Help:Change summary

A change summary is a message you type in the small box when you change a page to describe what you changed. Every edit appears on the newest changes page, and a change summary helps others know what changes were made. It helps us keep track of the site.

It is good to always add a change summary to every change that you make, even for minor ones, as it allows other users to easily understand what you are trying to do. This makes it easier to keep track of changes and find those that are made in bad faith.

A change summary is limited to only about 250 characters, which is more than enough for most users. When adding a change summary, follow these points:

• Summarize your change: Add information about what you were trying to do in the change, even if it is very short. Having a short summary is better than having none.
• Explain your change: If you made a change that may cause other users to ask what you were intending to do, then use the change summary to provide an explanation for it.
• Be clear: A good change summary should be one that other users can read and immediately know what you did without having to check through it. It should be specific to what you were intending to do, instead of vague sentences like "Made some changes".
• Avoid attacking others: A change summary should summarize the change and not to be used to attack other users. Cite the relevant policies if needed, but not personally attack them.

It is not possible to change the change summaries after you have saved it. Hence, it is important to avoid writing summaries that you might regret doing so later on, especially in a dispute. If needed, you can make a very small change to the page and write a more appropriate change summary to better explain what you were intending to do previously.

If absolutely needed, adminstrators are able to delete the change summary and make it only viewable by them. The change can also be oversighted to prevent even administrators from viewing the change summary.

The basic information on change summaries should be sufficient for most users. However, there are some special uses of change summaries depending on the situation.

• Change summaries cannot be changed: After the change has been saved, it is not possible to change it again in the future.
• Only wikilinks are rendered: The change summary only allows the use of wikilinks, even if the "<nowiki>" tag is used. Signing with "~~~~" has no effect on the change summary.

The change summary appears in the following places:

• The page's history
• User contributions
• Watchlist (for logged-in users)
• Diff pages (difference between two edits)
• New changes
• IRC Channels
• Related changes
• List of new pages

When editing existing sections, special markers "/*" and "*/" will appear in the change summary with the section title in between the two markers. These markers will show up differently in the change summary when saved. For example, for the section on "Editing", it will show up as:

→ Editing

The link in the arrow will bring you to the specific section in the page (if it exists).

If the "new section" button was used on talk pages, the title of the new section will be displayed in these markers in the change summary.

Basic help

• Changing pages
• Change summary
• Synonyms and Antonyms

Advanced help

• Change conflict
• How to write Simple English articles
• Examples of Simpler English
• Basic English word list
• Manual of Style
• Entry layout