There are exactly two things you need in order to contribute to OpenWiki: something worth adding, and the '''Edit''' button.

== Your first edit ==

# Find a page with a problem: a typo, a missing fact, an unclear sentence.
# Click '''Edit''' at the top of the page.
# Make the change.
# Write a short edit summary saying what you did, for example "fixed date of first ascent".
# Press '''Save changes'''.

That is the whole process. You do not need an account to do any of it.

== Anonymous or not ==

Edits made without logging in are credited to '''Anonymous''' in the page history. The edit form has no field for a name.

[[Special:CreateAccount|Registering an account]] gives you a name that is yours. Usernames are unique: once ''Ada'' is taken, no one else can edit under it, so when a page history says ''Ada'' made a change, it means the person holding that account did. Accounts need a username and a password. No email address is collected, so a lost password cannot be recovered.

Anonymous edits appear in [[Special:RecentChanges|recent changes]] alongside the rest.

== Your first article ==

Start from [[Special:WantedPages]], pick a red link, and write two or three paragraphs. A short, accurate, well-linked article is far more useful than a long unsourced one. Add <code><nowiki>{{Stub}}</nowiki></code> at the top if it is clearly incomplete, and finish with a category.

== What happens to your edit ==

It goes live immediately. There is no approval queue: edits are published first and checked afterwards.

Three things happen around that:

* '''Edit filters''' check every save before it is stored. They look for blanking, text in capitals, rows of repeated characters and similar patterns, and exempt [[OpenWiki:User access levels|autoconfirmed]] accounts. See [[Special:AbuseFilter]].
* '''Patrollers''' work through [[Special:RecentChanges]] and [[Special:NewPages]], marking edits they have checked.
* '''Reverting.''' Every version of every page is kept, and any reader can undo an edit from the page history.

A small number of pages are [[OpenWiki:Protection policy|protected]] or use pending-changes review. These are applied to pages that attract repeated damage.

== What to expect ==

Other people will change what you wrote. This is not a rejection; it is how the encyclopedia gets better. If you disagree with a change, raise it on the page's discussion rather than simply changing it back.

[[Category:OpenWiki]]