Editing Help:Logging in (section)

== Why log in? ==

<!--T:6-->
You don't have to log in to read any public MediaWiki wiki. You don't even have to log in to edit, normally: anyone can edit almost any page, even without logging in.

However, it's still a good idea to log in, for several reasons: 

* Other users will be able to recognize you by your username when you make changes to pages. As a "name" an IP address is somewhat clumsy. Also, if you use computers at different locations (home, office, internet cafe, etc.) you have a different IP-address in each case; even in the same location, depending on the Internet connection, the IP-address may be different each time. Therefore a username is better to maintain an identity.
*You will have your own ''[[Help:User page|user page]]'' where you can write a bit about yourself, and a ''user talk page'' which you can use to communicate with other users.
* You will be able to mark an edit as minor, which avoids inconvenience for other users.
* You will be able to keep track of changes to modules you are interested in using a ''[[Help:Watchlist|watchlist]]''.
* You don't have to give your email address if you don't want to. But if you choose to give an email address, you will be able to do the following:
**reset your password if you forget it,
**receive automatic notifications of certain events, if set in your preferences,
**receive emails from other users if so set in your preferences (the user who emails you will not know your email address),
**email other users and administrators if they want as above (your email address will be disclosed on any email you send).
* You will be able to [[Help:Moving a page|move (rename) pages]] after being [[Project:Autoconfirmed users|Autoconfirmed]].
* You will be able to set your own ''[[Help:Preferences|preferences]]'', to change things such as:
** the number of pages displayed in ''[[Special:Recentchanges|Recent changes]]''
** the fonts, colors and layout of the site, by using different ''skins''.