ArmchairGM Wiki:Why create an account?

Summary of abilities given to users with accounts

 * The ability to edit protected pages
 * The ability to rename pages.
 * The ability to upload images.

Summary of benefits

 * The use of a username of your choice.
 * The ability to view all your contributions via a "My contributions" link.
 * Your own user page.
 * Your own talk page.
 * The ability to customize the appearance and behavior of the website.
 * The eligibility to become an administrator.
 * All your edits will be attributed to your username.
 * Your IP address will no longer be visible to other users.

Username
If you create an account, you can pick a username. Edits you make while logged in will be assigned to that name. That means you get full credit for your contributions in the page history (when not logged in, the edits are just assigned to your IP address). You can also view all your contributions by clicking the "My contributions" link on the left siedebar, which is visible only when you are logged in.

You will have your own user page (there will be a My page link on the left sidebar when you are logged in) where you can write a bit about yourself.

You will have a permanent user talk page you can use to communicate with other users (there will be a My talk link on the left sidebar, or you can click the discuss this page link on the bottom of your user page to access  your user talk page. If you choose to give an e-mail address, other users will be able to contact you by e-mail. This feature is anonymous; the user who emails you will not know your e-mail address.

New editing options
There are many features of the MediaWiki software (which powers Wikipedia) that are available only to registered users. For example, one of these features is being able to mark edits as minor. Minor edits can be filtered from the list of "Recent changes". Marking edits which are not minor as such is considered very rude, so mark an edit as minor only if it is a small change, such as a grammar correction. Anonymous members don't have the privilege to mark edits as minor because the person behind the IP Address could be anyone, so a basis of trust cannot be built.

One very important feature which active contributors will likely use a lot are watchlists. You will get a new link "Watch this page" (or a new tab "watch") on every page you view. If you click that link, a page will be added to your watchlist. This list is basically a filtered view of the "Recent changes" page which shows only changes that were recently made to items in your watchlist. This way you can keep track of pages you work on without having to follow all changes.

Only registered users are allowed to create or rename pages, a feature that is very important to maintain structure and consistency on Wikipedia.

Also, you must be logged in if you want to upload images.

WikiProject User scripts provides various user scripts for registered users that automate mundane processes, increasing efficiency and effectiveness, and enhance the browsing and editing experience.

Many user preferences
Aside from these features, you can customize the way MediaWiki behaves in great detail by altering your Preferences at special:preferences. There you can change the following display settings:


 * Under skin: choose between various options as to the appearance of the website.
 * Under math: how mathematical formulae are displayed.
 * Under files: how large image thumbnails are displayed

And various editing preferences:
 * How sign your name
 * How large the editing box should be
 * How pages should be displayed in recent changes
 * ... and many others (they're pretty self-explanatory).

Administrator status
Administrators (sometimes known as sysops, short for System Operator) can delete and restore pages, protect them from being edited, edit protected pages, and block users for violation of our policies. They generally carry out the will of the Wiki community on pages such as Articles for deletion.

Only signed-in users can become administrators. Usually, users can become administrators after working on Wikipedia for a few months without clashing often with other Wikipedians.

If you are a signed-in user and want to be an administrator, see Requests for adminship for more information. Create an account now