Wikipedia: The Missing Manual

Setting Up Your User Page

One benefit of registering is that you have your own personal page in Wikipedia—your user page. Editors don’t have to have a main user page, but the rest of this book assumes that you have one. You also can create additional pages (called user subpages) for things like drafts of articles, lists of helpful pages, and so on. For example, Chapter 4 has you work in your personal sandbox (Creating Your Personal Sandbox), as opposed to using the common Sandbox, as you did in the tutorials in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

Uses for Your User Page

You can use your user page for anything that you find helpful as an editor, including:

• Putting links to information pages and other pages you may want to refer to, post questions at, and so on. Figure 3-8 shows an example.

• Putting links to additional personal pages (called subpages) that you can create. Later in this chapter, you’ll learn how to create one—a personal sandbox, which you’ll use in tutorials in later chapters.

• Adding notes to yourself about what you want or might do next—articles to write or edit, WikiProjects (Chapter 9) you might want to create, etc. (In short, a “wish list” or “to do” list.)

• Your interests and language skills (see Creating Your User Page).

• Items from collaborative aspects of editing, like barnstars (awards for service, given by other editors), names of editors you’ve adopted (agreed to be a mentor for), and WikiProjects to which you belong.

In addition, it’s okay to post some information about yourself ...