Misplaced Pages

This is the current revision of this page, as edited by Utopeczek (talk | contribs) at 20:10, 13 August 2024 (added a word for convenience's sake). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.

This page provides help with the most common questions about Misplaced Pages.

You can also search Misplaced Pages's help pages using the search box below, or browse the Help menu or the Help directory.

Read or find an article

The Readers' FAQ and our about page contain the most commonly sought information about Misplaced Pages.

For simple searches, there is a search box at the top of every page. Type what you are looking for in the box. Partial matches will appear in a dropdown list. Select any page in the list to go to that page. Or, select the magnifying glass "Go" button, or press ↵ Enter, to go to a full search result. For advanced searches, see Help:Searching.

There are other ways to browse and explore Misplaced Pages articles; many can be found at Misplaced Pages:Contents. See our disclaimer for cautions about Misplaced Pages's limitations.

For mobile access, press the mobile view link at the very bottom of every desktop view page.

Edit an article

Contributing is easy: see how to edit a page. For a quick summary on participating, see contributing to Misplaced Pages, and for a friendly tutorial, see our introduction. For a listing of introductions and tutorials by topic, see getting started. The Simplified Manual of Style and Cheatsheet can remind you of basic wiki markup.

Be bold in improving articles! When adding facts, please provide references so others may verify them. If you are affiliated with the article subject, please see our conflict of interest guideline.

The simple guide to vandalism cleanup can help you undo malicious edits.

If you're looking for places you can help out, the Task Center is the place to go, or check out what else is happening at the community portal. You can practice editing and experiment in a sandboxyour sandbox.

Report a problem with an article

If there is a problem with an article about yourself, a family member, a friend or a colleague, please read Biographies of living persons/Help.

If you spot a problem with an article, you can fix it directly, by clicking on the "Edit" link at the top of that page. See the "edit an article" section of this page for more information.

If you don't feel ready to fix the article yourself, post a message on the article's talk page. This will bring the matter to the attention of others who work on that article. There is a "Talk" link at the beginning of every article page.

You can contact us. If it's an article about you or your organization, see Contact us – Subjects.

Create a new article or upload media

Check Your first article to see if your topic is appropriate, then the Article wizard will walk you through creating the article.

Once you have created an article, see Writing better articles for guidance on how to improve it and what to include (like reference citations).

For contributing images, audio or video files, see the Introduction to uploading images. Then the Upload wizard will guide you through that process.

Stuck?

Answers to common problems can be found at frequently asked questions.

Or check out where to ask questions or make comments.

New users should seek help at the Teahouse if they're having problems while editing Misplaced Pages.

More complex questions can be posed at the Help desk. Volunteers will respond as soon as they're able.

Or ask for help on your talk page and a volunteer will visit you there!

You can get live help with editing in the help chatroom.

For help with technical issues, ask at the Village pump.

Factual questions

If searching Misplaced Pages has not answered your question (for example, questions like "Which country has the world's largest fishing fleet?"), try the Reference Desk. Volunteers there will attempt to answer your questions on any topic, or point you toward the information you need.

Directories

• Directory: main list of directories and indexes.

Help related

• Help directory: for informative, instructional and consultation pages.
• Request directory: for services and assistance that can be requested on Misplaced Pages.

Protocols and conventions

• Policy directory: official policies for "English Misplaced Pages".
• Guideline directory: official guidelines for "English Misplaced Pages".
• Manual of Style directory: pages related to the style manual of Misplaced Pages articles.

Community related

• Departments: for the different divisions of Misplaced Pages.
• Editor's index: for everything an editor needs to know to work on Misplaced Pages.
• Essay directory: for Misplaced Pages namespace essays.
• Dashboard: for current discussions taking place throughout Misplaced Pages.
• WikiProjects: for people who want to work together as a team to improve Misplaced Pages.

MediaWiki software

• Wikitext: for the syntax used by Misplaced Pages to format a page.
• HTML: for HTML5 elements, or tags and their attribute.
• Templates: for templates used within Misplaced Pages.

Help by topic

• Help Menu: for searching by subject matter.
• Navigating Misplaced Pages: for searching and browsing the encyclopedia.
• Joining Misplaced Pages: how to get involved.
• Editing Misplaced Pages: has general help for editors.
• Links and references: has help for creating links, or dealing with references
• Images and media: how to use images, videos and sound files.
• Keeping track of changes: how to track the evolution of a page, or follow a user.
• Policies and guidelines: for community standards.
• Asking questions: volunteers will attempt to answer.
• The Misplaced Pages community: how to submit or debate a proposal.
• Resources and lists: has resources for editors.
• Account settings: has tips and tools for registered users.
• Technical information: has tools for advanced users, and troubleshooting.
• Site map: is the above thirteen pages on one single page.

Tip of the day

Since anyone can edit almost any Misplaced Pages article, it is possible for biased, out of date, or incorrect information to be added to Misplaced Pages. To improve Misplaced Pages's reliability, fix these problems by doing the following:

1. As often as you can, monitor and check changes made to articles. Your Watchlist, and the Related changes and Recent changes features are useful for this.
2. Clean up vandalism and report vandals to Administrator intervention against vandalism (WP:AIV). Many vandalism clean-up tools are available to assist you.
3. Fix mistakes:
   • Fix typos, and grammatical and spelling errors. Join the Typo Team and learn their methods.
   • Fix factual errors. You could also join the Fact and Reference Check Project.
   • Fix bias. See Misplaced Pages:Systemic bias.
4. For dubious statements that are not sourced or are likely to be challenged, hunt for references that are reliable, relevant, accurate, objective, and timely. Add citations for these to the article.
5. Read the references provided by articles and check them for reliability, relevance, accuracy, objectivity, and timeliness. That is, read the source material cited, and remove irrelevant or unreliable citations.

Additional searches

Search Frequently Asked Questions

Search the help desk archives

• WP:HELP
• WP:H

• Help
• Misplaced Pages help contents