User:Melecie/Templates/Welcome IP

hello, welcome to Wikipedia! i'm , please enjoy your stay, and feel free to help us out! if you want to learn how this site works, please visit the introduction to learn all about contributing to this site, as well as the simplified ruleset and simplified manual of style to learn the rules, policies, and guidelines in this site.


 * do you have some questions? it may've been answered in the FAQ
 * want more to do? the task center outlines great tasks you can do to improve the encyclopedia.
 * need help? feel free to ask at the teahouse!
 * want to learn how to work with wikicode? read the wikicode cheatsheet, then practice at the sandbox!
 * don't forget to sign your posts with  to insert your username & date!

wikipedia's most important policies
 * the wikipedian's etiquette
 * remain in a neutral point of view
 * verifiability, no original research
 * reliable sources and how to cite them
 * policy for the biographies and articles of living persons
 * deletion policy and the criteria for speedy deletion
 * what wikipedia is not
 * gather consensus, don't edit war
 * avoid spam and vandalism

why create an account?
 * makes collaboration and joining wikiprojects easier
 * lets you create a userpage and sandbox for yourself
 * allows you to edit protected pages yourself (after a few edits and a few days)
 * gives you a watchlist, allowing you to see edit histories of pages in one place
 * prevents your edits from being tracked to your IP
 * prevents you from getting notifications directed to other anonymous users
 * other reasons are outlined here!

again, welcome to wikipedia! feel free to ask me in my talk page or at the teahouse if you have any other questions.