Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/archives/2015/September


Introducing the Wikimedia public policy site

Hi all,

We are excited to introduce a new Wikimedia Public Policy site. The site includes resources and position statements on access, copyright, censorship, intermediary liability, and privacy. The site explains how good public policy supports the Wikimedia projects, editors, and mission.

Visit the public policy portal: https://policy.wikimedia.org/

Please help translate the statements on Meta Wiki. You can read more on the Wikimedia blog.

Thanks,

Yana and Stephen (Talk) 18:13, 2 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(Sent with the Global message delivery system)

Hello,

This is your friendly notice that I and Koavf have taken over the wikinews mailing list. Old list admin is still listed as moderator. Takeover procedures are logged at phabricator:T110956. If anyone has a question, don't hestitate to contact me directly on my talk page or wikinews-l-owner lists.wikimedia.org. Thank you!

revi 09:02, 3 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Seconded Let me know if you need anything and if I've been slacking, just message me. —Justin (koavf)TCM 14:33, 3 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

17:29, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

16:17, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Chile

Thought somebody would write something about last Wednesday's earthquake. --Diego Grez (talk) 03:55, 21 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Diego Grez: Unfortunately, Wikinews is not as active as it could be. Do you think that you have anything to add on this story? Maybe on clean-up efforts? Are you in Chile? —Justin (koavf)TCM 04:00, 21 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yup, I am in Chile. I'd have written about it on Wednesday but I have been way too busy (national holidays, heh). I am a little concerned about Wikinews' sort of "permanent staleness". Speaking with Pi zero, a couple of weeks ago, I suggested we could make a way to make reviewing articles more "user-friendly" and less time-demanding (which is why, most people do not review WN articles). He told me he was working on something. I don't think Wikinews is going to become mainstream, but certainly, in some way, we could make it better. --Diego Grez (talk) 04:10, 21 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Diego Grez: One thing that you can do is try to do some original reportage which is not necessarily as timely. Like an original interview which talks about the topic of disaster relief and which can be relevant for longer. —Justin (koavf)TCM 04:12, 21 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Diego Grez: Somebody did try to write something, just after the tsunami warning was issued. It was reviewed very quickly, as it happens, but had a number of problems (not only because it was their first submission, but also because the story changed so rapidly that, as best one could tell, by the time they'd finished writing it the source articles had already changed a lot). I wrote a fairly detailed review, plus a more personal remark on their user talk, being honest about the challenges involved with writing synthesis about a fast-moving high-profile story; they decided they'd chosen too big a story for their first article, adding they'd like to become a regular en.wn contributor.
Regarding the problem of review: I see the difficulty of reviewing and the difficulty of writing both as challenges, and I have a long-term "master plan" to address both. I've been working toward it for several years now, and get closer to step-one completion day by day. I describe the plan broadly at User:Pi zero/essays/vision/sisters; there's supposed to be a second essay about my vision particularly for Wikinews, but I haven't had time to write that yet — since my time that isn't taken up reviewing is taken up actually building the tools. --Pi zero (talk) 11:22, 21 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

18:29, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

15:15, 28 September 2015 (UTC)