Wikipedia: The Missing Manual (Missing Manual)

Want to be part of the largest group-writing project in human history? Learn how to contribute to Wikipedia, the user-generated online reference for the 21st century. Considered more popular than eBay, Microsoft.com, and Amazon.com, Wikipedia servers respond to approximately 30,000 requests per second, or about 2.5 billion per day. It's become the first point of reference for people the world over who need a fact fast.

If you want to jump on board and add to the content, Wikipedia: The Missing Manual is your first-class ticket. Wikipedia has more than 9 million entries in 250 languages, over 2 million articles in the English language alone. Each one is written and edited by an ever-changing cast of volunteer editors. You can be one of them. With the tips in this book, you'll quickly learn how to get more out of — and put more into — this valuable online resource.

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual gives you practical advice on creating articles and collaborating with fellow editors, improving existing articles, and working with the Wikipedia community to review new articles, mediate disputes, and maintain the site. Up to the challenge? This one-of-a-kind book includes:

• Basic editing techniques, including the right and wrong ways to edit
• Pinpoint advice about which types of articles do and do not belong on Wikipedia
• Ways to learn from other editors and communicate with them via the site's talk pages
• Tricks for using templates and timesaving automated editing tools
• Recommended procedures for fighting spam and vandalism
• Guidance on adding citations, links, and images to your articles

John Broughton has been a registered editor at Wikipedia since August 2005, with more than 15,000 edits by the time he wrote this book. His biggest Wikipedia endeavor was to build the Editor's index to Wikipedia (just type that in the "search" box at the left of any Wikipedia page). This index lists every important reference page on Wikipedia, as well as hundreds of off-Wikipedia Web pages with useful information and tools for Wikipedia editors. John's first experience with programming computers was in a 1969 National Science Foundation program. Since then, he's held various computer-related management positions in the headquarters of a U.S. Army Reserve division, worked in internal audit departments as a Certified Information Systems Auditor, and was the Campus Y2K Coordinator at U.C. Berkeley. A Certified Management Accountant, John has B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins University; an M.B.A. from Golden Gate University; an M.S. in Education from the University of Southern California; and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley.

• Chapter 1: Editing for the First Time
• Chapter 2: Documenting Your Sources
• Chapter 3: Setting Up Your Account and Personal Workspace
• Chapter 4: Creating a New Article
• Chapter 5: Who Did What: Page Histories and Reverting
• Chapter 6: Monitoring Changes
• Chapter 7: Dealing with Vandalism and Spam

• Chapter 8: Communicating with Your Fellow Editors
• Chapter 9: WikiProjects and Other Group Efforts
• Chapter 10: Resolving Content Disputes
• Chapter 11: Handling Incivility and Personal Attacks
• Chapter 12: Lending Other Editors a Hand

• Chapter 13: Article Sections and Tables of Contents
• Chapter 14: Creating Lists and Tables
• Chapter 15: Adding Images

• Chapter 16: Getting Readers to the Right Article: Naming, Redirects, and Disambiguation
• Chapter 17: Categorizing Articles
• Chapter 18: Better Articles: A Systematic Approach
• Chapter 19: Deleting Existing Articles

• Chapter 20: Customizing with Preferences
• Chapter 21: Easier Editing with JavaScript

• A Tour of the Wikipedia Page
• Readers Guide to Wikipedia
• Learning More