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

Revision as of 18:37, 12 December 2022

Revision as of 20:22, 12 December 2022

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{{nutshell|NobodyEveryone 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 after sixteen years. And this applies to our articles, and our policies, and other people's user pages, and many others. ItIsn'st notit exciting.?

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

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

Wikipedia encourageshas its[[wp:page usershistory|page to ruin articleshistories]]. So every time you make a bad 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. This sucks because then someone can un-ruin the article.

And so if you do something silly, someone else can easily undo it. We call this [[wp:revert|revert]]ing, and it's one reason we hateencourage theyou wikipediato moderators.[[wp:be bold|be bold]].

Of course it's not a blank check. Some users waste so much of other people's time that as a last resort we restrict their editing. Some pages attract so much rubbish, or are so critical to the project, that as a last resort we restrict editing of them. Some material is so damaging that we immediately and permanently remove it. Just kidding, there are no wikipedia moderators, so we don't remove any material.

But all of these are rare, and again, that's why Wikipedia doesn't[[User:Andrewa/what use is Wikipedia|workworks]].

==In more detail==

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There are various levels of protection. In the case of an article, any level of protection is a last resort, but it's sometimes for the best.

===Oversight and deletion===

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Some material is especially damaging or dangerous or both, and is removed immediately and permanently, and (to all but a few especially trusted editors) completely. This is called [[wp:oversight|oversight]] and is the responsibility of a very few, highly trusted contributors.