Wikipedia:Overview FAQ

Overview FAQ -- Readers' FAQ -- Contributing FAQ -- Editing FAQ -- Administration FAQ -- Technical FAQ -- Problems FAQ -- Miscellaneous FAQ -- Help page

What is a Wiki?

A WikiWiki is a collection of interlinked web pages, any of which can be visited and edited by anyone at any time (collaborative software). The concept and software was invented by Ward Cunningham. You can even edit the page you are reading right now (just click "Edit this page", to the left or below on this page). However, if you don't have anything to add or correct here, and you just want to see the Wiki in action, edit the Wikipedia:Sandbox page instead of this one. See also Wikipedia:Editing FAQ and WikiWiki

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a project to produce a new kind of encyclopedia that is comprehensive and free. See Wikipedia:About and the Wikipedia article for more information.

What are the aims of Wikipedia?

Wikipedia's goal is to create a free encyclopedia -- indeed, the largest encyclopedia in history, both in terms of breadth and depth and also to become a reliable resource. It's an ambitious goal, and will probably take many years to achieve.

When did Wikipedia start?

January 15, 2001. An earlier version of the wiki (including original versions of some of these pages) was briefly hosted on Nupedia.com (first posted January 10, see [1] (http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676)). The idea of a Nupedia-sponsored wiki originated out of a conversation Larry Sanger had with Ben Kovitz on the evening of January 2.

Who owns Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is managed by a non-profit parent organization, Wikimedia Foundation. Which also manages the operation of similar projects like Wiktionary (a wiki dictionary), Nupedia, and others, and owns all domain names. The current owner of the site's servers is Bomis, Inc, a company mostly owned by Jimbo Wales, who is currently the funder of the site's operational costs.

The articles hosted on this site are released by their authors under the GNU Free Documentation License, so the articles are open content and may be reproduced freely under the same license. See Wikipedia:Copyrights and Wikipedia:Readers' FAQ for information on how you can use Wikipedia content.

Who is responsible for the articles on Wikipedia?

Wikipedians. This is a collaborative[?] endeavor. Thousands of people have contributed to different parts of this project, and anyone can do so, including you. All you need is to know how to edit a page, and have some encyclopedic knowledge you want to share.

You can learn who is responsible for the most recent versions of any given page by clicking on the "Page history" link. But if you spot an error in the latest revision of an article, you are highly encouraged to be bold and correct it. This practice is one of the basic review mechanisms that maintains the reliability of the encyclopedia.

If you are uncertain or find the wording confusing, quote the material on the associated talk page and leave a question for the next person. This helps eliminate errors, inaccuracies or misleading wording more quickly and is highly appreciated by the community.

I want to contact the project by e-mail, but there doesn't seem to be a contact address listed. Where is it?

There is no one contact. If you're looking for a project leader, it would be best to get in contact with Jimbo Wales (mailto:jwales@bomis.com (mailto:jwales@bomis.com)). Otherwise, see the next question.

Where can I talk about Wikipedia with others?

There's some mailing lists, and also the Meta-Wikipedia (http://meta.wikipedia.com/). If you want to communicate with a specific user, leave a message on his or her personal talk page; you can find a list of personal pages (and link to your own) at the Wikipedian list. Finally, if you're looking to talk about a specific article or page, the best place to put your comments is on that page's Talk page. Use the discuss this page link in any article to get to the talk page.

What is Nupedia?

The project that spawned wikipedia, now defunct: see Wikipedia:Nupedia and Wikipedia

Why are some Wikipedia sites at .org addresses (www.wikipedia.org (/), de.wikipedia.org (http://de.wikipedia.org/), ja.wikipedia.org (http://ja.wikipedia.org/)) and some others at .com (no.wikipedia.com (http://no.wikipedia.com/), it.wikipedia.com (http://it.wikipedia.com/), etc)?

Originally all of Wikipedia was at the .com address. Bomis, the company owned by Wikipedia patron Jimbo Wales, hoped to make Wikipedia profitable, or at least cover the costs of operation, so it was at least theoretically a commercial operation. At one point, Jimbo was planning on placing unobtrusive advertisements on Wikipedia, but that plan has since been completely abandoned. There is now serious talk about forming a non-profit organization for the Wikipedia project.

To reflect this, the main English-language wiki was been moved to www.wikipedia.org, and the rest are following as all our sites are upgraded to the new server software.

Should I create an account? Can't I just edit articles anonymously?

See Wikipedia:Accountability. Wikipedians with account names enjoy several benefits, among them is the positive reputation that goes with quality work.

Wikipedians with an established history are respected especially with regard to neutralising article disputes. This is not to say there is a Wikipedia hierarchy per se - though there are editors with administrative abilities (see Wikipedia:Administrators), these are approved by the community, and the goal of most Wikipedians is to maintain that democracy, albeit with a little anarchy, remains the supreme power on Wikipedia.

Also, Wikipedians with user names are in a sense more anonymous than contributors that are not logged in: while anyone can see the IP address of a user who did not log in when he/she edited, only server administrators can find the IP of a logged-in user. So if you're concerned about privacy and anonymity, you may prefer to create a username for yourself in order to hide your IP.

How do you know if the information is correct?

As anyone can edit any article, it is of course possible for biased, out of date or incorrect information to be posted. However, because there are so many other people reading the articles and monitoring contributions using the Recent Changes page, incorrect information is usually put right quickly. Thus the overall accuracy of the encyclopedia is improving all the time as it attracts more and more contributors. You are encouraged to help by correcting articles and passing on your own knowledge.

See also: Wikipedia:Why Wikipedia is so great

Overview FAQ -- Readers' FAQ -- Contributing FAQ -- Editing FAQ -- Administration FAQ -- Technical FAQ -- Problems FAQ -- Miscellaneous FAQ -- Help page