Template:WhyCreateAccount

Do I Need to Create an Account and Log In?
No, everything on this site is freely available to everyone. However, there are advantages to creating an account. This is because we have three kinds of users.

Anonymous: No account required. These people can look but can't touch. They can see all content but they can't edit anything.

Visitors: These people have an account they have created themselves. They can see everything and in addition they can create and edit Discussion pages. This means they can add notes to the site although they can't change the main pages.

Editors: This group have had accounts set up for them and have full access to all content, including adding text and images and editing all pages.

Why three levels of access? The first level makes it easy for visitors to read the site quickly and safely. The second level allows them to contribute while making sure they don't change things that have been provided and checked by experts. The third level allows experts to contribute within areas where they have specialist knowledge and make sure the information presented is of the highest quality.

And finally, as is the case with all wikis, any contributions you make will be edited, changed and/or deleted, sometimes mercilessly. If you don't want this then better not to contribute in the first place.