Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia
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Contributing to Wikipedia
Q. Can you explain the ? links?
A. The ? link indicates that an article with that name has not yet been started. You can click on that link to 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.
Q. How do I start a new page?
A. See how to start a page.
Q. How do I edit a page?
A. See how does one edit a page.
Q. Why should I contribute to Wikipedia?
A. See why on Earth would I want to contribute to a wiki
Q. Are there any guidelines or hints?
A. See tips on contributing to Wikipedia. For a discussion of unsettled or unsettling questions about Wikipedia, see Wikipedia policy; you'll find discussions on naming conventions, topic creation, refactoring, point of view, etc. Finally, [[be bold in updating pages]]!
Q. I want to contribute but I don't want to make any faux pas. What should I do?
A. Thanks for caring--but don't worry too much. If you stick around long enough, all will become clear. So dive right in! If you want, read [[most common Wikipedia faux pas]] and you should do fine.
Q. I'm interested in a topic but not comfortable with starting a new article. What can I do?
A1. Add your topic to the requested articles page.
A2. Check out Public Domain Resources -- you may find material to copy over or use as a basis for your own article.
Q. But I'm not sure whether it's OK if I use this content I want to copy. I see the ominous warning at the bottom of the page, "DO NOT USE COPYRIGHTED WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION!", and I wonder if that applies to me. How can I tell?
A. Wikipedia content is released according to the GNU Free Documentation License. To put it briefly, unless the stuff you're copying is (1) public domain (so that there is no legal copyright claim on it at all), or it is (2) copyrighted by you and you agree to license it under GFDL, or it is (3) similarly released by somebody else under the GFDL or a compatible license, then you cannot use it.
Obviously, just because something is freely readable on someone's web page, that doesn't necessarily mean we can use it on Wikipedia. Even if it's released under something resembling a open content license, we still might not be able to use it. If there's any possible doubt, then please, please, make use of the Talk: pages (create one if one doesn't exist already) and ask. Someone will surely answer promptly. Another place to ask is on Wikipedia-L.
Q. Why are some links preceded by a slash?
A. In a previous version of the software, every page could have subpages which were automatically linked back to the parent page. "Algeria/Economy" was a subpage of "Algeria", and on the Algeria page you only had to type "/Economy" in order to link to that page.
In the current version of the software, this subpage functionality has been disabled. Pages whose title contain a slash are treated exactly like all other pages.
Q. Is there a mailing list available for "off-Wiki" discussion?
A. Yes. See Wikipedia-L.
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