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About Wikipedia
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Contributor information
- Contributing to Wikipedia – the main page that provides information, links, videos and other resources on the basics needed to comprehend, comment on, and contribute to Wikipedia.
- Welcome to Wikipedia – portal style page to get you started.
- Why create an account – don't need to be registered to edit, however it does provide additional features.
- Choosing a username – do not choose names which may be offensive, misleading, disruptive, or promotional.
- How to log in – If you are not logged in your edits are labelled in page history with your IP address.
- Your first article – guide to starting your first encyclopedia article.
- Annotated article – is a well-constructed sample article, with annotations.
- Article wizard – will walk you through the process of submitting a new article.
- Frequently Asked Questions – common questions about using and contributing.
- More instructional material – provides links to instructional material useful for users.
- Trifecta – ultra fast overview of foundational principles related to policies and guidelines.
- Things you may not know about Wikipedia – insights specifically targeted at people who have limited experience.
- Tip of the day – provides "very useful" advice daily on how to use or develop Wikipedia more effectively.
- See also Wikipedia:Tips, the complete library of tips arranged by subject.
- User page design center – where you will find all the resources for developing your user page. Enjoy!
Frequently asked questions
- FAQ main page – questions about using and contributing.
- Administration – answers some questions related to Administrators.
- Article subjects – what to do about a specific articles.
- Categories – about using Wikipedia's categories.
- Contributing – answers to questions commonly asked by contributors.
- Copyright – four most commonly asked questions about copyright.
- Editing – answers the most common questions about editing.
- Forking – how do I download and use Wikipedia content.
- IRC (live chat) – about "chat rooms" – real-time discussions.
- Organizations – editing without displaying a conflict of interest.
- Problems – solving problems you may encounter when browsing or editing.
- Readers – addresses concerns and questions readers may have.
- Schools – questions teachers, librarians and administrators might have.
- Technical – answers some questions related to the technical workings.
- (Miscellaneous) – questions that do not fit into any of the others above.
How to pages
- Help:help – explains how to find and navigate the help pages.
- Books – explains how to make and download Wikipedia books.
- Categories – explains how to edit categories.
- Copyright – explains how to deal with copyright concerns.
- Diff – explains how to view the difference between two versions of a page.
- Editing – explains the basics of editing.
- Find sources – explains how to find references.
- Files – explains how to manage media.
- Footnotes – explains how to add notes and references.
- Nesting footnotes – explains how to include a note or reference within a note or reference.
- Glossary – quick overview of terms.
- Infobox – explains the basics about how to use infoboxes.
- IPA/English – explains how the International Phonetic Alphabet system works.
- List – explains how to add lists.
- Linking – explains how to add internal links.
- Link color – explains how to add color to link text.
- Logging in – explains how to access your account.
- Magic words – explains how words surrounded by brackets or underscores function.
- Media – explains the basics of seeing media.
- Merging – explains how to consolidate articles.
- Mobile access – explains how to access Wikipedia from mobile devices.
- Navigation – explains how to get around Wikipedia.
- Other languages – explains how to deal with other languages.
- Page name – explains how to deal with page titles.
- Redirect – explains how to direct pages to the proper place.
- References – explains how to make those complicated sources work.
- Citation Style – explains some of the different reference styles.
- Cite errors – explains how to deal with errors in references.
- Rename – explains how to change your user name.
- Password – explains how to change your personal password.
- Reverting – explains how to roll back edits.
- Searching – explains how to use Wikipedia more effectively.
- Section – explains how to edit just portions of a page.
- Talk pages – explains the basics of what to do on talk pages.
- Students – explains the basics for students.
- URLs – explains how to add and deal with external links.
- User contributions – explains how to view editors additions.
- Watching pages – explains how to track pages.
Technical help
Media files: images, videos and sounds
* Media help
Coding (Wiki markup)
- Wiki markup – explains the coding used by text, links, & talk pages.
- Barchart – explains how to make charts.
- Calculations – explains how to make complicated calculations.
- Characters – explains how to add special characters.
- Citations quick! – simplistic examples of two preferred ways of doing footnotes (reference).
- Columns – explains how to make columns.
- HTML – explains how to use HTML in text.
- Musical symbols – explains the basic coding of music symbols.
- Sound files – explains the basic coding sound files.
- Tables – explains the basic coding for making tables.
- Wiki table – more advanced coding information on tables.
- Templates – explains the basic for templates.
- Documentation – explains the basic of how to properly document template information.
- Visual files – explains the basic of coding for visual media.
- Wiki tools – various tools and tutorials intended to simplify, make more efficient, or provide additional functionality.
Introductions
Wiki Markup
- Main introduction – quick overview of what Wikipedia is all about.
- Editing – the basic pages on how to contribute to Wikipedia.
- Images – introduction to adding images to Wikipedia.
- Manual of Style – introduction to the style guide for articles.
- Media – how to add media to Wikipedia.
- Navigating – Wikipedia is a big place.
- Policies – how to apply policies and guidelines.
- Sourcing – why references are so important.
- Tables – how an where tables are used and how to make them.
- Talk pages – how to communicate within Wikipedia.
VisualEditor
- Editing with VisualEditor – a five part introduction to editing with VisualEditor. Opening the editor. Toolbar basics. Links and Wikilinks. Saving your changes. Summary.
- Referencing with VisualEditor – a five part introduction to referencing. Verifiability. Inline citations. RefToolbar. Reliable sources. Summary.
- Uploading images with VisualEditor – a six part guide on uploading images. Introduction. Free content. Non-free content. Wikimedia Commons. Using an image. Summary.
The Missing Manual
- The Missing Manual – comprehensive how-to guide (book) that explains everything about contributing for novice to expert editors.
- Introduction – originally written in 2008 by John Broughto, the Manual has since been expanded and updated by many others.
Part I – Editing and Creating Articles
- First edit – explains what you see when you look at an article in Wikipedia's editing window and how to practice.
- Sourcing – you will need to learn some technical matters.
- Account setup & personal space – having an account actually protects your privacy better than editing while logged out.
- Creating articles – get a much better sense of what articles in Wikipedia should be like.
- Page history & reverting – as an editor you're likely to want to see what other editors do to articles you've edited.
- Monitoring changes – experienced editors monitor articles they've edited.
- Vandalism & spam – explains in detail what you, a Wikipedia editor, can do in terms of spotting and fixing vandalism and spam.
Part II – Collaborating with Other Editors
- Communicating with others – you will need to know how to use the pages where editors interact and collaborate with each other.
- WikiProjects – many editors at Wikipedia work together in groups, formal or informal.
- Content disputes – if you find yourself involved in a content dispute.
- Incivility – shows you helpful ways to respond to incivility and personal attacks directed against you or other editors.
- Helping others – shows you all the places and ways you can lend other editors a hand.
Part III – Formatting and Illustrating Articles
- Sections – shows you how to effectively use sections in an article.
- Lists & tables – shows you how to create and edit both lists and tables.
- Images – shows you how to place an image in an article, after you or someone else has uploaded it.
Part IV – Building a Stronger Encyclopedia
Part V – Customizing Wikipedia
- Personal preferences – "My Preferences" is where you can change a number of settings that control how pages look and function.
- JavaScript – you can customize Wikipedia in ways that make your editing easier with scripts.
Part VI – Appendices
- Wikipedia Pages – when you're registered, and logged into Wikipedia, you'll see links in a number of places.
- Reader's guide – background on what Wikipedia is and how to get the most out.
- Learning more – shows you the myriad places you can go, both inside and outside Wikipedia.
Interactive assistance (help forums)
Questions about Wikipedia
| Replying to help requests – contains guidelines for users who respond to questions about how to use or edit posed by other users. |
- Help desk – the "main page" for asking questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia.
- Teahouse – a "very friendly place" for new editors to become accustomed to and ask questions about editing.
General knowledge questions
- Reference desks – you can ask questions about any topic at the specific pages listed below.
- Computing – to ask about computing, information technology, electronics, software and hardware.
- Entertainment – to ask about sports, popular culture, movies, music, video games, and TV shows.
- Humanities – to ask about history, politics, literature, religion, philosophy, law, finance, economics, art, and society.
- Language – to ask about spelling, grammar, word etymology, language usage, and translations.
- Mathematics – to ask about mathematics, geometry, probability, and statistics.
- Science – to ask about biology, chemistry, physics, medicine, geology, engineering and technology.
- (Miscellaneous) – to ask about anything that is not listed above.
Specific help and mediation
Technical issues
- Village pump – main directory divided into five boards by topic (as seen below), to discuss the technical issues, policies, and operations of Wikipedia.
- Policy – to discuss changes to existing and proposed policies.
- Proposals – to discuss new proposals that are not policy-related.
- Technical – to discuss technical issues. For wiki software bug reports, use Bugzilla.
- Idea lab – to discuss ideas before proposing them to the community and attempt to find solutions to common issues.
- (Miscellaneous) – to post messages that do not fit into any other categories listed above.
Other ways to get help
- Special services – a section on the Request departments page that lists the alternative ways of getting help as seen below.
- Place
{{Help me}} (including the curly brackets) "then your question" on your talk page, a volunteer will visit you there!
- If you require personal administrator assistance in regards to blocking, deleting, protecting, personal harassment or legal threats you can place
{{Admin help}} (including the curly brackets) "then your concerns" on your talk page, an administrator will visit you there!
- Adopt-a-User – is where you can find experienced Wikipedians that "adopt" new users and mentor them.
- Co-op – a mentorship space where you can work with an experienced Wikipedian to learn about and improve Wikipedia.
- Join the #wikipedia-en-help IRC channel for real-time chat.
- Contact Wikipedia – is a page that describes how and where to contact Wikipedia directly for a variety of reasons.
Community standards and advice
- Policies & guidelines – describes how policies and guidelines should normally be developed and maintained.
- How-to and information pages – about pages that contain technical and factual information or supplement guidelines and policies in greater detail.
- Essays – Although essays are not policy or guidelines many are worthy of considerations.
- Advice pages – guideline about advice pages written by WikiProjects.
- Accessibility – guideline primarily intended to assist those with disabilities, it can be helpful for all readers.
- Article deletion – policy about how articles and other Wikipedia pages can be removed from general view.
- Biographies of living persons (BLP) – guideline about how bios on living persons must be written with great care.
- Libel – policy about how it is the responsibility of all to ensure that material posted is not defamatory.
- Avoiding harm – essay that contains the ideas behind the philosophy that formed the BLP.
- Blocking – policy behind how administrators technically prevent users from editing.
- Child protection – policy about the behavior and actions of adult editors with regards to children.
- Offensive material – guideline about how articles may contain offensive words and images, but only for a good reason.
- Citing sources – guideline that contains information on how to place and format citations (references).
- Verification methods – essay about several common methods that Wikipedia editors use to make their articles verifiable.
- Referencing for beginners – essay that shows you how to use the most popular system for providing inline citations.
- Conflict of interest – guideline about how it is best to not edit Wikipedia to promote your own interests.
- Consensus – the primary way decisions are made, its accepted as the best method to achieve our goals.
- Copyrights – policy that states permission is granted to copy, distribute or modify text under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Editing policy – Be bold in updating articles in a fair and accurate manner, because perfection is not required.
- Etiquette – principles of decorum, also referred to as "Wikiquette", how to work with others on Wikipedia.
- Ignore all rules (IAR) – policy that states if a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it.
- Image use policy – policies towards images, like content and copyright issues—applicable to "English Wikipedia".
- Manual of Style (MOS) – main guideline page that describes communal consensus on layouts and presentation.
- Neutrality (NPOV) – policy about how articles should represent the views of main scholars and specialists on topics.
- No original research (OR) – policy about how all material must be attributable to a reliable, published source.
- Notability – guideline that outlines how suitable a topic may be for its own article or list.
- Fringe theories – guideline about how articles should not make a fringe theory appear more notable than it is.
- Notability essays – list of essays that summarizes the gist of user written essays on notability.
- User rights – the ability to perform certain actions in Wikipedia depends on an editor's user access level.
- Verifiability (RS) – policy stating how readers must be able to check that articles are not fabricated or embellished.
- Understandability – guideline about how all should strive to make each part of every article as understandable as possible to the widest audience of reader.
- Words to watch – guideline about how certain expressions should be used with care.
- Vandalism – if you see vandalism in an article, the simplest thing to do is just to remove it.
Directories
- Directory – the main list of "Wikipedia" and "Help" namespace directories and indexes.
- Abbreviations – a list of all the abbreviations used on Wikipedia.
- Artificial intelligence resources – a list of information resources on artificial intelligence (AI).
- Departments – a list of all the different divisions of Wikipedia.
- Editor's index – a list of all the pages to help people who edit pages.
- Essays – a list of pages that contain advice or opinions from one or more Wikipedia contributors.
- FAQ – a list of frequently asked questions by topic.
- Glossary – a list of terms (slang) commonly used by editors.
- Guidelines – a descriptive list of official guidelines for "English Wikipedia".
- Manual of Style – a descriptive list of the pages which make up the Manual of Style.
- Policies – a descriptive list of official policies for "English Wikipedia".
- Quick directory – a small list of key pages with emphasis on interaction between members of the community.
- Shortcuts – a list of abbreviated redirects and the pages they lead to.
- Tips – a list of "tips" created by users at Tip of the day project.
Further reading (external links)
- Note – publications below may contain out of dated information or images.
Sister projects (external links)
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