Editing Help:Logging in (section)

== Why log in? ==
{{main|Wikipedia:Why create an account?}}
You don't have to log in to read Wikipedia. You don't even have to log in to edit most of Wikipedia (there are [[Wikipedia:Protection policy|some exceptions]]).

However, it's still a good idea to log in, for these reasons:

* Other users will be able to recognise you by your username when you make changes to pages. As a "name" an IP address is somewhat clumsy. Also, if you use computers at different locations (home, office, internet cafe, etc.) you have a different IP-address in each case; even in the same location, depending on the Internet connection, the IP-address may be different each time. Therefore, a username is better to maintain an identity.
*You will have your own ''user page'' where you can write a bit about yourself, and a ''user talk page'' which you can use to communicate with other users.
*You will also be able to make user subpages, as an add-on to your user page.
* You will be able to mark an edit as minor, which avoids inconvenience for other users.
* You will be able to keep track of changes to pages you are interested in using a ''watchlist''.
* If you choose to give an [[email address]], other users will be able to contact you by email.  This feature is anonymous&nbsp;— the user who emails you will not know your email address.  You don't have to give your email address if you don't want to.
** ''Check the privacy policy of the individual site you're visiting, if any (for example, Wikipedia's [[Wmf:Privacy policy|privacy policy]])''
* You will be able to [[Help:Moving a page|rename pages]].
* You will be able to set your own ''[[Help:Preferences|preferences]]'', to change things such as:
** The number of pages displayed in ''[[Help:Recent changes|Recent changes]]''
** The fonts, colours and layout of the site, by using different ''[[Help:Preferences#Skin|skins]]''.

=== Creating an account ===
To create an account, click on the ''[[Special:CreateAccount|Create account]]'' link at the top right of the page. You will need to provide a username and password, as well as answer a visual "[[Special:Captcha|captcha]]" test. Users with [[plain text|text]], [[speech]], or legacy browsers will be unable to create an account if they cannot view this captcha image. If you are unable to view captchas, you can request for an account to be created for you at [[Wikipedia:Request an account]].

You may also be unable to create an account if it contains certain symbols (particularly the '@' symbol, as well as certain non-Latin characters) or words, or if it is too similar to that of an existing user. In that case, you will also have to [[Wikipedia:Request an account|request an account]]. If your IP address has account creation blocked, you can either [[WP:APPEAL|request to be unblocked]] or [[Wikipedia:Request an account|request an account]].