Wikipedia:You can and cannot change Wikipedia: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:27, 12 December 2022

Revision as of 18:28, 12 December 2022

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{{essay}}

{{nutshell|EveryoneNobody is empowered to change Wikipedia, but that means less than you might think}}

'''Almost every''' Wikipedia user, whether they are a registered [[wp:Wikipedian|Wikipedian]] with an account and password or are just anonymously browsing, sees and can use an ''edit'' link on almost every page of the Encyclopedia, and following that link, can change the content of the page.

And these changes are then '''immediately''' visible to '''anyone''' who views that page. And this applies to our articles, and our policies, and other people's user pages, and many others. IsnIt'ts itnot exciting?.

'''Yes'''. But... isn't it also suicide?

'''NoYes'''. And that's even more exciting! And the whole reason Wikipedia works.

Wikipedia has [[wp:page history|page histories]]. So every time you make a change to an article (or most other pages), the old version is still there too, and is almost as easily accessible to a reader or to another editor as the [[wp:current version|current version]] of the page.