Wikipedia (IPA:/ˌwikiˈpiːdi.ə/ or/ˌwɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/) bụ otúmultilingual,web-based,free contentencyclopedia project. Ndi volunteer site akuku nílé di na uwa nacollaborate na ede. With rare exceptions, ónyéọbula nwe internet ga e nwé ike nyé ákáedit ya, simply site na i click rudezielink. Aha Wikipedia bu otuportmanteau nke umuokwuwiki (a type of collaborative website) naencyclopedia. Site na mgbe e kéré yá na 2001, Wikipedia e to rapidly banye otu nyé na ndi núkwùreferenceWeb sites.
Na article nile, links ga e du gi ru associated articles, often with additional information. Onyobula di welcome i tinye information, cross-references mo citations, as long as fa na e mere etu ahun within Wikipedia'sediting policies na appropriate standard. A tu ne egu na i gá accidentally damage Wikipedia mgbe i na e tinye mọ dozie information, nihi naeditors ndị ọzọ always nọ around i advise mọ correct obvious errors, ọzọ kwa Wikipedia's software, anyi mara asMediaWiki, di carefully designed i kwe ru easy reversal of editorial mistakes.
Nihi Wikipedia bụ ọrụ ná gá on nyé nke, na principle, onyobula nwe ike contribute nye, ọ dị íchè from paper-based reference source na ụzọ ba uru. In particular, older articles tend to di more comprehensive na balanced, while newer articles nwe ike contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, orvandalism. Users need ru i dị aware of ihe nke'a ị obtain ru valid information na ị yari misinformation fa tinye re recently mana fa dika e wepụ. (NeResearching with Wikipedia for more details.) However, unlike paper reference source, Wikipedia di continually updated, with nkere mo updating of articles on topical events within minutes or hours, rather than na onwa or aho nke printed encyclopedias.
Wikipedia bụ a registeredtrademark nkenonprofitWikimedia Foundation, nke kere entire family of free-contentprojects. Na ime projects ndị nka, ị di welcome ịdi bold mere edit articles, contribute nye knowledge etụ ị fu ru fit na ụzọ dị collaborative.
Ọ bụrụ na ị dika e me etụ ahụ, anyị na e mere gi invite ka ị weru obere moments ka í guIhe Wikipedia bu (na ihe ọ burọ), so that ị ga e nwe understanding ru etụ ị consult mọ contribute nye Wikipedia. Further information gbasara key topics na gosi na ụkpụrụ. Ọ bụrụ na ị nwe rọ ike chọpụta ihe ị chọrọ, nwagoduFrequently Asked Questions mọ neEbe ị jụ esị. Màkà enyemaka gbasara editing na issues ndị ọzọ, neHelp:Contents.
Wikipedia di founded ka offshoot nkeNupedia, otu project di now-abandoned ị produce a free encyclopedia. Nupedia nwe re elaborate system ofpeer review bia kwa require highly qualified contributors, mana ị dèrè articles di slow. Na oge 2000,Jimmy Wales, ónyé bu founder Nupedia, naLarry Sanger, nke Wales te employ ka ọ rụrụ on project ahụ, discuss uzo ị supplement Nupedia with komplementri project.
Ná mgbe chi ejie nkeJanuary 2,2001, Sanger nwe konvasashon n'elu dinner withBen Kovitz, otucomputer programmer, niSan Diego,California. Kovitz, ónyé wu a regula na "Ward's Wiki" (WikiWikiWeb), explain ruwiki concept nye Sanger. Sanger hụ na ihe wiki ga bụ an excellent format ebe a more open, less formal encyclopedia project nwé ike dị pursued. Ọ dịrị Sanger izi ị persuade ru Wales, ónyé dị ga introduced ga wiki konsept, ga set up otu wiki nye Nupedia, ọzọ kwá Nupedia's wiki izizi ga onlaen niJanuary 10.
Konsidarabul resistans te di site na áká pat ndị ne edit Nupedia na ndị reviewers n'ihi nye aidea nke ị assoshiet Nupedia with websait di na wiki format, n'ihi nke'a project ọhụrụahu a bịa nwé aha "Wikipedia" na domaen nke ya, wikipedia.com, naJanuary 15 (ni ugbua anyị ne kpọ "Ụbọchị Wikipedia"). Wales donaet ruBandwidth naserver (di ni San Diego).Bomis employees garaga na ndị nọ ùgbúà bụ ndị ru ọrụ ná project a inklud ruTim Shell, otu ónyé na ndị kochọpụta Bomis na current NEO ya, na programmer Jason Richey. Domaen ya evenchuali gbanwere ga ru wikipedia.org dị ùgbúà mgbe nonprọfitWikimedia Faundeshon di launchd ka nnenanna ọganaizeshon ya, promptin ị ji .org mé domaen nye ị dinot nonkommashal nechọ ya. Ni Maachị 2007, okwuwiki a bịa bụrụ ọkwụ ọhụrụ ni asụsụ oyibo .[1]
NiMee 2001, ndị non-Igbo Wikipedia di launchd — nyeKatalan,Chinese,Dutch,Esperanto,French,Jerman,Hebrew,Italian,Japaniz,Portuguiz,Rossian,Spanish, naSwedish; o mesia,Arabik naHungerian e só fa.[2] Na September,[3] fa gwụnyaPolish banye fa ya na ị mé kommitment nye multilingual provishon nke Wikipedia. Na ngwusi afọ ahụ,Afrikaans,Norwegian, naSerbokroatian vashons di annaunsd.
Text nílé dị ni Wikipedia, na most foto na kontent ndị ọzọ di, di kọvad site niGNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). Kọntribushọn obula fọdụrụ ka akunauba nke ndi kere fa, GFDL laisens ne hụ ne kontent di freeli distributabul na ị mepụta ọzọ. (Léekopiraight notis nakontent disklaema gbasara information Karịa.)
Ịrị dị n'igwe nke ndị ne me edit kwada — sitere expat skọla fa ga ndị ne gụ ya kazhuali — nwe ike mere Wikipedia edit, mmepee ne me nkasiobi ntinye nnukwu kọntent amaunt.
Mekanizim karịa dị ị ndị memba Wikipedia rụrụ ọrụ kasị bara uru ị kere hai-qualiti resos na maentaen civiliti. Ndị Editọ nwe ike kiri ịhụ na ndị tekis nwere ike sere editin programmụ ị dobe trak nke mọ rektifai ajọ edit. Karịa 1,000 administratọ with Ike pụrụ iche ne gbamgbọ hụ ne omume konfomụ ga gaidlaen na pọlisi Wikipedia. Mgbe situaeshon ntakịrị dịrị unresolvd mgbe konsensus remedi ndị ọzọ fael, otu judishal kommittee ne bátá na kau ihe ga eme gbasara ị withdraw mọ restrikt ike editin mọ ị hotara meazhọ ndozi ndị ọzọ.
Ọldou Wikimedia Faundeshon nwere sait a, ọ dị ọninvọlvd nnukwu ni ị dèrè edit na opereshon kwa ụbọchị.
Many visitors come to this site to acquire knowledge, others to share knowledge. In fact, at this very instant, dozens of articles are being improved, andnew articles are also being created. You can view changes as they happen at theRecent changes page. You also can viewrandom articles. Over 1,200 articles have been designated by the Wikipedia community asfeatured articles, exemplifying the best articles in Wikipedia. Another 1,800 articles are designated asgood articles. Wikipedia also hasportals, which organize content around topic areas. You may alsosearch for articles, using the search box on the left side of the screen.
You also might enjoy reading Wikipedia in other languages. Wikipedia has more than two hundred different languages (seeother language versions), including aSimple English version, and related projects include a dictionary, quotations, books, manuals, and scientific reference sources, and a news service (seesister projects). All of these are maintained, updated, and managed by separate communities, and often include thought-provoking information and articles which can be hard to find through other common sources.
Wikipedia articles are alllinked, or cross-referenced. Wherever you see highlighted text likethis, it means there is a link to some relevant article or Wikipedia page with further in-depth information elsewhere if you need it. Holding your mouse over the link will often show you where a link will take you. You are always one click away from more information on any point that has a link attached. There are other links towards the ends of most articles, for other articles of interest, relevant external web sites and pages, reference material, andorganized categories of knowledge which you can search and traverse in a loosehierarchy for more information. Some articles may also have links to dictionary definitions, audio-book readings, quotations, the same article in other languages, and further information available on oursister projects. You can add further links if a relevant link is missing, and this is one way to contribute.
As awiki, articles are never complete. They are continually edited and improved over time, and in general this results in an upward trend of quality, and a growing consensus over a fair and balanced representation of information.
Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start, and may contain false or debatable information. Indeed, many articles start their lives as partisan, and it is after a long process of discussion, debate and argument, that they gradually take on aneutral point of view reached throughconsensus. Others may for a while become caught up in a heavily unbalanced viewpoint which can take some time — months perhaps — to extricate themselves and regain a better balanced consensus. In part, this is because Wikipedia operates an internal resolution process when editors cannot agree on content and approach, and such issues take time to come to the attention of more experienced editors.
Theideal Wikipedia article is balanced,neutral and encyclopedic, containing notable,verifiable knowledge. An increasing number of articles reach this standard over time, and many already have. However, this is a process and can take months or years to be achieved, as each user adds their contribution in turn. Some articles contain statements and claims which have not yet been fullycited. Others will later have entire new sections added. Some information will be considered by later contributors to be insufficiently founded, and may be removed or expounded.
While the overall trend is generally upward, it is important to use Wikipedia carefully if it is intended to be used as a research source, since individual articles will, by their nature, vary in standard and maturity. Thereare guidelines and information pages designed to help users and researchers do this effectively, and an article that summarizes third-party studies and assessments of thereliability of Wikipedia.
Some see clear differences in Wikipedia that allow it to trump traditional paper encyclopedias. For instance, Wikipedia has not only a very low "publishing" cost for adding or expanding upon material but also a low environmental impact, since it need never be printed and then distributed via air, sea, or land. Also, Wikipedia seems easier to read through its use ofwikilinks instead of in-line explanations and its incorporation of overview summaries (article introductions) with the extensive detail of a full article. Additionally, the editorial cycle can be performed with greater timeliness, accessibility, and ease. Although a paper encyclopedia is set in stone till its next edition, writers and editors update Wikipedia at every moment, thus ensuring that it stays abreast of the most recent events and scholarship.
Supporters of paper encyclopedias disagree. Many think that Wikipedia's amateur and democratic ethos makes it far more susceptible to inaccuracy. Others argue that too many Wikipedia articles lack any real relevance but instead reflect uncritical fandom or advance hypercritical vendettas. Other charges have been leveled against Wikipedia: editing can be too contentious and uncivil; articles on highly important subjects too often lack quality or simply do not yet exist; it is not user-friendly or welcoming enough to new members; it is too vulnerable to vandalism; etc. However, many Wikipedia members insist that these problems will largely iron themselves out over the course of the project; after all, they say, Wikipedia is only in its infancy.
Wikipedia's greatest strengths, weaknesses and differences arise because it is open to anyone, has a large contributor base, and articles are written by consensus according to editorial guidelines and policies. TheMediaWiki software which runs Wikipedia retains a history of all edits and changes, thus information added to Wikipedia never "vanishes", and is never "lost" or deleted.
Wikipedia isopen to a large contributor base, drawing a large number of editors from diverse backgrounds. This allows Wikipedia to significantly reduce regional and cultural bias found in many other publications, and makes it very difficult for any group to censor and impose bias. A large, diverse editor base also provides access and breadth on subject matter that is otherwise inaccessible or little documented. A large number of editors contributing at any moment also means that Wikipedia can produce excellent encyclopedic articles and resources covering newsworthy events within hours or days of their occurrence.
Wikipedia articles and coverage of topics may have a tendency to reflect the cultural, age, and socio-economic demographics of its contributors. There is no systematic process to make sure that"obviously important" topics are written about, so Wikipedia may contain unexpected oversights and omissions. Whilemost articles may be altered by anyone, in practice editing will be performed by a certain demographic (younger rather than older, male rather than female, rich enough to afford a computer rather than poor, Christian or Jewish rather than Muslim or Buddhist etc.) and may, therefore, show some bias. Some more academic topics may not be covered as well on Wikipedia, while pop culture topics are covered in great depth.
Allowinganyone to edit Wikipedia means that it is more easily vandalized or susceptible to unchecked information, which requires removal. While blatant vandalism is usually easily spotted and rapidly corrected, Wikipedia is more subject to subtle vandalism and viewpoint promotion than a typical reference work. While Wikipedia articles generally attain a good standard after editing, it is important to note that fledgling, or less well monitored, articles may be susceptible to vandalism and insertion of false information. Wikipedia's radical openness also means that any given article may be, at any given moment, in a bad state, such as in the middle of a large edit, or a controversial rewrite. Many contributors do not yet comply fully with keypolicies, or may add information withoutcitable sources. Wikipedia's open approach tremendously increases the chances that any particular factual error or misleading statement will be relatively promptly corrected. Numerous editors at any given time are monitoringrecent changes and edits to articles on theirwatchlist.
Wikipedia iswritten by consensus — an approach that has its pros and cons. Censorship or imposing "official" points of view is difficult to achieve and almost always fails after a time. Eventually for most articles, all notable views become fairly described and aneutral point of view reached. In reality, the process of reaching consensus may be long and drawn-out, with articles more fluid or changeable for a long time compared while they find their "neutral approach" that all sides can agree on. Reaching neutrality is occasionally made harder byextreme-viewpoint contributors. Wikipedia operates a full editorial dispute resolution process, that allows time for discussion and resolution in depth, but also permits months-long disagreements before poor quality or biased edits will be removed forcibly.
Studies suggest that Wikipedia is broadly as reliable asEncyclopedia Britannica, with similar error rates on established articles for both major and minor omissions and errors.[4] There is a tentative consensus, backed by a gradual increase inacademic citation as a source, that it provides a good starting point for research, and that articles in general have proven to be reasonably sound. That said, articles and subject areas sometimes suffer from significant omissions, and whilst misinformation and vandalism are usually corrected quickly, this does not always happen. (See for examplethis incident in which a person inserted a fake biography linking a prominent journalist to the Kennedy assassinations and Soviet Russia as a joke on a co-worker which went undetected for 4 months, saying afterwards he "didn’t knowWikipedia was used as a serious reference tool.") Therefore, a common conclusion is that it is a valuable resource and provides a good reference point on its subjects, but like any online source, unfamiliar information should be checked before relying upon it.
A2005 editorial by aBBCtechnology writer comments that these debates are probably symptomatic of newcultural learnings which are happening across all sources of information (including search engines and the media), namely "a better sense of how to evaluate information sources."[5]
| Disclaimers |
| General |
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Wikipedia, in common with many websites, makes its disclaimers highly visible, a practice which at times has led to commentators citing these in order to support a view that Wikipedia is unreliable. A selection of similar disclaimers from places which are often regarded as reliable (including sources such asEncyclopædia Britannica,Associated Press, and theOxford English Dictionary) can be read and compared atNon-Wikipedia disclaimers. Wikipedia content advisories can also be foundhere.
Anyone can contribute to Wikipedia by clicking on theEdit this page tab in an article. Before beginning to contribute however, you should check out some handy helping tools such as thetutorial and thepolicies and guidelines, as well asour welcome page. It is important to realize that in contributing to Wikipedia, users are expected to becivil andneutral, respecting all points of view, and only addverifiable and factual information rather thanpersonal views and opinions. "The five pillars of Wikipedia" cover this approach and are recommended reading before editing. However, repeated vandalizing will be reported via theAdministrator Notice Board and the user may be temporarilyblocked from editing Wikipedia.
Most articles start asstubs, but after many contributions, they can becomefeatured articles. Once you have determined that there is no article on Wikipedia on a topic you are interested in, you may want torequest that the article be written (or you could even research the issue and write it yourself). Wikipedia has many on-goingprojects, focused on specific topic areas or tasks, which help coordinate editing. The hope of any contributor is to provide useful and accurate information to others, and the projects help coordinate efforts.
Wikipedia uses a simple yet powerful pagelayout to allow editors to concentrate on adding material rather than page design. These include automatic sections and subsections, automatic references and cross-references, image and table inclusion, indented and listed text, links ISBNs and math, as well as usual formatting elements and most world alphabets and common symbols. Most of these have simple formats that are deliberately very easy and intuitive.
Wikipedia has robustversion and reversion controls. This means that poor quality edits or vandalism can quickly and easily be reversed or brought up to an appropriate standard by any other editors, so inexperienced editors cannot accidentally do permanent harm if they make a mistake in their editing. As there are many more editors intent upon good quality articles than any other kind, articles that are poorly edited are usually corrected promptly.
Wikipedia content is intended to be factual, notable, verifiable with external sources, and neutrally presented, with external sources cited.
The appropriate policies and guidelines for these are found at:
These can be abbreviated toWP:NOT,WP:NPOV,WP:NOR,WP:V, andWP:CITE respectively.
The Wikipedia community is largely self-organising, so that anyone may build a reputation as a competent editor and become involved in any role they may choose, subject to peer approval. Individuals often will choose to become involved in specialised tasks, such as reviewing articles at others' request, watching current edits for vandalism, watching newly created articles for quality control purposes, or similar roles. Editors who find that editorial administrator responsibility would benefit their ability to help the community may ask their peers in the community for agreement to undertake such roles; a structure which enforces meritocracy and communal standards of editorship and conduct. At present around a 75–80% approval rating after enquiry, is considered the requirement for such a role, a standard which tends to ensure a high level of experience, trust and familiarity across a broad front of projects within Wikipedia.
A variety ofsoftware assisted systems andautomated programs help several hundred editors to watch for problematic edits and editors. Anarbitration committee sits at the top of all editorial and editor conduct disputes,[6] and its members are elected in three regularly rotatedtranches by an established enquiry and decision making process in which all regular editors can equally participate.
Wikipedia has a rich span of methods to handle most abuses which commonly arise, which are well tested and should be relied upon.
In addition,brand new users (until they have established themselves a bit) may at the start find that their votes are given less weight by editors in some informalpolls, in order to prevent abuse ofsingle purpose accounts.
As well as systems to catch and control substandard and vandalistic edits, Wikipedia also has a full style and content manual, and a variety of positive systems for continual article review and improvement. Examples of the processes involved includepeer review,good article assessment, andfeatured articles, a rigorous review of articles which are desired to meet the highest standards and showcase Wikipedia's capability to produce high quality work.
In addition, specific types of article or fields often have their own specialized and comprehensiveprojects, assessment processes (such asbiographical article assessment), and expert reviewers within specific subjects. Nominated articles are also frequently the subject of specific focus under projects such as theNeutrality Project or covered under editorial drives by groups such as theCleanup Taskforce.
Wikipedia usesMediaWiki software, theopen-source program used not only onWikimedia projects but also on many other third-party websites. The hardware supporting theWikimedia projects is based on almost 100 servers in various hosting centers around the world. Full descriptions of these servers are available onthis meta page. For technical information about Wikipedia, you can checkTechnical FAQs.
Wikipedia itself is run as a communal effort. It is a community project whose end result is an encyclopedia. Feedback about content should, in the first instance, be raised on the discussion pages of those articles. You are invited tobe bold and edit the pages yourself to add information or correct mistakes if you are knowledgeable and able to do so.
There is an established escalation and dispute process within Wikipedia, as well as pages designed for raising questions, feedback, suggestions and comments:
See also:
Facilities for help for users researching specific topics can be found at:
Because of the nature of Wikipedia, it's encouraged that people looking for information should try and find it themselves in the first instance. If however you come across valid information missing from Wikipedia,be bold andadd it yourself so others can gain from your research too!
For specific discussion not related to article content or editor conduct, see theVillage pump, which covers such subjects asnews andannouncements,policy andtechnical discussion, and information on other specialized portals such as thehelp,reference andpeer review desks. TheCommunity Portal is a centralized place to find things to do, collaborations, and general editing help information, and find out what's going on.
If you need more information, the first place to go is theHelp:Contents. To contact individual contributors, leave a message on theirtalk page. Standard places to ask policy and project-related questions are thevillage pump, online, and theWikipedia mailing lists, over e-mail. You can also reach otherWikipedians viaIRC andinstant messenger.
Also, you could try the Wikimedia Foundationmeta-wiki, a site for coordinating the various Wikipedia projects and sister projects (and abstract discussions of policy and direction), and there are many different places for submittingbug reports and feature requests.
For a full list of contact options, seeWikipedia:Contact us.
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