Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Welcome to Wikipedia

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Welcome to Wikipedia...

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Wikipedia:WEL
Wikipedia:WELCOME

Welcome aboard! We're glad you wish to help develop Wikipedia, and hope you enjoy participating in its community as much as we do. As a new contributor however, you may feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer size and scope of this project... but don't worry, it will become easier and clearer as you go, and if you have any problems, there will always be other Wikipedians happy to help. There are some resources set forth below to help you get started. Good luck and have fun! -- The Wikipedia Welcoming Committee

One of the best places to get started after reading this page is Wikipedia:Introduction.
If you do get stuck, there are volunteers available to answer your questions on the following pages. You can usually expect an answer quickly, often within just a few minutes:

Tip: Sign your name on talk pages by adding four tildes (~~~~) after your question; this will automatically produce your username and the time, aiding the flow of discussion.
We also have a copy of a published book, at Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, if you would like to know a bit about how things are done.

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Finding your way around

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:

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Tip of the day

Supercharge your browser

There are a number of ways to improve your browser to make it a more effective Wikipedia tool:

  • downloading plugins
  • installing javascripts (a simple cut/paste operation) into your user page's monobook.js subpage
  • add presaved bookmarks to your favorites
  • add bookmarklets to your favorites or to your browser's toolbar
  • add a Wikipedia toolbar to your browser
As you can see, tools are implemented in a number of ways. There are tools available for many different purposes, and with many different functions, some multipurpose. Many of these are explained at Wikipedia:Tools/Browser integration, which includes a list for each major brand of browser.

Prior tip - Next tip

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Our "Rules"

Be sure to read the above pages! They are very important, and they will help you — even if you're not perfect the first second tenth seventeenth 32nd time!

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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 undo at the end of the first line which is your edit. Then save page. See more detailed instructions at Help:Reverting.

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:
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: Almost anyone on these lists will help you as well:

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