Wikipedia:General reading list

This is a list of pages one might consider essential reading for becoming a well-grounded Wikipedian:

Beginner

• Wikipedia:Contents - know your way around the encyclopedia!
• Wikipedia:Department directory - know your way around the community!
• Wikipedia:Introduction - Hi! The very basics.
• Wikipedia:Tutorial - quick lessons to get you started.
• Simplified Ruleset - the basics on what to do and not to do in working on Wikipedia and working with other Wikipedians.
• Glossary of Wikipedia jargon - understand what others are talking about.

• Contributing to Wikipedia - where to jump in and help.
• Wikipedia:How to copy-edit - Proofreading and copyediting
• Links - how it all hangs together.
• Cheatsheet - simplified wiki-markup code set. (Formatting text, headings, etc.)
• Deletion debates - the procedure for removing pages from Wikipedia.
• Vandalism - join the perpetual battle against those who would do Wikipedia harm.

Intermediate

• How to edit a page - comprehensive wiki-markup instructions.
• Community Portal - keep up with current events on Wikipedia.
• Templates & Transclusion - what those mysterious double curly brackets are for!
• Patrol - Wikipedia's various patrols, for monitoring various page types for maintenance and general administration.
• Portal - what portals are and how to build them.

• Wikiphilosophy - the various guiding principles behind editors' actions.
• Keyboard shortcuts - the fast way to operate.
• Policies and guidelines, List of policies, and List of guidelines - the complete rules.
• Tools & Tools by function - how to do things faster, including searching, editing, etc.
• Watch - public watch list: keep track of essential areas.

Advanced

• Administrators - What they are, what they do, and how to become one.
  • Administrators' reading list

• Bots - Automated maintenance of Wikipedia.

See also

Beginner

• Help:Contents/Getting started - Another good place to begin.
• Help:Contents

Intermediate

• Virtual classroom - discussions and assignments for learning Wikipedia's operations better.
• Wikipedia:Editor review (now defunct) - check out the archive, which is loaded with feedback given to other editors. Learn from the mistakes of others and thereby avoid making the same mistakes yourself.

Advanced

• Wikipedia:Requests for adminship - when you are ready to become an admin, this is the place to apply (though it is better to have someone nominate you)