Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Finding newbies

Where to find new users

Almost all of the following methods involve looking for user signatures at discussions, or for lists of users which include a talk page link: when the talk page link is red, it means they have no Talk page and could benefit from a Welcome. One method below deals with users who already have a Talk page (so the link is blue) but have not yet received a welcome message.

Here are some ways to find new users:

• Check your watchlist – welcome the users who are working on the things you yourself are interested in. The new users are the ones with a red talk page link.
• Check Wikipedia's account creation log – this is especially useful with a quick link to their talk page, as well as an "at-a-glance" sign to tell if they've probably been welcomed already: their talk page isn't red linked!
• Special:ActiveUsers – a list of users who had some kind of activity within the last 30 days. The list is huge, but you can get a better view by going to field 'Exclude users belonging to groups' and entering Extended confirmed users. Another tip is to jump semi-randomly into the middle of the list by entering three or four letters in the 'Display users starting at' input field. For example, entering Moa will get you this list.
• New users can frequently be found seeking help at the Wikipedia:Teahouse and Wikipedia:Help desk.
• You will no doubt come across new users as you work on Wikipedia. You may spot them in the edit histories of pages or on talk pages. If a user's signature or username is in red, that indicates that they don't have a user page set up yet. That means they are very likely (but not always) a new user. Check their talk page to see if they've already been greeted (though there's no harm in greeting a new user again; you can always say "hi", and offer your assistance).
• Check the recent changes. You can use the "User registration and experience" filters. Also, if there is a new user, it will say as an edit summary: (New user account). These users will also be on the account creation log. You can then click on the red linked talk page and then greet them. This is also helpful if you are looking for newbies, vandalism, etc.

• Sign up to be a mentor. A selection of newly registered users will automatically be assigned to you as mentees, and will be visible to you on your Mentor dashboard. Mentees will contact you on your Talk page, and you'll then be able to help them out and answer their questions. Templates like {{subst:Mentor welcome}} and {{subst:Welcome mentee}} can be used to welcome your mentees.
• Stalk the user talk pages of active mentors. Messages from mentees to their mentor have a standard heading that is easy to spot, and the most recent ones near the bottom of the mentor's Talk page are likely to be from brand new users; sometimes their very first edit.
• Try the {{welcome needed}} template. This configurable template generates a search link which lists recently created user talk pages which have a had a user warning placed on them (so the Talk page link is blue) but as yet lack a welcome message. Example: {{welcome needed}} → search link.