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For users who aren't logged-in who are visiting a per-site-meta, there's a box on the sidebar that tells them that they need an account to use meta:

per-site-meta sidebar on ELL.SE per-site-meta sidebar for Server Fault

(Most sites use 'Welcome!', Server Fault is the only one I've seen so far that uses 'Greetings!'.)

On Super User, however, the sidebar reads:

per-site-meta sidebar for Super User

Ack! There's no exclamation point; this is inconsistent with all the other equivalent sidebars on other sites.

It's trivial, but can it be fixed? I don't mind the inconsistent wording (Welcome! v. Hello v. Greetings!), but the lack of an exclamation point is annoying (to me, at least) and to be quite honest, even if the other sites had the same 'Hello' message, they'd all look a bit weird and cold tasteless.

Compared to the other cheerily-punctuated headings- chirpy, happy, welcoming- Super User's insipid 'Hello' seems perfunctory and a bit awkward. If we could get an exclamation point there, that'd be wonderful.

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  • Yelling at users has been deemed to be inappropriate and unwelcoming.
    – Ramhound
    May 17 at 11:56
  • @Ramhound Yelling isn't the primary meaning of the exclamation mark. I'd argue it's not even the secondary meaning on the Internet, we have all-caps for that. I don't have any real statistics, but I suppose not many people would interpret "Hello!" as yelling.
    – gronostaj
    May 17 at 13:17
  • @gronostaj - I was being sarcastic. I am sorry but in the English language, an exclamation, is typically used to reference to forceful expression of emotion. It's a better explanation than, somebody forgot to add it, when Super User was created.
    – Ramhound
    May 17 at 13:20
  • Personally I find this cautious "hello" better and more professional than enthusiastic "welcome!" or "greetings!". The website is not my friend, it's not even a human, it has no emotions. If the message was from a specific human (e.g. from the founder or from a moderator) who has explicitly signed below, then I would be more eager to believe the enthusiasm is sincere. Enthusiasm from a website? No, thank you. As phony as a three-dollar bill. (BTW, I'm Polish, this kinda explains it, I guess).
    – Kamil Maciorowski
    May 19 at 6:19

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