Welcome, newcomers

Wikipedia is a encyclopedia written collaboratively by its readers. The site is a wiki, meaning that anyone, including you, can edit almost any article right now by clicking on the edit this page link that appears at the top of the page. The following is a brief introduction to Wikipedia.

Browsing Wikipedia
Wikipedia contains a huge amount of information on all sorts of subjects ranging from politics, science, history, music, religion, pop culture, and sports to everything and anything in between. Try browsing the various subjects right now, on the Wikipedia browsebar:

You can also search for text in articles. Just go to the "search" field to the left, enter your search term and click "search". Note that the built-in search function may be disabled in times of server overload; in these cases you will be redirected to a Google-based search of the Wikipedia database. There are also other ways to search Wikipedia.

If you read something that you really like, then why not drop a note on the article's talk page? First select the discussion link (look for it in the tabs above the page), to get to the talk page. Then select edit this page on the talk page, or click the + to the right of edit this page to simply add a new comment. We always love to get a nookie on the side.

If there's something we don't cover, or you're having difficulty finding what you're looking for, just ask us at the reference desk, or add the topic to our list of requested articles. Find other ways to explore Wikipedia or... write an article yourself.

Editing
Anyone and everyone can edit pages in Wikipedia &mdash; even this page! Just click the edit this page link at the top of any page (except for protected pages) if you think it needs any improvement or new information. You don't need anything special; you don't even need to be logged in. If you want to experiment first, without risk of "messing up" a real article, head over to the sandbox, where you can practice editing to your heart's content. To practice editing an existing page like this one, just copy and paste it from the article's edit page into the sandbox. To learn more, check out the Wikipedia Tutorial to learn the basic info you should know as a member of our project.

You may find this a bit intimidating at first, but see replies to common objections for an explanation of why the system still works.

Policies
We have a few policies and guidelines that you should look at. The three most essential principles are NPOV, GFDL, and civility. What does this mean?
 * NPOV, or neutral point of view means that articles should not be biased, and should represent differing views on a subject fairly.
 * All contributions to Wikipedia are released under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). This specifically ensures that Wikipedia will remain freely distributable in perpetuity. Please do not submit any content that is copyrighted without permission of the copyright holder. (See Copyrights for more information.)
 * Civility. Wikipedia works by cooperation, and therefore mutual respect, civility, and wikilove should be practiced universally. Please assume good faith when you disagree with someone, stay cool, and talk things over civilly. It is good practice to provide an edit summary explaining your changes so as to assist others with noticing and accepting your changes. If you find that your edits get removed or modified, wait a moment before reinstating them. First check the page history, your talk page, or the article's talk page to discuss. See also Wikiquette.

Don't be discouraged
If you run into conflicts in your first forays into editing, then don't let them get you down. In any collaborative project there are clashes. Have a look at the writers' rules of engagement page as well as the other articles in the tutorial wing below. Use them to help you resolve the problems and learn how to become an active and productive contributor.

And if there's anything you don't understand &mdash; be it technical or social &mdash; and you're not sure where to look, just post a question on the help desk, and someone will be happy to help you.

Enjoy!

Want to join?
Anyone can edit, but there are advantages to creating an account if you want to contribute regularly. To join, create an account and then introduce yourself to the community at the new user log.

General information, guides and help

 * About the project
 * Help pages &mdash; help on editing, starting new articles, and many other topics.
 * Wikipedia FAQs &mdash; frequently asked questions about the site.
 * Glossary &mdash; a glossary of common Wikipedia terms.
 * What is Wikipedia
 * What Wikipedia is not
 * Policies and guidelines for contributors
 * Manual of Style

Tutorials

 * Wikiquette
 * Neutrality
 * Writers rules of engagement &mdash; dispute resolution.
 * Avoiding common mistakes

Overarching principles

 * Civility
 * Contributing
 * The neutral point of view

The Wikipedia community

 * Contact us
 * Welcoming committee
 * Wikipedians &mdash; different listings of regular contributors; you may add yourself if you wish.
 * Wikifun.
 * Community Portal is a gateway to the community. It lists a number of open tasks and group projects such as Collaboration of the Week.

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