A private welcome message is nice, a public welcome message is at best uncomfortable. If it's private, I know it's meant for my benefit and any information prov

A private welcome message is nice, a public welcome message is at best uncomfortable. If it's private, I know it's meant for my benefit and any information provided does not distract from anything else. If it's public, maybe the poster/moderator has good intentions but it's still pointing out to everyone that I'm the new guy so I need to worry about how everyone on the forum might interpret it. And of course in those situations where the moderators actually are hazing, it's always public.