'''OpenWiki''' is a free encyclopedia that anyone can read, copy and edit. It is written collaboratively: there are no assigned authors, no editorial board and no approval queue. Someone notices that a page is wrong, or missing, or badly written, and fixes it.

== How it works ==

Every page carries an '''Edit''' tab. Clicking it opens the [[Help:Editing|wikitext]] of the page in a plain text box. You change what you like, describe your change in the edit summary, and save. The new version appears immediately.

No account is needed. Edits made without one are credited to '''Anonymous'''; [[Special:CreateAccount|registering a username]] reserves that name so that edits credited to it are demonstrably yours. See [[Special:ListUsers]] for the accounts that exist.

Nothing is ever overwritten. Each save creates a new ''revision'', and every revision is kept forever in the page's history, along with who made it and when. Any two revisions can be compared side by side, and any old revision can be restored by copying it back over the current one. Vandalism and mistakes are reverted from the history.

== What belongs here ==

OpenWiki aims to be an encyclopedia, which is a narrower thing than a general website:

* '''Articles describe, they do not argue.''' Where a subject is disputed, the article explains the dispute and who holds which position, rather than taking a side.
* '''Claims should be attributable.''' Anything a reader might reasonably doubt should carry a reference, using <code>&lt;ref&gt;...&lt;/ref&gt;</code>.
* '''No original research.''' An encyclopedia summarises what is already published elsewhere; it is not the place to announce a discovery.
* '''Free content only.''' Do not paste in text you do not have the right to release under a free licence.

== Licensing ==

Text on OpenWiki is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence. You may copy it, republish it, print it, sell it and modify it, provided that you credit the source and release your version under the same terms.

== Getting started ==

The gentlest way in is [[Special:WantedPages]], which lists titles that existing articles link to but that nobody has written. Creating one of those pages fills a gap that somebody has already asked for. [[Help:Editing]] covers the markup, and [[OpenWiki:Community portal]] is where questions go.

[[Category:OpenWiki]]