editing wikipedia brochure en

8/9/2019 Editing Wikipedia Brochure En

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Editing Wikipedia:

A guide to improvingcontent on the onlineencyclopedia

Wikimedia Foundation


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Imagine a world in which every single humanbeing can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.That’s our commitment.This is the vision for Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects, whichvolunteers from around the world have been building since 2001. Bringingtogether the sum of all human knowledge requires the knowledge of manyhumans — including yours!

This guide will walk you throughhow to contribute to Wikipedia, sothe knowledge you have can be freelyshared with others. You will nd:

• What Wikipedia is and how it works• How to navigate Wikipedia• How you can contribute to

Wikipedia and why you should• Important rules that keep Wikipedia

reliable• How to edit Wikipedia with the

VisualEditor and using wiki markup• A step-by-step guide to adding

content

• Etiquette for interacting with othercontributors

Want to see up-to-date statistics aboutWikipedia? Type WP:STATS into thesearch bar as pictured here.

The text WP:STATS is what’s knownon Wikipedia as a shortcut. You cantype shortcuts like this into the searchbar to pull up specic pages.

In this brochure, we designate shortcutsas | shortcut WP:STATS .

What you can learn Shortcuts


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Wikipedia — the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit — is one of the largest collaborative projects in history. Withmillions of articles and in hundreds of languages, Wikipedia is

read by hundreds of millions of people on a regular basis.A lot of content already exists on Wikipedia, but manyimportant topics have poor coverage and some have noarticle at all. Wikipedia relies on contributors like you to keepinformation current, expand short “stub” articles, and createnew articles on topics not already covered in your languageWikipedia. Contributions you make to Wikipedia can enlightenhundreds, thousands, or even millions of people worldwide.

When you make an edit to Wikipedia,you’re joining a community of hundreds ofthousands of people — Wikipedians — whohave freely contributed their knowledge toWikipedia. What Wikipedians are doing has

the potential to change the world. But there’sstill a very long way to go before we collectthe sum of all knowledge. That’s why we needyour help.

What is Wikipedia?

What you contribute to Wikipediais free content and becomespart of the commons. It maybe edited and reused by othersunder a free license.

We want a world that is more open, moreeducated, and more free. We want a worldwhere knowledge is available to anyonethat seeks it.

Today, I’m carrying on my grandfather’slife work and his passion for recordinglocal history and heritage. The differenceis I have a tool my grandfather did not —Wikipedia.

If what you write is accurate and wellwritten, it will be read by large numbersof people every day. (If not, it will quicklydisappear.)

Why edit Wikipedia?


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Navigating Wikipedia pages

As you get started, it’s helpful to familiarize yourself withthe interface and how to navigate Wikipedia pages.

Featured contentHere you can nd some of the best workon Wikipedia: articles, photographs, and

other content that meet the community’shighest standards.

Help The Help pages, just like the articles, arewritten by Wikipedia contributors.

Community portalThe community portal lets you explorewhat’s going on across Wikipedia, fromnews to collaborations to policydiscussions.

ToolsThis section has useful tools for gettingmore information about a page and itshistory.

LanguagesThese are the other language versions ofWikipedia — out of more than 280 —that have an article on the same topic.

Language settingsThese settings allow you to change thelanguage used for menus and select yourkeyboard layout.

TalkEach article has a corresponding Talk page where contributors can leavecomments and suggestions, discusschanges, and ask for help from oneanother.


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Create accountIf you haven’t done so yet, create youraccount. With an account, you cankeep track of your contributions, createa personal User page, and receiveNotications when other contributors replyto you or build on what you’ve done.

SearchFind articles by name, or nd pages thatinclude your search terms. You can alsoenter shortcuts to bring up specic pagesthat we reference throughout this brochure.A useful one is | shortcut WP:HELP .

EditMany readers never notice the Edit button,but it’s the most important part of anyWikipedia article. Click the Edit button at thetop to edit the whole article, or click one ofthe inline links to edit a particular section.

View historyThe history of a Wikipedia articleincludes every contribution since itwas created. You can see who changedwhat when, and compare any twoversions side-by-side.


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What Wikipedians do

Volunteers contribute in more ways than one. Here are examplesof what it takes to make Wikipedia happen.

Develop the free,

open source softwarethat runs Wikipedia

Welcome newcomersand answer theirquestions

Monitor new articlesand recent edits

Discuss Wikipediapolicies and helpresolve disputes

Add new text andreferences


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Why edit Wikipedia?

When I searched on Wikipedia, therewas nothing. So I decided to write thearticle myself. To date, more than 18,000people have read my article. Some haveeven added their own information andsources.

I learned to speak English by ghtingvandalism on Wikipedia.

When I have kids, I want them to knowNepal’s culture and our rich history, andto learn it in our own language — andWikipedia is making that possible.

Review articles andmake suggestions forimprovement

Upload photographsand illustrate articles Copy edit articles

Assign students to editWikipedia, and helpstudent editors learnthe basics through theWikipedia EducationProgram


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Preparing to edit

Anyone can edit Wikipedia, but there are some basic rules. Here are some ofthe most important ones to follow as you start editing:

Neutral point of view

Everything on Wikipedia must be writtenfrom a neutral point of view. Articles mustnot take sides, but instead should describe

— accurately and without bias — all thesignicant viewpoints on the topic publishedin reliable sources. Argumentation oradvocacy does not belong in Wikipediaarticles.

No original research

Simply put, Wikipedia is not a place topublish original ideas. Rather, you shouldsummarize what others have published inreliable sources about the topic. Articlesmay not contain any new analysis, and they

should not synthesize published materials toreach broader conclusions beyond what theindividual sources say.

Reliable sources

Information in Wikipedia needs to beveriable, based on reliable publishedsources. You should include citations for theinformation you add to the encyclopedia,so that others can check it for themselves.The most reliable sources for Wikipedia arethird-party sources with a reputation forfact-checking, such as books published byacademic presses, peer-reviewed academicjournals, and international newspapers.You should be using sources that representsignicant viewpoints, rather than one-offstudies or fringe work. Try to nd the bestand most reliable sources available on thetopic.

Copyright and plagiarism

Since all contributions are freely licensed,no editor owns any article; all of yourcontributions can and will be edited andredistributed. Except for brief quotations,copying content from copyrighted sourcesonto Wikipedia is not allowed. Whetherdirect copying or close paraphrasing,plagiarism and copyright violation aredisruptive and time-consuming forvolunteers to clean up. It’s important thatall content you contribute to Wikipedia iswritten in your own words. (Public domainand freely licensed content may also be

added to Wikipedia as long as it is properlyattributed.)

Conict of interest

If you have a conict of interest about aparticular topic — such as an employer or anorganization you are a part of — you shouldavoid editing articles about it.

We’ve developed these policies

and principles over the years sowe can be sure that Wikipediais as reliable and useful aspossible.


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Appropriate

Since the early 1990s, the Britannica has faced new challenges

from digital information sources. In rapidly changing elds such

as science, technology, politics, culture, and modern history,

the Britannica has struggled to stay up-to-date, a problem rst

analyzed systematically by its former editor Walter Yust. [1]

Although the Britannica is now available both in multimedia form

and over the Internet, its preeminence is being challenged by

other online encyclopedias, such as Wikipedia. [2]

Do:

• Use plain language

• Be brief

• Cite sources to back up factualclaims

• Attribute viewpoints to thepeople who hold them

• Avoid stating conclusions,except when attributed to a

specic source

Writing in an encyclopedic style and a formal tone is important when addingnew content to Wikipedia. Instead of essay-like, argumentative, or opinionatedwriting, Wikipedia articles should have a straightforward, just-the-facts style.Here are examples of the do’s and don’ts of encyclopedic writing.

What is encyclopedic style?

Britannica and the Future of Encyclopedias

Encyclopædia Britannica, although a celebrated and historically

signi cant encyclopedia, has little relevance in modern society.

Instead, most experts agree that the future of the encyclopediagenre belongs to Wikipedia and other wiki encyclopedias —

created by regular folks like you and me. Ironically, while it was a

great in uence on Jimmy Wales and the intrepid new generation

of amateur encyclopedists who created — and continue to create

— Wikipedia, Britannica in recent years has come to symbolize

everything wrong about the old ways of creating and distributing

knowledge: top-down control, unaccountable gatekeepers

who decide what does and does not merit coverage, copyright

restrictions and high prices that limit access to the wealthy,

and — in its current online form — intrusive advertising that

undercuts the reliability and usability of its content.

Inappropriate What to avoid:

Don’t create new essay-like articles orsections.

Don’t structure your writing as anargument.

Don’t use “weasel words” (like “mostexperts agree” or “some people say”).

Don’t use colloquial language or slang.

Don’t use “peacock terms” (like “great”,“extraordinary”, or “intrepid”).

Don’t inject personal opinion into thewriting.

Don’t use overly complex language andsentence structure.


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Editing with VisualEditor

Appendices and footnotesAfter the main body of an article comesections with additional information, suchas related Wikipedia articles (“See also”),footnotes with details on the sources used(“References”), and a list of other websitesreaders could turn to for more information(“External links”).

Body of the articleHeadings — and sometimes sub-headings— break the article up into sections, and areused to generate the table of contents. Eachsection usually covers some signicant aspectof the topic, so that readers can jump right tothe information they are looking for.

TemplatesReusable pieces called templates are used toformat information in standard ways, and toinsert things like the banners that alertreaders to problems with an article.

With VisualEditor, you can see what your changes will look like as youedit, so you can focus on the content. Just click on the parts you want tochange and start editing.

Editing toolbarIn edit mode, the toolbar lets you addformatting, references, images, and specialpage elements called templates (such as theinfoboxes at the beginning of many art icles).When you are nished editing, press the“Save page” button.

Lead sectionThe rst sentence provides a denition ofthe topic, and the lead section goes on tosummarize the key points covered in thearticle. This is the only section without aheading.

CitationsInline citations in the body of the article areused to show where the information in eachpart of the text came from. The citationdetails appear as footnotes at the end.

ImagesFreely licensed images and other media lescan be added to Wikipedia articles fromWikimedia Commons.


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Editing with wiki markup

Wiki markup is the original form of editing Wikipediaarticles (and on some browsers, it will be the only formavailable). It gives you precise control over the contentand appearance of the page, once you understand how itworks. Some of the underlying wiki markup for an articleis pictured below. See how many of the correspondingelements you can nd in the VisualEditor illustration.

A Image Double square brackets around the title of a photofrom Wikimedia Commons will insert the image.Pipes separate optional parameters to control howthe image is displayed. The most common wayis with two parameters: the word “thumb” to usethe standard thumbnail format, and a descriptivecaption that appears beneath the image.[[File:Example.jpg|thumb|caption]]

B Bold Three single quotation marks before and after astring of text makes that text bold. The article’ssubject is usually bolded in the rst sentence.'''bold text'''

C CitationOpening and closing ref tags are used to cite asource. An automatically-numbered superscriptappears at the location of the ref tags, and the

content appears as a footnote in the referencessection. citation text

D Internal link Double square brackets around a term create alink to the article of that name. Adding a pipe andanother string of text before the closing squarebrackets changes the link text.[[article title|text]]

E Italic Two single quotation marks begin and end asegment of italic text.

''italic text''

F Heading A pair of double equals signs mark a line as aheading. Triple equals signs make a sub-heading.==Heading==

G TemplateDouble braces are used for templates, which arereusable page elements that serve many purposes.The rst item after the opening braces is thetemplate’s name. Pipes separate the parameters,which are additional inputs that can change theway the template works or what it displays.{{template name|parameter}}

H References The references tag, or an equivalent template,sets the location where the footnotes show up —typically in a “Notes” or “References” section.

I External link A single square bracket, followed by a URL, aspace, label text, and a closing square bracketmakes a normal hyperlink. Typically, they are onlyused in footnotes or an “External links” section.

[http://www.example.com text]J CategoryAt the end of an article, double square bracketsaround a string that starts with Category: addsan article to the specied category. Categoriesorganize Wikipedia articles into related sets.[[Category:Something]]

AB

C

D

F

E

G

H

I

J

For more wiki markup help, see the cheatsheet on page 19or visit the reference page | shortcut H:MARKUP .


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Adding content, step by step

The article before editing...

...and the article after changes were saved.

These images show how one contributor added new information to thearticle on Penny Cyclopaedia .


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Don’t worry. If you make a mistake, you can always make more changes orrestore a previous version of the article.

Step 1: Pick a topic you want to write moreabout.

Step 2: Find a reliable source that coversthe topic better than the current Wikipediaarticle.

Step 3: Now comes the fun part. Click theEdit button! A

Step 4: Add some of what is missing. Usingthe source you’ve found, summarize theinformation you want to add in your ownwords. B

Step 5: At the end of your new block of text,add a reference. In the edit toolbar — whetheryou’re using wiki markup or the VisualEditor— you can click the ‘cite’ icon to cite yoursource. C

Step 6: In the ‘edit summary’ eld, adda brief description of what you’ve done inyour edit. D (With VisualEditor, you’llbe prompted for an edit summary afteryou click Save page .) The edit summaryhelps other editors understand what youare doing.

Step 7: Now it’s time to save yourchanges. Be sure to click Save page . E

This image shows what the contributor added and the markup they used.Follow these steps and you too can add content to a Wikipedia article.

A

B

D

E

C


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User pages and Talk pages

Wikipedia has other types of pages beyond articles. As you start editing, youmight also want to create your User page to let others get to know you a little bit.

At the top right (if you are logged in) you will see your username, whichyou can click to reach your User page. Links to pages that do not exist

— such as your User page if you have not created it yet — are coloredred, instead of the typical blue.

If you click the Create button on one of these pages, you can start from a blankpage. A User page is a place to write a little bit about yourself, to give othercontributors an idea of who you are and what you’re interested in. You canshare as much or as little as you like.

When you Save the page, your red link will turn blue!

You also have a User Talk page , where other contributors can leave messages foryou. If you want to contact another contributor, you can navigate to their Talkpage and leave a message at the bottom.

You should sign your messages on Talk pages; clicking the Signature buttonin the edit toolbar will insert four tildes ( ~ ~ ~ ~ ), the special wiki markup forinserting your username along with the date and time of your message.

This icon on theedit toolbar is theSignature button


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Look, a new Notication! 1 These let you know whensomeone mentions yourusername, thanks you for anedit, or leaves a message onyour User Talk page.

Every article has its own Talk page , too. These Talk pages can be used to makesuggestions, post new sources, point out problems, and discuss changes thatcontributors disagree about.

Interacting with the community

One important guideline for community discussionson Wikipedia is to be respectful and civil. Even ifyou get into disagreements, you should assume

good faith on the part of other contributors. Theyalmost always have the same goal you do — to makeWikipedia better. Keep the discussions focused oncontent, rather than making them about individualcontributors.


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Mobile editing

In addition to the traditional desktop interface, Wikipedia has a streamlinedmobile version that you can use to both read and edit. Just visit Wikipedia onyour smartphone or tablet, then log in.

Show and hide menu options

Edit articles

Upload and add photos

Add articles to your watchlist

Check your Notications

Everybody reads Wikipedia. If theywant to learn something, they turn toWikipedia rst. I know I’ve helped alittle — maybe even a lot. And that’sthe greatest feeling I know.

I love knowing that I’m contributing tosomething bigger than myself.

On one side, you have a bunch of rich,powerful companies. They want to turnthe web into a medium for consumption:interactive television meets shoppingmall. On the other side, you have abunch of people who think the Internetcan change the world.

Why edit Wikipedia?


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Each language version of Wikipedia is different (although there is a lot incommon across languages as well). These are some of the things specic toEnglish Wikipedia that you may nd useful.

Creating your rst articleStarting a new article on English Wikipedia — and making sure it doesn’t getdeleted — can be tricky. For a detailed guide on creating your rst article, see| shortcut WP:FIRST .

Wikipedia SignpostThe Signpost | shortcut WP:SIGNPOST is a weekly communitynewspaper, covering Wikipedia-related news and research,important discussions, new Featured content, and more. You can even subscribe to have it delivered to your Talk page each week.

Uploading non-free imagesIn general, only freely licensed or public domain images can be used toillustrate Wikipedia articles, and these should be uploaded to WikimediaCommons (commons.wikimedia.org). However, limited exceptions are allowedon English Wikipedia under the non-free content rules | shortcut WP:NONFREE for things like album covers. Non-free images uploaded to Wikipedia without aclear justication under the rules will be deleted.

WikiProjectsWikiProjects are groups of contributors who have a commoninterest when it comes to editing Wikipedia. Browsing theexisting WikiProjects | shortcut WP:WIKIPROJECT and joining ones that interestyou can be a good way to nd things you want to work on and connect withother Wikipedians.

Wikipedia 1.0 assessmentsWikiProjects on English Wikipedia have a system for rating the quality andimportance of articles, known as the Wikipedia 1.0 assessments | shortcut WP:ASSESS . For quality, these ratings go from Stub (just the beginnings of anarticle) to Start to C-class to B-class, andthen the formally reviewed ratings of Goodarticle, A-class, and Featured article.

You can see the ratings for an article at the top of its Talk page, and mostWikiProjects maintain a table showing how many articles related to thatWikiProject have each rating. Browsing WikiProjects for Stub and Start articlesis a good way to nd new topics to work on.

More about English Wikipedia

WikiProjects Directory

Stub Start C B Goodarticle

A Featuredarticle


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Additional resources Evaluating Wikipedia: Tracing the evolution and

evaluating the quality of articles How articles evolve, elements of good quality articles,

and signs of poor quality articles are all covered in thisguide.http://education.wikimedia.org/evaluating

Illustrating Wikipedia: A guide to contributingcontent to Wikimedia Commons

A companion guide covering Wikimedia Commons,the media repository for images used on Wikipedia. Thebrochure covers what Wikimedia Commons is, howto upload les, how to use les, and the basics of freelicenses.http://education.wikimedia.org/illustrating

Instructor Basics: How to use Wikipedia asa teaching tool

This brochure offers best practices for educatorslooking to assign students to contribute to Wikipedia aspart of their course curriculum.

http://education.wikimedia.org/instructorbasics

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Evaluating Wikipedia: Tracing the evolutionand evaluating thequality of articles


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Illustrating Wikipedia: A guide tocontributing contentto WikimediaCommons



Instructor Basics: How to useWikipedia as ateaching tool

Evaluating Wikipedia article quality

The quality of Wikipedia articles varies widely; many are very good, but somelack depth and clarity, contain bias, or are out of date. In general, high-qualityarticles have these elements:• a lead section that gives an easy-to-understand overview,• a clear structure,• balanced coverage,• neutral content, and• reliable sources.

Additional information about article quality is available by consulting the“Evaluating Wikipedia” brochure (see below).


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Link to anotherwebsite

[http://loc.gov Library of Congresswebsite]

Library of Congresswebsite

Wiki markup cheatsheet

Insert a citation

Display citationfootnotes

Page text. [http://example.org

Example.org], more text.

Italic ''italic text'' italic text

Page text. [1]

Internal link withdifferent text

[[Denis Diderot|Diderot]] Diderot

Bulleted list * Wikipedia

* Encyclopédie

• Wikipedia

• Encyclopédie

Numbered list # A - Azymites# B - Cézimbra

1. A - Azymites2. B - Cézimbra

1. ^ Example.org, moretext.

Signature andtimestamp (for Talkpages)

˜˜˜˜ Username (talk ) 19:50,11 December 2013 (UTC)

Bold '''bold text''' bold text

Link to anotherWikipedia page(Internal link)

[[Denis Diderot]] Denis Diderot

Description What you type What you get

Section headers ==Heading text==

===Heading text===

====Heading text====

Heading textHeading text

Heading text

Image withcaption

[[File:Example.jpg|thumb|Captiontext]]

Caption text

RG

B

These examples cover the formatting needed most often when editingWikipedia articles with wiki markup. For more help, see | shortcut H:MARKUP .

To make a citation What you type What you get


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10% post-consumer recycled ber,elemental chlorine-free process,produced using renewable power

Portraits of Wikipedians by Karen Sayre, AdamNovak, and Victor Grigas. CC BY-SA 3.0Design format by David Peters, Exbrook SF

All images from WikimediaCommons are under a CC BY-SAlicense or public domain unlessotherwise stated. The contentcontained within is availableunder the Creative CommonsAttribution-ShareAlike Licensev.3.0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wikipedia:CC-BY-SA) or any laterversion.

The trademarks and logos of theWikimedia Foundation and anyother organization are not includedunder the terms of this CreativeCommons license. WikimediaFoundation, Wikipedia, WikimediaCommons, MediaWiki, Wiktionary,Wikibooks, Wikidata, Wikisource,Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wikiversity,Wikivoyage, Wikispecies, andMeta-Wiki are pending trademarkregistration or are registeredtrademarks of WikimediaFoundation.

For more information, please seeour Trademark Policy page,http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/ Trademark_Policy.

For other questions about ourlicensing terms or trademark policy,please email [email protected]

Glossaryedit summaryA brief explanation of an edit to a Wikipedia page, which helps othercontributors follow the development an article and understand theintention of the edit.

free licenseA public copyright license that ensures the freedom to use and studya work, to make and redistribute copies of it, to make changes andimprovements, and to distribute derivative works, by any person for anypurpose. Wikipedia — and each individual contribution to it — usesthe Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which is a freelicense. See | shortcut WP:CC-BY-SA to learn more.

historyThe record of a Wikipedia page, accessible through the View history tab,that shows every edit made. Any two versions can be compared to seethe specic differences (known as a diff), and previous versions can berestored.

markupThe special code used to format a Wikipedia page. See the cheatsheet(page 19) for the basics, or go to | shortcut H:MARKUP for moredetail.

NoticationA message for you that shows up at the top of a Wikipedia page. Ifyou want to let someone know you replied to them, you can create aMention Notication by including a link to their User page in a signedTalk page message.

parameterA bit of text, separated from other bits with a pipe character (|), that isused to control how images, templates, and other wiki markup appearon a page.

stubA short, undeveloped article with plenty of room for expansion. Addingcontent to stubs is a good way for new contributors to get started.

Talk pageThe discussion space for an article or other Wikipedia page, where youcan talk about the contents of the page with other contributors.

templatesA way of automatically including the contents of one page withinanother. For instructions on using them, see | shortcu t H:T .

User pageThe personal page of an individual contributor, which begins with“User:” followed by their username. Wikipedians can use their Userpages to share information about themselves and their interests, list thearticles they have worked on or want to work on, and much more.

Wikimedia CommonsThe media repository for Wikipedia and many other wikis, where youcan contribute freely licensed photos, diagrams, videos, and other mediales for illustrating Wikipedia.

WikipedianSomeone who helps build Wikipedia. Common synonyms includecontributor, user, editor , and community member .

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