User:Jerico480

The fundamental principles by which Wikipedia operates are the five pillars. The Wikipedia community has developed many policies and guidelines to improve the encyclopedia; however, it is not a formal requirement to be familiar with them before contributing. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference websites, attracting 374 million unique visitors monthly as of September 2015.[1] There are about 70,000 active contributors working on more than 41,000,000 articles in 294 languages. As of today, there are 5,454,796 articles in English. Every day, hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world collectively make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to augment the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia. (See the statistics page for more information.) People of all ages, cultures and backgrounds can add or edit article prose, references, images and other media here. What is contributed is more important than the expertise or qualifications of the contributor. What will remain depends upon whether the content is free of copyright restrictions and contentious material about living people, and whether it fits within Wikipedia's policies, including being verifiable against a published reliable source, thereby excluding editors' opinions and beliefs and unreviewed research. Contributions cannot damage Wikipedia because the software allows easy reversal of mistakes and many experienced editors are watching to help ensure that edits are cumulative improvements. Begin by simply clicking the Edit link at the top of any editable page! Wikipedia is a live collaboration differing from paper-based reference sources in important ways. Unlike printed encyclopedias, Wikipedia is continually created and updated, with articles on historic events appearing within minutes, rather than months or years. Because everybody can help improve it, Wikipedia has become more comprehensive than any other encyclopedia. In addition to quantity, its contributors work on improving quality as well. Wikipedia is a work-in-progress, with articles in various stages of completion. As articles develop, they tend to become more comprehensive and balanced. Quality also improves over time as misinformation and other errors are removed or repaired. However, because anyone can click "edit" at any time and add stuff in, any article may contain undetected misinformation, errors, or vandalism. Awareness of this helps the reader to obtain valid information, avoid recently added misinformation (see Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia), and fix the article. See also: Wikipedia:FAQ and Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia Contents 1	About Wikipedia 1.1	Wikipedia history 1.2	Wikipedia contributors 1.3	Trademarks and copyrights 1.4	Credits 2	Making the best use of Wikipedia 2.1	Exploring Wikipedia 2.2	Basic navigation in Wikipedia 2.3	Using Wikipedia as a research tool 2.4	Wikipedia vs paper encyclopedias 2.5	Strengths, weaknesses, and article quality in Wikipedia 2.6	Disclaimers 3	Contributing to Wikipedia 3.1	Editing Wikipedia pages 3.2	Wikipedia content criteria 3.3	Editorial administration, oversight, and management 3.4	Handling disputes and abuse 3.5	Editorial quality review 4	Technical attributes 5	Feedback and questions 5.1	Frequently asked questions (FAQ) 5.2	Static help 5.3	Giving feedback 5.4	Research help and similar questions 5.5	Community discussion 5.6	Contacting individual Wikipedia editors 6	Other languages 7	Sister projects 8	See also 9	References 10	Further reading 11	External links