User:Bellerophon/Adoption/Assignments/Wikipedia basics

Initial Assignment: Wikipedia basics
Welcome to my adoption program. This is your initial assignment, new editors are required to complete this before receiving their first 'proper' assignment. This assignment covers the basics of editing Wikipedia. Please read the information below and then answer the questions at the bottom.

How to edit
At the top of every Wikipedia page is an 'edit' button/tab. Clicking on this will place the page in 'edit mode', towards the bottom of the page you will see an 'edit box', that contains all of the 'code', that makes the page look the way it does. This code is known as Wiki markup it is essentially a simplified form of HTML. See the cheatsheet for a list of the most common Wiki markup.

If you haven't already done so, I would encourage you to enable 'editing by section' in your account preferences. The reason for this is that the 'source code' of your adoption page is going to start getting very long, as we move through the assignments. Editing by section will make it easier to edit the correct bit of the adoption page. To enable it: first, make sure you are logged in to your account, then goto 'my preferences' (top right corner of any Wikipedia page), once in 'my preferences' click on the 'editing' tab and put a tick in the box by 'Enable section editing via [edit] links'. Now click the 'save' button (bottom left corner of the page). Once you have done this, you will see an [edit] link on each section of a Wikipedia page. Clicking on it will open the edit box for that section only, which means you won't have to click the 'edit' button at the top of the page and scroll through the entire page's Wiki markup to find the bit you want to edit. If you already see the edit links on each section of a page, ignore everything I've just said!

Wikilinks
You will notice that some words or phrases appear as 'blue links', these are known as 'Wikilinks'; they are internal links to other Wikipedia pages. If you see a Wikilink in some text you should click on it and find out more about a particular subject. During your adoption program, always follow the Wikilinks... You have been given them for a reason!

Pages and talkpages
Every page in Wikipedia has an accompanying talk page. Talk pages are the place to have a discussion about the related page. Please have a read of the talk page guidelines, so that you know what a talk page is, and what it isn't!

Your userpage and user talk page
Every user on Wikipedia has a 'user page'. Mine is at User:Bellerophon, click here to visit your userpage. As a new editor, you may have to 'create' your userpage, if one was not created for you. Your userpage is place where you can post information about yourself and what you like to do on Wikipedia. Be careful though, anyone can see it, so it may be wise not to disclose too much information about yourself. Similarly, user pages cannot be used for advertising anything or for commercial gain. Any such pages will be deleted by administrators. Each user also has a user talk page, this is a place where other editors can leave you messages. When you have been left a new message, you will see a yellow banner at the top of any Wikipedia page you happen to be viewing, telling you that you have a new message at your user talk page. Please read the user page guidelines to find out more about how user and user talk pages work, and what is acceptable and what is not!

Edit summary
When you are editing a page, you will notice a single line box below the 'edit box'; it says 'edit summary' above it. You should always leave an edit summary when you edit a page on Wikipedia. Doing so helps other editors see what changes you have made. Just type a brief explanation of the changes in the edit summary box.

Discussions
You should try to keep discussions in one place. If someone leaves a message on your talk page, you should reply on your talk page &mdash; not their talk page! If you are having a discussion on a talk page, it makes the conversation easier to follow if you 'indent' your posts, so that the text cascades down the page and makes the conversation more readable. To do this, just place a colon at the beginning of the line of text. The first post of a conversation does not need a colon, but the person replying should use one colon at the beginning of their reply. The reply to the reply, should use two colons, and the third reply should use three, and so on...

Similarly, at the end of you post (during a discussion) you should leave your signature and a timestamp. This is easily done by placing four tildes ( ~ ) at the end of your post.

Manual of Style
Wikipedia has a Manual of Style, which governs how we format things that we write on Wikipedia. The Manual of Style (or MOS) is a very lengthy document made up of many pages and sub-pages that Leo Tolstoy would have been proud of! You are not excepted to become an expert in the MOS during this course, but it will be reffered to. So, please take some time to familiarize yourself with some of it.