Memory Alpha:Be considerate to new members

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

Memory Alpha, like any wiki, relies not just on its dedicated members to expand its content base, but also on new members who are thinking about joining the project. Newcomers are the community's most valuable "resource," because they help us to expand and spread the work around.

Therefore, it's important that we kindly welcome new members to our community. Newcomers are, by definition, generally unfamiliar with the policies and customs that the rest of us mostly take for granted. Once they're acclimated to our practices, they'll probably become productive members and a part of our community.

Here are a few general tips that can help welcome new members:

• Remember their value. New members are potential assets to our community. Consider them an opportunity rather than a nuisance.
• Politely point out mistakes. Make sure you look like you're providing helpful hints rather than aggressively criticizing their work. Hostility will drive newcomers away!
• Encourage boldness. Help newcomers realize that it's okay to be bold when updating pages! Memory Alpha is a continuous work-in-progress, so it's okay if there are little mistakes.
• Always give the benefit of the doubt. Assume that a newcomer is interested in helping out, and is simply unfamiliar with our guidelines rather than flaunting the rules. Give them a chance to learn – not everyone has the patience to RTFM ahead of time!
• Remember, everyone was a newcomer once! (Well, unless you're Harry or Dan. ;-))

[edit] Standard user greeting

The following is a standard greeting used to welcome new members and can be added using the following template: {{welcome}}.

Welcome to Memory Alpha, Be considerate to new members! I've noticed that you've already made some contributions to our database – thank you! We all hope that you'll enjoy our activities here and decide to join our community.

If you'd like to learn more about working with the nuts and bolts of Memory Alpha, I have a few links that you might want to check out:

• Our policies and guidelines provides links to inform you on what is appropriate for Memory Alpha and what is not. Particular items of note are the canon policy, the editing guidelines, our point of view, copyrights and guidelines for proper etiquette.
• How to edit a page includes a basic tutorial about how to use our special wikitext code here on Memory Alpha.
• Naming conventions provides guidelines on how to name a new page that you may want to create.
• The Manual of Style is an overview of the basic guidelines for how to format and style your articles.
• How to write a great article is a list of suggestions that can help you put together an article that might end up on our Featured Articles list someday.
• See the user projects page for current projects of our archivists, or help us to reduce the number of stubs.
• Look up past changes you have made in your contributions log.
• Keep track of your favorite Memory Alpha articles through your very own watchlist.
• Create your own user page and be contacted on this page, your talk page.

One other suggestion: if you're going to make comments on talk pages or make other sorts of comments, please be sure to sign them with four tildes (~~~~) to paste in your user name and the date/time of the comment.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in our Ten Forward community page. Thanks, and once again, welcome to Memory Alpha!

[edit] Standard anonymous user greeting

The following is a standard greeting used to welcome anonymous (IP) users: {{welcome-anon}}.

Welcome to Memory Alpha! I've noticed that you've already started making some contributions to our database – thank you! Might I suggest that you consider registering an account with us? Creating an account is quick, easy and free, and doesn't require you to give us any personal information at all. But there are a number of benefits to logging in, including the following:

• The use of a specific username that helps other archivists recognize your own contributions
• The ability to view all of your contributions via a My contributions link
• Your own user page and talk page
• The ability to create a watchlist that lets you add articles that interest you
• The ability to rename a page
• The ability to upload images and other media
• The ability to create a custom user style to modify the appearance of this site
• The right to contribute in formal decisions in the community, including the pages for deletion and nominations for featured articles.

Before signing up, however, you may wish to view some of our policies and guidelines, which provide links to inform you on what is appropriate for Memory Alpha and what is not. Particular items of note are the canon policy, the editing guidelines, copyrights, and guidelines for proper etiquette.

If you're concerned about privacy, you should know that you're not required to provide any personal information at all – not even an e-mail address! We've tried to make signing up as quick and as painless as possible. I hope you'll consider creating an account!