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, what groups there are to join, and get or post news about recent events or current activities taking place on Wikipedia.

Community bulletin board

Post your Wikipedia-related news and announcements here!

Volume 4, Issue 38 — 2008-09-22 From the editor WikiWorld: "Dr. Seuss" Wikipedia in the News Dispatches: Reviewing non-free images Features and admins Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News The Report on Lengthy Litigation Archives·Newsroom·Tip line·Single-page·Subscribe Episode 62: Chrome-Plated Roundtable Covering: Cool new stats, editing Sarah Palin, Syntax-highlighting, "Community-Curated Works", Write.api, whether to disband WikiQuote, the new Chief Program Officer position, going live with flagged-revs and of course Chrome. Subscription · Feedback · Talk to us on skype! not|the|wikipedia|weekly Next Skypecast: Happening very soon! Sign Up at the Wiki page!! (details/sign up) Latest: Episode 34 26th September 2008 NTWW creates the article "Frog Legs Rag". Listen to us bounce back from speedy deletion and expand for DYK nomination.

Notices

• The 2008/9 Schools Wikipedia is now available for browsing at http://schools-wikipedia.org to allow final changes before (free) downloads are launched 15 Oct. Feedback at the project page or to BozMo. The schools wikipedia has millions of users offline and the online version is just overtaking Citizendium on Alexa so improvement is worthwhile!
• The list of basic topics Wikiproject is creating a set of country lists (one for every country of the world), and they're almost complete enough to move to article space (all 247 of them!). We could especially use your help to complete the government branches sections of these lists (many have temporary template-generated, i.e. incorrect, data in these sections which needs to be replaced). If you have any questions, please contact The Transhumanist.
• Wikis Take Manhattan, a scavenger hunt and free content photography contest and sequel to last spring's Wikipedia Takes Manhattan, will take place on Saturday, September 27 October 4. All Wikipedians and non-Wikipedians are invited to participate in teams of up to three.
• All community members are invited to participate in a straw poll, intended to provide an indication of the public opinion of the flagged revisions feature and its potentially being enabled on the English Wikipedia.
• Editors familiar with Wikipedia's quality control measures are needed to help write Wikipedia:Quality control, which was created to help new users of Wikipedia and others understand what effort goes into making this encyclopedia a fine source of information and an excellent publication.

New project pages seeking contributors

Discussions

Discussions in the following areas have requested wider attention:

See also

Wikizine · In the media · News · Announcements · Mailing lists · Meetups

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

• Respond to a request for comment, Wikiquette alert or provide a third opinion.
• Adopt a basic topic list, to help develop and maintain a table of contents to a major subject on Wikipedia.
• Give a requested editor review.
• Can you draw or take pictures? Make a requested image.
• Peer review or give feedback on some articles.
• Make recommendations on articles listed at Good article reassessment.
• Respond to the Reward board or Bounty board.
• 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.
• Let SuggestBot suggest pages for you to improve.
• Update pages with old (ref or note template) citations to the new references format.
• Patrol new pages and help improving new articles.
• Frequent IRC user, or a wikignome? Visit WikiProject Spotlight to join in on their latest collaboration.

Fix-up projects

Here are some tasks you can do:

• Wikify: Brett Leighton, Learning center approach in American schools, Timus the Mouse, Polar wind, Sapientis, Sekolah Menengah PJN Pg. Hj. Abu Bakar, More..
• Cleanup: List of characters in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Concordia Student Union, Jennifer Clement, Fructose, RAND, Ukrainians in Kuban, More...
• Stubs: FDA Preemption, Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, Manual handling, Minimum weight, Shank painter, Fluid extract, More...
• Verify: Lou Panzanaro, Metronome, Oil Platforms (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America), Qur'an, Eligmodontia, Muscomorpha, More..
• Update: Mount Soledad cross controversy, List of top-division football clubs in OFC countries, Scott Wiper, Jan Mazoch, Kristie's Law, Mahjong Taikai Wii, More...
• Neutrality: Refuse & Resist!, International Parliament for Safety and Peace, Web application, Consulier GTP, David Talbott, Motilal Nehru, More...
• Copyedit: Neighborhoods in Seattle, Media meshing, History of Bulgaria, Marcus Hatten, Trezenzonio, David W. Evans, More...
• Merge: Sershul, Sêrxü County, Von Roll, Von Roll Holding AG, Jyeshta, Release Me (Engelbert Humperdinck song), More...
• Style: The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Dick Tracy, Political privacy, America's WETLAND Foundation, Colayer, Stomp (dance troupe), More...
• Expand: P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, Mascot Hall of Fame, Competitive Foods Australia, Von Smith, Sea Patrol (season 1), Sea Patrol (TV series), Simphiwe Dana, List of basic energy storage topics, Yuri Ushakov, More...
• Requests: Syncscan, Auñamendi Encyclopedia, Maureen Drake, Hysteron, Make a Move on Me, J statistic, Dobrow syndrome, Yamabiru, Daggatun, Jane Barlow, Iminoglycinuria, Laplace series, More...
• Articles to be split: Royal Caribbean International, More...
• Mediation Cabal: 1950s Topps, Diabetes mellitus, 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.

Core Topics Collaboration

The Amazon River flowing through the rainforest

The Core Topics Collaboration works to improve essential Wikipedia topics. The current collaboration is Amazon rainforest.

The Amazon Rainforest (Brazilian Portuguese: Floresta Amazônica or Amazônia; Spanish: Selva Amazónica or Amazonía) is a moist broadleaf forest in the Amazon Basin of South America. The area, also known as Amazonia, the Amazon jungle or the Amazon Basin, encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), though the forest itself occupies some 5.5 million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres), located within nine nations: Brazil (with 60 percent of the rainforest), Peru (with 13 percent of the rainforest, second after Brazil), Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations bear the name Amazonas after it. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

You can help pick the next Core Topic collaboration article.

Collaborations by topic

Other collaborations

Active improvement teams

Maintenance

Help clear up the backlog of articles to be merged! Merging is the process combining two (or sometimes more) articles into a new article, or adding the content of one article to another. You'll need to be familiar with the associated templates. Before you begin, you need to know the details of merging and moving pages. After you read that, you're ready to begin consolidating and improving articles!

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. They are separate from, though may work with, Collaborations.

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 from any language, or, in a few cases, by only one language (this is only available for the more popular languages).

Guidelines, help, and 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 – Browse help pages
• Where to ask questions

Editing

• The Manual of Style guidelines and tutorial
• How to edit a page
• Contributing
• How to write a great article
• Where to find information for articles
• 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

Working with others

Resources

New user information

Introduction · Sandbox · Help · Adoption · What Wikipedia is not · Glossary · Account benefits · Planning school assignments

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 · Kindness Campaign · Reach out · Stress alerts · Wikipedia awards program · Dept. of Fun · One featured article per quarter · 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 · Administrators · Babel · Culture · Games · Humor · Mottoes

Related communities

Tip of the day...

To add this automatically updating Tip of the day box to your userpage, go to your user page, and click the edit this page tab. Then add one of the text strings from the list below into your userpage's source text. (The text you see in the edit box when you click edit this page is called "source text", because it is a lot like programming code, which is called "source code"). Be sure to include the double curly brackets:

{{totd-random}} - this is the tip of the moment template, which automatically displays a different tip every time you enter a page it is on. If it doesn't update, try clearing your browser cache.

{{totd}} - the main userspace version of the tip of the day template, with border, centered in the middle of the page. Complete with inspirational lightbulb.

{{totd b}} - a more compact version of the above template. Useful for columns.

{{totd-tomorrow}} - this shows tomorrow's tip, and is used by Wikipedia tipsters to make sure that the tips never run out. If they did run out, a red link would show up on Wikipedia's Community Portal and Help Page, which would be very embarrassing. This template shows the redlink one day in advance, as an early-warning system.

{{Tip of the day}} - the borderless version, with lightbulb.

{{Tip of the day - community portal}} - the underlined-heading version used on the community portal. (No lightbulb).

{{totd2}} - the borderless version used on Wikipedia's Help page (which already has its own borders). (No lightbulb).

{{totd3}} - a purple box version, useful for displaying the tip in columns.

{{totd CP}} - like the help page version, but with a box. Spans the whole field (screen or column) that it is in.

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