Wikipedia:Why create an account?

Creating an account is fast, easy, and completely free of charge. You don't need to be registered to contribute, but registering and using an account on Wikipedia to contribute provides many benefits, including the ability to:

Choose an appropriate username, which will be reserved just for you on Wikipedia and all other Wikimedia projects.
Create your own user page to share information about yourself.
Practice editing and publishing in your own sandbox.
Communicate with other editors via your own user talk page. You can also opt in to exchanging emails with other users.
Get automatic notifications that alert you when someone has {{ping}}ed you, or wikilinked your user ID in a message or edit summary.
Use custom preferences to change the look and behavior of Wikipedia and how it works for you.
Use your unified login to work on Wikimedia's other projects, such as Wiktionary and Wikimedia Commons.
Use more advanced editing tools.

Once you have had an account for 4 days and made 10 edits, you can:

Edit semi-protected pages, which display a gray lock on the top-right corner of the article. IP address users and non-confirmed users cannot edit pages with this protection level.
Create new articles, rename pages and upload files.

And once you have had an account for 30 days, and have made more than 500 edits, you can:

Edit extended protected pages, which display a blue lock .^[a]

Summary of benefits

Username and privacy

When you create an account, you can pick a user name provided it is available and unique. Edits you make while logged in will be associated to the username of your account instead of your IP address. You will have your own permanent user page where you can write a bit about yourself. While Wikipedia is not a homepage provider, you can use this to display a few free pictures, write about your hobbies, etc. Many users use their user page to maintain a list of the articles they are most proud of, or to list other valuable information they've collected from Wikipedia.

You will also have a permanent user talk page that you can use to communicate with other users. You will be notified whenever someone writes a message on your talk page. If you choose to provide an email address with your account, other users will be able to contact you by e-mail if you choose. This feature is anonymous; the user who emails you will not know your email address unless you respond to them using your email address.

You are less identifiable logged in than you are as an unregistered editor, owing to the hiding of your IP address (so long as you avoid disclosing identifiable information on your user page). You might want to consider privacy and the possibility of offline harassment when deciding what to say on your user page.

Reputation, communication, and more successful edits

Having an account gives you a fixed Wikipedia identity that other users will recognize. While we welcome contributions from unregistered editors, logging in under a user name lets you build trust and respect through a history of good edits, and makes it easier for veteran users to assume good faith, communicate and collaborate. Having a good name (or a pseudonym to protect your identity) promotes more responsible editing, and more civil discourse.

Sometimes new or unregistered users are prevented from editing pages that are common targets of vandalism (just as this page is protected, and only users with an account can edit it). Also, bots can mistake even good-faith IP address edits for vandalism. For these reasons, edits under a user name tend to be more successful.

Having an account is a must for many processes in Wikipedia, such as voting for administrators or bureaucrats. As your reputation builds, it is possible to earn privileges such as rollback, sysop/administrator, and others. It is not possible for an unregistered editor to be granted these privileges.

Your user name may also receive recognition for good work such as Barnstars, Project Awards, Personal User Awards, or nomination for voted accolades like Editor of the Week. You need a fixed account identity to accumulate these pats on the back; they are not awarded to IP addresses.

User preferences

As a registered user, you can customize the way pages are displayed by altering your preferences. There, in the Appearance tab, you can change the following display settings:

Under Skin: various options as to the appearance of the website
Under Math: how mathematical formulas are displayed
Under Files: how large image thumbnails should be

And various editing preferences:

How your username signature appears on talk pages
How pages should be displayed in recent changes
and many others

Open research

People who have Wikipedia accounts can gain access to the vital reliable sources via The Wikipedia Library.

Blocked?

Shared IP addresses such as school and enterprise networks or proxy servers are frequently blocked for vandalism which, unfortunately, may also affect innocent editors on the same network. However, registered users in good standing can request existing blocks on their IP address be modified to affect only unregistered editors so that they can continue contributing to Wikipedia. If you are currently blocked from creating an account, we suggest you do one of the following:

Try again after the block on your IP address expires. Go to my contributions and follow the Block log link at the top of that page to find the length of the block. If no block appears go to Special:BlockList and copy the IP address which appears at the top of Special:MyPage into the box next to "IP address for username:".
Request an account by following the instructions at Wikipedia:Request an account.
If your IP address is globally blocked, request an account by following the instructions at Wikipedia:Request an account and request global IP block exemption.

See the Blocking policy for details.

Create an account now

To create an account, click on the "Create an account now" link and fill out the required fields. This will be logged, and your account will be created.

Notes

^ Users who do not meet the 30 day registration & 500 edit rule are prohibited from editing content that falls under certain contentious topics even in articles that are otherwise open for editing (because the majority of the article does not fall under the contentious topic). Users who do not qualify to edit such content could get a warning, their edits could be reverted (even if useful), and repeatedly editing content that falls under such contentious topics could result in blocking.