Want to help build the world's largest, highest quality, free how-to manual? It may seem like an epic task, but thousands of people collaborate on wikiHow every day to reach this goal. Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can help out, so there's bound to be something that matches up with your interests and skills. Here's a list to help you get started!
EditSteps
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1Do you love to write? Anyone can start a new page on wikiHow, even anonymous contributors! The only thing we ask is that you try to avoid writing about a topic that we already have on the site, because we'd prefer that you improve the existing page instead. If you're not sure of what to write about, go to the Write an Article page and scroll down to the "I want topic suggestions" section. Type in a keyword and hit "Submit". This will give you ideas for articles that may not have been written about on wikiHow yet. Click on any red title to start that article.
- Look carefully at the list of similar existing articles. If any of the titles shown are on the same topic you're writing about, click on that title to add your insights to the existing page. If you start an article on a topic we already have on wikiHow, it'll most likely get merged. If your title is unique, though, just click "Next".
- For more ideas on what to write about, see How to Find a Subject to Write About at wikiHow.
- Read our Deletion Policy for examples of content we do not accept.
- Once you are ready to write, remember that wikiHow is read all over the world by all kinds of people. Try to include steps that everyone can follow wherever possible or make sure your title lets readers know if your steps can only be followed by certain people. Try not to assume your reader is a certain age. Remember that people are differently able. Not everyone has lots of money to spend. Some teenagers, particularly those 18 or over are parents to children of their own. Older people have parents too don't forget, advice about coping with parents should be targeted at kids or written for everyone to follow.
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2Don't forget that some reader's understanding of English is better than others. Use the simplest language you can whenever possible and check those spellings! Some users won't know a word is spelt wrong and will whip out their dictionary to look it up only be frustrated when they can't find out the meaning of word!
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3Are you a perfectionist? If you see any kind of mistake, you can always click on the "Edit Article" tab at the top of an article and fix it on the spot. You don't even need to register. You can also use our Community Dashboard tools to focus on problems like these:
- Read our copyediting tips and use the Copyediting Greenhouse tool to tackle the articles that need help.
- Check out our formatting guidelines and use the Formatting Greenhouse tool to reformat articles that need it.
- Use generic pronouns to remove gender-specific language. Pages noted for needing gender neutralization are listed here but there are many across the site that you'll probably stumble upon.
- Remove personal references like "I" and "me". The reason we avoid this is because personal reference tends to discourage people from editing a page. Try to substitute words like "you" and "your". A list of articles that need to have personal references removed is here.
- Use the Cleanup Greenhouse tool to help out with articles that need all kinds of help: copyediting, reformatting, and other tweaks.
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4Help us patrol recent changes.
- On any wiki, there's a queue of Recent Changes (RC) that show every change or addition that's been made to the site and allows volunteers to accept or rollback those changes. Most of the edits made on any given day are helpful, and any bad edits (vandalism) are usually quickly reverted by an RC patroller. Would you like to help out? Check out how it is done in this article: How to Patrol Recent Changes on wikiHow.
- Use the Quality Guardian to decide whether recently added tips and videos are a good fit for the articles they've been added to.
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5Do you like to organize?
- Use the Categorizing tool. Categorizing helps our readers find the articles they're looking for. (Note that you need to be registered and logged in to do this.)
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6Do you like to take photographs or draw?
- Look at our list of articles in need of step-by-step pictures. Consider taking instructional photos and adding them to articles!
- If you like to draw, many of our pages need diagrams too. You can scan or photograph your drawings and upload them the same way you would a photo.
- If you like or are good at taking screenshots, you can also look at our list of articles in need of screenshots. Consider taking screenshots and adding them to articles!
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7Are you good at fact-checking and research? Become familiar with our research standards and learn how to format citation links on wikiHow, then...
- Try your hand at accuracy patrol.
- Browse articles tagged as needing citations. Usually you'll see at least once sentence with "citation needed" at the end (e.g.[citation needed]). Verify whether that statement is accurate and correct or remove it. Don't forget to remove the "citation needed" template by erasing {{fact}}.
- Expand a Stub. Some articles are incomplete and need significant help to reach their full potential. Feel free to get involved with a major revision.
- Browse articles tagged as being unclear and see if you can clarify or elaborate.
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8If you enjoy watching instructional videos, then help us add them to our articles. Go to the Video Adder to view articles that need videos, or go to any article that doesn't have a video yet and add a video.
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9Join a project. Collaborate with others to create and improve a particular group of articles. Create a contest to spur inspiration.
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10Start a wikiHow in another language. Our goal is to provide a free multi-lingual resource to help improve the everyday lives of everyone throughout the world.
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11Offer thanks and praise to your fellow editors. Appreciate their excellence, enthusiasm and dedication. Add an award to an editor's Talk page. These acts of kindness increase the strength of our community.
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12Expand articles you are experienced about and add information to articles. Tell the authors of the article that they did a good job on the article and that you edited it. If they are new, try welcoming them along with mentioning the article.
- You can also do small edits to articles you know a lot about. This will help articles have quality and maybe prevent them from getting deleted.
- Try improving stubs and pages that need attention.
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13Save an article from deletion. Add info to it, improve its quality, or make any helpful edits that would save an article from deletion.
- Ask other wikiHow users to help you and collaborate on the article to save the article from deletion. Be nice to them and work together on saving the article from deletion.
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14Edit in the Topic Greenhouse. Choose a category of articles you enjoy and edit articles about them. Expand and improve them, or even a simple edit would help improve the article.
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15Go to the new pages list and edit new articles. Fix spelling mistakes on them, copyedit or format it, etc. Leave a message for the contributor that started the article, and if they're new, you can welcome them to wikiHow. Mention that they did a good job creating a helpful article, and give them praise.
- Once you have some experience in reviewing new pages, you can become a New Article Booster if you meet the requirements. Boosters improve new articles and provide encouragement and friendly advice to new editors. All you'll need to do is take a 3-part test and have a valid email address.
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16Use the spellchecker tool to help fix spelling on different articles. Some articles have spelling errors in them, and there is a backlog of them that need fixing, so it's great if you could help out with that. Feel free to whitelist any words that are spelled correctly, but are flagged by the Spellchecker; wikiHow administrators and new article boosters will review them as soon as possible.
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17Remember that contributing is about helping people learn to do things. A good article that tells someone exactly what they wanted to know, just once, is more helpful than a page that is read a lot but not genuinely helpful and useful.
EditTips
- Always be civil, kind, and supportive, no matter what activity you take up. Assume good faith on wikiHow at all times.
- For any questions you may have, click on "Help" at the top-right of any page. Feel free to contact the Help Team, an any available administrator, post in the forum or the IRC chat room, or send an e-mail.
- Log in or create an account. You are welcome to remain anonymous if you like, but creating an account allows everyone to relate in a more personal way and you can access all of the editor's tools.
- If something needs immediate attention, such as vandalism or bugging, contact the Administrator Notice Board.
- When you first have your account, it's strongly advised to take the wikiHow Tour.
EditWarnings
- Please do not vandalize or spam wikiHow. Unfortunately, people frequently place spam, vandalism, and irrelevant or abusive information on wikiHow. This is lamentable because it detracts from our goal of creating a useful, free how-to manual. Remember, you can get blocked for this. If you think vandalism and spamming is fun, think again: getting blocked is not fun.
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