Draft / Welcome page

I was speaking with Katherine today about how it might be useful to have a welcome page for people new to Wikimedia UK. It would be linked from the home page, and possibly in the left hand navigation. It would include key details about us, about what we do, about how to get in touch, about how to start editing... all sorts of useful information.

If you have any ideas on what you think would be useful (or what would have been useful to you when you were a newbie) please post them here. I'll then prepare a draft page for us to work on together. Thanks for any help! --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 16:25, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Absolutely! Johnbod (talk) 10:55, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Stevie this is the best idea ever. Maybe it should actually be the front page. EdSaperia (talk) 11:52, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

We do already have some elements on the front page but they are pretty slender (almost the bare minimum). What I think we need is something more comprehensive. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 11:58, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Definitely - go for it. :-) Wikimedia:About is what we have right now - and (off the top of my head) I know that User:Yaris678 and User:KTC have been talking about this at the Water Cooler recently, so please liaise with them / rope them in to help. ;-) Also, User:Rock drum is always amazing with this sort of thing. Sadly, I'm too long in the tooth to know what would be useful, aside from the links in the sidebar on the left... :-/ Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 19:24, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Welcome Template

I suggest we update our version of the welcome template, although other options are good too. i.e. this one

Hello Draft ! Welcome to the website of Wikimedia UK, the UK chapter of Wikimedia. To find out more about us, please take a look at the Main Page, and help and advice for editors (particularly those inbound from WMF projects such as Wikipedia) can be found at Help:Contents. If you haven't already, please consider joining us and getting involved with some of our activities or, if you lack the time, donating instead. If you have any questions, please let me know. Victuallers (talk) 16:33, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Update to Chris for one thing. Johnbod (talk) 10:55, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

The signature is from whoever posts the welcome message - since the welcome is coming from an individual, rather than some anthropomorphic entity. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 19:25, 17 August 2012 (UTC)