Wikipedia:Why create an account?
Creating an account is quick, free, and non-intrusive, so it's easy to join the community and share what you know. Volunteering means different things to different Wikipedians – some act as journalists, editors, system maintenance, anti-vandals, and even artists (e.g. providing images for articles or in general through Wikicommons).
Of course, you do not have to log in to read Wikipedia, nor is a registered account required to edit Wikipedia articles – almost anyone can edit almost any article at any given time, even without logging in (although their IP address is displayed with any edits made). Below are more reasons you might want a Wikipedia account.
Contents |
Summary of benefits
You can always contribute to Wikipedia, but once you are registered, you can:
- Choose an appropriate username, then use your own user page to collaborate, share information about yourself, or just to practice editing and publishing.
- Optionally send and receive e-mails to and from other users.
- Keep track of any changes on your favourite pages using your watchlist (not to mention a convenient list of all your contributions).
- Upload images, rename pages, start new pages, and even edit semi-protected pages and most pending-changes protected pages after a while (usually after just 10 edits and 4 days)
- Use your unified login to work on Wikimedia's other projects.
- Use custom preferences (including your discussion signature) to change the look and behaviour of Wikipedia.
- Edit without your IP address being visible, except to a few highly trusted users who have the Checkuser permission.
- Use more advanced editing tools.
- Vote in Arbitration Committee elections and Wikimedia Board elections.
- The ability to be nominated for adminship, bureacratship, and the ability to gain permissions.
So give it a try! Represent an ocean in a raindrop – contribute what you want to, the way you want to. Or, for a little bit more detail, read on.
Benefits explained
Username
If you create an account, you can pick a username provided it is available and unique. Edits you make while logged in will be assigned to that name. That means you will get full credit for your contributions in the page history (when not logged in, the edits are just assigned to your IP address). You can also view all your contributions by clicking the "My contributions" link, which is visible only when you are logged in.
You will have your own permanent user page where you can write a bit about yourself. While Wikipedia is not a homepage provider, you can use this to display a few free pictures, write about your hobbies, etc. Many users use their user page to maintain a list of the articles they are most proud of, or to collect other valuable information from Wikipedia.
You will have a permanent user talk page you can use to communicate with other users. You will be notified whenever someone writes a message on your talk page. If you choose to give an e-mail address, other users will be able to contact you by e-mail. This feature is anonymous; the user who emails you will not know your e-mail address.
Reputation and privacy
You do not need to reveal your offline identity, but having an account gives you a fixed Wikipedia identity that other users will recognize. While we welcome contributions from unregistered editors, logging in under a pseudonym lets you build trust and respect through a history of good edits. It is also easier to communicate and collaborate with an editor if we know who you are (at least, who you are on Wikipedia). It is also easier for veteran users to assume good faith from new users who take the effort to create an account (and you may well become a veteran user yourself some day!). You may well be afforded a great deal less leeway if you do not go to the trouble of making up a username.
As your reputation builds, it is possible to earn privileges such as rollback, sysop, and others. It is not possible for an unregistered editor to be granted these privileges.
If you are not logged in, all your edits are publicly associated with your IP address at the time of that edit, and are subjected to analysis by WikiScanner. If you log in, all your edits are publicly associated with your account name, and are internally associated with your IP address. See Wikipedia's privacy policy for more information on this practice.
You are actually more anonymous (though more pseudonymous) logged in than you are as an unregistered editor, owing to the hiding of your IP address. You might want to consider various factors, including privacy and the possibility of offline harassment, when selecting a username.
The privacy implications of this vary, depending on the nature of your Internet Service Provider, local laws and regulations, and the nature and quantity of your edits to Wikipedia. Be aware that Wikipedia technologies and policies may change.
User preferences
As a registered user, you can customize the way MediaWiki behaves in great detail by altering your Preferences at Special:Preferences. There, in the Appearance tab, you can change the following display settings:
- Under Skin: choose between various options as to the appearance of the website.
- Under Math: how mathematical formulas are displayed.
- Under Files: how large image thumbnails are displayed
And various editing preferences:
- How to sign your name.
- How large the editing box should be.
- How pages should be displayed in recent changes.
- and many others.
Blocked?
Shared IP addresses such as school and company networks or proxy servers are frequently blocked for vandalism which, unfortunately, may also affect innocent editors on the same network. However, registered users in good standing can request existing blocks on their IP address be modified to affect only unregistered editors so that they can continue contributing to Wikipedia. If you are currently blocked from creating an account, we suggest you do one of the following:
- Try again after the block on your IP address expires. Go to my contributions and follow the Block log link at the top of that page to find the length of the block.
- Create an account while at an unblocked location, such as your workplace, home, local library, or favorite internet cafe and then log in through the blocked server or network.
- Ask a trusted friend on a different network to create an account for you.
- Request an account by filling in this form to ask a volunteer to create an account for you. Be sure to read the instructions at Wikipedia:Request an account first and to change your password once you are logged in.
- Use Wikimedia's secure server at https://secure.wikimedia.org/. Depending on the local settings, you may be able to bypass your network's proxy server this way.
- You may wish to create an account on Meta-Wiki.
See the Blocking policy for details.
.To create an account, click on the "Create an account now" link and fill out the required fields. This will be logged, and your account will be created.
