Hello 'new_user', and welcome to Wikipedia!
You can change almost every page on Wikipedia - whether you're fixing spellings, rewording sections or adding new facts. If you want to do more you can also get involved in creating new articles, uploading pictures and influencing decisions that keep Wikipedia ticking.
Before you get started we recommend that you take a minute to briefly familiarize yourself with our five main principles.
Want to know more about Wikipedia?
Wikipedia has a large collection of help pages, policies and guidelines that cover almost every topic. Whilst it's not compulsory to read them through before editing, you might find these four help pages useful before making your first edits:
If you want to find out more about how Wikipedia works, read the introduction to Wikipedia page.
If you want to learn how to edit and change Wikipedia, visit the tutorial.
If you want to dive straight in and create an article from scratch, visit the help page on writing your first article.
If you want to know how to write in a suitable way for Wikipedia, visit our simplified manual of style.
- Want to find something else? Visit the main help contents.
Have a question?
If you have a specific question you can't find the answer to, or you just want to find out something quickly, you can always ask an experienced editor for help and advice.
The Teahouse is set up specifically for new users who want to ask questions about Wikipedia. Your questions will be answered by a small team of friendly editors. The Teahouse is a great place to first introduce yourself on Wikipedia.
All users have their own talk pages, places where editors can work together to make decisions and share knowledge. If you have a question just type it on your own talk page with the code {{help me}} and an editor will visit you there.*
For general questions, or questions related to a specialist area, you can always visit our questions directory to find an expert on topic you want to know more about.
*Always remember to type four tildes (~~~~) at the end of every message you leave on a talk page, this will automatically insert your username and the date.
Wikipedia does not have firm rules, it has policies and guidelines. You aren't expected to know them before you get started and it doesn't matter if you make a mistake - all edits can be reversed, fixed or improved later. Don't take it personally if someone undoes one of your edits, it's all part of reaching a community consensus. Just go to their talk page, discuss the problem with them and work together to reach an agreement. If you see a problem go ahead and fix it, nobody is going to stop you!
Thanks for dropping by, we hope you enjoy being part of Wikipedia!
You can always revisit this page by going to Special:Welcome to Wikipedia.