Editing Incubator escapee wiki:FAQ/Contributing

{{Wikipedia:FAQ/framework
 |shorttitle = Contributing
 |title = Contributing FAQ
}}
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This page of frequently asked questions is devoted to answering those questions commonly asked by contributors to Wikipedia.
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== Getting started ==
===<span id="HOW"></span>How can I contribute?===
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: For how to volunteer, see [[Help:Introduction]].
: For how to donate, see [[m:Donations FAQ]].

===<span id="WHY"></span>Why would I want to contribute?===
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: See [[wikipedia:Why on Earth would I want to contribute to a wiki|why on Earth would I want to contribute to a wiki]].

===<span id="REG"></span>Do I have to register to edit pages?===
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:No. '''Anyone''' can edit without any kind of registration (except disruptive users who have been [[WP:BLOCK|blocked]]).

===<span id="WHYREG"></span>What, then, is the point of getting an account?===
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:There are many reasons: see [[Wikipedia:Why create an account?]]

===<span id="AGE"></span>Is there a minimum age requirement to contribute or register?===
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:No. '''Anyone''' of '''any age''' may edit articles or register. Wikipedia does not even require that users disclose their age when registering!

:Note that users who identify themselves as minors (generally those under 16 years of age) are encouraged, and will be required, to protect their identities via safe practices where the posting of personal information is concerned. See [[Wikipedia:Protecting children's privacy]].

===<span id="NAME"></span>Do I have to use my real name?===
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:No. Real names are not required; some Wikipedians use real names, some don't: see [[Wikipedia:Username]].

===<span id="CHNGUSER"></span>How do I change my own username?===
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:See [[Wikipedia:Changing username]].

==<span id="TERM"></span> What does that word mean? ==
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:On talk pages and in the edit summaries of a page history, you will often see editors using terminology and abbreviations which are unique to Wikipedia.
:*'''rv''' or '''revert''', usually in an [[WP:EDITSUMMARY|edit summary]], indicates that the page has been reverted to a previous version, often because of vandalism.
:*'''NPOV''' means working towards a [[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|Neutral point of view]], whilst its opposite, '''POV''', is used to suggest that an edit was biased.
:*To '''Wikify''' means to add internal links and other formatting to an article which was mostly plain text.
:*'''dab''' means a small touch, and can also be short for [[WP:DISAMBIG|disambiguation]], or improving a link so that it goes straight to the relevant article.
:For a more comprehensive list see [[Wikipedia:Glossary]].

===What is the difference between a page and an article?===
: The term "page" encompasses all the material on Wikipedia, including encyclopedia topics, talk pages, documentation, and [[Wikipedia:Special pages|special pages]] such as [[Special:Recentchanges|Recent Changes]]. "Article" is a narrower term referring to a page containing an encyclopedia entry. Thus, all articles are pages, but not all pages are articles. See [[Wikipedia:What is an article]] for more.

===<span id="ORPHAN"></span>What is an "orphan"?===
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: An [[WP:ORPHAN|orphan]] is an article that no other article links to. Such articles can be found on Wikipedia, but it is preferable that another article should link to each article. You can find a list of orphans at [[:Category:Orphaned articles]].

===<span id="STUB"></span>What is a stub?===
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: A stub on Wikipedia is a very short article, usually of one paragraph or less. For a more comprehensive explanation, please refer to [[Wikipedia:Stub]].

===<span id="DISAMB"></span>What is disambiguation?===
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: See [[Wikipedia:Disambiguation]]. 

===<span id="MINOR"></span>What is a minor edit? When should I use it?===
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:When editing a page, a logged-in user has the option to flag an edit as "minor." You should flag an edit as minor '''only''' when you believe it is an edit that no one would object to, such as fixing spelling or grammar.

:This feature is important because users can choose to ''hide'' minor edits in their view of the [[Special:Recentchanges|Recent Changes]] page, to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level.

:See also: [[Wikipedia:Minor edit]].

===<span id="RULES"></span>Are there any rules or guidelines I should be aware of?===
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:Yes. See [[Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines]]. There are a lot, but you'll get the hang of it!

===<span id="RCENTCHNGS"></span>What is "Recent Changes", and what do the abbreviations used there mean?===
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: Recent Changes lists all the edits that have been made over a given time period. See [[Wikipedia:Recent Changes]].

===<span id="FORMAT"></span>Are there any standard formats, for things like dates for example?===
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:Yes. We have a [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style|Manual of Style]] that articles should follow.

===<span id="TWO"></span>What do I do if I find two articles on the same subjects?===
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:You could [[Wikipedia:Merging|merge]] them yourself if you are feeling [[Wikipedia:Be bold in updating pages|bold]]. Pick the [[Wikipedia:Naming conventions|most suitable page name]] (which may not necessarily be one of the existing ones!). If you're not sure which name to use, or whether the two articles should really be merged, use the procedure at [[Help:Merging]]. You can also make a mention of the problem on the list of [[Wikipedia:Proposed mergers]].

===<span id="SIZE"></span>What is the ideal/maximum length of an article? When should an article be split into smaller pieces?===
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:See [[Wikipedia:Article size]].

===<span id="TALK"></span>Can we debate or talk about the subjects here?===
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:No. [[WP:NOTFORUM|Wikipedia is not a forum]]. Talk pages are for discussing improvements to the article.

===I've found vandalism, or I've damaged a page by mistake! How can I restore it?===
: See [[Help:Reverting]].

===<span id="LANGUAGE"></span>Which languages can I use?===
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:On the English Wikipedia, use English, unless you're mentioning a name or a quotation that has no known English translation.

:If you want to write articles in other languages, you need to do it in an edition of Wikipedia in that language. As of 2024, there are editions of Wikipedia in more than 300 languages, and their full list can be found at [[:m:List of Wikipedias]] on the Meta site. If your language is not in the list, see the next section.

==== <span id="NEWLANGUAGE"></span>Can I create a new Wikipedia in my language? ====
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:Yes! If there is no edition of Wikipedia in your language yet, and you would like to change that, read the page [[m:Help:How to start a new Wikipedia|How to start a new Wikipedia]] on the Meta site to find out how to create a new language edition of Wikipedia. This will require some work from you, but it's a great thing to do for the people who speak your language.

===<span id="ENGLISH"></span>Should I use [[American English]] or [[British English]]?===
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:The official policy is to use British spelling when writing about British topics, and American English for topics relating to the [[United States]]. General topics can use any one of the variants, but should generally strive to be consistent within an article. See Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:MoS#National varieties of English|Manual of Style]] for a more detailed explanation.

:Use of one English variety in article titles can cause a ''Search'' in another variant to fail. In this case, it is recommended that you create a new article using the alternative spelling that [[wikipedia:redirect|redirect]]s to the main article.

===<span id="SPELL"></span>How do I check spelling on a page?===
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:A spelling checker has been requested for Wikipedia, but has not been implemented yet, except as a [http://code.google.com/p/wikimediaspellchecker/ third-party extension]. Some common web browsers have a built-in simple spell checker for forms such as Wikipedia editing forms. You may also install a browser addon for more advanced spelling and grammar checking, such as [[LanguageTool]], or use another online spelling checker. When editing a larger article, it may be more convenient to paste the text into your [[text editor]] or [[word processor]] first, to edit and check the spelling there, and then paste your corrected text back into Wikipedia editor to complete your contribution.
:There is a [[Wikipedia:List of common misspellings|list of common misspellings]], which you can use to check if a listed misspelling is on any page in the database, although this process fails to identify any misspelled words not on that list.

===<span id="LINKS"></span>Why are some links red?===
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: A page with that name has not yet been created. You can click on that link and start a page with that name. But be careful: there may already be articles on similar topics, or an article on the same topic under a different name. It's pretty important to hunt around for similar topics first. See [[Wikipedia:Article titles]] for information on naming pages, and [[Wikipedia:Red link]] for more guidance on red links.
:If you just registered, your username is probably shown as linking to a page that doesn't exist. Don't worry! This just means you haven't filled out your user page yet. Click on the link and tell the world all about yourself! See [[Wikipedia:User page]] for more information.

===<span id="BLUELINK"></span>What about the pale blue links?===
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:Those are external links; i.e. those that link to pages outside Wikipedia. They look [http://www.example.org like this].

===<span id="CONFLICT"></span>What happens when two users edit a page at the same time?===
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: This is called an [[Help:Edit conflict|edit conflict]]. You'll get a conflict screen that displays both versions in separate windows, along with a summary highlighting the differences, and instructions on how you should proceed. It's virtually impossible to lose any data.

===<span id="CRASH"></span>What happens if my computer or browser crashes mid-edit, or if the server does not respond?===
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: You may lose your edit. Some modern web browsers, as well as the MediaWiki software, may be able to recover your edits when you restart your browser, but it's not certain that it will succeed. To some extent, you can guard against this by editing in a text editor for major work (but note that with regard to a system crash this does not help, unless you save frequently to disk, use a cloud-based editor such as [[Etherpad]] or [[Google Docs]], or an editor with automatic saving such as [[Atom (text editor)|Atom]]).

: When you get a time-out when you try to save, you might or might not lose your edit depending on your [[web browser]]. Some browsers (e.g. [[Opera (Internet suite)|Opera]] and [[Mozilla Firefox]]) will recover the text you have tried to save if you use the back-button. In other browsers, you will lose your edit. You can protect against this by copying the text (at least to the clipboard of your system).

===<span id="WATCH"></span>How do I learn about changes to certain topics without having to go there from time to time?===
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:If you are a logged-in user, on every page you will see either a link that says "Watch this article", or a small five-pointed star next to "View history". If you click on it, the article will be added to your [[special:Watchlist|personal watchlist]]. Your watchlist will show you the latest changes on your watched articles.

===<span id="FORMAT"></span>What file formats should I use for pictures/videos?===
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:For images, use [[JPEG]] for photographs, and [[Scalable Vector Graphics|SVG]] for drawings and logos. [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]] can also be used. Use [[GIF]] for inline animations.

:For video, [[Ogg Theora]] is currently the only recommended format. See [[Wikipedia:Image use policy]] for more.

===<span id="SFORMAT"></span>What file format should I use for sound?===
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:Multiple encodings are encouraged. [[WAV]] and [[Ogg Vorbis]] are allowed, but [[MP3]] is not.

===<span id="BAD"></span>One of the contributors is being unreasonable. Help!===
: See [[Wikipedia:Etiquette]] and [[Wikipedia:Dispute resolution]].

===<span id="WAIT"></span>I've made a suggestion on an article's talk page, but have not gotten any responses. How long should I wait before implementing my suggested change?===
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: Per [[Wikipedia:Be bold]], there's no need to wait at all. Simply make your change. If someone else disagrees with it, they can always revert the change, and then you can talk the issue out with that person.

===<span id="DEFAULTCONTRIB"></span>Can I change the default number of contributions displayed in the "My contributions" list?===
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: No. You can, however, change the setting ''on the page'' and bookmark the resulting page.

===<span id="DELETE"></span>Why was the article I created deleted?===
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: New articles are deleted for not following Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines|policies and guidelines]]. See [[Wikipedia:Why was my article deleted?]]

===<span id="REMOVE"></span>Why was the edit I made removed?===
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: There are a variety of reasons (some [[Wikipedia:Avoiding common mistakes|common reasons]]). The first thing you should do is look at the history page for the article you edited. This will tell you who changed it, when they changed it, and hopefully a short reason why they changed it. If it says something like '''see talk''', then you should look at the [[Help:Talk pages|talk page]] for the article. Also, you should look at your [[WP:USERTALK|own talk page]] to see if you have a message there. If you don't find a reason that is satisfactory, politely ask in the article's talk page about your proposed change, and maybe you will get suggestions about changes that you can make so that your change will go in, or you may get reasons why your change should not happen.

==Links: external and multilingual==
===<span id="TRANS"></span>Should I translate pages across the various Wikipedias?===
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: Yes, it's a good idea to cross-pollinate. Please give credit to the contributors of the original article by noting that you have done so, with a link to the original, in the edit summary or at the article's talk page. See [[Wikipedia:Translation]] for further information.

===<span id="MTRANS"></span>What about using machine translation?===
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: [[Machine translation]] is useful for obtaining the general idea of a text in an unfamiliar language, but it produces poor translations and should not be used on its own. If you want to use machine translation as a translation ''aid'' and intend to edit the result, please go ahead if you think it would be helpful. '''Do not''' paste a machine translation directly into an article.

===<span id="OTHERLANG"></span>How can I tell if an article exists in another language Wikipedia?===
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: We try to build links between different language pages – that's one way of seeing if an article exists elsewhere. If you don't see the language links at the left of a page, go looking for the corresponding article(s) on foreign Wikipedias. If you find them, make a link both ways; if not, you can translate. Bear in mind that article may not be in one-to-one correspondence between Wikipedias. See [[Wikipedia:Interlanguage links]] and [[Wikipedia:Multilingual coordination]] for more information.

===<span id="OTHER"></span>Is it ok to link to other sites?===
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:External links are certainly allowed. Properly used, they increase the usability of Wikipedia. Keep in mind, however, that Wikipedia is not a [[web directory]]; external links should support the content of the article, not replace it. An article should be more than a container for external links, and the content should not require the reader to leave the site to understand the subject.

:Do not place advertising links in Wikipedia. Commercial sites are obvious, but this prohibition ''usually'' includes links to fansites and discussion forums as well unless the site is a notable one in the field. As a general rule of thumb: if you wish to place the link in Wikipedia in order to drive traffic to a site, it probably doesn't belong here. 

:The current convention is to place external links in a separate "External links" section at the bottom of the article. Sites used as references for the article should be listed under a "References" section, or sometimes placed within the article as a footnote. See [[Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] for different ways to create external links.

:See the [[Wikipedia:External links|relevant guideline]] for more examples on when external links are appropriate.
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: <span id="BOOK"></span> There are many templates that help to add formatted links to specific sites at [[:Category:External link templates]]. For example, you can link articles about books to the online copies of those books on [[Project Gutenberg]] using the template {{tl|Gutenberg}}.

== Copyrights ==
===<span id="IMAGE"></span>I have, or can get, special permission to copy an image or article to Wikipedia. Is it OK to do that?===
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:Unless the article you want to copy to Wikipedia is covered by [[Wikipedia:Text of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License|Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License]] (CC-BY-SA), a CC-BY-SA-compatible license or is in the public domain, it cannot be used on Wikipedia. Images, too, must be public domain or licensed under one of allowed licenses at [[Wikipedia:Image copyright tags]]. You have to ask the copyright holder of the material to license it so it can be used. See [[Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission]]. Under very limited conditions we can use copyrighted material even if it is not licensed compatibly; see [[Wikipedia:Non-free content]] for how and when. 
:The text of Wikipedia is covered by the (CC-BY-SA) and, in most cases, the [[Wikipedia:Text of the GNU Free Documentation License|GNU Free Documentation License]] (GFDL) (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts). Images are covered by various free licenses (see the [[wmf:Resolution:Licensing_policy|Wikimedia Foundation Licensing Policy]]).

===I have an out-of-copyright image (or text) that is reproduced in an in-copyright book. Can I scan / type it into Wikipedia?===
: Providing they haven't altered the image then they can't claim a copyright on it. If it was in the public domain before they used it, it's still in the public domain afterward.

===Does using a [[GIF]] image in Wikipedia violate its patent?===
:No. The patent of the [[LZW]] compression algorithm used with the GIF format has expired.

== Miscellaneous ==

===<span id="ALL"></span>Can I really change whatever I want on Wikipedia?===
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: Yes, you can on almost any page. There are some pages on Wikipedia that are [[Wikipedia:Protected_page|protected]], so that only [[Wikipedia:Administrators|administrators]] can modify them. This includes pages like the [[Main Page]], which are permanently protected, or normal articles which are temporarily protected during the resolution of an [[Wikipedia:edit war|edit war]]. Some pages are also [[Wikipedia:Semi-protection|semi-protected]], so that anonymous and new users cannot edit them, to reduce vandalism. The vast majority of pages on Wikipedia are editable by anyone, at any time, and any changes made will be reflected instantly.

===<span id="COUNT"></span>How do I get a count of my edits?===
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:Your edit count, including deleted edits, is displayed when you enter [[Special:Preferences|your preferences]].
: There are a number of tools called [[Wikipedia:Tools#Edit counters|edit counters]] that can display the total count of your edits as well as the number of edits in various namespaces. 

===<span id="MAIN"></span>How do I edit the Main Page?===
: See [[Wikipedia:Editing the main page]].
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