Hey! I see many people asking that question,“How can I make friends” or “how can I chat” or so. I thought if we had a template for it, it would be much easier for all of us since many people ask that question and there is no point in wasting our time in typing the same thing. I could create the template but I felt to ask for as much as information I can get. I have just left a message regarding something like that: “I’d just want you to know that wikiHow is not a social networking site like twitter,facebook, etc. So, it’s better if you don’t chat through talk page messages. But, you can still talk with them through various ways: E-mail : If the user has specified an e-mail address, then you can e-mail them by clicking at the blue envelope that appears near user name. Forums: forums is a lovely place to bond with people. IRC. You can chat with people if they are on the wikiHow’s IRC channel. Click here. And, you can always take your conversations to Twitter,Facebook, etc. I hope that was helpful. If you have any doubts, feel free to ask me!” NOTE: I had given them links to IRC,Forums,etc… I don’t know it it’s enough or not. And if you can suggest something to add/remove from the above content… Your ideas are most welcome! Thank you in advance
Good idea, Shinny. You can make that template included links to the IRC and the forum
Shina, yeh template ki tarkeeb bahut acchi hai aur ab chatting threads bhi kam ho jayenge.Great idea!
My one comment: Forums: it should be “The forums ARE” or “The forum IS.” Just in the interests of grammar. Also, there is no space between Twitter,Facebook. But it’s a great template, and so useful.
We have the {{chat}} template ( http://wikihow.com/Template:Chat
), although, based on my observations, it seems to be ignored a lot >_> But on the template, http://wikihow.com/Find-Alternatives-to-Chatting-on-wikiHow
is linked which describes email, forums, and IRC, as well as external networking sites. When dealing with charters and the so-called “friend seekers”, I personally think it’s best to write a personalized message instead of a template to better come off as friendly and non-hostile. If you don’t want to spend time typing the same response, you can give them the above article, which, like I said, has all of those communication systems described.
Whenever I use the chat template I receive messages back saying how annoying that template is. And if they send me lots of chat things and I havent used the template yet sometimes they tell me not to use the chat template because it looks stupid on their talkpage I guess they don’t like it yet they keep chatting…
Of course they are going to say the template is annoying: you’re telling them something they don’t want to hear. If they keep sending you chat things, the best thing to do is ignore it. If they think it looks stupid, then they can delete it.
And if they choose to ignore it, and keep talking, admins (and advice to future admins) can block. Only for an hour though - Since they didn’t hurt the website. The block is just something to get in their minds that wikiHow is not a social networking site. June Days
I’ll keep that in mind. So, my question is… would it be enough just to suggest that article or personally explain the alternatives through a message…because most of the times, they really don’t click on the link to find out more.
Hibou8
11
I think it’s a good idea to put everything in the message instead of a link. Like @Elocina
said: Of course they will think it’s annoying, and if they care so much about what their TALK PAGE looks like, are they really the kind of editor we want?
system
12
Do you want to be friends?
system
14
I think this template is a little harsh…We are a friendly community, so I don’t think we should really “snap” at people for assuming you can make friends here. It’s not such a terrible thing to assume, and people *do* make friends hereI agree with @Illneedasaviour
that the best way to respond is with a personal message, or not respond at all. A different way to respond is to link them to http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Friends
Or tell them to just contribute, and that they’ll make friends naturally along the way
Like so many places we are becoming so touchy-feely, feelings sensitive that we can’t correct people who are supposed to be intelligent and mature above an 8th grade level. That template is very passive. We don’t snap at people for trying to make friends. We stopped directing people to the writer’s guide and the tutorial, and the writing quality has suffered. When we direct people to policies and guidelines they are ignored. When people are annoyed, they will come in as anonymous users and vandalize. The attitude is that they are guidelines, not laws. We can’t force them, so why bother. My 9-year old neice can write circles around thousands of these articles that are written by people who need others to think for them. The point is that we are suffering chats, vandalism, spam, profanity and articles best suited for a porn site and we have no business blaming the authors. We get them because we allow it. We make passive, PC comments and cautions, and they laugh at us. We have policies and guidelines for a reason. When I came to wikiHow people were blocked for excessive warnings, even if it was just chatting. Now, gross, and even intentional violations are called “good faith edits”, and we suffer the consequences. We tell them to do what they will, no matter how atrocious, and we’ll fix it.
Totally agree with Davjohn. It’s like saying, “Come,do the harm”.
Isn’t the article"Make friends" generally refers to making friends rather than “making friends on wikiHow?” Three out of four people won’t read the articles they are linked to (I think) and they won’t even stop chatting even if we put the chat temp. All I think is this template could be like a precautionary measure to be taken care of. To prevent themselves from getting the chat template.
Just as a quick fix, I’ve taken the box away from the chat template so it at least looks more personal
system
18
As was pointed out, we already have the chat template to let people know how they can socialize appropriately on wikiHow. I think this new template would be somewhat of a duplicate of that? I’m very much reluctant to vote for the creation of a new coaching template unless it’s necessary. Coaching templates in general are notoriously ineffective - people don’t really pay attention to them
Personally written notes are especially effective in this kind of situation because obviously, the person really wants to chat, so if they know you’re addressing them personally, they are more likely to listen
No comment bou hey do any of you guys know who @option
is this #user
has been repeadly chatting with me when i tell to… (see in my talk page)
@Akash_Dahal
I saw that he keeps chatting on talk pages. I left him the {{chat}} template. Thanks!
