Ever wondered why Wikipedia has information on relatively anything in an instant. Well, the answer is because of people like you. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world. If you have always wanted to join the Wikipedia family, this article will guide you on how to contribute to Wikipedia in Uganda.
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1. Create Wikipedia Account
Individuals do not need to register in order to create a new entry on Wikipedia. However, creating or registering a Wikipedia account allows users to take advantage of more additional features and take the credibility of their contribution as their names will be showcased among the visible contributions in a page’s change history.
To create a Wikipedia account;
- Go to the Wikipedia website.
- Click on the Create Account entry at the top right.
- Enter username, password, and email address.
- Key in the security code shown on the screen in the appropriate field.
- Tap the “Create your User” to complete registration.
The main difference between a registered user and a nonregistered user is the test page also called the Sandbox that allows users to practice Wikipedia functions without risking damaging the encyclopedia.
Read Also: How to Export a Wikipedia Page Content as a PDF
2. Create a Test Page
Upon creating an account with Wikipedia, tap on the item tests in the upper right to create your personal sandbox and start getting familiar with the functions on Wikipedia. In the text field below, you can enter text and edit your page in source mode, then display the source code of Wikipedia. If you prefer making changes without strange codes, press the pencil icon located at the top right corner in the text field, then on the edit visual option, and click on the change item.
By doing so, you can clearly see the changes made, if you insert an image, you will see the inserted photo and not its source code. This is the so-called WYSIWYG mode, which means that what you see is what you get.
If you do not have a Wikipedia account and you still want to perform tests, connected to the common test page, click on Edit Wikitesto and start making your changes then press Publish Changes button once you are done to save the changes made. Otherwise, you can click the Preview button to view the final result of the created test page or the Show Changes button to see the comparison between the start page and the page after changes before you publish.
3. Understand Wikipedia Policies and Guidelines
Before creating a new entry on Wikipedia, you need to know which guidelines to follow. Wikipedia has a variety of core guidelines and policies which each user must highly respect. Check out the Neutral Point of View (NPOV), No Original Research (NOR/OR), and Verifiability for they are the crucial policies. Also, users need to know how to use the commands for creating a new page. Log in to your test page and choose one of the writing modes between Source and Visual. To simply things to see changes in real-time, it is recommended to use the visual mode which allows users to create a voice even without knowing the source code of Wikipedia.
4. Contribute to stubs Articles {{stub}}.
You can contribute content to articles that are not complete or written in full detail. Incomplete articles or sub-sorted articles are marked as Stub. Sub-sorted stubs include anything from Arts, Cultures, Design, Broadcast Media, Radio, Television, Literature, and more.
5. Make your own Article
As much as adding content to stub articles is beneficial to the site, you can also choose to make your own article and post it on Wikipedia. Currently, the English version of Wikipedia is estimated to have over 6,512,124 articles with 120,109 active contributors in the past month (May 2022). You can contribute to Wikipedia by joining the family of its active contributors.
6. Identify and Remove Spam.
Wikipedia is accessed by millions of people every day, thus, there tends to be a lot of spam. People who spam a page may have added inappropriate links, and blanked the page, among others. You can help out by removing, or reverting this information and in the end, this will make Wikipedia a better place for people to gather information and resources.
As time moves on, you will have mastered the art of being an active contributor to the Wikipedia website. And since Wikipedia is a community, you will at some time need to share your knowledge and experience with new contributors.
8. Make a Donation
Wikipedia prides itself as a non-profit organization. If you are willing to support, you can donate $5, $20, $50, or whatever you can to help the website to grow and protect its independence. Click here to donate.