This is a Wikipediauser page. This is not an encyclopedia article or the talk page for an encyclopedia article. If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated and that the user in whose space this page is located may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia. The original page is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cumbrowski/WikiResources.
This is a page in the Wikipedia user space and not the article main space. That means that most Wikipedia rules to not apply to it. The page is my (User:Cumbrowski) personal reference to Wikipedia, which I use myself and also refer other Wikipedians to in the hope that they will find it as helpful as I do, to better collaborate together at Wikipedia and beyond. Please note, that the statements and comments are my own and express my view and understanding of things here at Wikipedia. Some editors will certainly disagree with me on specific details here and there, but that is Wikipedia too. It would be too easy, if everybody would have the same view and opinion on things. See this as an exercise for the real Wikipedia main space :).
You are free to add resources to this page. This page is for everybody and not just for myself. Don't be shy, use the "edit" link at the top, just like you do in the main space of Wikipedia. Cheers!
If you are new to Wikipedia, then you might got already the Template:Welcomeg added to your users talk page. It contains already a good overview and links to useful resources for new editors of Wikipedia. The resources below will still be useful to you and compliment the "Welcomeg" template. If you did not get the template that I mentioned on your user talk page check it out and/or add it to your user talk page yourself, if you'd like. Simply paste following statement into your user talk page: {{subst:welcomeg}}.
If you have to say in one sentence what Wikipedia is (the content), this would be it IMO.
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... the three key policies, which warrant that articles and information be verifiable, avoid being original research, and be written from a neutral point of view are held to be non-negotiable and cannot be superseded by any other guidelines or by editors' consensus.
If you are new to Wikipedia, I recommend that you check out the references in the left column. It is sorted by priority so simply work it down by starting at the top. The right column has various other resources that caught my attention. Also references to Wikipedia related stuff on other Websites, including Blogs and Podcasts.
Below are the core guidelines of Wikipedia. All other guidelines are usually related to those "prime directives" or simply refine them. There are also other guidelines that serve the purpose to ensure smooth operation of the site or describe how to go about problems, conflicts and disputes.
What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. That is what this is all about, everything else is secondary and only to support and reinforce the purpose of Wikipedia. It's not an outlet to express personal believes or opinions, no social network, no Facebook, MySpace, Digg and not a Web directory either. It's also not a dictionary although the lines between dictionary and encyclopedia are in some cases very fine and blurry. Keep that in mind and you will be fine.
Everybody is Human
It is sometimes necessary to remind others or yourself of this purpose. Everybody goes over board some times. We are all human. Be nice, be polite and have no fear to ask others, if you don't know what to do or don't understand what others are talking about. Veteran editors sometimes forget that newbies are not familar with all the abbreviations for the various guidelines and procedures let alone with their content or details.
Don't be scared to stand to your opinion because of seniority. Even admins do not have more weight or right than you have. They only know the procedures better (in most cases), which does not make them automatically right when it it is about the content and facts for a specific article to a subject they might not even know anything about. Don't be stubborn and try to be right, just for sake of it.
Also at Wikipedia is 1+1=2
The middle ground is often the right solution, unless the dispute is about cold, hard and meassurable facts (1+1 = 2, you don't have to settle for 1.5 if the other editor believes that the correct answer is 1). If nothing helps, get an outside opinion or find a mediator. See the resources to "Resolving Disputes, Challenging Contributions".
WP:N = Notability (WP:NOTE) has nothing to do with importance. While the fact of the existence of every single grain of sand is probably not notable, so is the existence of a beach that is made of it much more likely to be notable. Disputes about what is notable and what is not are among the most common disputes at Wikipedia. If a believer in the chaos theory, somebody that fits the profile of an Inclusionist, meets somebody who is best characterized as a Deletionist, you can imagine that a dispute is just waiting to happen. It's a tricky issue, which is not to 100% resolved yet. Also see: WP:WEB Wikipedia:Notability (web)
Also Relevant
WP:COI = Conflict of Interest. No doubt about the fact that you are a true expert on the subject, if the article is about you or your company. The problem is, that you are in those cases a very biased expert. Being objective about ourselves or about what we do or about our loved ones is a skill only few of us have mastered. The majority is actually very lousy and ill qualified to do that. For this reason is it recommended to keep your hands off those articles or add your comments and suggestion to the articles talk page and request that other editors will have a look at it and adjust the article where appropriate for you. You can of course make changes and factual corrections yourself, but make sure that you can provide proof and reliable sources that back up your claims. Changes that qualify as COI are being scrutenized much more by other editors.
WP:AGF = Assume good faith. Its easier said than done, since most of us grow up with the attitude that you have to assume bad intention first and then find out how bad (or not) they really are. While everybody has different and even selfish reasons for doing edits at Wikipedia free of charge, are the interests and goals of most editors surpriseingly in alignment with the goal of Wikipedia, even if they are not the same. Try to keep that in mind and don't always expect to meet the devil if you see somebody doing something that might looks a bit odd or does not follow all of Wikipedia guidelines by the word.
WP:BIAS = WikiProject Countering systemic bias. Yeah, also "Wikipedia" is biased, because it is made up of people and people are by their very nature biased. But it is a start if you are aware of your own bias' and try to reduce it's impact as much as you can.
SEO and Marketers, these ones are for you
WP:EL = External links (especially for SEO and Marketers)
WP:AUTO = Autobiography - writing one and selling it to a publisher who is interested might be okay, but writing one at Wikipedia is not. See WP:COI (conflict of interest) mentioned in the paragraph above.
WP:SPAM = SPAM as the shortcut already says, also WP:ADVERT = SPAM!
WP:SOCK or WP:MEAT = Sock puppetry. Wannabe actors or schizophrenic editors with 2nd, 2rd ... Xth additional editor account, pretending not to know the others to skew votes or to manipulate debates are highly unwelcome. Unfortunately is the use of them more wide spread and common than a lot of people would like to be true.
WP:AfD = Article for Deletion (WP:TfD = Templates for Deletion)
WP:3RR = The three revert rule to prevent WP:EW, a Wikipedia "Edit War"
Getting a Wikipedia Admin involved might helps also in some instances where things seem to go out of hand. Requests for assistance can be made via the WP:ADMIN page. You can get a list of all admins here.
Solving specific conflicts
The options are listed in the order they should be used
The upload of copyright protected images caused quite some problems here at Wikipedia, which resulted in a tighter control and verification process of all images that are being uploaded by users. To avoid weird messages that talk about issues with an image you did upload for an article, check out the following guidelines. Make sure that you "tag" the images that were uploaded by you properly, to avoid issues and headaches in the future.
Wired's list of salacious edits (dead) wired.reddit.com/wikidgame/
WikiScanner (dead) wikiscanner.virgil.gr
.gov Edits Stats by WikiScanner (dead)
US Democratic Party Edits made from its office locations (dead)
US Republican Party Edits made from its office locations (dead)
Top 100 most visited articles in Wikipedia. A frequently updated statistic based on the actual web server logs data (dead) tools.wikimedia.de/~leon/stats/wikicharts/?wiki=enwiki
WikipediaVision Anonymous edits to Wikipedia (almost) in real-time
WikiDashboard lets you use Wikipedia and shows in an overlay the editors who contributed the most to any given article within Wikipedia.
Wikipedia:Questions is a portal page where you can find various options for finding help and information to Wikipedia. You can also ask your question and then place {{helpme}} before the question on your talk page (I have not used this myself, but I probably will one day, just to find out what happens :)).
Editor's Index to Wikipedia is a useful resource for editors. It is a alphabetically sorted reference to subjects and activities related to editing content in Wikipedia.
Help:Magic Words are like templates and could be described as "system variables" in programmer speak. Magic words include things like the current date or time, the current page you are on or things like how many articles exist in Wikipedia or how many users that have administrator level exist in Wikipedia.
WP:1.0/Criteria Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Release Version Criteria (Importance of topic): Low (specialists), Mid (minor details), High (depth), Top (must-have)
References of a Domain in Wikipedia articles andDomains referenced by a specific article. Tools provided by Domaintools.com based on the Wikipedia article dump (= data are not realtime).
Twinkle - Twinkle is a set of JavaScripts that gives registered users several new options to assist them in common Wikipedia maintenance tasks and to help them deal with acts of vandalism.
Note: No, you will not get paid for editing Wikipedia. Trust me on that one. But you can look at it from the bright side: The same is true for everybody else here. ;)
