Pages need to be put into categories so that the public can more easily find them. Help search the new pages feed and the Uncategorized Pages category in order to find pages to categorize. Add categories to articles with too few categories.
Help to verify articles' information, add sources, and fix links.
Sometimes, editors add information without adding sources to back it up. And sometimes sources get old and links no longer work (known as "linkrot"). Your job will be to add sources, verify content, and repair linkrot.
See Wikipedia as it really is, and learn a lot of random information.
Random article patrol is a chance to appreciate how good (and how lacking) Wikipedia is. It can be a soothing experience, especially after tedious maintenance tasks. As a bonus, it can be a great training tool to sharpen your knowledge if you're a trivia buff or are scheduled to appear on Jeopardy! Just go to random pages and fix what you can.
Sometimes, users cannot edit a page because it is protected, or they should not because they have a conflict of interest with its subject. Review their edit requests, implementing the good ones and rejecting the less-than-good ones.
Wikipedia gets thousands of edits per day—unfortunately, many of these are vandalism. As a Recent Changes Patroller, you are the first line of defense against such abuse, ensuring that readers of Wikipedia are not faced with vandalized content where they expected to find a useful article.
Sometimes articles need to be combined or separated by hand.
Help merge articles by adding a redirect and copying and pasting or help split an article by removing content and pasting it into a new article. When merging, follow attribution rules to ensure copyright compliance.
Help delete spam articles before the public sees them.
Some people, either acting in good faith or maliciously, create new articles which aren't suitable for inclusion on Wikipedia. By participating in new article patrol you can ensure that these articles are deleted as soon as possible.
Article contributions are made in many languages besides English. Helpers are needed to translate and polish translations so that all languages have good coverage of notable topics.
Help edit and nominate articles or review nominations of articles for good article status.
Find potentially good articles and work on them for a while to bring them up to a high standard. Then nominate them for Good Article status. You can also review good article nominations and critique them.
Help nominate or review nominations of articles for the penultimate featured article status.
Upgrade articles and work on them for a long time to bring them up to a very high standard, until they deserve to be featured on the main page. Then, get peer review and nominate them for Featured Article status. You can also critique feature article nominations. Obtaining featured article status is considered to be one of the most prized achievements in Wikipedia.
Help a user needing help. You don't have to know everything and you can just answer the questions you know. There is a need for more helpers to help speed up response times.
Come to receive or post reward listings for editing tasks.
The Rewards Board is a place where anyone can come to either post a task that they want done in exchange for a reward or to fulfill a task in exchange for a reward. The rewards offered are mostly barnstars but some people offer items or money for their tasks.
Help editors come to a consensus with minimal conflict.
Providing unbiased commentary is a great chance to improve your Wiki-relations. Instead of debating, you can read the arguments of opposing editors and suggest a compromise that is in Wikipedia’s best interest. By doing so, you will learn a lot about the policies.
For a listing of current collaborations, tasks, and news, see the Community portal. For a listing of ongoing discussions and current requests, see the Dashboard.