Talk:Dozens dead in California boat fire

Latest comment: 4 years ago by SVTCobra in topic Review of revision 4508766 [Passed]

Review of revision 4508766 [Passed] edit

I do have a small problem with the word "Dozens" in the title when there were 33 deaths. Why not just say 33 dead? Maybe it was a timing thing where the death count was not official, but I think it should be noted to just say the number so the reader is informed why it is worth reading. Anyway, I found it a good read. There are plenty of potential follow ups. - AZOperator (talk) 19:47, 5 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

Actually, it's 34. One crew also died. I don't rightly know why the reviewer changed the opening sentence. The article was written when twenty bodies had been found and the missing were only presumed dead. --SVTCobra 20:01, 5 September 2019 (UTC)Reply
Re the headline, we routinely avoid building exact death tolls into headlines, because they're apt to change during the first 24 hours after publication and we don't like to renaming articles post-publish (produces duplicate entries in some feeds). --Pi zero (talk) 20:04, 5 September 2019 (UTC)Reply
So waiting an extra 24-hours would have given us an exact number, 34, and would still meet the freshness category. Wikinews is not exactly a minute by minute news organization. The importance is to get it right.AZOperator (talk) 20:10, 5 September 2019 (UTC)Reply
Not so. Getting things right does not require waiting before submission; if something isn't known yet, it isn't known yet. Waiting is a recipe for losing the article.

I don't think we got anything wrong here (am I missing something?). If we did, we'd need to issue a {{correction}}. --Pi zero (talk) 20:23, 5 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

(edit conflict)It's impossible in these situations to know how long the wait will be. What if they didn't find the rest of the bodies in that 24 hour window, but somebody managed to survive on their own but not found? What if some of the injured were in critical condition? We sit and look at our clocks while we wait to see if they are going to die? What about Dorian in Bahamas? How long to wait to "get it right" on the death toll? Hurricane Maria, if you recall, had material changes almost a year after the storm. I stand by that everything was as accurate as possible when I wrote the article which was one or two hours (at least when I started) after the USCG called off the search which was my original focal event. --SVTCobra 20:28, 5 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

No locks edit

CNN says "While passengers were not locked in the sleeping deck, they were apparently trapped by the blaze", this would be great to include into the story to avoid confusion? --Gryllida (talk) 00:39, 5 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

@SVTCobra: --^ Gryllida (talk) 01:40, 5 September 2019 (UTC)Reply
@Gryllida: I added what Captain Rochester said about the talk about locks. Review the revision if it is satisfactory. Cheers, --SVTCobra 02:19, 5 September 2019 (UTC)Reply
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