Wikipedia:Writing Wikipedia Articles course/Create an account



Are you ready to create a Wikipedia account, so you can keep track of articles in a watch list, customize your reading and editing preferences, and communicate with other Wikipedia volunteers about improving articles that interest you? GREAT!

Your first big decision will be choosing a username. And you'll want to consider:

''Should you be fully public about your contributions? Or anonymous? Or somewhere in between?''

There are reasons to go in any of these directions. This page is meant as a resource to help you choose. You don't need to read more than you like, of course; if you already know what username you want, you might want to skim through the pros & cons below.

In addition, you may need to consider whether your preferred name would violate Wikipedia's policy on usernames; for instance, if it might be considered deceptive, promotional, offensive, etc. Please reference the Username policy if relevant.

But whenever you're ready…

Personae
Each of the following fictional people has an interest in flowers and horticulture, and participates in several online blogging and social media communities relating to that interest. Each one works on Wikipedia articles related to flowers, and various other topics as well. But they have chosen varying levels of anonymity on Wikipedia. In order from most public to most anonymous:
 * Pamela Bunster is building a reputation as an expert in horticulture and biology. On Wikipedia, she calls herself ; and on her user page, she lists various personal and professional accomplishments, and links various online profiles.
 * Jim Mickles is building a career and an online presence as a tax attorney. He doesn't mind anybody knowing who he is, but prefers not to emphasize his name. On Wikipedia, he calls himself ; he puts his name on his user page along with some info about himself.
 * Heather Bronson is private by nature. She doesn't like getting in arguments, and when they happen, she likes to be able to walk away from them easily. She has been online for a long time; her Twitter account, and her username in many online forums, is "OrchidNut1234." She chooses the Wikipedia username ; her name doesn't appear anywhere on her user page, but she does link to her Twitter account.
 * Anthony Robson is a very private person. He likes to keep his options open, and doesn't want to get in "trouble" in real life for controversial choices about what or how he edits Wikipedia. For instance, maybe in the future he will work on articles that are culturally taboo or politically unpopular. He wants to be very confident that co-workers or family members won't connect those things to him. He chooses as his username. His user page has little or no information about himself or his interests; he just uses it to keep links to interesting Wikipedia pages for future reference.
 * Bob Dobbs is just like Anthony, but chooses a different approach: he doesn't create a Wikipedia account at all, and edits without logging in. In the edit history, instead of a username, you will see his IP address, which looks like: