Get started with Wikipedia by creating an account and setting up your user page profile.
For this activity you will take your first step toward becoming a Wikipedia editor by creating your own account and user page profile. Making edits on your own user page is a great way to get familiar with how to edit on Wikipedia.
Instructions
- Navigate to the Wikipedia Main Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
- Click on the blue link “Create Account” in the top right corner
- Fill out the information on the page (email address is optional) and click the “Create Account” button.
- Note: If you are not comfortable with your identity being public, please consider using an anonymous username
- Your username will now appear in red in the top right corner
- Click on your username
- Click the link that says “Start the User:[your_username]page”
- Type some content into the editing box. If you’re not sure what to write, consider:
- Introducing yourself as a first-time Wikipedia user
- Indicating what types of Wikipedia articles you’re interesting in editing
- In the “Edit summary” box, type “created user page”
- Note: an edit summary is a brief explanation of an edit to a Wikipedia page. It is good practice to fill in the edit summary field, as this helps others to understand the intention of your edit
- Click “Publish Page”
- Congratulations! You have just completed your first Wikipedia edit.
Complete this Activity
Once you’ve created your user page, consider sharing it with a friend. Your user page URL will look like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:your_username
Image attribution: Featured photo by fotografierende on Unsplash