From Wikitravel

When new Wikitravellers set up a user account and make a new user page, it can be nice to welcome them onto the site with a brief welcome message. This has the dual benefit of letting them know that we want their help and shared knowledge, as well as giving some good starting points for learning how to be the best darn contributor ever.

Anyone can welcome new users to the site, and they can use whatever text they want. The following Wiki markup has most of the important starter links in it, however, and makes a good standard welcome message.

Hello! [[Wikitravel:Welcome, newcomers|Welcome]] to [[Wikitravel:About|Wikitravel]]. If you want to specialize your experience you may want to consider [[Special:preferences|editing your preferences]]. Please take a second to look at our [[Wikitravel:copyleft|copyleft]] and [[Wikitravel:policies and guidelines|policies and guidelines]], but feel free to [[Wikitravel:plunge forward|plunge forward]] and [[Wikitravel:How to edit a page|edit some pages]]. Scanning the [[Wikitravel:Manual of style|manual of style]], especially the [[Wikitravel:article templates|article templates]], can give you a good idea of how we like articles formatted. If you're new to the whole wiki software look at the [[Wikitravel:Wiki_markup|wiki markup]] to get an idea of how to use the wiki markup. If you need help, check out [[Wikitravel:Help]], and if you need some info not on there, post a message in the [[Wikitravel:travellers' pub|travellers' pub]]. -- ~~~~

You should be able to copy and paste that into someone's user talk page. It's nice to personalize it, though!

Wikipedians

For likely Wikipedians, consider the following message:

Hello! [[Wikitravel:Welcome, newcomers|Welcome]] to [[Wikitravel:About|Wikitravel]]. If you want to specialize your experience you may want to consider [[Special:preferences|editing your preferences]]. Please take a second to look at our [[Wikitravel:copyleft|copyleft]] and [[Wikitravel:policies and guidelines|policies and guidelines]], but feel free to [[Wikitravel:plunge forward|plunge forward]] and [[Wikitravel:How to edit a page|edit some pages]]. Scanning the [[Wikitravel:Manual of style|Manual of style]], especially the [[Wikitravel:article templates|article templates]], can give you a good idea of how we like articles formatted. If you're new to the whole wiki community look at the [[Wikitravel:Wiki_markup|wiki markup]] to get an idea of how to use the wiki markup. If you need help, check out [[Wikitravel:Help]], and if you need some info not on there, post a message in the [[Wikitravel:travellers' pub|travellers' pub]].

If you are a [[Wikitravel:Welcome, Wikipedians|Wikipedian]], or have previously used [[Wikipedia]], then you may notice some differences in the style of our articles. Some of the changes are:

* "Village Pump" -> [[Wikitravel:travellers' pub|travellers' pub]]

* "be bold" -> [[Wikitravel:plunge forward|plunge forward]]

* "sandbox" -> [[Wikitravel:graffiti wall|graffiti wall]]

* "stub notes" -> [[Wikitravel:Article status|Article status notes]]

* "External links" -> We do not use a separate [[Wikitravel:external links|external links]] section, but incorporate them into the text.

Thank you for contributing. -- ~~~~