Wikipedia:Community portal

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Contents

1 Community bulletin board
2 Help out
3 Collaborations
4 Guidelines, help & resources

Community portal

Welcome to the community portal. This is the place to find out what is happening on Wikipedia. Learn what tasks need to be done and what groups there are to join, and share news about recent events or current activities taking place on Wikipedia.

If you were looking for...

• Help with an aspect of Wikipedia: see the help documentation, or ask a question for assistance.
• Answers for questions about factual topics: please visit Wikipedia's reference desk.
• A place to discuss things with other users: the village pump is Wikipedia's main discussion forum.
• A place to resolve disputes: use the dispute resolution guidelines.

Post your Wikipedia-related news or announcement here » Community bulletin board

2012-04-09 Top stories Wikidata: The next big thing? An interview with Wikidata Interview: Funds, fiduciaries, and the Foundation: the complex dynamics of scaling News and notes: Projects launched in Brazil and the Middle East as advisors sought for funds committee WikiProject report: The Land of Steady Habits: WikiProject Connecticut Featured content: Assassination, genocide, internment, murder, and crucification: the bloodiest of the week Arbitration report: Arbitration evidence-limit motions, two open cases Technology report: Next Wikimedia deployment already in the pipeline and details of recent performance improvements About Archives Newsroom Single-page Suggestions Centralized discussion RfC about the future of pending changes The Wikimedia Foundation has opened a Request for Comment on adding the NOINDEX flag to new and unpatrolled articles RfC on the use of images within the Muhammad article RfC on the Article Rescue Squadron and canvassing RfC on the conflict of interest guideline, as requested by the Arbitration Committee Binding community discussion on the Abortion article titles, as requested by the Arbitration Committee Notices The articles information technology and computing appear to be about the same thing. Please help solve this problem by editing the articles, or join the discussion. Project pages seeking contributors Consider posting WikiProject, Task Force, and Collaboration news at the Signpost's WikiProject Report page. WikiProjects and Task Forces Wikipedia:WikiProject Merge, a project to deal with the 3-year articles to be merged backlog, has been created. New members are needed. Portals The following portals are now up and running and will need some contributors for their maintenance and steady running: Portal:Andorra Outlines Outlines that especially need proofreaders and contributors... New outlines Outline of jazz Outline of obstetrics Outline of fencing Outline of semiotics Outline of society Outline of the humanities Outline of computers Outlines in the middle of an expansion or major restructuring Outline of democracy Outlines recently overhauled Outline of search engines Outline of futures studies Discussions Discussions in the following areas have requested wider attention: Contents pages navigation Biographies Economy and trade History and geography Language and linguistics Art, architecture, literature, and media Politics, government and law Religion and philosophy Science and mathematics Society, sports and culture Wikipedia policies and guidelines Wikipedia style and naming See also: Dashboard · News · Goings-on · Milestones · Meetups · In the media · Mailing lists · Village pump · Activities and initiatives

Help out

Wikipedia is, by number of articles, the largest encyclopedia ever to exist. However, many articles are stubs, or otherwise need attention. If you like, go ahead, be bold, and jump right in. If you are not ready to fly solo, you can participate in a Collaboration. Things to do General tasks Patrol new pages and help improve new articles. Category:Wikipedia backlog always needs attention. Short popular vital articles may be the most time-effective to work on. Assess articles by quality or by importance—pick a topic of interest and grade according to that WikiProject's scale. (See links from article talk pages.) Adopt an Outline, to help develop and maintain a table of contents to a major subject on Wikipedia. Let SuggestBot suggest pages for you to improve. Update pages with old (ref or note template) citations to the new references format. Do you have a historical perspective? Articles slanted towards recent events might need to be looked at with a new eye. Commenting Respond to a request for comment or Wikiquette alert, or provide a third opinion. Give a requested editor review. Peer review or give feedback on some articles. Comment at Featured portal candidates and Portals at peer review. Make recommendations on articles listed at Good article reassessment. Respond to the Reward board or Bounty board. Discuss which articles should be deleted and review proposed deletions. Special skills Can you draw or take pictures? Make a requested image. Are you good at photo editing? Then try cleaning up some of these images, or helping out at the Graphics Lab. Can you use GIS tools? Help make requested maps. Can you communicate in another language? There are articles that need translation into English. You can also proofread a translation. Are you a budding journalist? Summarise Wikipedia-related news and events for the Signpost. Fix-up projects Article categorization Articles to be split Articles written by a single editor Bad category names Category needs checking Core topics needing cleanup Dead-end pages Disambig pages with links Elements of Style External links Articles needing copy edit Wikitext syntax cleanup Linkrot Notability Missing articles Most wanted articles Name disambiguation Stub sorting Transwiki log cleanup Typos Unreferenced articles List of syntax errors

Open tasks Here are some tasks you can do: Wikify: The Magical Bag of Mathematical Tricks, The Impossible Dreamers, Samuel Brewer, George Brewer, Arthur Brett, More... Orphans: West Ham Church School, Edgar Earl Christopher, Sárig es kit kígyó, Fred Oldfield, First Act Custom Shop, More... Copyedit: Clock ident, Twitch gameplay, Caffeinated alcoholic drinks, SKS Microfinance, Gabriel (missile), More... Update: 2010–2012 Southern United States drought, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Matt Krug, Congleton Town F.C., Madrid system, More... Style: Anteversion, The Vertebrats, The Iron Heel, Feminist movement, Ravi Varma V, More... Translation: Rio–São Paulo high-speed rail, Julio César Chaves, Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Diapori, Lemnos, Magyar Televízió, More... Cleanup: Farsala Trilogy, Dan Mintz, Šest dana juna (album), Mozambique national roller hockey team, Tongan mythology, More... Verify: The LEAGUE (nonprofit), Charles Gibson, NI Tank, Osteodontornis, Waterloo Tunnel, More... Neutrality: Nottingham Trent University, School of Art and Design, Network economy, California National Primate Research Center, Ars Amatoria, Indian Mujahideen, More... Original research: La Dolce Vita, Petrocaribe, Civil religion, Ontario Highway 407, Magic in the Greco-Roman world, More... Merge: Gaseous fire suppression, Common minimum programme, Artificial kidney, Upper Rhine Plain, Airtecture, More... Split: WGN-TV, Web 2.0, Extra Credits, Takashi Yanase, Flame of Hope, More... Stubs: Joaquín Vallejo Arbeláez, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, James M. Garnett, Alayaya, Eric Ward, More... Expand: Segment tree, Zero (video game magazine), UnrealEd, Regulation and monitoring of pollution, Imed Trabelsi, More... Article Incubator: Podaa Podi, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (2011 film), Modulus Financial Engineering, Neenyo, Papulankutja Aboriginal artists, More... Article deletion discussions: Organizations, United States of America, Deletion, Fictional elements, Websites, More... Article Requests: Banking in Colombia, Johanna Dohnal, Geology of Germany, Poverty in Japan, Katz syndrome, More... Image Requests: Austrobaileya, Umba River (Tanzania), Utsul, North American Lutheran Church, Corydoras geoffroy, More... Mediation Cabal: or Help mediate an open case! Not sure where to report a certain type of problem with article content? If it exists, it is probably listed at Wikipedia:Maintenance.

Collaborations
To improve the quality of articles that are short or lacking in detail, Wikipedia's community organizes collaborations to expand articles.
Collaborations by topic Birds (Jackdaw) China (none currently (collaboration inactive)) Dinosaurs (Apatosaurus) Mammals (Slow loris) Medicine (Pneumothorax) Novels (Improvement Drive) United States (United States Postal Service) Universities (Université Laval) Video games (Video game culture)	Other collaborations Active improvement teams Countering systemic bias Version 1.0 Spam fighting team Categorization projects Spotlight WikiProjects WikiProjects are ongoing team efforts to improve articles having to do with a particular subject, and to manage the logistics of that topic. Hundreds exist — examine the master list to find one that interests you. Language translation Wikipedia is not just in English. Versions exist in many different languages. To fill in some of the English Wikipedia's gaps, we translate articles from other languages into English. You can view a list of articles that need translation, organized by language.

Guidelines, help & resources
Wikipedia has many help pages, policies, and departments. Here are some of the most general. For a comprehensive list of Wikipedia's departments, see the Wikipedia department directory.
Help Wikipedia help contents – Browse help pages Help desk Where to ask questions Editing The Manual of Style guidelines and tutorial How to edit a page Contributing How to write a great article A list of free online resources for research A list of template messages What special pages are Tools for editing Request newspapers or magazines Policies and guidelines Wikipedia has many established policies, guidelines, conventions, and traditions. This is a very brief sampling of some of the most important; for more information, see the main policies and guidelines page. Policies and guidelines apply to both articles and how to work with fellow editors. For easy access, the shortcuts to the pages are also listed. Article standards Be bold! WP:BOLD Citing sources WP:CITE • WP:REF Copyrights WP:C Editing WP:EP External links WP:EL Image use WP:IUP Include only verifiable information WP:V Manual of Style WP:MOS • WP:STYLE Neutral point of view WP:NPOV What Wikipedia is not WP:NOT Working with others Assume good faith WP:AGF Avoid instruction creep WP:CREEP Civility and etiquette WP:CIV • WP:EQ Consensus WP:CON IPs are human too WP:HUMAN Do not bite the newcomers WP:BITE Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point WP:POINT No personal attacks WP:NPA • WP:ATTACK Resolving disputes WP:DR Vandalism WP:VAND	Resources New user information Introduction · Tutorial · Sandbox · Help · Adoption · What Wikipedia is not · Glossary · Account benefits · Planning school assignments · New contributors' help page · FAQ Ways to communicate Contact (overview) · Discussion pages · Mailing lists · IRC chat · Meetups · User pages · Requests for comment · Public watchlists · Regional notice boards · Administrators' noticeboard · Requests for article feedback · Local Embassy Community support groups and programs Welcoming committee · Editor assistance · Wiki-adoption · Birthday Committee · Harmonious editing club · Wikipedia awards program · Dept. of Fun · Missing encyclopedic articles Common procedures Featured content · Good articles · Requests for feedback · Deleting a page (full policy) · Moving a page (naming policies) · Protecting a page (full policy) · Reverting a page · Administrator nominations (summaries) · Category-based access How to resolve conflicts Stay cool! · Be nice to newcomers · Alert others · Dispute resolution · Arbitration policy Community information About Wikipedia · Goings-on · About Wikimedia · Wikipedians · Wiki-adoption · Donations · Merchandise · Administrators · Babel · Culture · Games · Humor · Mottoes Related communities The links below lead to the main community pages of the projects. All of these projects are multilingual and open-content. Meta-Wiki – Coordination of all Wikimedia projects. Wiktionary – A collaborative multilingual dictionary. Wikinews – News stories written by readers. Wikibooks – A collection of collaborative non-fiction books. Wikiquote – A compendium of referenced quotations. Wikisource – A repository for free source texts. Wikispecies – A directory of species. Wikiversity – Where teachers learn, and learners teach. Commons – Repository for free images and other media files.
Tip of the day Create a user account Create a user account, instead of contributing anonymously. Having an account gives you a fixed Wikipedia identity that other users will recognize, and upon which you can build a reputation. It also hides your IP address, so it is not subject to IP tracing. There are lots of other benefits too: You can build a user page, and you acquire the right to be heard in votes and elections. User accounts have increased functionality, including the ability to create new articles, rename articles, upload images, edit semi-protected pages, and use of some powerful tools. I'd like to create an account now (secure server) Read more: Wikipedia:Why create an account? Prior tip - Next tip Read all tips