Wikipedia:Introduction (historical)
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What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia, written collaboratively by the people who use it. It is a special type of website designed to make collaboration easy, called a wiki. Many people are constantly improving Wikipedia, making thousands of edits every minute. All these changes are recorded here, and here. For a more detailed account of the project, see About Wikipedia.
How you can contribute
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Don't be afraid to edit – anyone can edit almost every page, and we are encouraged to be bold! Find something that can be improved and make it better. For example, spelling, grammar, rewriting for readability, adding content, or removing non-constructive edits. If you wish to add new facts, please try to provide references so they may be verified, or suggest them on the article's discussion page. Changes to controversial topics and Wikipedia's main pages should usually be discussed first. Contributing to Wikipedia will provide you with resources on all the basics needed to use, comment on, and contribute to Wikipedia.
Remember – you can't break Wikipedia; all edits can be reversed, fixed or improved later. Wikipedia is allowed to be imperfect. So go ahead, edit an article and help make Wikipedia the best information source on the Internet!
Donate – Wikipedia is free to use, but relies on donations and grants to do so. Please consider donating using the Donate link on the left to help with the project's running costs and expansion.
Why not try out the editor right now?
- Click here to edit the sandbox, a place to make test edits. (If there is already some text there, add to the end of the text.)
- Type some text.
- Click Show preview to test your changes, or Publish changes when you're happy with the way it looks.