UESPWiki:Archive/CP Welcoming IP Addresses

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Is it okay though?

I remember I was discussing this with Eshe on the IRC one night. I greet EVERY editor/IP I see with the official "Welcome" message. She said it was not very needed, but very curteous. May I still do this? Haha, maybe I'll have to be the town crier, "12:00 PM and all is well!!!!" --Playjex 15:21, 25 February 2008 (EST)

It'll certainly be a lot of work for you! ;P It's a nice idea but I don't really think it's necessary, after all, one day you might accidentally welcome a vandal.--Willyhead 15:35, 25 February 2008 (EST)

Personally, I'd prefer to not have every anonymous IP automatically welcomed. I think it's problematic in a few ways:

• Many people have dynamic IPs so they won't ever see the welcome message. Or the person who ends up seeing it is someone completely different. Or the person ends up getting barraged with new welcome messages every time their IP address changes.
• The presence of a talk page for an anonymous IP is often used by admins as a signal that the IP has been warned. So when I see a blue link for an anonymous IP's talk page, I tend to assume they've previously done something questionable.
• The standard welcome message is not tailored to anonymous IPs. I think any message welcoming anonymous IPs should at least point out that the person is free to set up an account, and that there are some advantages to doing so. But that type of information is not provided in the default welcome message, so it's essentially skipping the most important piece of information.
• Automatically welcoming an anonymous IP who makes one questionable edit can then make subsequent notices awkward if the IP's next edit is vandalism (and, yes, that has happened in at least one case where an anonymous IP was welcomed).
• I see welcoming as a way to reach out to someone who has joined the community. Anonymous IPs have chosen not to join the community, so should they be welcomed as community members? And in part this goes back to the dynamic IP issue: if an anonymous IP wants to be anonymous, will that person really want to be welcomed every time he/she is assigned a new IP? I'd feel more like I was being stalked than welcomed at some point.

There are cases where it's appropriate to welcome an anonymous IP, but generally I think it's most useful when the editor has clearly made multiple useful contributions to the site. At which point, it's good to reach out to the person and suggest that he/she sets up an account. It's best if such a message is personalized, to make it clear that the person's edits are considered to be valuable. Sorry if I'm biased here, but I don't consider a dozen edits to our Gripes or Mod Ideas pages to be high-value edits. --Nephele^Talk 16:09, 25 February 2008 (EST)

Haha, thanks you two for responding! I know what to and not to do when I am tempted to welcome an IP .... Go into the fetal position. haha thanks guys! --Playjex 17:01, 25 February 2008 (EST)