Wikipedia:Contact us/Top questions

I have been told I have vandalized an article, but I have not! What do I do?

If you think the message was intended for you, but you have not vandalized an article, it is possible that you may have made an edit that is not actually vandalism, but might not have fit Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. (See these two pages for more information.) In particular, please pay attention to the neutral point of view policy.

It is also possible that the IP address of the computer you are using (or, if on dialup, one of the reserved IP addresses) has been caught vandalizing Wikipedia. You may contact the blocking admin for assistance. Or, you may appeal the block through our community process.

There is an important particular case: a few major Internet service providers such as AOL have their users access the web using techniques that make it impossible to distinguish between two such users (in technical terms, mandatory proxy servers). From the point of view of Wikipedia, it is in this case impossible to distinguish between innocent users and vandals or other disruptive user In such case, please ignore warning messages. You may wish to create an account to avoid them.

Am I supposed to be able to edit your site, even if I am not logged on?

YES. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. While anybody can make submissions, Wikipedia has a number of policies governing how articles are supposed to be written. See the policies and guidelines page for details.

Wikipedia is also moving towards an environment where it is preferred that articles are edited by knowledgeable individuals, such as academics and scientists, who are able to cite from scientific magazines (Nature and similar) and other academic reference material.

To find out more, see our Introduction to Wikipedia.

Can I copy articles from Wikipedia?

Yes, but with certain restrictions. Wikipedia text is available under a special license called the GNU Free Documentation License; images may be available under different conditions. See our copyright information page for more details.

Important note: since the Wikimedia Foundation does not own the copyright to the articles on Wikipedia, it is useless to email any of our contact addresses for permission to reproduce articles or photographs. Emails to those addresses about this issue will be returned with a message to see relevant licensing conditions. Due to the complexity of copyright licenses, and the variety of copyright legislations across the world, we cannot answer inquiries about how to apply a certain license in such or such circumstances; if you need legal advice, we advise you to seek it from a lawyer.

How do I get 'unblocked' from editing?

Please see Wikipedia:Contact us/blocked.

How do I cite your articles?

Use the "Cite this article" function. Follow the link in the "toolbox" section to the left of every article to see the details you need for a bibliography entry or reference.

To find out more, see our guide to Citing Wikipedia.

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