User:Gwernol/WIWP

What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia. There are two important points here:
 * Its free - anyone can edit Wikipedia, anyone can use its content without paying for it
 * Its an encyclopedia - this is a bit more complex, and is the subject for the rest of this essay

What is an encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a summarization of all the published information in the world. It isn't a place for new information to be published for the first time, it doesn't have its own editorial voice or opinions, it just gathers and reports on what is published elsewhere. This is a critical feature of an encyclopedia: anything else isn't an encyclopedia but a newspaper, journal, blog or other thing. There are plenty of Wikis and free web hosts where you can publish your own thoughts and opinions, Wikipedia is not one of those places.