Wikipedia:The newcomer's manual/Your account

Your account will be extremely important to you as you edit Wikipedia. It is what allows other individuals who edit the encyclopedia to know who you are, what you have done, and your primary areas of editing Wikipedia. It is also through the account that you edit Wikipedia, and the construct through which you build your reputation. While you have the option of editing using an IP address, an account shows that you are an editor with some sort of meaningful history, not an intermittent contributor who has little involvement in the success of the encyclopedia as a whole.