Glossary
edit summary
A brief explanation of an edit to a Wikipedia page, which helps other contributors follow the development an article and understand the intention of the edit.
free license
A public copyright license that ensures the freedom to use and study a work, to make and redistribute copies of it, to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works, by any person for any purpose. Wikipedia—and each individual contribution to it—uses the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which is a free license. See | shortcut WP:CC-BY-SA to learn more.
history
The record of a Wikipedia page, accessible through the View history tab, that shows every edit made. Any two versions can be compared to see the specific differences (known as a diff), and previous versions can be restored.
markup
The special code used to format a Wikipedia page. See the cheatsheet (page 19) for the basics, or go to | shortcut H:MARKUP for more detail.
Notification
A message for you that shows up at the top of a Wikipedia page. If you want to let someone know you replied to them, you can create a Mention Notification by including a link to their User page in a signed Talk page message.
parameter
A bit of text, separated from other bits with a pipe character (|), that is used to control how images, templates, and other wiki markup appear on a page.
stub
A short, undeveloped article with plenty of room for expansion. Adding content to stubs is a good way for new contributors to get started.
Talk page
The discussion space for an article or other Wikipedia page, where you can talk about the contents of the page with other contributors.
templates
A way of automatically including the contents of one page within another. For instructions on using them, see | shortcut H:T .
User page
The personal page of an individual contributor, which begins with "User:" followed by their username. Wikipedians can use their User pages to share information about themselves and their interests, list the articles they have worked on or want to work on, and much more.
Wikimedia Commons
The media repository for Wikipedia and many other wikis, where you can contribute freely licensed photos, diagrams, videos, and other media files for illustrating Wikipedia.
Wikipedian
Someone who helps build Wikipedia. Common synonyms include contributor, user, editor, and community member.
All images from Wikimedia Commons are under a CC BY-SA license or public domain unless otherwise stated. The content contained within is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v.3.0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:CC-BY-SA) or any later version.
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