How to Become a Welcome Wagon User on wikiHow

Monsoon59

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posted on 11 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Are you familiar with the basic (or advanced) ins and outs of wikiHow, and interested in using the Welcome Wagon to welcome new contributors to the community? Users who are trusted to use the Welcome Wagon feature are called "Welcomers". Becoming a welcomer is easy - all you need to do is take and pass a simple test. This article explains the steps required to become one.

Steps

Get some experience before applying. Your account should be at least a month old, with significant editing activity, before you apply. This is because you will need to be able to help users if they come across any problems. You don't need to know every policy (like an Admin or Booster does), but you do need to know how to be friendly and encouraging, and point people in the correct direction. Try greeting newcomers from the new contributors page, following these guidelines. This will help you to get some experience and pass the test. Ask other Welcomers for advice. The best way to improve is to have feedback from a real person. Visit this list for active Welcomers.

Be familiar with your role as a Welcome Wagon user, should you pass the test. Read up on How to Use the Welcome Wagon Tool on wikiHow. It will give you a brief explanation on how the tool looks.

Take the Welcome Wagon test. Visit this page and read the ten provided new user scenarios. Write responses to at least five of them. Make sure they are positive and personalized - don't copy from a template! You can write your answers in an email (that you'll send when finished) or Google Doc (no need to include the questions with your responses). Number each answer (e.g. "User2" right above that answer), and make sure the numbering matches the numbers on the test. Remember to use steps in the "Writing a Welcome Message" section of How to Welcome New wikiHow Users. Use wikiText the same way you would when posting a talk page message. Examples are weaving links and formatting text with bold, italic, and/or underline if you wish.

Email your completed test. Send it to [email protected]. You should receive a reply in a week or so, letting you know if you passed the test. Be sure to include your wikiHow username in the email so that Jayne (a wikiHow staff member) knows who to add the Welcome Wagon rights to if you pass the test. Don't lose heart if you don't pass on your first try. You can try again a month later, and in the meantime you can practice other skills! If you pass, you can add yourself to this list of active Welcomers.