Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipack Africa Content/Wikipedia:Guidance for younger editors

The most useful piece of advice is never give out any personal information that shows your real name, age, address, email, Facebook, or school on Wikipedia – or anywhere else publicly available on the Internet – even to people you know or think you might know in real life. Some sites have ways of restricting access to your personal information; most, including Wikipedia, do not.

Wikipedia is an "encyclopedia that anyone can edit." There is no age limit for editing this Wikipedia or writing new articles. The quality of your edits and writing are important, not your age. However, younger editors may need advice on editing the online Wikipedia – this page aims to be your guide.

Your safety and security

Passwords: Don't tell your password to anyone.
Account sharing: Don't let your family or friends use your account. If they do something wrong, you'll get blamed for it.
Log out: Every time you leave the computer, especially if it is a public computer.
Multiple accounts: Don't use more than one account unless you have a good reason.
When you have an account, always log in and use it when you edit.
Be careful what you write: Never post your address or phone/mobile phone number, and don't use your real name for your username. Don't post photos of yourself, your friends, or your family on your user page. People can use this info to find out who you really are, especially if you have used the same information on other web sites.
Don't write articles about yourself - if you are a really important person, someone else will probably write an article about you.
If you posted your own information by mistake, ask an administrator to remove it for you, or you can request it to be oversighted, which hides it. Even if you don't ask, an administrator or other editor may remove it if we know that you are very young. Please don't be upset, as this will be done to keep you safe.

Photos of yourself, your friends, or your family

Don't post photos of yourself, your friends, or your family on your user page. People can use this info to find out who you really are, especially if you have used the same information on other web sites.
Don't post photos of yourself, your friends, or your family anywhere else on Wikipedia. People can also use this info to find out who you really are.
Don't mention when you, your friends, or your family are in a photo. Protect your, your friends', and your family's anonymity. Sometimes (very rarely) you may find photos of yourself, your friends, or your family on Wikipedia. Do not edit Wikipedia or your user page to say that you or they are in this or that photo.
Do tell your friends, your parents or others you know in private when they are in photos. (so by talking to each other, by letter, by email, or in another way that not many others can hear or read about it).

How you can contribute to Wikipedia

How can you contribute to Wikipedia? Pretty much just like anyone else. There are a lot of guideline and policy pages, too many to list here. After your first edit, you will probably get a welcome message on your userpage. It will probably tell you how to get started.

Here are some things you can do that are valuable to Wikipedia:

If you write a new article that really belongs here, you have made our encyclopedia better, which is why we are all here. Many new articles are deleted because people don't know what should and should not be in an encyclopedia, and the place to find out is at What Wikipedia is not. If your work gets deleted, please don't be disappointed or take it personally: many of our best editors have had some of their articles deleted.
Help clean up. Because it's easy to edit the encyclopedia, some people think it's funny to do silly things to it. We don't think it's funny, and we call it vandalism. Vandalism is taken very seriously here and you may no longer be trusted to edit for it. If you see something that is obviously very silly or rude and shouldn't be here, you can go ahead and remove it. When you get more used to editing, you can join the discussions about articles and the way Wikipedia is run.
Take photos. Many articles look better if they are illustrated. You can upload photos or create other suitable images but don't forget that you can't just use any photos or images – they are almost always protected by copyright laws that stop them being used just about anywhere. Even if you upload your own images, they may be deleted if you haven't checked the right permission in the list on the image upload page. Images from the Internet are almost always unsuitable.
Wikipedia isn't like Facebook or Twitter. Your user page isn't a place to draw attention to yourself from the world outside Wikipedia. It's a place we give you where other Wikipedians can find out a little bit about you and what you do here. Improving the encyclopedia is the only task here so it isn't really for hanging out with friends, or for playing games. Try things out in your sandbox to learn how "Wiki-coding" works without making a mess of article pages.
Have fun. Do what you enjoy and what you are good at. All of us, of whatever age, work on Wikipedia because we like spending our free time doing it, kind of like a hobby. So if you enjoy finding spelling mistakes and fixing them, do that; if you like removing links that don't work, do it; if you enjoy removing vandal edits and reporting repeat vandals to the administrators, do that. If you enjoy spending some time in the library to find material to add to an article, do that.

Working on articles

Wikipedia has many policies about articles. These are especially important:

Living persons. Controversial information must use reliable sources. Material that invades someone’s privacy should not be included, even if it is true. Information that violates the policy will be deleted on sight. Any improper material could be read by thousands of people. If you don't know if something might violate the policy, discuss it with another editor first.
Reliable sources. A reliable source is a source of information like a regular newspaper or book. Facts you include in your articles should be linked to good sources, especially if they are controversial.
Notability. If the subject is not notable, it may get deleted. Try to learn so that your next article will be kept.
Remember that some articles and areas of the encyclopedia may be unsuitable for minors. Wikipedia covers a lot of subjects, and is not censored. We have much material that your parents, guardians, teachers or others may consider to be unsuitable for you to be involved with. Please discuss your Wikipedia work with a responsible adult.
Keep plagiarism in mind. You are not allowed to copy other people's work from web pages or books and add it to Wikipedia.
Language. Wikipedia is used by millions of people. Many of them are top business people, politicians, or university professors. The text you write in articles must be very formal. It can't be the kind of prose you see in your favorite magazine or blog. Think of it like the language in your school textbooks. Don't worry too much though, because another user will probably edit out the rough edges for you.

Working with other editors

Just as you can edit Wikipedia, so can anyone else. Try to get along with them.

Be polite and discuss with other editors. Editors must be polite and not make any personal attacks. When problems or issues arise, discuss the disagreement and try to work it out. Don't keep changing the article back-and-forth or start calling each other names. There are procedures available for asking for help from experienced editors when these types of disagreements arise.
Pay attention to feedback. If someone points out that you made a mistake, thank him or her for telling you, and try not to make the same mistake again. If someone raises a concern about an edit you have made, explain why you said what you said or did what you did. All experienced Wikipedia editors have learned from the comments and criticisms that we have heard from each another every day.
What to do about warnings. If you receive a warning message from another editor, think very carefully about what it says. You may have done something wrong. If the warning is correct, accept that and avoid repeating the mistake. If you think the warning is wrong, politely discuss it with the person who warned you, or with an administrator.
If you have a problem. No one is entitled to be rude to you or talk down to you. If that happens, and the person does not stop when you ask him or her to, don't respond in the same way. Raise the problem with an administrator or on a noticeboard.
Respect other editors' experience. Sometimes another editor may know more than you do about a given topic. Your information and contributions are just as valuable as everyone else's, but remember that another editor working with you on an article might be one of the world's leading experts on that topic! Just as you want to be respected for who you are and what you are ready to contribute, you also must be ready to respect everyone else.
Develop a good reputation. Most of your fellow editors will not judge you by your age, even if they know what it is, which they often won’t. But they will judge you by your maturity as it reflects on the page. There is nothing wrong with having a good time when working on Wikipedia, but most of the time it will pay to be serious. Over your time on Wikipedia, you will develop a reputation for the quality of your work – you will want to make sure it is a good one.
Your signature. You may create a custom signature. But it should be easy for other editors to recognize your name and a link to your talk page, without excess markup, fonts, and colors.

A sense of perspective

Wikipedia sure can be fun – and it also can eat up far too much time.

Schoolwork is far more important than Wikipedia. So is physical activity, and remembering that there is a real-life world out there.

If you do take a break (called a "Wikibreak" of all things), you can just put a note on your userpage, and relax for a while. We know you will be back at some point when you have taken care of the more important things in life.

A final word

Some people think our younger editors do not have the maturity, knowledge, skills, or attitudes needed to work on Wikipedia. Prove them wrong.