We're glad you made an account!
We're glad you joined because there is a never ending work load around here. Normal real world encyclopedias can be finished and published in editions, but the Wikipedia is constantly changing to keep pace with all the information that pours in everyday. Then of course, we've got to make sure all the articles meet certain standards, defend those articles from vandals, keep everything categorized, and most importantly, work together! Obviously, we need all the help we can get, so it's a really awesome thing when another person jumps aboard.
How you can help:
So there's that big ugly list of things to do. Write articles, edit articles, sort articles, defend articles... So, how do you actually do any of this? Well, at the top of this page, you can see a few tabs labeled "user page", "discussion", "edit this page", and "watch". I bet you can figure out which is the most important. Here's the best part: Anyone can use that button, that little button that shows up on almost all the pages. Whether they have an account or not, Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit!
Time to get started!
I'll bet it all seems a bit confusing now. There's all that different stuff to do, but it can't be just as easy as clicking the edit button. And it isn't. All Wikipedians have agreed on various policies that all articles and Wikipedians should adhere too, and the pages themselves require some technical know-how to edit them. Fortunately, Newcomers have an introductory page to get them off the ground, a tutorial they can run through, a help desk where all their Wikipedia related questions can be answered by other Wikipedians, and best of all, the Adopt-A-User program, where you can get a seasoned Wikipedian to teach you the many ropes of the 'Pedia.
Before I go...
No Wikipedian should be without a friend! Therefore, should you need help on a particular subject, and you just can't seem to get help anywhere else, drop me a line on my talk page. I'm very good at page design and other technical stuff, so I can probably answer your question (and if I can't, I know people who do). Even if you don't need my help, leave me a message sometime anyway; I get a kick out of watching Newcomers get off to a great start.
- Cheers mate,
- Audacitor(t
 c)
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