The welcome message is often the first interaction a new user will have with another person when they come to wikiHow. A personal welcome message can demonstrate that wikiHow is powered by real people who want to help new users. At the same time, an unprofessional looking welcome message might dissuade some people from contributing.

When creating a welcome message, it is important to create one that has helpful information which new users need; it is equally important that it be easy to read, and appeal visually to men and women of all ages. This article offers some guidelines to help you create an attractive, helpful welcome message and add a personal touch when you greet new wikiHow editors.

[edit] Steps

Plan to begin welcoming after you are well versed with wikiHow and how the site works. You are offering assistance to new users, after all. Sending a welcome template without background knowledge of how the site works can lead to problems.
Keep in mind that not all customizations are appropriate for a welcome message on wikiHow. Welcome messages must be appealing to people from all age groups and nationalities. If it looks like someone's MySpace page, it probably isn't fitting for a wikiHow welcome.
Consider just using the standard welcome message, {{welcome}}, instead of making a custom message. The standard message has the advantage of looking professional and always being up to date. Many power welcomers prefer using this template over using a custom one.
Create a new page in your user namespace by going to your user page and adding "/welcome" or "/w" to the end of the URL in your browser address bar. It will look something like "http://www.wikihow.com/User:YourUserName/w."
- If you arrive at an already created page, change the URL to find a blank page. A good way to do it is to add a number to the end like this "http://www.wikihow.com/User:YourUserName/w1."
- Click on the Edit tab. This will take you to advanced editing where you can edit your personalized welcome message.
Save your message once you have finished.
Test your message by sending it to yourself. You may also want to ask an administrator or another experienced wikiHow user to give you feedback on your message before using it to welcome new users. To use your custom welcome, type {{User:YourUserName/w}}, modifying as needed to match the URL of the page you made.
Start welcoming new members of the community with your personalized message!

Things to avoid:

Low-contrast or clashing color combinations. Colors in the same family (blue and purple or red and orange, for example) do not work well as background and text combinations. Similarly, colors some people might find too bright or loud are poor choices. Keep enough color contrast so that someone with vision difficulties could read your message without being obnoxious.
Personal and/or unreasonably large images. Avoid having them larger than the fixed width of wikiHow's content area. Low quality images may leave a bad impression in the mind of the newbie you are communicating with.
Headings. Using == or === can "break" the message box formatting on the page.
Poor grammar and incorrect spelling. Errors of this kind reflect badly on both wikiHow and on the person applying the welcome message (you!).
Personal information such as your age, sex, name of pets, and so on. People want to learn about wikiHow, not about you.
Long messages. Avoid forcing readers to scroll through your welcome message by keeping the length to a minimum.
Anything that appears unpolished or unprofessional.

Some things to include:

A brief and friendly message along these lines:

Thanks for helping us build the world's largest free how-to manual. As one of wikiHow's volunteers, I want to welcome you here. Don't be fooled into thinking this is a machine-generated response. I personally pressed a few buttons to deliver this message to you. I would love to help you learn your way around wikiHow. If there is anything I can do for you, just reply to this message.
{{welcomelinks}} - This code adds all the links a new user should see to your welcome message. The template uses a transparent background that will work with any color background you choose for your message. See the examples below these steps for how it looks on its own and in other templates.
Optional: {{BASEPAGENAME}} - This code is used to personalize the welcome message with the username of the person you are greeting. So, typing as "Hello, {{BASEPAGENAME}}!" on User_talk:Jack H will appear as "Hello, Jack H!"

[edit]Message examples

Below are examples of the {{welcomelinks}} template and some custom welcome messages using the template. Feel free to open this page for editing and copy the code for use in your own messages. Also note that use of the {{BASEPAGENAME}} code in these messages makes them use this page name where they would normally place the user's name.

[edit]Welcome Links

Getting Started
Take the wikiHow Tour - Start here Writer's Guide Community Portal
Getting Help
Main Help Pages - Detailed instructions IRC - Chat Room - For immediate Q&A Help Team - Ask anyone here Help Forums - Ask anything

Things You Can Do
Start a New Article on a topic we do not have covered already List of Other Ways to Contribute Collaboration Corner - Join a project

Miscellaneous
The Forums - Discuss wikiHow The wikiHow Herald - Our community newspaper

[edit]Example 1

Welcome, Create a Personalized wikiHow Welcome Message!

Hello, Create a Personalized wikiHow Welcome Message!

Thanks for helping us build the world's largest free how-to manual. As one of wikiHow's volunteers, I want to welcome you here. Don't be fooled into thinking this is a machine-generated response. I personally pressed a few buttons to deliver this message to you. I would love to help you learn your way around wikiHow. If there is anything I can do for you, just reply to this message.

Getting Started
Take the wikiHow Tour - Start here Writer's Guide Community Portal
Getting Help
Main Help Pages - Detailed instructions IRC - Chat Room - For immediate Q&A Help Team - Ask anyone here Help Forums - Ask anything

Things You Can Do
Start a New Article on a topic we do not have covered already List of Other Ways to Contribute Collaboration Corner - Join a project

Miscellaneous
The Forums - Discuss wikiHow The wikiHow Herald - Our community newspaper

[edit]Example 2

Getting Started
Take the wikiHow Tour - Start here Writer's Guide Community Portal
Getting Help
Main Help Pages - Detailed instructions IRC - Chat Room - For immediate Q&A Help Team - Ask anyone here Help Forums - Ask anything

Things You Can Do
Start a New Article on a topic we do not have covered already List of Other Ways to Contribute Collaboration Corner - Join a project

Miscellaneous
The Forums - Discuss wikiHow The wikiHow Herald - Our community newspaper

[edit] Tips

Using {{welcomelinks}} in your custom welcome is the best way to make sure your custom welcome stays up to date as links at wikiHow change.
When you post a welcome message, you are representing wikiHow. When assessing your welcome message, ask yourself, "If I were a new user reading this message, what would I think about the site?" If you have any doubts about whether something is appropriate, ask for help from an experienced user.
Make sure that your welcome message uses font sizes and colors that are easy for anyone to read. For example, pink links on a red background are not readable by many individuals.
If the layout of {{welcomelinks}} does not fit the formatting of your welcome message, please try to include links to the same pages so that all new users have the same information available to them.
Keep the focus on wikiHow and not the welcomer. You will have plenty of opportunities to express your individuality and make friendships once discussions begin with people on wikiHow. Until then, the focus should be introducing people to wikiHow, and not you, your hobbies, your favorite bands, and such.
Be open to coaching and editing from other editors. Since a personalized welcome reflects on wikiHow, other wikiHowians may come in and occasionally edit your personalized welcome template. Remain open to good faith editing of the template.
Most personalized messages require at least some knowledge of how to code in HTML or use wiki markup. If you do not know HTML or wiki markup, you can ask another editor for help. Many members of the Welcome Team are also good at making these messages.

[edit] Warnings

Don't develop a welcome template that will be a turn off to any specific age group, nationality or other demographic group. For example, well-intentioned welcome messages by younger users might accidentally turn away older users if they contain bright colors, references to pop culture, or photographs of very young people.
Don't write in all lowercase or in all caps. Avoid acronyms, wikijargon, l33t, SMS shorthand and any other forms of writing that most people would not be able to understand.
Don't use too many pictures. One or two can be OK, but more than that can be too much on a viewer's eyes. Don't place a photo of yourself, since the focus of the welcome should be on wikiHow and not the welcomer.
Since hues look differently on each browser, use web-safe colors. Avoid bright colors or color patterns that are close to one another.
Don't forget your end tags! If you start tags you should have ends tags for each one as well. If you don't your font or background color might stretch on past your welcome message!