# How are \`system\_messages.welcome\_user.\*\` values used?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-are-system-messages-welcome-user-values-used/295659>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [February 16, 2024, 7:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-are-system-messages-welcome-user-values-used/295659 "2024-02-16T19:07:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 9

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**Author:** ![tobiaseigen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tobiaseigen/32/539204_2.png) [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-are-system-messages-welcome-user-values-used/295659/9 "2024-03-05T19:43:09Z")

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I agree the UI around enabling/disabling/customizing discobot is confusing.

Discobot is a core feature, and it’s called “narrative bot” in the admin settings. We did at some point add discobot to the description so it does show up when searching for it.

![The image shows a user interface with a checkbox labeled "Enable Discourse Narrative Bot (discobot)" that is checked. (Captioned by AI)](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/3/c/4/3c4387315c88b9d4dc2a8c454dccff40d6ef9876.png)

The rest of the admin settings are only discoverable if you search for “narrative bot” and not by searching for discobot. We can fix this.

 ![The image shows a settings page for the Discourse Narrative Bot with options to enable or disable the bot, configure welcome post settings, and manage user interaction preferences. (Captioned by AI)](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/0/b/6/0b6f934ae3dd549ed88471fb88f7babe0b14d887.png)

There are three modes for discobot to help onboard new users, which I think are fairly apparent once you can see all the narrative bot settings.

1. No welcome PM at all from discobot
2. Interactive welcome PM from discobot
3. Non-interactive welcome PM from discobot

Customizing text is fairly advanced and you have to typically do a lot of digging to figure out how to change specific text. I don’t recommend sites try to edit the interactive welcome PM because it is fairly fragile and easy to break.

I can definitely see why sites would want to edit the non-interactive welcome PM, which is certainly hard to find. We could improve the discoverability. It happens here:

 ![Screenshot 2024-03-05 at 11.17.42 AM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/3/9/4/394df7d4ba8079f7cc97627bbbc7c9638bb94a14.png)

The included `%(new_user_tips)` are furthermore editable, and are somewhat dated. We have been removing links to the blog from discourse:

 ![Screenshot 2024-03-05 at 11.20.17 AM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/b/6/4/b64a40035ef6d7a58c21e6ceb2c8871fb9ae9cc9.png)

I think the todo here is along these lines:

1. improve narrative bot (discourse) admin setting descriptions
  - make sure they are discoverable also using “discobot” search term
  - take the opportunity to explain what the feature does and how it works
  - provide links to text customization where appropriate
  - link to documentation topic on meta (see 3)

2. improve the default text for the non-interactive welcome PM
  - update `%(new_user_tips)` text or replace it with actual text

3. write new documentation topic on meta that explains how the feature works in more detail and how it can be customized

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-are-system-messages-welcome-user-values-used/295659)._