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Index
How Wikipedia Works
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Inside This Book
What You Should Know Going In
Using This Book
Our Approach to Understanding Wikipedia
It's Everyone's Encyclopedia: Be Bold!
I. Content
1. What's in Wikipedia?
Types of Articles
Article and Content Inclusion Policies
Core Policies: V, NOR, and NPOV
Understanding the Policies
Other Guidelines
Notability
Copyrighted Material
Non-encyclopedic Content
What Wikipedia Is Not
Non-article Content
Types of Non-article Pages
Namespaces
List of Namespaces
Summary and What to Read Next
2. The World Gets a Free Encyclopedia
Wikipedia's Mission
Wikipedia's Roots
Ancient Greece to Today: Encyclopedias
Late 17th Century: The Modern Encyclopedia
Wikipedia as an Encyclopedia
The 1960s and 1970s: Unix, Networks, and Personal Computers
The 1980s: The Free Software Movement
Wikipedia and the Free Perspective
1995: Ward's Wiki
1997: Open Source Communities
2000: Online Community Dynamics
Wikipedia as a Wiki Community
2001: Wikipedia Goes Live
Wikipedia Today
Unfinished Business
The Wikipedia Model Debated
Misinformation: The Seigenthaler Scandal
Amateur Contributors, Authority, and Academia
Wikipedia and Academic Authority
Wikipedia and Experts
Case Studies in Academic Authority
Pseudonyms and Claimed Expertise
The Crowd of Amateurs
Summary
3. Finding Wikipedia's Content
Searching Wikipedia
Basic Searching
Varying the Search
Search Operators
Searching Other Namespaces
Some Special Searches
Search Problems and Some Alternatives
External Search Engines
When to Use External Search Engines
When Not to Use External Search Engines
Ways into Wikipedia
Welcome to the Main Page
Navigating the Main Page
Portals into the Encyclopedia
Daily Content
Constructing the Main Page
Disclaimers, License, and Privacy
The Omnipresent Sidebar
Navigation
Interaction
Recent Changes
The Search Box
Toolbox
Languages
Joys of Hypertext
A Hypertext Primer
Three Types of Links
Browsing by Topic
Lists of Articles
Traditional Classification Schemes
Date-Related Articles
Browsing by Categories
Structure of a Category Page
Navigating Categories
A Longer Journey Using Categories
Browsing by Page Type
Finding Excellent or Poor Content
Finding Images
Finding Media Files
Summary
4. Understanding and Evaluating an Article
Anatomy of an Article
The Article Text
Backlinks
Article History
Reading a Page History
Analyzing a Page History
Edit Summaries and Minor Edits
Talk Pages
Reading and Contributing to Talk Pages
Making Good Use of Talk Pages
Evaluating Articles
Misinformation, Missing Information, and Mistakes
D-R-E-W-S
Discussion on the Talk Page
Ratings
Edit History
Writing and Formatting
Sources
Summary
Final Thoughts for Part I
II. Editing
5. Basic Editing
Editing a Page
Understanding the Edit Window
Reading Article Wikitext
Using the Edit Window Tools
Major vs. Minor Edits
Handling Major Editing Tasks
Fixing Mistakes and Other Reasons to Revert
Who Can Edit What?
Syntax
Fundamentals of Text Markup
Bold and Italic
Indentation, Line, and Paragraph Breaks
Numbered and Bulleted Lists
Internal and External Links
Internal Links
Redlinks
Tricks with Internal Links
Internal Linking Policy
External Links
External Linking Policy
Sections and Headings
Linking into and out of Sections
Removing Formatting and Hiding Comments
Summary
6. Good Writing and Research
Starting New Articles
Deciding What to Write About
Before Starting a New Article
Avoiding Treacherous Topics
Starting the Article
Click a Redlink
Two More Ways to Start an Article
Titles Are Tricky
Drafting the Article
Don't Forget
Writing Well
Consulting the Manual of Style
Introduction and Topic Sentence
Comprehensiveness and Appropriate Length
Structure
Readability
Audience
Use of Language
Graphics
Applying Basic Content Policies
Reviews
Quality and the Good Stub
Researching Articles
Good Wikipedia Research
Doing Research
Reliable Sources
Referencing Styles
Using Footnotes
Referencing Templates
Editing Alongside Others
Changing What Others Write
Will Your Own Edits Be Kept?
Edit Summaries
No Ownership
Summary
7. Cleanup, Projects, and Processes
Cleanup
Flagging Articles
Cleanup Categories
Cleanup Tasks
Rewriting
Expanding Stubs
Wikification
Fact-Checking and Referencing
Help, an Article About Me Is Incorrect!
Copyright Violations
Vandalism Patrolling
Cleanup Editing Tools
Projects: Working to Improve Content
WikiProjects
Wikiportals
Writing Collaborations
Processes
What Processes Cover
Deleting Articles
Deletion Processes
Help, My Article's Being Deleted!
A Deletion Case Study
Featured Articles
Summary
8. Make and Mend Wikipedia's Web
Redirect and Disambiguate
Redirects
Creating and Editing Redirects
Limitations on Redirecting
Disambiguation Pages
Disambiguating Articles About People
Disambiguation Templates
Merge, Split, and Move
Merging Articles
How to Merge Articles
Splitting Articles
Moving Pages
Limits on Moving Pages
Undoing a Move
Contentious Title Changes
Categorize
Categorizing Basics
Categories and Content Policy
Creating New Categories
Subcategories
Categorization Projects
Housekeeping
When a Page Move Is Blocked
Default Meanings
Avoiding Disambiguation Pages
Controlling Category Sorting
Categories and Templates for Redirects
Process-Style Resolutions
Summary
9. Images, Templates, and Special Characters
Images and Media Files
Finding and Adding Images
Searching for Images to Use
Image Licenses and Fair Use
Uploading Your Own Images
Using Images
Using Multimedia Files
Templates
Using Templates
Using Parameters
How Templates Work
Varieties of Templates
How to Build Templates
Laying Out Articles
Tables
Formatting Columns
Special Syntax
HTML and CSS
Mathematical Formulas
Variables and Magic Words
Summary
10. The Life Cycle of an Article
Birth of an Article
Deletion
Maintenance Tagging
Editing Improvements
Potential Merge
Discussion and Content Tags
Categories
Bots Arrive
Incoming Wikilinks
Artie Is Moved
In Good Times
In Bad Times
Bad Times, and a True Story
Search Engines Find the Article
New Relatives
Getting the Picture
Good Article
Summary
Conclusion to Part II
III. Community
11. Becoming a Wikipedian
On Arrival
Registering an Account
Privacy
"Anonymous" Edits
Usernames and Real Names
Deleting, Renaming, and Having Multiple Accounts
Is a Username Taken?
Creating the Account
Setting Your Preferences
Setting Your Signature
Customizing Skins and Installing Extensions
User Pages, Watchlists, and Edit Count
User Page Content
Guidelines
User Talk Pages
Watchlists
RSS Notification
Contribution History and Counting Edits
Users and Administrators
User Levels
Administrators
Requesting Help from an Administrator
Becoming an Administrator
Summary
12. Community and Communication
Wikipedia's Culture
Assumptions on Arrival
Random Acts of Kindness
The Open Door
Soft Security
Communicating with Other Editors
Talk Page Guidelines
Voting and Discussing
On-Wiki Forums
Asking Questions and Resolving Problems
Getting News
Mailing Lists and Internet Relay Chat
Meetups and Conferences
Wikiphilosophies
Funny Business
Who Writes This Thing Anyway?
Demographics
Systemic Bias
Wikipedians on Wikipedia
Operational Analysis: Raul's Laws
Practical Values, Process, and Policy
More Research Required
Summary
13. Policy and Your Input
The Spirit of Wikipedia
The Five Pillars
Ignore All Rules and Be Bold
Assume Good Faith
What Is Policy?
Official Policy
Policies and Guidelines
How Policies Are Created and Developed
How Policies Evolve
How to Interpret Policies and Guidelines
Letter of the Law
List of Policies
Content Policies
Social Policies
Enabling Policies
General Policies
List of Guidelines
Seven Policies to Study
Summary
14. Disputes, Blocks, and Bans
Content Disputes and Edit Wars
Coming to Consensus
Resolving a Dispute: Discussion
More Steps for Resolving a Content Dispute
Ineffective Solutions
Causes of Content Disputes
Case Study: Gdańsk
Resolving Disputes Between Editors
Dispute Resolution Processes
The Nature of Formal Evidence
Arbitration Committee
Blocks and Bans
Short Blocks
Longer Blocks
Bans
Summary
Conclusion to Part III
IV. Other Projects
15. 200 Languages and Counting
Languages and Scripts
The Long Tail of Languages
Getting Involved in Other Languages
Script Support
Links Between Languages
English in Global Focus
Summary
16. Wikimedia Commons and Other Sister Projects
Wikimedia Commons
Searching and Browsing Commons
Using Commons Material in Wikipedia
Participating in Commons
Inclusion Guidelines
Uploading Images
Categorizing
Other Sister Projects
Wiktionary
Wikinews
Wikibooks
Wikiquote
Wikisource
Wikispecies
Wikiversity
Linking Between Projects and Copying Content
How to Link
Moving Content Between Projects
Other Wikis
Starting Your Own Wiki
Wiki Software
Summary
17. The Foundation and Project Coordination
The Foundation: Mission and Structure
Infrastructure and the Board
Foundation-Level Policy
Fundraisers and Donations
Wikimedia Chapters and Outreach
MediaWiki
The Meta-Wiki
Project Coordination
Translation
New Projects
Communication
Looking Back and Going Forward
Early Days
Continued Values
Summary
Conclusion to Part IV
A. Reusing Wikimedia Content
Guidelines for Reuse
Examples of Reuse
B. Wikipedia for Teachers
Wikipedia as a Classroom Reference Resource
Guiding Student Use of Wikipedia
Assigning Wikipedia Editing
C. Edit Summaries Jargon
Common Edit Summaries
Deletion and Maintenance Summaries
Automatically Added Edit Summaries
D. Glossary
E. History
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
F. GNU Free Documentation License
PREAMBLE
APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
VERBATIM COPYING
COPYING IN QUANTITY
MODIFICATIONS
COMBINING DOCUMENTS
COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
TRANSLATION
TERMINATION
FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
Colophon
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