Talk:In the land of the open source elves: Interview with "Battle for Wesnoth" creator David White

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Based on an e-mail interview, see page history for answers as sent on May 28. Haven't received a photo from David yet, he might send one later. I have to go now; I would appreciate it if someone could put it in the second lead and promote it a bit.--Eloquence 23:02, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

sounds like an ad, and not like news to me

The first sentence of this news contribution does not sound like news to me at all. It rather sounds like an advertisement.

Hence I decided to - not read it - at wiki-news-newsbriefs. We are supposed to sound neutral, as far as I understood the concept of wikinews. Therefore I think the opening paragraph could have sounded like: An open source game ... , which has all the features of publicly distriubted games was published today. (or something like that) etc. pp.

Please don´t get me wrong. Concerning open source: I´m all for it! Otherwise I wouldn´t spend my time here. But this was not a headline for news. My regards and respect to the ones who formulated the article. Gumboyaya 22:11, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I think we need to be more liberal in exploring different writing styles. Compare the Stardust@home interview, which was also very relaxed and enthusiastic. Wikinews has no obligation to be boring. The issue is more with disputed and controversial statements. Is there anything specific in the article which you think is disputable and should be phrased differently?--Eloquence 01:17, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

First of all, I think, this is a good article. It is very well written. And I wouldn´t rephrase it. Yet I´d say, this is a mixture between comment and article, like one can find in magazines.

My point is, when it comes to news, we have the idea of being neutral and of respecting the BBC style guide. Can you imagine that this opening would appear in a BBC news broadcast? To be honest, I can´t. And, moreover, I don´t regard the BBC news as boring. (I guess you agree)

There is another point which is important for me: Especially since I was preparing the audio-newsbriefs, where I concentrate on the beginning of articles. The information about the whole article "should be" combined in the first sentence. This does not happen often here at wikinews, which is alright with me. In such a case, I read the first paragraph, or the first few sentences. Hence I think, I´m already "extremely liberal". :-) Even though it lengthens the news-"briefs!". I understand the main info was, that the "developer" of this game was interviewed about it, to speak his mind. This is not mentioned in the first two paragraphs.

Now that I think about it, I should have included the headline of the article in newsbriefs. Yet this didn´t occur to me yesterday. Sorry!

Still, when it comes to your article, what springs to my mind is, that you are reporting about a thing we both think to be good, and which should be supported. And I can read (even feel!) this from the very first words. Again, this is not a neutral approach to the issue. When I hear news, I´m not interested in the personal opinion of the reporter (or in my case, the presenter), I´m interested in the facts.

This leads me to another (well, kind of) "problem" with reading this article. It´s the "problem" of presentation.

When I read your first sentences in the "distanced way" I´m trying to read the news, than I´d read enthusiastic words, yet my voice wouldn´t sound enthusiatic at all. In this case, the listeners would probably think: "What a contradiction in terms. The words sound enthusiastic, but the presenter sounds almost bored by this." Which could lead further to the fact, that listeners possibly think: "What´s the problem the presenter has with this information?" (And listeners do this, even though it happens subconsciously.)

Allow me another (extremely overdone) metaphor to make my point:

Last week something wonderful happend to me. A friend of mine called me at 2 a.m. (this is not the wonderful thing! ;-) and told me: "I`M A DAD! AGAIN! JUST AN HOUR AGO SHE WAS BORN! MOTHER AND DAUGHTER ARE FINE!!!" Please try now to imagine, he would have called me at the same time, and would have told me these words in a news-style way. What would have happend in my brains?

Hence my point is: If people let their minds wander from the info to the presenter, or only the form of presentation, then they will miss the info, because they think about something completely different. And this is what I don´t want to let happen, because the info is important, not me, or the way in which I present the info.

A second approach could be, to read your words with the enthusiasm of saying/meaning: "Look at this, isn´t this brill!?!" Again, this would fall completely out of line, with the info given before. Which is read with the idea: "Here are the facts, make your mind up about what you´ve heard!"

I do have some more thoughts about this, but this would make my answer even longer, and it is already quite longish, isn´t it? ;-)

Yet, I thought, I owe this to you, since you had "all the hassle" with formulating and reformulating, and along comes gumboyaya and says: "Nah, ... don´t read this stuff!".

And - in the end - I can only write: This is not a bad article, not at all. It is very good indeed.

I hope I could make my thoughts and impressions more understandable now. Gumboyaya 16:18, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Interesting...

Good article! It would be nice if there was a good source for free-documentation articles about free-software projects. Since this is a general news site, I linked "GPL" to Wikipedia:GNU General Public License in case some reader is unfamiliar with "GPL".

I will not do much else, at least not before I finish Wesnoth's first campaign, Heir to the Throne... --Kernigh 01:14, 3 June 2006 (UTC)