Working with wikis is easy and fun! You don't need any technical expertise to contribute or to create content on most wikis. A number of user roles on wikis are described below. Give it a try --- before you know it, you may be a Wiki-Man as described in the below music video!

Wiki Roles

Reader
You may simply be a reader of content on a wiki, one who visits the site to find information, but does not revise any of the content.

Community Member
You may be a frequent reader of a wiki and choose to join the community. Messaging is often supported for community members. In addition, on Wetpaint there is a utility to send and to post compliments for other community members. Often you pick a member name (like a nickname) when joining the community. On many wikis, you can add a photo or image and create a member profile. You can communicate with other members often without sharing your e-mail address. It's neat seeing the community's member list and to see the comments and updates added by members.

Discusser
You may be a reader who also posts comments, feedback, or questions on a wiki. Sometimes these are called "discussion threads" on wikis. If you're a community member, any comments or updates are attributed to you when you login or sign-in to the site when visiting. If you're not a member or don't login, your postings may be attributed to Anonymous.

Editor
You become an editor of a site when you click on the Edit button, update a page, and save your changes. You may revise content on a page, correcting an error, adding information, or re-organizing information. Or, you may add a new page to a wiki. If you're a community member, any updates are attributed to you when you login or sign-in to the site when visiting. You get credit for your contributions! On many wikis, like WetPaint, you can view those contributors who edit content on the wiki. On some wikis, revisions are only allowed by community members. This is often done to help protect the site from spam.

Moderator
You may work on a wiki team as a moderator, who reviews content and helps manage the site.

Administrator
Individuals assigned to this role on some wikis have special permissions to help manage the content (e.g., protecting it from spam). Administrators often can delete content (e.g., comments, pages) or even "ban" specific visitors from updating a page (e.g., those who add spam to a page, those who regularly add objectionable content)

Creator
You may be the person or a person on a team who creates the wiki. This person or team can perform all the functions of an administrator, plus more (e.g., assigning roles to other wiki community members). Some start with a blank page and start typing ideas and information. Others create a structure and seed the wiki with some preliminary information for visitors to view and to revise.