Contribs} 02:31, 4 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the welcome

Hi, thanks for the welcome. Also thanks for the helpful links, but I'm actually a member of the german wikipedia for quite a while (mostly working at the amphetamine article and other chemistry/pharmaceutics related entries) and thus am familiar with editing and the such. :) --Bur 15:17, 24 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Umm.. is this all directed at me?

well you see i use wikipedia for research projects and such but i JUST joined litterally a minute ago and ive never commented on anything if this stuff is directed at me ... i did get some sort of message saying i was vandalizing stuff though but this is my first comment. This is the first thing ive done as a member ummm sorry for any trouble i some how caused.....

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Rikusgal (talk • contribs)

He didn't get mad at you, he just welcomed you. He just wanted to thank you for getting an account and helping the encyclopedia. --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 23:44, 18 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I actually welcomed him after his response. I think he probably got a generic warning for new users - I don't remember such a thing, but it could exist. TheJabberwʘck^help! 23:45, 18 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, but if you look at his talk page history, you are the only editor. And his talk page is not in the deletion log. And his only contrib is to your talk page, so he couldn't have been vandalizing. Unless he got a warning on his old IP.--GeorgeMoney ^T·C 23:51, 18 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I know he's not a vandal, I'm just saying he was responding to something other than my message. BTW, any more suggestions for my username? TheJabberwʘck^help! 23:55, 18 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Dan the dude" maybe. We should work with a variant of "Dan"

Do you want me to use my spamlist to ask people to suggest a username? --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 00:01, 19 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you're comfortable with that, it'd be great. TheJabberwʘck^help! 00:04, 19 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have created the spam. I want you to review it before I send it to anybody. Also, I have created User:Iamthejabberwock/Username which will be linked to from the spam. --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 00:24, 19 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good job, looks ready to go! Are you using AWB? TheJabberwʘck^help! 00:35, 19 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No I'm not using AWB. I am approved, but it doesn't work on my computer. That is why I used my template that has "Spam Me!", so when I click that link, it automatically puts the spam it a page, but it doesn't automatically save it. --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 00:38, 19 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My welcome message

Just so you know... I finally got around to changing my welcome message so it permanently shows the users name. I know how you're a big advocate for that and all. — ßott e siηi ^(talk) 23:53, 16 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wonderful! TheJabberwʘck 00:35, 17 May 2006 (UTC)a[reply]

Welcomer's Barnstar Awarded!!!

I award **Audacity** this welcomer's barnstar for welcoming and being helpful to newcomers. - Kukini 05:51, 2 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Responding

Thanks for the detailed feedback! Honestly, I am not sure I get how to make the change you explained to my welcome template. If you think you can do it so it still works but does not cause confusion, as you explained, feel free to edit. You will not be the first to help me with that template. It is located here [1]. As for the other notice requesting edit summaries, I borrowed much of that text from edit summary. It is located here [2]. If you have suggestions on how to improve it, I am always open to them. Finally, thanks for your warm and collaborative approach. I really appreciate that in another editor. Kukini 23:39, 5 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the help!!! -- Kukini 02:52, 6 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

re: my template

Thanks -- that hadn't really occurred to me. I'm familiar with the use of subst:, but I hadn't thought to use it there. It looks like your message didn't appear in its entirety -- a couple of crucial pieces of information were lost in tagging, I think, like for instance your solution for the immediate substitution on the template page. I assumed you were talking about the includeonly tag, which is what I did.

So thanks again! :) - Che Nuevara: ^{Join the Revolution} 09:24, 7 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nope, don't mind, but the functional difference between the fix I made and the fix you made is pretty small -- it don't have to look pretty on my userspace ;) But thanks anyway. - Che Nuevara: ^{Join the Revolution} 18:11, 7 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ahah. Hadn't noticed. It worked correctly in the preview, so somethin funny must have happened. Thanks again :) - 18:26, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Hello

Hello Audacity, and just to say thanks for my first Barnstar... and the welcome message! :-) I'd given up waiting to get one! I'm glad Portal:Music is coming along so well, thanks for all your help. Madder 18:39, 28 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks!

Thanks for your help with my template. I've moved it and I believe you have already made your other suggested changes. Unfortunately I was unavailable last night so I could not make any changes speedily. Thanks again! Srose (talk) 13:38, 12 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Talk page templates

Hi Audacity, Thanks for putting all the instructions on the template talk pages, but could I make a suggestions, that you leave a note on the bottom of each page. Just to say that for any discussions about said template, that it be left at WT:UTM. It's just I don't want a new editors to leave a comment and no-one sees it. Cheers ^{Khukri -} 08:20, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Any chance you can implement this as we've missed some discussion on the {{uw-v1}} template, if not I'll give it a go. Cheers ^{Khukri -} 22:30, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Spot on. ^{Khukri -} 07:49, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Standard user greeting

I just noticed that the cut and paste greetings all go way off the right hand side of the page. I wasn't sure if you meant for them to do that or not. The way they are now, they are very difficult to read. I just thought you might like someone to bring it to your attention. The Transhumanist 03:10, 15 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Trimming down the Welcome template set

Yes, we have been somewhat at odds with each other's purposes. Maybe we should discuss our respective positions, so that we can work on finding a common solution.

My position is the Welcoming Committee's pages suffer from bloating, chaos, and information overload - there are far too many templates, and the overall collection needs to be trimmed drastically. Your position seems to have been to preserve the existing collection.

I believe the lists can be reduced without losing the existing functionality. For example, we don't need tiny variations of the same template. Instead of having one with a message parameter and one without, we could combine the two by making the parameter optional (pipes used in parameter calls serves as a switch). We can set these up so that if the parameter is not used, it won't show up in the template.

The protected templates have gone stale, and normal editors are shut out from revising them. Since we are relying on substitution and not transclusion, there's no need for protecting the templates. The older ones, which are transcluded in many places should stay protected, but we should stop using them. I designed Template:Welcome! to take the place of Template:Welcome, Template:Welcome-m and Template:Welcomenh. If you don't like the border and background color, those can easily be changed or removed. The important revisions were the link updates, and the implementation of the parameter as a switch (mentioned above).

Concerning clutter and information overload, Template:WelcomeUsage circumvents the whole purpose of having a centralized Welcome templates page. We should simply provide a link to the central page, rather than have a boilerplate template duplicating its content all over the place. Therefore I've converted that template to a project tag pointing to the Welcoming committee's main page (and with a link to the template collection too).

Let me know what you think. The Transhumanist 22:33, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The above was rewritten before I discovered your reply on my talk page. I agree with you that the protected templates should be replaced/bypassed. But I also believe that non-protected templates should be revised and reorganized rather than be replaced. I also like your idea of a new naming scheme, but "Template:W" and "Template:WC" are already taken.

I suggest we start by you presenting a list of all the templates you would like to keep. Then we'll have a basis for discussion, and I can make suggestions as to how to pare the list down without losing any functionality. The Transhumanist 01:03, 18 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

w-icon

What's the rationale for the wiki-code on the first line? The border isn't showing up. The Transhumanist 04:10, 18 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can you flip it, so the default is the border, and you use a parameter to turn it off? The Transhumanist 04:17, 18 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

welcome redirects

As per a previous message, I'll restore all the old templates. And focus all changes on the new template set. The Transhumanist 04:27, 18 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Good evening!

Hey - I've seen you around Wikipedia, but not actually came into contact with you so I thought I'd drop by. I see you're working on various WelCom tasks, eg Templates; would you like to share your thoughts on the Welcome Page that myself and The Transhumanist worked on?

We'd love some constructive criticism (or even compliments :) on how the page has progressed, and how it could be improved.

I hope to hear from you soon!

Kind regards,
Anthonycfc ^{[T • C]} 22:52, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What's the hold-up?

What are we waiting for exactly? Nothing seems to be happening. I've started another project to work on while I wait. How long will your feature additions and approval seeking take? The Transhumanist 08:00, 21 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, hi Anthony! Didn't notice you up there until just now. How's it going? I'm glad to see you're still involved with the WC pages. The Transhumanist 08:04, 21 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, Audacity, I see now that you are out of town. I hope you have fun on your trip. The Transhumanist 08:10, 21 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Go for it!

I've replied to your latest message, on my talk page. The Transhumanist 04:59, 28 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia talk:Welcoming committee#Reorganisation

Good evening (GMT time); hope you're well! Concerning our recent edits to WP:WC - particularly the welcome templates section, I've opened up a request for input from our fellow Wikipedians. Hopefully I can look forward to your input which is always useful. The section is linked in the headline above.

Kind regards,
anthonycfc ^[talk] 16:48, 18 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

re:Enzo Ferrari

Yeah I do that sometimes. I think I was in the middle of it and got distracted. Thanks for clearing up after me. James086^{Talk | Email} 04:34, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

When to welcome...

I've lurked the discussion over at the welcoming committee (good job on the templates) and read all the pro and con arguments for welcoming users at registration - before I started welcoming myself. I just disagree (strongly) with the majority opinion. I would have very much liked to be welcomed (by a person who could answer questions, not the same as a bot) when I arrived in 2005. Some of the arguments against welcoming Newregs - they may not ever edit etc - are only valid from the welcomer's perspective, while welcoming should be about the welcomee's point of view. Besides, welcoming is the perfect Yin to my RC vandal patrol Yang. :D Paxse 16:42, 4 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for reverting my talk - gotta love those vandals. Re: Welcoming, frankly I would have been very pleased to be welcomed, either en masse or because of my sterling contributions. Coming from a slow connection in the developing world, I find working on one task (on a couple of tabs max) to be easiest - otherwise everything just locks up. So, if I'm on RC patrol it takes all my bandwidth and then some to open diffs, compare versions and check vandal contrib pages without opening good user pages (perhaps plus a template page) and trying to welcome as well. Naturally, if the user has been warned for vandalism or already welcomed - I'll hold my welcome. Unfortunately, there are not enough folk working on the welcoming committee to welcome everyone personally (perhaps there are too many members of the 'Petty Bureaucrat Committee'). Bottom line, I think everyone deserves a welcome (possibly apart from pure vandals) and welcoming can inspire people to contribute - so the new regs page is the place to go. Paxse 09:34, 6 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

For a job well done...

		The Template Barnstar
		Is hereby awarded to Audacity for going beyond the call of duty in redesigning the Welcoming Committee's multitude of welcome message templates. The Transhumanist 22:17, 15 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]