User:Jrothwell/Welcome Pack/Introduction

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Welcome pack for new Wikipedia users

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Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia!

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. That's nothing special - there are hundreds of encyclopedias around the world. What makes Wikipedia special is:

1. It's written by normal people, just like you.
2. Nobody owns it. It's released under the GNU Free Documentation License and is available for free on the Internet. But there's more to it than that - Wikipedia isn't just free as in free beer or free chocolate. Wikipedia is free as in freedom - you're free to copy, re-use, quote, etc, as much as you like of it without needing permission or royalties.

Letting anyone edit an encyclopedia sounds like a mad idea. It is. But it works fantastically.

So, if you like the idea of being involved in mass anarchy on the Internet, create an account or log in and then follow this link to learn about editing Wikipedia!