User:Ecphora/sandbox

Wikipedia, a collaborative website found at www.wikipedia.org, is the world’s largest encyclopedia. Currently Wikipedia has over 2.4 million articles on its English version (there are – other language versions also on line), and is increasing every second. The articles cover every topic under the Sun from physics to history to art to today’s (!) news to the favorite TV shows of your childhood or the favorite movies or electronic games of today. The articles range in depth from a one or two sentence start of an article (“stub”) to articles thousands of words long comprehensively covering a topic in great depth, complete with hundreds of footnotes, web links and color images. Wikipedia’s reputation for accuracy, comprehensiveness and accessibility is growing and it is the first choice of many setting out to research a topic on line.

Wikipedia is written by thousands of on line users (“editors”) who create new articles, revise and edit existing ones, and add references or images. Anyone can contribute! Since the project is totally voluntary, editors commonly write on topics they know about and are interested in. When an article is being edited, the screen will show a draft version of the changes which will not be final until you hit “save.” Then, instantly, the changes, ranging from a removal of an unnecessary comma to the addition of a complete new article, appear in the text of Wikipedia. A critical component of Wikipedia is an article’s “history” which permanently preserves every prior version of an article, however small the change, and permits one to instantly compare different versions to identify the changes (“diffs”). If a new editor does not like a change (or if there is a disruptive edit or “valdalism”), the editor may “revert” the article to a better earlier version.

Among Wikipedia’s articles are (as of July —) some ----- articles on philatelic topics, including articles on general philatelic topics (e.g., watermarks or perforations), articles on specific rare stamps, and a series of articles on the postage stamps and postal history of a specific country. Sample articles include: “Marcophily,” “Bluenose,” “Aerophilately,” “Astrophilately,” “Postage stamps and postal history of Israel,” an article on auctioneer David Feldman, “Postage stamp reuse,” an article on Alfred Liechtenstein, etc. Here’s a list of philatelic articles, taken at random from an index page:

Cachet - Camel mail - Cancellation - Cancelled to order - Caribou mail - Carrier's stamp - Censored mail - Center line block - Certified mail - Charity stamp - Chinese new year stamps - Christmas seal - Christmas stamp - Cigarette tax stamp - Cinderella stamp - Circular delivery mail - Classic stamp - Coil stamp - Color guide - Color trial - Combination cover - Commemorative issue - Commemorative stamp - Concentration camp mail - Consular fee stamp - Control mark - Counterfeit stamps - Courier mail - Cover - Crash cover - Crown agent - Cut square

To give a flavor of the "country" articles, here’s a small portion from “Postage stamps and postal history of Germany:”

===Allied occupation===

With the occupation of Germany by the Allied powers postal services returned but were administered under different authorities. AM Post (AM = Allied Military) stamps were provided by the American and British occupation services during 1945 as the first step to restore mail service in their jurisdictions. By December 1945, the French authorities issued stamps for the "zone française", later to be supplemented by stamps for Baden, Rheinland-Pfalz, and Württemberg. In addition, separate stamps were provided for the Saar. In the Soviet zone, initally in 1945, various provinces released different stamps, namely Berlin-Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxonia (Ost Sachsen, West Sachsen, Provinz Sachsen), and Thuringia. In 1946, German stamps were issued as Deutsche Post for the American, British, and Soviet zones but not the French zone. The typical yellow color to signify post service was decreed by the Allied Control Council in 1946.^[1] With the development of the cold war, however, attempts to unify the postal system failed, - the common stamps were replaced by 1948 by definitives for the Soviet zone, and different sets of stamps for the bizone, already prior to the establishment of the two German republics.

Take a look at what Wikipedia has to offer philatelists. A good place to start is by typing “Portal:Philately” into the search box on www.wikipedia.org. That will take you to the Philately Portal, the gateway to the philatelic world on Wikipedia. From there you can survey the great range and depth of stamp articles on line and under work, discover what’s new, or participate in new philatelic projects and discussions. Check out the “discussion” or “talk” page which accompanies every article. There you’ll find ongoing conversations on topics relating to the article, including technical questions (“Is image X actually a forgery? “Shouldn’t this article include a discussion of the provisional issues of Y?), debates about coverage, and even the correct name of the article (check out “Postal history of Palestine.”)

But don’t stop there! The current philatelic editors on Wikipedia need your help – the project is simply massive. Join in by correcting an error you find in an article or adding a reference or image. Have you spent years collecting, studying and displaying colonial cancellations of Bermuda or variant watermarks of Tibet? Share your expertise and information! No article on your favorite country? Start it! As of today (July –), the following country articles have yet to be written: France, Netherlands and Tannu Tuva, to name a few. Don’t be afraid. You won’t be bitten and soon you’ll be hooked on the fun and intellectual adventure of adding to the world’s largest encyclopedia. Did we mention it’s growing every second?