`  :::It pleases me greatly to hear you suggest such a badly needed overhaul of the way we 'welcome' newcomers! I sincerely hope you will let me know how I can support you in this effort. I've been mostly focused on heraldry-related topics and some medieval history-related topics, and I occasionally welcome newcomers when I happen across them. I don't know of any automated process for welcoming newcomers after their first edit, but I think that would be a good idea. Of course, it is equally important to have high quality links with a clear explanation, in order to orient new users without overwhelming them with a bank of confusing hyperlinks. I think most new users probably make several edits, and probably a few mistakes, before anyone notices them. The usual way new users are welcomed seems to be when someone goes to leave a warning on their user talk page and notices they have only made a few edits, so then (hopefully) that user chooses to leave a welcome message with a gentle admonishment rather than a cold or harshly toned warning template. Unfortunately, sometimes the warning template is left anyway, surely leaving the newcomer with an unwelcome feeling. You're right. We need to fix that, and the sooner the better.   |    `