View source for Wiki143:Introduction (historical)

{{short description|Old version of an introduction to Wikipedia}}
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'''<span style="font-size:x-large; padding-top: 0.3em; display: block;">What is Wikipedia?</span>'''
[[File:Great Feeling.ogv|250px|thumb|A short video about the satisfaction editors get from contributing.]]
Wikipedia is a free [[encyclopedia]], written [[Collaborative editing|collaboratively]] by [[Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia|the people who use it]]. It is a special type of website designed to make collaboration easy, called a [[wiki]]. Many people are constantly improving Wikipedia, making thousands of edits every minute. All these changes are recorded [[Help:Page history|here]], and [[Help:Recent changes|here]]. For a more detailed account of the project, see '''[[Wikipedia:About|About Wikipedia]]'''.<br /><br />
<big>'''How you can contribute'''</big><br />
[[File:Edit-this-page-large (update).png|right|thumb|250px|alt=Image of Wikipedia showing the edit link above the page title. Screen readers may show this under the "views" heading.|Click "Edit" to change an article]]
[[File:Wikipedia video tutorial-1-Editing-en.ogv|right|thumb|250px|alt=Video inviting you to edit pages on Wikipedia.|Editing tutorial for Wikipedia]]
'''Don't be afraid to edit''' – <em>anyone</em> can edit almost every page, and we are encouraged to '''[[Wikipedia:Be bold|be bold]]'''! Find something that can be improved and make it better. For example, spelling, grammar, rewriting for readability, adding content, or removing non-constructive edits. If you wish to add new facts, please try to provide [[Help:Introduction to referencing/1|references]] so they may be [[Wikipedia:Verifiability|verified]], or suggest them on the article's [[Help:Introduction to talk pages|discussion page]]. Changes to controversial topics and Wikipedia's main pages should usually be discussed first. '''[[Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia|Contributing to Wikipedia]]''' will provide you with resources on all the basics needed to use, comment on, and contribute to Wikipedia. 

Remember – you can't break Wikipedia; all edits can be reversed, fixed or improved later. Wikipedia is [[Wikipedia:Editing policy|allowed to be imperfect]]. So go ahead, edit an article and help make Wikipedia the best information source on the Internet!

'''Donate''' – Wikipedia is free to use, but relies on donations and grants to do so. Please consider donating using the '''Donate''' link on the left to help with the project's running costs and expansion.
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<big>'''Why not try out the editor right now?'''</big>
# <span class="plainlinks">'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Sandbox&action=edit Click here]'''</span> to edit the [[Wikipedia:Sandbox|sandbox]], a place to make test edits. (If there is already some text there, add to the end of the text<!-- or click [http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~jylee/cgi-bin/sandbot/Wikipedia/Sandbox.cgi here] to clear the sandbox out from previous edits -->.)
# Type some text.
# Click '''{{int:showpreview}}''' to test your changes, or '''{{int:publishchanges}}''' when you're happy with the way it looks.

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<div style="float: right; margin-top: 0.0em; margin-bottom:3px; background-color: #cee0f2; padding: .2em .6em; font-size: 130%; border: 1px solid #A3B1BF;">Next: [[Wikipedia:Introduction (historical)/2|'''Learn more about editing''']] <span style="font-size: larger; font-weight: bold;">→</span>
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[[Category:Wikipedia basic information]]
[[Category:Wikipedia quick introductions]]