Welcome to Wikipedia!
[edit]Hello and welcome to the English Wikipedia! I'm ApteryxRainWing, a member of the Wikipedia Welcome Committee. We're here to provide new users such as yourself with useful information when first starting out. Before you start editing, I recommend reading these pages that feature policies, style guidelines, things to do, and people you can reach out to if you need help.
Manual of Style - A guidebook explaining how to write encyclopedically.
Your First Article - If you are feeling brave, this page features guidelines and procedures for creating an article on a new topic.
The Teahouse - A little forum where you can go and ask specific questions about editing or making articles. When you ask a question, another editor should stop by within a few hours to answer the question or direct you to an article/policy/guideline that can answer it.
The Five Pillars of Wikipedia - The five most fundamental philosophies the entire Wikipedia project is built on.
Policies and Guidelines - A long list of all the rules that we follow here.
WP:NPOV - Code for Neutral Point of View, a policy that is very important but often ignored.
WP:NOTABILITY - Another specific and very important policy on the notability of a subject that a lot of people ignore.
WP:COI - A policy on Conflict of Interest, meaning that you need to be extremely careful when editing articles about things you are connected to
WP:RS - A helpful page explaining what a reliable source is
Perennial sources - A page listing some common sources and how accurate they are, based on community consensus.
WP:OR - A page explaining what original research is, because it is a thing we avoid like the plague here
What Wikipedia is Not - A more specific list of things you shouldn't do on Wikipedia
Task Center - A list of tasks you can do to help the encyclopedia such as copyediting or stopping vandals.
Commons - Another Wikimedia project aimed at providing free images to use without fear of copyright strikes. You can also upload your own photos to improve the database.
If you need anything, feel free to ask on my Talk Page. If I can't help you, then the wonderful people at the Teahouse and Help Desk should be able to assist you. If you have a question about an encyclopedic topic, the people over at the Reference Desk should be able to help. We hope you enjoy your time here, and happy editing! ApteryxRainWing🐉 | Roar with me!!! | My contributions 19:13, 13 December 2024 (UTC)