It's nice to have you aboard. We're glad you wish to help develop this encyclopedia. We hope you enjoy participating in the Wikipedia community as much as we do. As a new contributor, you may feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer size and apparent complexity of this project. But don't worry, it will become easier and clearer as you go. If you feel you need assistance, experienced Wikipedians are available to help you learn the basics and get up to speed. We've included some resources below to help you get started. Good luck and have fun. -- The Wikipedia Welcoming Committee
Even more volunteers are standing by to answer your questions on the following pages. You can usually expect an answer fairly quickly, often within just a few minutes:
To understand Wikipedia, it is easiest to think of this website as having two types of pages: pages that are part of the encyclopedia itself, and pages of the community (used by contributors to help build and operate the encyclopedia).
To find your way around the encyclopedia, either enter a term into the search box on the left side of the screen, or go to Wikipedia's table of contents.
Wikipedia's community pages include instructions, help pages, policies, guidelines, discussion forums, places to make requests, pages to report problems, and user pages. These are all pages which we use to develop the encyclopedia and to communicate with each other in that mission. Some directories to help you find your way around the community are:
Wikipedia:Community Portal - Wikipedia's hub of activity. It includes announcements, news, ongoing projects, and task lists. This is where to find out where your help is needed most.
Many of the pages in the Wikipedia namespace have specialized redirects called "shortcuts" that can be entered into Wikipedia's search box. All shortcuts start with WP: followed by a capitalized abbreviation of the page name. Some useful shortcuts are:
Be sure to read the above pages! They are very important, and they will help you — even if you're not perfect the firstsecondtenth seventeenth time!
If you need help...
If you've made a mistake and wish to undo it, revert it. Here's how: click history at the top of the page you made the mistake on. Then click on the second entry in the history list that appears on your screen. Once there, click edit this page. Then save page. See more detailed instructions at Wikipedia:Reversion.
There are two main styles of help on Wikipedia: self-help and assistance...
Self-help involves reading the help and instruction pages around Wikipedia. Some very informative self-help pages are:
For when you get stuck, confused, or befuddled, assistance is available on Wikipedia's "desk" and "request" pages - use these when self-help hasn't provided you with an answer: