Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Welcome templates
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This is a list of templates available from the Welcoming committee for greeting new users. Anyone may use these templates for greeting a new user on their Talk page. For a visual display of the actual templates in table form, see the Template gallery. For assistance in finding new users, see this page.
| Welcoming committee main page | Talk | List of templates User-hosted templates | Template gallery | Finding newbies |
General
Use these for a user who recently registered a username. All of the templates below can be customized with an additional message, a picture of a plate of cookies, a colored border, icons, or a different opening text.
standard buttons + text
- {{subst:Welcome}} → standard 3-button template: Learn, Get Help, Volunteer; manual signing required.
- {{subst:Welcome-autosign}} → standard with autosign (redirect: {{subst:Wela}} )
text only
- {{subst:W-basic}} → 7 bulleted links with brief intro: (Welcome; thanks for contribs; hope you stay: here are some links); with autosign.
- {{subst:W-cust}} → basic: 6 bullet links, plus {{Help me}}; with autosign.
- {{subst:Welcome-hd}} → basic 6, plus links to WP:Help Desk and WP:Questions; manual signing required.
- {{subst:W-shout}} → extroverted!! 6-link message with bold! advice!! with autosign.
- {{subst:W-informal}} → 3 paragraphs, no bullets, 10 in-line wikilinks, plus tip-of-the-day box; with autosign.
- {{subst:Welcome-retro}} → a classic version: basic 6 bullets, plus links to Adventure, Questions, and task center; manual signing required.
text + image
- {{subst:Welcome cookie}} ~~~~ → regular welcome with a plate of cookies (optional arg: 'notalk'); manual signing required.
- {{subst:Welcome-back}} ~~~~ → similar to Welcome cookie, but intended for someone who is back after not editing for some time
- {{subst:Welcome kitten}} → regular, with kitten; with autosign.
- {{subst:Welcome-citation}} ~~~~ → regular, encourages citing sources; manual signing required.
- {{subst:Welcome award}} ~~~~ → regular, with first service award; manual signing required.
- {{subst:Welcome-t}} ~~~~ → links to Wikipedia:Teahouse, with cup of tea image; manual signing required.
- {{subst:W-FAQ}} → FAQ for newcomers, with fruit bowl image; with autosign.
short
- {{subst:W-short}} → concise; won't overwhelm; with autosign.
- {{subst:W-link}} → shortest greeting, links to Welcome Committee's greetings page; with autosign.
graphical
- {{subst:W-graphical}} → graphical menu format, similar to Template:WelcomeMenu, to ease transition from the graphic-heavy web; with autosign. (redirect: Template:Welcomeg (Note: wrapper {{Welcomeh}} wraps the g-redirect; this all needs work!)
- {{subst:Welcomec}} → older version with different color scheme; manual signing required.
- {{subst:Welcomeh}} → same, but includes a section header and has autosign.
- {{subst:W-graphic}} → similar, with more powerful colours and changes in text; has autosign.
- {{subst:WelcomeMenu}} → updated version with different color scheme; has autosign.
- {{subst:WelcomeUser}} → similar to WelcomeMenu, but adds tutorials and guide videos.
- {{subst:Welcome screen}} → 11 bullets in 3 sections; blue header bar; rounded rectangular border; alias: {{W-screen}}; with autosign.
- {{subst:W-all}} → short—only 14 or 15 lines—with automatic heading and autosign. Very warm and does not overwhelm.
- {{subst:Welcome to Wikipedia}} → tabular with icons: 10 policy links, 10 do's/don'ts, 8 To-do links; text top & bottom; with autosign.
- {{subst:WelcomeVisual}} → links to policies, guidelines, and visually helpful information; with autosign.
- {{subst:Welcome emoji}} → quite colourful with emoji next to policy links, visually appealing; manual signing required.
- {{subst:Welcome user column}} → loosely based on the French welcome template Modèle:Bienvenue nouveau; manual signing required.
- {{subst:Welcoming}} → simple, with tips and links; with autosign.
- {{subst:Welcommons}} → a Commons-style template with autosign.
Specialized
Mentors
- {{subst:Mentor welcome}} ~~~~ Welcome template for mentors in the Growth Team to give to their mentees (alias: {{subst:Welcome mentor}} )
- {{subst:Mentor welcome-autosign}} invokes this template but includes your signature.
- {{subst:Welcome mentee}} ~~~~ Welcome template for mentees; has links similar to {{Welcome-retro}}
- {{subst:Welcome mentee brief}} ~~~~ Short welcome template for mentees; for mentees who have already received a non-mentor welcome
Pivot
- {{subst:Welcome pivot}} ~~~~ brief message with a couple of links
- {{subst:Welcome pivot brief}} ~~~~ very brief message with one help link
Students and teachers
- {{subst:Welcome student|article}} ~~~~ → for editors who seem to be students editing Wikipedia as part of their course assignment
- {{subst:Welcome teacher|article}} ~~~~ → for editors who seem to be course instructors having their students edit Wikipedia as part of some assignment
- {{subst:First school article|Article}} ~~~~ → problematic new school article for editors who seem to be students.
Others
- {{subst:Welcome-vandalism-fighter}} → for users who have helped fight vandalism in their first contribution(s).
- {{subst:Welcome-belated}} → for users who have been editing for a while but never received a standardized welcome message. Includes plate of cookies image; includes auto-sig.
- {{subst:Welcomemenu-belated}} → a more elaborate version than the above
- {{subst:Userfied-welcome|article}} → for users whose pages have been userfied.
- {{subst:welcometest}} ~~~~ → first edit appears to be a test edit.
- {{subst:Welcome-no-edits}} → for new users who have created their user page, but have not yet contributed elsewhere; alias: {{Welcome0}}.
- {{subst:Welcomelaws}} ~~~~ → A welcome message with a focus on following Wikipedia rules as well as real-world laws; manual signing required.
- {{subst:Welcome-ql}} ~~~~ → Welcome message contains decent number of links (WIP, but functional and serves its purposes)
- {{subst:Welcome draft}} ~~~~ → Welcome message for users who have contributed a draft article and/or submitted one to Articles for creation
Unregistered users
- This refers to users editing using Temporary accounts
All of these encourage creating an account, unless otherwise noted.
- Legend: Q = includes a link to WP:Questions; T = WP:Tea house; A = WP:Adventure; H = {{Helpme}}; C = WP:Task Center.
Neutral or positive
For any temp account:
- Welcome-unregistered → standard, 4 button message: Create acct, Learn editing, Tea house, Task Center (alias: {{Welcome-anon}}).
- Welcome-temp-retro → a classic version , with 4 bulletized policy links (incl. C), and 4 benefits of registering.
- W-graphical-temp → 3 paragraph lead; blue 2-col table, 15 links under 5 headers, 4 params:
- Welcome-temp-t → 7 bullets, & Q, T, H; tea service image.
- Welcome-t-temp → variation of Welcome-temp-t: 6 bullets, 6 benefits of registering, T, Q; tea tray image.
- Thanks → Very simple; thanks for edits; no bullets; quirky green smile image.
- short
- {{subst:Welcome short anonymous}} → concise; won't overwhelm (alias: {{W-short-ip}})
For those who have helped in specific areas:
- Welcome-unregistered-constructive → made constructive edits – 1 paragraph, 8 bullets, + Q, H (alias: {{Welcome-anon-constructive}}
- Welcome-temp-vandalism-fighter → fought vandalism – 4 paragraphs, 3 vandalism bullets, + Q, T, H.
Improvement needed or problematic
For users who have:
- Welcome-temp-summary → made constructive edits, but forgot the edit summary – 8 bullets, edit summary advice, Q, H. (A mashup of {{Welcome-unregistered-constructive}} and {{uw-editsummary}}.)
- Welcome-temp-suboptimal → made edits with constructive intent, but which had to be reverted. 3 paragraphs, 6 bullets, T, Q, C, H.
- Welcome-unregistered-test → made a test edit. One paragraph, 5 links; Q, T, H.
- Welcome-unregistered-unconstructive → vandalized a page or had their first edits reverted – 5 links.
- Welcome-unregistered-unsourced → added unsourced info – 3 paragraphs, 5 bullets, + Q, T, H; yellow bg.
- Welcome-temp-npov → added non-neutral info – 3 paragraphs, 4 bullets, + Q, T; yellow background.
Topic-specific
Use one of these to greet new users interested in a particular topic:
Countries and regions
- {{subst:Welcome-Australia}} ~~~~ → Australia
- {{subst:Welcome-Austria}} ~~~~ → Austria
- {{subst:Welcome-Bangladesh}} ~~~~ → Bangladesh
- {{subst:Welcome-California}} ~~~~ → California
- {{subst:Welcome-Estonia}} ~~~~ → Estonia
- {{subst:Welcome-India}} ~~~~ → India
- {{subst:Welcome-Germany}} ~~~~ → Germany
- {{subst:Welcome-Malaysia}} ~~~~ → Malaysia
- {{subst:Welcome-Mauritius}} ~~~~ → Mauritius
- {{subst:Welcome-Norway}} ~~~~ → Norway
- {{subst:Welcome-Pakistan}} ~~~~ → Pakistan
- {{subst:Welcome-Poland}} ~~~~ → Poland
- {{subst:Welcome-Russia}} ~~~~ → Russia
- {{subst:Welcome-Singapore}} → Singapore
- {{subst:Welcome-Switzerland}} ~~~~ → Switzerland
- {{subst:Welcome-Ukraine}} ~~~~ → Ukraine
Topics
- {{subst:Welcome-bio}} ~~~~ → Biography
- {{subst:RightWelcome}} ~~~~ → Conservatism
- {{subst:CyclingWelcome}} ~~~~ → Cycling
- {{subst:W-dbz}} ~~~~ → Dragon Ball
- {{subst:Welcome-EDMC}} ~~~~ → Rave and electronic music
- {{subst:Welcome-GOCE}} ~~~~ → Guild of Copy Editors
- {{subst:MathWelcome}} ~~~~ → Mathematics
- {{subst:MedWelcome}} ~~~~ → Medicine
- {{subst:PhyWelcome}} ~~~~ → Physics
- {{subst:Psychology welcome}} ~~~~ → Psychology
- {{subst:RugbyWelcome}} ~~~~ → Rugby union
- {{subst:Welcome Scouting}} ~~~~ → Scouting
- {{subst:welcome-roads}} ~~~~ → Canada Roads, Highways, UK Roads, U.S. Roads
- {{subst:StarWarsWelc}} ~~~~ → Star Wars
- {{subst:Vg welcome}} → Video games (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo)
With advice or warning
- {{subst:Welcome-autobiography}} ~~~~ → for users who have created an autobiography. Alias: {{subst:Welcome-auto}}.
- {{subst:Welcome-COI}} ~~~~ → for users whose edits suggest they may have a conflict of interest.
- {{subst:Welcome-copyright}} ~~~~ → with additional discussion of copyright policies, use when a new user's initial contributions seem to consist solely of inserting a block of copyrighted text.
- {{subst:Welcome-first-article|article}} → for new users whose first article has been deleted or Afd'd; with autosign.
- {{subst:Welcome-first-article-short|article}} → simplified version.
- {{subst:Welcome-LLM}} ~~~~ → A welcome message with a notice about using LLMs for editing.
- {{subst:Welcome-non-latin}} ~~~~ → similar to {{subst:welcome-retro}}, with a section for users with a non-Latin alphabet username, and 25 links to translated versions of this message.
- {{subst:Welcome-npov}} ~~~~ → for someone whose initial efforts do not adhere to WP:NPOV.
- {{subst:Welcome-spam}} ~~~~ → with additional discussion of anti-spamming policies, use when a new user's initial contributions seem to consist solely of spamming external links.
- {{subst:Welcome-suboptimal}} → for users whose edits were intended to be constructive, but had to be reverted for some reason; with autosign.
- {{subst:Welcome-translation}} → with additional discussion regarding unattributed translations from another Wikipedia
- {{subst:Welcome-unconstructive}} → for users who have vandalized a page or had their first edits reverted as unconstructive; with autosign.
- {{subst:Welcome-unref-blp}} → for users who have created an unreferenced biography of a living person
- {{subst:Welcome-unsourced}} ~~~~ → for users who have made edits adding unreferenced information to articles.
Non-English
Used for a user who is creating or editing articles in poor English, and whose native language is known or can be guessed with reasonable confidence. (If the user has been writing articles in another language, one of the templates on Category:Non-English user warning templates should be used instead.)
Use this template to welcome the user, substituting in the language code, such as 'fr' for French, or 'de' for German:
- {{subst:welcome-foreign|lang=xx}}
The welcome will be issued in two languages: English, and the user's language, if the lang code corresponds to any of the following: Albanian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Chinese, Dutch, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kinyarwanda, Korean, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Somali, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese. (See full, up-to-date list via prefixindex or pattern search.)
If the lang code corresponds to a language not currently supported, the welcome message is issued in English only. The template may be easily expanded to include any Wikipedia language. See § Adding a new language for instructions.
User-hosted
Anyone can create their own welcome template and use them, and quite a few users have. These user-hosted templates may be used by anyone. For a non-exhaustive list of user-hosted Welcome templates, see User-hosted tempates.
Editor retention
Not strictly a "new user" welcome (more like, a "don't go" template, or "welcome to independent editing"), retention templates are geared towards editor retention, that is, keeping editors active at Wikipedia who might otherwise leave.
- {{subst:Student retention}} – for student editors in the Wikipedia:Education program, when their class is about over.
See also
- WikiProject-specific welcome templates
- {{Register}} – Appreciate your contribs, you may wish to consider creating an account...
- Wikipedia:Welcome template table
- Wikipedia:Welcoming committee
- Help:Getting started
Notes
- Count as of 24 Dec 2025.
- Count as of 2 September 2025.
- Token fixed 7 Sept 2025 (was:'Welcomeg')
- Total as of 2024-12-07 and frozen at that value forever. Redirected to Welcome-graphical on that date; year links after that date will return 0 results. Total shown is for the original Welcomeg tempate prior to redirection.
- Count as of 2025-12-21.
- The current template name and hidden token id do not match.
- As of 2025-12-06.
- Note mismatch in pagename and hidden tag (no hyphen).
- Count on 1 January 2026.
- This template lacks a hidden template id to search for; this is a hack to get a value.
- As of 19 December 2025.
- Token added on 2 Sept 2025
- Count as of 2026-02-11.
- Count as of 22 December 2025.
- Hidden template id is missing; count shown and link are hacks to try to isolate this template, but the value may be high if other templates match the pattern, or low if this template was changed over the years and didn't use to match it.
- Created in 2025.
- Count as of 23 December 2025.
- Hack: pattern is an unsubsted subst-expression within a hidden tag.
- Has the proper hidden template id, but there is extra material between the id and the user sig that blocks the pattern, so year links are not possible.
- A zero value does not necessarily mean the template was never substed; there could be a missing or problematic hidden template id.