Template:Welcome/doc

Description

To welcome a new contributor who has a user name, add this to the user's talk page.

Syntax

Type {{subst:welcome|user=Their user name|signer=Your user name}} or {{subst:welcome|user=Their user name|signer=Your user name|sign=no}} on a user's talk page.

Use the second version if you want to add a personal message after the template, but before your signature (or if you have a complex signature).

As soon as you Save, the entry will lose its link to the template and become ordinary text, which you can edit to personalise it.

Further advice

Use of "subst:" prefix

Using the prefix before any template name copies the template then cuts the connection. If you omit the "subst:" the result copies just the same but will not be editable and will always show the current version of the template - not a good idea for a one-off welcoming message, although it is useful for many other templates.

Make another one just for you to use

On your user page you could create a link to something like [[Template:welcJG]] then make the resulting page a copy of Template:Welcome and modify it any way you like. Then you can type or paste {{subst:welcJG}} on a newcomer's page and not need further personalising.

PAGENAME

A good idea is to include the {{PAGENAME}} magic word, that way the user feels like it's more of a personal welcome. This can be either directly transcluded, or substituted. There are problems with both options. For direct transclusion, the welcome will show the full pagename (e.g. User talk:Name/Archive2), if it's ever archived. For substitution, the whole template needs to be substituted for it to work. Otherwise, the pagename magic word will show.