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

2012-01-23 News and notes: SOPA blackout, Orange partnership In the news: World watched as Wikipedia shut down for SOPA blackout WikiProject report: The Golden Horseshoe: WikiProject Toronto Featured content: Interview with Muhammad Mahdi Karim and the best of the week Arbitration report: Four open cases, proposed decision in Muhammad images, AUSC call for applications Technology report: Looking ahead to MediaWiki 1.19 and related issues About·Archives·Newsroom·Single-page·Suggestions Centralized discussion RfC on how files from non-copyright states should be treated & used on WP RfC on aspects of the leadership of the featured article process Discussion about improving WP:PORNBIO RfC on the "deletion" of the no longer used Reviewer userright RfC on how or whether to add coordinates to highway articles Proposal on the implementation of Binding RFCs, structured discussions to create solutions to intractable content disputes. Notices The January copy edit drive is underway. Do you take pleasure from correcting horrible spelling and grammar? Sign up now! Improve your copy editing skills, read interesting articles, and earn priceless rewards. The January 2012 Move to commons drive has begun. There will be lots of awards at the end. You may help by joining and doing some transfers. Project pages seeking contributors Consider posting WikiProject, Task Force, and Collaboration news at the Signpost's WikiProject Report page. WikiProjects and Task Forces Portals The following portals are now up and running and will need some contributors for their maintenance and steady running: Portal:Friends Portal:Moscow Portal:Military of Germany Outlines Outlines that especially need proofreaders and contributors... New outlines Outline of prehistoric technology Outline of Wikipedia Outline of psychiatry Outline of domestic violence Outlines in the middle of an expansion or major restructuring Outline of public relations Outline of classical architecture Outline of commercial law Outlines recently overhauled Outline of Google Outline of the United Nations Outline of the psychiatric survivors movement 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

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. 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: Max Méreaux, List of Ultraman 80 monsters, Genre criticism, Corinna Chamberlain, Diploma Supplement, More... Orphans: Iran Liberation Front, Ljupka Džundeva, Phonolog, Lolita Files, ExAblate, More... Copyedit: Marraqueta, X16XE, Transcription (software), EMERK, Commitment ordering, More... Update: History of video game consoles (seventh generation), List of sports venues with sole naming rights, The Secret of Moonacre, Craftsmen Industries, KBTV-TV, More... Style: Plymouth Savoy, Machiavelli as a dramatist, Network performance, Raunchy (band), Bulle Rock, More... Translation: Les Mercuriales, Military of Togo, The Source of Sviyaga River, Major Napoleão Bezerra, Lokvičići, More... Cleanup: Khaksars, Djemal Pasha, David Sherer, Oyayubihime Infinity, Rude Dog, More... Verify: Deep state, Sarah Garnett, Hellsing, Economy of Sweden, Steve England, More... Neutrality: Sherif Ashraf, History of the Jews in France, Hudood Ordinance, Science and the Bible, Johrei, More... Original research: Tackle (football move), Exhibition drill, Shakti, Literal and figurative language, Human rights in the Middle East, More... Merge: Vardöhuus, List of Teen Titans comics, List of Titans titles, LGBT Anti-violence groups, Prehistoric Sweden, More... Split: Archibald and Schofield, Wo Hop Shek, Weak equivalence, Edward Dwelly, Massacres of Poles in Volhynia, More... Stubs: No Resolution, Leptohyphidae, Hagbart Steffens, Resistol Arena, Chacha Cricket, More... Expand: Swimming at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 400 metre individual medley, Zaini Mohamad Said, Péter Tímár, Zandy's Bride, Jugla, Riga, More... Article Incubator: Podaa Podi, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (2011 film), Modulus Financial Engineering, Neenyo, Papulankutja Aboriginal artists, More... Article deletion discussions: Log/2011 September 30, United States of America, Log-linear modeling (economics), Deletion, Fictional elements, 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: Murder of Meredith Kercher (two sentences), 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 (The Star-Spangled Banner) Universities (Université Laval) Video games (Roberta Williams)	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 Wikipedia's dozen most essential tips And of course, it's a baker's dozen... Create a user account (how and why) How to sign your comments (please do) Look before you leap (check for existing articles before you create one on that topic) How to start a new article How to make links to articles How to insert a picture into an article Where on the page to put images Spellcheck before you hit Save Check your work before you save, using Preview Automatic edit summary reminder How to move/rename a page Redirects How to display daily tips on your userpage If you know even more important tips than these, please come to Tip of the day and add them to our tip collection. Enlighten us with your wisdom, and make Wikipedia a better place for everyone. Read more: Wikipedia:Tip of the day Prior tip - Next tip Read all tips