I have seen some people ask on welcomers’ talk pages, “are you a bot?”. I’ve seen people say stuff like “you’re a bot”. I was thinking it would be a good idea to welcome a user with their first contribution or someone who has just joined, one minute or so, after the action. If the welcome bot gives a message right away, people will think welcomers are bots instead of real people. It may be better to welcome them one minute after so they think the welcomer is someone real.
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I understand why you suggested this - nobody wants to think they’re being welcomed by a bot. If someone has questions or wants to start contributing immediately, though, it’s better for them to have the message already there - otherwise, they don’t have anyone to ask for help if they need it. We don’t want people to sign up, assume there’s nowhere for them to ask questions, and log out before they get the WelcomeBot message. We can always reassure new users that we’re real people
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I have heard of a general rule that 90% of visitors to a blog, forum, or wiki just read and only 10% ever contribute. This is true about signups as well. I think maybe it would be good if after your first edit you are immediately welcomed, not if you have never edited.
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If I hadn’t gotten a WelcomeBot message, I don’t think I would’ve edited in the first place. I knew full well it was automated, but I was young and uncertain of myself and a lot of our current userbase skews younger right now. Having someone available to answer any questions gave me more reassurance that I could try things out and ask for help if I needed it. It comes back around to wanting people to have someone to ask for help immediately on the chance they do need it (and some people do sign up just to ask questions or figure some specific thing out), and not wanting to leave them confused or not sure where to go
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I actually would not be surprised if all wikis have a very young audience.
