Wikiquote:Welcome, newcomers

Wikiquote Policies and Guidelines
Content
Wikiquote General disclaimer Image use policy Neutral point of view Quotes by living persons Wikiquote is not... Sourcing categories (guideline) Fictional characters (guideline) Quotability (guideline)
Conduct
Assume good faith (guideline)
Operation
Blocking policy Bots Deletion policy GNU FDL Policies and Guidelines Proposed deletion Speedy deletions Username policy Babel (guideline) Stub (guideline)

Wikiquote is a free compendium of quotations written by people like you, hosted by the US based non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. To create a user account, visit. Special:CreateAccount.

There are three things you can do on Wikiquote. You can read it, you can edit it, and you can write it.

There are some things that do not belong on Wikiquote, but apart from those, all other contributions are welcome.

Reading

Reading is usually simple. Go to the Main Page, find a subject that looks interesting, and start exploring. There's also a search box at the top right of every page.

If you read something, and you like it, why not drop a note on the page's talk space? First select the "Discuss this page" link to get to the talk page, then select Edit this page on the talk page. We always love to get a bit of positive feedback!

If there's a quote you're looking for, or a topic we don't cover, just ask us at the reference desk, or add the topic to our list of requests.

If you have a question about how Wikiquote works, take a look at our frequently asked questions. If that doesn't answer your question, you can ask it at the village pump.

Editing

Anyone can edit pages on Wikiquote, including this one—just select the Edit this Page link on the top or bottom of this page if you think it needs improvement. You don't need special credentials, you don't even need to be logged in. You can try your hand at editing in our sandbox: Edit the sandbox.

A simple way to start helping is just to use Wikiquote as you would any other dictionary of quotations, but when you spot a problem—a spelling mistake, perhaps, or an unclear sentence, then go in and fix it. Be bold in updating pages - if you can see a way of improving a page, just do it.

You might find this a bit scary! See Replies to common objections for an explanation of why the system still works.

Writing

Editing our existing set of knowledge is great, but we'd like you to contribute your knowledge too. You can start a brand-new page, or find an existing page and add an entirely new section to it. Don't worry too much about making mistakes—if you do get something slightly wrong, then you, or anyone, can always fix it later.

Note: If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then don't submit it. All contributions to Wikiquote are considered to be released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License‎ (CC BY-SA) and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). This ensures that Wikiquote will remain freely distributable forever. Do not submit copyrighted work unless you have permission from the author to license it under the CC BY-SA. See Wikipedia:Copyrights for more information.

We've got a few policies and guidelines you might want to look at. You are encouraged to follow the template. Also, the project is focused on building an encyclopedia of quotations, so there are many things that Wikiquote is not.

Have fun!

For more information

Introductory list of links

Here are a few links to more introductory information:

About the project
Help pages – help on editing, starting new articles, and many other topics
Wikiquote FAQs – frequently asked questions about the site
Reference desk – where to ask questions about quotes or sources
Village pump – where to ask questions about Wikiquote itself
Shortcuts – list of links to policy pages and their corresponding abbreviations
Policies and guidelines for contributors – list of links to Wikiquote policy pages