Wikipedia: The Missing Manual

Places to Ask Questions

Despite the many thousands of instructional pages with information for editors (some would say because of the thousands of pages), you may want to ask other editors how to do something, or why something is the way it is. Before listing the places where you can ask questions, here are two caveats:

• If you have a question about a specific article, it’s best to start by asking at the article’s talk/discussion page (see Article Talk (Discussion) Pages). If you don’t get any response within a day or two, then ask at one of the pages listed below.

• If you have a question about a specific policy or guideline, ask at the talk page for that policy or guideline. For example, if you have a question about articles that are lists, and the relevant guideline is Wikipedia:Lists, then ask on the page Wikipedia talk:Lists.

Here are four places for editors to ask (more or less) general questions:

• New contributors’ help page (shortcut: WP:NCHP)

• Help desk (shortcut: WP:HD)

• Village pump (technical) (shortcut: WP:VPT)

In addition, for specialized questions about images and other uploaded media that Wikipedia can use:

• Wikipedia:Media copyright questions (shortcut: WP:MCQ)

Word to the Wise: Frequently Asked Errors

When you post a question at one of the four general help pages listed on page 451, you can make things easier for yourself and the editors who answer questions by doing the following:

• Read the information at the top of the page. There may be a link there that’s more useful ...