The first experience for new users to the English Wikipedia

Looking at my contribution record, I find that I first made a contribution to talk pages in April 2007. I progressed to starting a new article in December 08. Since then I think I have started one other article and made amendments/additions to various others. Maybe I've been lucky (or conservative) but none of my contributions has been erased or reverted by anyone other than myself. However, when I first started editing, it was a lot easier than it is now, because the standard layout at that time provided a toolbar. I therefore revert to the old wikipedia format when I sign in. If I were thinking of starting to edit now, using the present format, I would probably give up.