Wikinews:Water cooler/assistance

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

[edit] Main Page articles

What are the guidelines for changing them? I was thinking about replacing the tobacco and Nepal stories with Swedish Parliament passes electronic surveillance law and Bush calls for US offshore oil exploration. Maxim_(talk) 23:14, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know, there are no strict guidelines. But the leads should represent our best and those with the broadest global interests. Also, they should hopefully if we have enough content be from the current day (which your suggestions are). Keep in mind, though, that the oil exploration story was "lead 1" for a number of hours already. The synopsis should be short and succinct. So, have a go at it. If other editors don't like what you do, the worst that could happen is that they change it. There is an unspoken "rule" that "lead 4" should be original or an interview. Cheers, --SVTCobra 23:25, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] First time here, need assistance on a story I think is important

I write articles under Moni3 at Wikipedia, and this is the first time I've ventured into Wikinews. I've worked for the past couple months on improving the articles on the Everglades at Wikipedia, and I did not expect my topic to be headline news, but it is. I don't know what I'm doing, but I think the story is worth developing. Please assist as you can, here. Thank you. --66.32.49.217 22:38, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A request to a sysop

moved to Wikinews:Admin_action_alerts#A_request_to_a_sysop

[edit] Interview with Åse Kleveland

After three months of near-inactivity, I am organizing my next interview, this time with Åse Kleveland, a popular folk singer in Norway, the former Norwegian Minister of Culture, and the former president of the Swedish Film Institute. One of the Norwegian Wikipedians, Tore Sinding Bekkedal, has offered to do the interview in person in Oslo in a week or two, complete with free licensed photographs and even a video of the interview itself. So my question to you is, are there any questions you would like to see asked to Ms. Kleveland? I already cross-posted to Bybrunnen (Swedish) and Tinget (Norwegian) (the Swedish and Norwegian versions of the water cooler/village pump). The Norwegian Wikipedians in particular seemed excited about the prospect, just from the chat I had this morning. Anyway, feedback and questions are appreciated as always! Mike Halterman (talk) 10:58, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

I will need to do a bit o'research before I can ask a few questions. But overall, it sounds like an interesting interview. Will the video interview be something like we ask questions and they reply on video? DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 18:53, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

I will be writing a fair bit of the questions and also taking user requests. From there it will be set up in an interview like how I have done my last interviews, and it will be conducted by Tore Sinding Bekkedal in person with Ms. Kleveland, who will answer on video. Of course the interview will be transcribed into text like how we normally do our interviews as well. Tore also wants to dub the video into English so people can watch it in either version, English or the original Norwegian. Mike Halterman (talk) 21:17, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

I am removing flag as this seems to have died unceremoniously. --SVTCobra 22:54, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] IndyMac

According to news stories (e.g. [1]), people are still waiting in long lines to withdraw money from IndyMac braches. It would be great if someone that lived nearby could visit a branch and photograph the line, possibly also interviewing people. If this is not the place to post such a request/suggestion please let me know. Superm401 | Talk 20:02, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Special report on cloud computing

Cloud computing is getting more and more popular and important in the world wide web, and I think it deserves a special report. This is most likely going to be a huge report. However, there are two questions that need answering:

Should it be made?
What should be in it?

I'll be on holiday starting tomorrow (30th) and I'll be back on the 14th, so I won't be able to contribute in this discussion. --Mephiles (talk) 17:10, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Help!

Sorry, I don't really know what I'm doing.Traditional unionist (talk) 00:07, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

This story really was from July 25 at the latest. I am afraid that makes it stale. If there are more recent developments, you can write about those and include what you have now as background. Cheers, --SVTCobra 00:31, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] China's Hua Guofeng dies

Please put China's Hua Guofeng dies as one of the lead articles. I think the story is far bigger than 'Stephanie Tubbs Jones'. MarkRobbins (talk) 07:47, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Spelling mistake in Lead Article 3

The current Lead Article 3, the lead for "Intel acquires mobile Linux developer, OpenedHand" has a very visible spelling error ("aquired" should be "acquired"), but I can't edit it because it is locked as a Lead Article. Could some admin please fix this error?

In the long term, it would be better to provide a mechanism to at least submit changes to Lead Articles, even if the changes have to be reviewed before being committed to the stable version (as with other Wikinews articles). It's embarrassing for the project to have such a visible error sitting there on the front page, unchangeable by anyone who might want to fix it...

Fixed. Anonymous101^talk 20:17, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

That process would be the {{editprotected}} template, or through WN:AAA. When you tried to edit it, did you see MediaWiki:Protectedtext, which gives the second of those options? Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 06:42, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pamphlets and leaflets

We've established that one of Wikinews' greatest needs right now is more contributors. Many projects have promotional pamphlets up on meta (see meta:Marketing and in particular meta:Leaflet), including Wikipedia and Wikiversity, but Wikinews is not represented. Are there any budding graphic artists who would like to design something to hand out at various events? This came to my attention because the Australian Wikimedia chapter are looking into doing some things for Software Freedom Day, on September 20th, so an ability to work to deadlines would be a plus. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 11:48, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, yes, YES!!!. This was something highlighted at Wikimania, we desperately need leaflets, fliers, posters, badges, buttons, and other promotional materials. I ran off 30-40 copies of the print edition on a couple of the Wikimania days and left them lying around for coffee breaks - they all vanished. So, if Wikimedia Oz is attending anything get them to at least run off copies of the day's print edition for people to pick up. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 12:15, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm sure i've seen a pamphlet floating around at commons at one point, but as BrianMc said, our greatest pamphlet is the print edition. Bawolff ☺☻ 06:56, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Main Page refresh

I published Russian markets remained closed until Friday but it's not showing on the Main Page, even after refresh/purge. -- SEWilco (talk) 13:30, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

It should be up now. I'm not sure if you know, but Wikinews has now added [mw:Extension:FlaggedRevs|flagged revisions]] extension. You can see the details at Wikinews:Flagged revisions. Basically a user who has editor or reviewer status must approve all edits before they take place. I would recommend that you apply for editor status since you are a established editor. --PatrickFlaherty (talk) 13:43, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, please see Wikinews:Flagged revisions/Requests for permissions and apply as an established editor. Both articles and templates need flagged before an update to them will show for unregistered users.

Thanks for helping to try and avoid the leads going stale. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 08:25, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image replaced

Hi, please replace the image of Lech Kaczyński in Wikinews Shorts: June 23, 2007 with Image:Lech Kaczyński.jpg. Thanks, --Martin H. (talk) 16:29, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Done Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 01:20, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Category naming

What is the standard for the name of a category of an election? There seems to be articles in Category:Canadian federal elections 2008 and Category:Canadian federal election, 2008, and yet the precedent of the American election would suggest that we use Category:2008 Canada federal election. To which should I standardize the articles? --Arctic.gnome (talk) 14:43, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

Preferably you'd check that you broke a category scheme used in multiple templates.

To explain the style of category used:

1995 Egyptian parliamentary elections
2000 Canadian federal elections
2000 Egyptian parliamentary elections
2004 Canadian federal elections
2005 Egyptian parliamentary elections
2006 Canadian federal elections

uses your "standardised" format.

Canadian federal elections 2000
Canadian federal elections 2004
Canadian federal elections 2006
Egyptian parliamentary elections 1995
Egyptian parliamentary elections 2000
Egyptian parliamentary elections 2005

uses a more understandable format, using natural sorts. - Amgine | ^t 05:15, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

More standardiesed? I only ever see it with the year in front except sometimes online. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 06:28, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

From a sorting point of view the year at the front would make more sense. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 06:57, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm content with the year in either place as long as all articles for the same election are in the same category — which they weren't — so I chose one to set them all to after getting no response here. I'm still a bit confused about why we are using the plural "elections" when there will be only one general Canadian election in 2008, but if that's the accepted standard I won't argue with in. --Arctic.gnome (talk) 15:01, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Attention: California Wikinews contributors

I have added a substantial amount of material to the most recent article about the Chatsworth train wreck. Am listing it here to recruit other editors to improve the article to publication quality – particularly any editors who live or work near the site of the accident who might be able to provide a photo of the rail signal from the station platform where the witnesses who say they saw a green light were located. 69.140.152.55 03:44, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Problem for contributors : Very slow response of reviewers

Hi, I see here that the issue of too few articles and too few editors is raised here. One reason could be that the process of getting an article reviewed is too slow. My article Nobel Peace Prize misused says Norwegian lawyer and activist‎ has been marked with the review tag for 20 hours now without a single response. It was very gratifying to get guidance on how to better comply with the NPOV guidelines. One user even offered a complete rewrite. I said I was happy with the rewrite, except for one factual error , and one rebuttal that was missing. The reply was to the effect of merging texts rather than using the rewrite. I did merge, and worked on the opening paragraph, trying to apply "What, where, when, why and how". But after I had done that I have not got any responses. The article has been in the ready to publish portion of the newsroom for almost 24 hours and nothing happens. Should I put a plea directly on the talk pages of those that had shown an interest in the article, earlier ?

This experience has gone a long way to put me off contributing articles or time to Wikinews. A bit of a chicken and egg problem I guess. There is a lack of critical mass. And perhaps that people lack the courage to take on potentially controversial subjects. Including potentially controversial and political subjects, however, could make Wikinews a much more interesting news-medium, and get the ball rolling. BalansR (talk) 10:35, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes there are too few articles, and this is because there are too few contributors. I think I know, however, why there are so few contributors: most stuff is second-hand reporting, just collages of news written elsewhere on the web. Perhaps if we focused more on original reporting, which is what I would like to read more on Wikinews, we could attract more people here. NerdyNSK (talk) 11:06, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

We need to do better. Reviews should be done within the hour but it seems that BalansR's wait is far more normal. --PatrickFlaherty (talk) 18:32, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Currently there is a bot on irc that announces when an article has been tagged review (currently NewsWire has been abused into doing this on #wikinews-en). Perhaps if we had a more specialized bot that spams people about all outstanding articles needing review every hour, there would be an decrease in review time. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:42, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

We have a shortage of reviewers who are active in and around the UTC timezone. This can cause problems for anyone in that zone (such as myself) when writing stories. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 11:53, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Interview published but not sighted

Just noticed this. CanadaVOTES: NDP candidate Jo-Anne Boulding in Parry Sound—Muskoka I would have posted on Patrick's talk but that page says he sometimes travels with no notice. TransUtopian (talk) 22:33, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Done made other improvements as well. Cheers, --SVTCobra 22:53, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, sometimes I don't notice when that happens. --PatrickFlaherty (talk) 23:20, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Chula Vista, California becomes national model for blight control laws

Would someone review this article please? It's been waiting for over 12 hours. Durova (talk) 16:43, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the review. I have a related question. How is Wikinews about citing foreign language sources? Chula Vista is ten minutes from the Mexican border. If I write a similar story in the future, it could broaden the perspective to cite the local Spanish language press. Durova (talk) 17:51, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

It's fine to cite foreign sources but the review might take a bit longer, although you can usually browse Category:User es to find an active user who understands the source. Anonymous101^talk 17:55, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Like Anon101 said, foreign language sources are perfectly acceptable, so long as a reviewer can be found. A reviewer who doesn't understand the language can, in a limited fashion, use resources such as Google Translate. This is useful for news briefs as the service has obvious problems in nuances of language. While it may take longer to find a reviewer, it is surprising how many languages we can cover, given how small Wikinews still is. --SVTCobra 23:44, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Illinoise

Looks unusable. Durova (talk) 23:29, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

I speedied it. --SVTCobra 23:35, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. :) Durova (talk) 23:57, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 7 officers killed in Dagestan, Russia, more wounded, newsworthy?

See here http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-10-21-russia-violence_N.htm I was wondering, are skirmishes of this caliber notable enough to have their own page and/or a news page? Or are they still too regular that instead they belong on a page such as [2] ? 62.195.108.231 17:26, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

If it is current, and you can find a second source, you can do a Wikinews news article on it. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 18:02, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

It happened today and there are many sources on it[3], some speak of 5 deaths however, other 6 and also 7. But is it significant enough to have its own article? As you may no, skirmishes happen every day in conflict zones. I don't know from what number of casualties the event deserves its own article. The Uzbin valley ambush[4] for example has its own article, with 10 Isaf casualties, but other skirmishes in Afghanistan with a lower death toll don't. 62.195.108.231 19:17, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Calling the 2008 US election

What do people think about WN calling the election? There are enough independent polls for us to follow to do so. What do people think? Maybe list the sites that we can watch? Here is one: 538.com. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 22:10, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Would there be any legal implications in doing so ? ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 22:11, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Well so far as I know you cannot be arrested for being wrong. But our credibility can be severely damaged if we were. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 22:15, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

I think it would be pretty safe for us to call it right now, never mind on Tuesday. If betting organizations are already paying out on Obama, McCain supporters might as well stay home. Those people don't pay out if there is *any* chance that they're wrong, and they certainly don't pay out 250:1 on a whim. ShakespeareFan00 makes a good point though: didn't one of the major news networks get in some serious trouble for calling the 2000 election before it was completely decided? Gopher65_talk 22:17, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

FOX News got busted (for lack of better terms) for announcing Bush the winner, which in turn caused the whole Florida controversy and recounts and Supreme Court hearings/rulings and so on. But the thig is, everyne else, I mean everyone, and the popular vote said otherwise.DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 22:19, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

I don't think it's possible at all to call this election - most poeple aren't aware of the Bradley effect, which may be a big factor. TheFearow (userpage) 23:39, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Erm, unless someone has a time masheen... Cirt (talk) 22:55, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Time machine? How so? election day is Tuesday so obviously it would have to be done then. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 00:30, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Ignoring legal implications, isn't this a violation of NPOV. Its not over t'll its done, we shouldn't express an opinion on something just because it looks a certain way. 24.65.82.136 01:06, 2 November 2008 (UTC) (user:Bawolff)

There is really no legal implications to call an election before it happens. The reason why news organizations don't is they have agreements with news organizations not to do that. However, I don't think we should. I feel we should follow the AP lead or another major news organization. --PatrickFlaherty (talk) 01:15, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Lets look at it this way...if there is a clear winner, then I see no issues. But this would be as much OR than anything. Would we say "Wait for the AP" if we got a scoop on something else? DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 01:25, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

I agree. But it would need to rather clear such as Obama winning Florida and Ohio or McCain winning the previous and Pennsylvania and Virginia. --PatrickFlaherty (talk) 01:30, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Agree with this point by PatrickFlaherty (talk · contribs). Cirt (talk) 04:15, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

/me coughs w:Dewey Defeats Truman. Guessing can be a dangerous game, even when opinion polls and whatnot point in one way. (Just to clarify, we're talking about calling an election before any voting takes place, not when most but not all polling stations are returning?). Bawolff ☺☻ 06:05, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

I do not think trying to second-guess the results is a particularly good idea; we need to stick to WN:NPOV and report the facts. This BBC article mentions Missouri almost always backing the winner, we should be looking at indicators such as this but not having headlines such as "Obama elected 44th President" when there is no clear victor.

A good lead into this would be to have an article that can be referred to as counting goes on. i.e. something the day before the election that documents the battleground states and any poll details for them. Something like that would give a ready reference source for making claims that the election appears to be going one way or the other. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 10:58, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Preparing for the election

I think we should move the focus of this discussion on how to go about covering the election. I agree with Brian above with creating a story on the swing states before election day. But I think on election day we should have three separate stories each coming at different times. The first story should run during the day on Tuesday that's about the voting. This story should run until 7PM EST and then we have another story on the results. This story should run until a winner is declared (Please let there be a winner). The last story is declaring the winner. Thoughts on this? --PatrickFlaherty (talk) 16:40, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

I think that sounds fine to me. Now, call me silly if you like, but can't some of our U.S.-based reporters do a little exit polling/vox-populi OR? Certainly we can't get the coverage of MSM who can canvass multiple booths in every state, but even a few man-in-the-street interviews from key areas would be great material for an article, IMO. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 23:46, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

I can see it now: NEWS FLASH!!! ABC, NBC, CBS are all interupting programs to report that DragonFire1024 thinks Obama is gonna win! WAS 4.250 (talk) 08:41, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Gee! That was constructive input. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 09:53, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

As i said before. We would NOT call the election until tomorrow. I am NOT talking about opinion polls. The only polls that matter are the ones on election day. So if there is a clear winner, then I don't see why we cannot call it. And I never said I think anyone is going to win. In all seriousness, Calling an election does not happen until the real voting starts. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 14:49, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Not to mention the fact that the three major news channels are not the only ones who are watching the polls. There are dozens of websites, and I noted one above. So it is not impossible to use sources NOT from Mainstream Media. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 14:51, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

If the pollsters have their own websites those should be used directly. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 15:30, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

This game's in the refrigerator: the door is closed, the lights are out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard, and the Jell-O's jigglin'! Durova (talk) 21:08, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Deletion time

Cake_tin silliness... Durova (talk) 04:12, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Sarah Palin Flunks out unreferenced attack. Durova (talk) 20:27, 3 November 2008 (UTC)
Benny Christanday promotional non-news. No reliable sources. Durova (talk) 22:01, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

You can tag these for speedy deletion or bring them up on WN:AAA --Brian McNeil / ^talk 22:42, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Sure thing, thanks. :) Durova (talk) 22:45, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Workflow to publish a short?

What is the process for the community to publish today's shorts? (Wikinews Shorts: November 7, 2008 ) Am I allowed to add {{publish}} myself? --InfantGorilla (talk) 11:08, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

No, you cannot add {{publish}} yourself, the workflow is the same for other articles and must go through independent third-party {{review}} before {{publish}}. Cirt (talk) 12:51, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I also got advice on IRC that it is likely to be deleted (not archived) and won't be published until the page has at least three briefs. I added 2 more, then posted the {{review}} tag again. --InfantGorilla (talk) 14:24, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Today's shorts

We now have three briefs - enough for publication - they look newsworthy and almost complete to me. However, they need a lot of cleanup before they can be published. Please pitch in at Wikinews Shorts: November 10, 2008 if you fancy a small challenge. --InfantGorilla (talk) 16:20, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Time to refresh the lead articles?

There were 4 or 5 good articles published this morning. Any takers to update the Main Page? --InfantGorilla (talk) 11:43, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Can someone look at my changes please?

Senator Ted Stevens loses re-election bid in Alaska ballot. Either sight them, change & approve the changes, or undo & explain why they're bad. Thanks. GeorgeII (talk) 20:26, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, SVTCobra. GeorgeII (talk) 01:51, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Help

Can someone have a look at Santander excludes UK shareholders for me, it has been partially re-written since it was pointed out that the article has POV issues, and I think this has been fixed. I've also tried to adhere to the style book as possible and any farther changes that I can make will be tinkering around the edges. Can someone either edit the article until it is publishable (I'll learn how to do it better next time by comparing the changes) or tell me where I'm going wrong in which case I'll have another go at trying to fix it. Thanks in advance. KTo288 (talk) 13:53, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Recent News

It's now official-the United States ARE under a recession. This is closely connected with the Dow Jones drop. Could I volunteer in helping you guys out on the subject or topic?

Mindy (talk) 02:16, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Please review YouTube experiments with HD videos

Hi, could anyone here please review my news here or tell me, how I do it my own? I waited so long and asked, and nothing changed. greets, --Andreas -horn- Hornig (talk) 10:53, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Major earthquake jolts Bangladesh, centered in Nicobar Islands

Hi, please replace the image on this protected page by Image:Earthquake 20041226 96 3 globe.jpg which is a duplicate with a better name. I am going to delete Image:93 7 globe.jpg which is currently used on Commons. Cheers, Andreas Franz (talk) 18:33, 4 December 2008 (UTC) (admin at Commons)

I am extremely confused. When I go to the 93_7_globe.jpg page, I am shown the image page for the other one. What on earth is going on? Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 00:22, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Hang on, I think I see what's happened - it's a redirect on Commons which doesn't show the "redirected from" thing when you go to the local page. I've made the change to the article. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 00:23, 5 December 2008 (UTC)