Wikimedia Foundation

“ Edit articles Upload and add photos Add articles to your watchlist Check your Notifications Why edit Wikipedia?
I love knowing that I'm contributing to something bigger than myself.
On one side, you have a bunch of rich, powerful companies. They want to turn the web into a medium for consumption: interactive television meets shopping mall. On the other side, you have a bunch of people who think the Internet can change the world.
Everybody reads Wikipedia. If they want to learn something, they turn to Wikipedia first. ”

“ Interacting with the community Every article has its own Talk page, too. These Talk pages can be used to make suggestions, post new sources, point out problems, and discuss changes that contributors disagree about.
Look, a new Notification! These let you know when someone mentions your username, thanks you for an edit, or leaves a message on your User Talk page.
One important guideline for community discussions on Wikipedia is to be respectful and civil. Even if you get into disagreements, you should assume good faith on the part of other contributors. ”

“ You should include citations for the information you add to the encyclopedia, so that others can check it for themselves. The most reliable sources for Wikipedia are third-party sources with a reputation for fact-checking, such as books published by academic presses, peer-reviewed academic journals, and international newspapers. You should be using sources that represent significant viewpoints, rather than one-off studies or fringe work. Try to find the best and most reliable sources available on the topic. ”

“ Portrait of Adrianne Wadewitz at Wikimania 2012 in Washington, DC. Each of us on the Wikipedia Education Program team is saddened today by the news of Adrianne Wadewitz’s passing. We know we share this sadness with everyone at the Wikimedia Foundation and so many in the Wikimedia and education communities. Our hearts go out to all of you, her family and friends. Today is a time for mourning and remembering. ”

“ Glossary edit summary A brief explanation of an edit to a Wikipedia page, which helps other contributors follow the development an article and understand the intention of the edit.
free license A public copyright license that ensures the freedom to use and study a work, to make and redistribute copies of it, to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works, by any person for any purpose. Wikipedia—and each individual contribution to it—uses the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which is a free license. See | shortcut WP:CC-BY-SA to learn more. ”

“ In general, high-quality articles have these elements:
a lead section that gives an easy-to-understand overview, a clear structure, balanced coverage, neutral content, and reliable sources. Additional information about article quality is available by consulting the "Evaluating Wikipedia" brochure (see below) .
Additional resources
Wiki markup cheatsheet These examples cover the formatting needed most often when editing Wikipedia articles with wiki markup. ”

“ WikiProjects are groups of contributors who have a common interest when it comes to editing Wikipedia. Browsing the existing WikiProjects | shortcut WP:WIKIPROJECT and joining ones that interest you can be a good way to find things you want to work on and connect with other Wikipedians. ”

“ In rapidly changing fields such as science, technology, politics, culture, and modern history, the Britannica has struggled to stay up-to-date, a problem first analyzed systematically by its former editor Walter Yust. ”

“ Adding a pipe and another string of text before the closing square brackets changes the link text.
[ [article title|text] ] E Italic Two single quotation marks begin and end a segment of italic text.
''italic text'' F Heading A pair of double equals signs mark a line as a heading. Triple equals signs make a sub-heading.
==Heading== G Template Double braces are used for templates, which are reusable page elements that serve many purposes. The first item after the opening braces is the template's name. ”