User:Giraffer/Things for new users to do

This is an essay on what a newcomer to Wikipedia can do.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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WP:TFNUTD

Wikipedia is a big website. This one (the English one) has over 6.8 million articles! Thus, it can be a little daunting and difficult to find something to work on. One of the most common questions at the Teahouse is: 'I'm new, what are some things I can do?'. Below is a list of small things for new users to do (TFNUTD):

Adding short descriptions. These are small lines of text at the top of articles that summarize what it is about. To try adding these, go to Preferences, click on Gadgets, scroll down to 'Editing' and check the box next to 'Short desc helper'. Next, try to find an article that doesn't have a short description (it's not that hard), and click the little red button that says 'add' next to 'Missing article description'. Type in a brief summary (ideally under 40 characters - there is a counter that will tell you) and hit save.
Reword things. Some articles are written in quite a complex tone, so if you are an expert in a certain field, hit edit and reword it! All content on Wikipedia should be accessible for everyone to read, as opposed to specialists. If you're interested, have a look at this.
Add photos to articles. There are a LOT of articles that have too few photos. You may ask 'well why are there too few photos when there are so many on the internet?'. This is because of copyright law. Please do not just add images from the internet. That violates copyright law and is very serious. The easiest way to start is to find some articles about things or places near you that need photos, then go, take the pictures, and add them in! More info can be found at WP:Images.
Join a WikiProject. WikiProjects are groups of people who are committed to improving Wikipedia's coverage of a certain topic. Find one you're interested in and join. Most have to-do lists you can help with. An incomplete (but large) list of them can be found here.
Join our Discord. I am on there (my username is Giraffer) and there are loads of friendly people who can help you and give you advice. By participating in conversations or even just reading them, you will learn a lot about Wikipedia's policies and structure, which will be super beneficial.
Do nothing. We need you. Editor retention is dropping, so don't burn out! If you don't feel like editing, take a wikibreak, and come back when you feel motivated to contribute. Otherwise you risk feeling permanently uninspired and not coming back.
Clear a backlog. 20 years of constant work really builds a pretty solid backlog of things to do. They are nicely subdivided at this page, so find something you are comfortable doing, read up on the policies surrounding it, and get to work reducing it! Most people steer clear of backlogs as they are pretty tedious work, even if simple, so many people will be indebted to you for helping to clear one (or more).
Categorize stuff. On Wikipedia we have categories. These group together pages on a similar topic. Find an area that interests you, and add categories to the pages. This helps people find related, and possibly more relevant pages. To get started, have a read of WP:Categories.
Add alt-text to images. People using screen readers or with images disabled in their browser settings will miss out on information images provide. By describing the images with alt-text, we can give those readers that information even when they cannot see the image itself.
Copy edit. (not necessarily the same thing as rewording). If you have received praise on your grasp of English language mechanics, consider joining the Guild of Copy Editors and improving the prose of articles.
Fill in bare references. Bare references, or those that contain a URL and no other info: <ref>https://www.example.org</ref>, break easily. URLs often change, and so we lose the information in the reference. We can guard against this loss by filling in as much information as possible: the webpage title, authors (if available), website name, date (if available), and when we accessed the page.

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