Introduction
editWe can use the sandbox to test things we learned in the tutorial.
Getting Started
editTo get started you can either use Wikipedia's Sandbox or you can work within your own sandbox.[1] You need to be logged in to work in your own sandbox.
How it works
editEvery editable Wikipedia page has five tabs at the top.[1] On the left hand side: Article and Talk. On the right hand side: Read, Edit Source, and View History. To edit a page you can either click the "Edit Source" tab at the top of the page, or find the edit link at the top of the section you would like to edit. There are a number of important things to keep in mind while editing Wikipedia, but I will highlight two here. First, before making any edits, especially substantial ones, you should look at the revisions history (View History tab) and the talk page (Talk tab). By looking at these pages first you may find out that the change you are interested in making has already been suggested or even put in place before, but that it was removed for some reason or another. Either way, if you are going to make a substantial change it is usually good manners to post on the Talk page first to try to reach consensus, which can help you avoid an edit/revert war (and thus being banned). Second, to edit Wikipedia you will have to use either wikitext or Wikipedia's VisualEditor. VisualEditor is only available if you are logged in and have opted in to its use.
How to get involved
editThere are a lot of ways to get into editing and improving Wikipedia.
- Editing an existing page
- Adding or cleaning up citations on an existing page. [3]
- Improving it's content
- Participating in the talk page to work towards consensus or challenge existing content
- Create a new page
- Make sure the page doesn't exist first
- Also make sure that the page meets Wikipedia's notability requirement
