Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host lounge/How-to guides/Userspace guide

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This guide explores how users can expand and utilize their user space.

Userspaces

The userspace is your space. It includes your userpage, your talk pages, sandbox, and any other pages you chose to create that hang out around your user name!

How do I change my username?

Some users decide to change their username for various reasons. Perhaps you'd like to use your real name after using a nickname, or maybe you wish to reverse that and stop using your real name and take on a nickname instead. You can change it easily.

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I don't want to edit anymore, how do I delete my account?

Nolelover's reply:

Unfortunately, we cannot delete accounts for copyright and legal reasons (all edits must be assigned to some account or IP), so it's important that you be careful not to do anything on-wiki that could have off-wiki consequences. Just remember that very few things ever truly disappear from Wikipedia. However, if you are an editor in good standing there is the option of courtesy vanishing. If you choose to do this, your account will be renamed and your user pages deleted upon request. This method is not meant to be temporary, so don't take it lightly. If you don't want to do that, or aren't sure if you intend to abandon your account permanently, just retire! Stop editing, but know that you are welcome back at any time.

What cool things can I add to my userpage? I see other users have boxes and pictures!

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How do I contact another user?

There are two ways you can directly contact another Wikipedian:

Talk page

The easiest and fastest way to contact a user is through their talk page. To get to a user's talk page, type User talk:USERNAME into the searchbar, replacing USERNAME with their username. When you get to their talk page, there is a 'New Section' button at the top; if you click this, you can write a message to the user. Remember to sign your posts by putting four tildes (~~~~) at the end - this will put your username and the date/time at the end of the post. It is often useful to tick the 'watch this page' box below the textbox. This means that, if the user replies, you will be notified on your watchlist. ItsZippy ^{(talk • contributions)} 21:35, 22 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Email this user

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What's a sandbox and how do I create one?

A sandbox is a userspace page that allows you to carry you Wiki mark-up experiments and to also create new pages before sharing them with the world in the main space! The sandbox is a key tool used by Wikipedians of all experience levels.

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Watchlist

How can I track changes to the articles I like or have edited?

ItsZippy's reply

One of the benefits of registering an account is being able to watch pages. Every page has a picture of a star along the top, if you click this, a the page will be added to your watchlist. This means that, whenever someone edits the page, you will be notified via your watchlist. The talk page of a page you watch will also be added to your watchlist. To see your watchlist, click the link at the very top of the page, which says 'Watchlist'. Your watchlist will sort the changes by date, with the most recent at the top. You will see the name of the page, the time of the change, a number in brackets, a username and a summary. The nuumber in brackets refers to how many bytes a user has added or removed (it is green if they have made the page longer and red if they have made it shorter). The edit summary your see is the summary that the editor gives the edit (and is also visible on the page's history. On the left of each entry, you will see (diff|hist). Clicking diff will take you to the diff page - that is a page which shows you the page as is was after the edit and highlights and changes made to the previous page. The hist button takes you to the page history, a list of all chnages ever made to the page. Help:Watching pages has a fuller explanation and looks at some more complex scenarios. ItsZippy ^{(talk • contributions)} 15:23, 25 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]