Talk:Main Page/Archive 11

More photos on main page

Images grab readers' attention and make sites more enjoyable.

The Wikinews main page is boring. It currently has almost no photos. Compare with http://news.google.com or even the main Wikipedia main page and see the difference. Please see my "more-photos" proposal for Wikinews and vote if you wish. --Unforgettableid | Talk to me 09:45, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

error on breaking news part?

it is about: Brazilian shot by police on London Underground was not acting suspiciously

but the second line says: Italian Court clears the way for the return of bombing suspect to Britian.

that has nothing to do with the story about the brazilian getting shot. 130.89.11.31 12:50, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

actually in the UK this comparison was used by the mainstream press to emphasize the 'blunder' of the police. Basically, comparing the fate of the two. On paper even had the pictures of the two side by side on their front page. I wouldn't be surprised if some wikinews authors 'inspired' themselves from recent press articles. 217.206.58.72 08:38, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

bengladesh bombings a bit old now

See the time in my sig, isn't that story old news already? Just feeling like wikinews has slowed down a bit in the recent days. 217.206.58.72 16:16, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

Please feel free to edit the page leads! It's much easier these days and anyone can do it. ClareWhite 16:23, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

Another image

We could really do with an image that isn't Breaking, Special or Exclusive for the leads when we don't have a picture (like Mo Mowlam, I really don't have the time to find & upload an image which we'll only be allowed to use for today anyway). Any image makers out there? ClareWhite 11:42, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

Dates for articles, quotation marks

If you use new information to update articles from a day or more ago, should you change the date of the article to be the current date?

Also, I'm wondering if it is our style to use the special right and left quotation marks instead of standard quotion marks (" "), and if so, how do I add these to the page? Theshibboleth 04:18, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

IF new information comes into existence more than a day after an article is published, a whole new article should be made for it. Regular quotation marks are fine ;) -- NGerda 04:23, August 20, 2005 (UTC)

Okay. What about articles that are first put into development one day and a are finished on another? Also, the dating system is somewhat unclear to me; are we supposed to be listing all dates as they would be under UTC? Theshibboleth 06:54, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

Dates should be in UTC, but mentions of time within the article should be local time and cite the time zone that is. The dates can be changed on articles to the publication date as far as I'm concerned. Happy writing! -- NGerda 07:03, August 20, 2005 (UTC)

I should also make clear that article dates should not be changed once they are published.  :) -- NGerda 07:06, August 20, 2005 (UTC)

• The date on the article (i.e. {{date|whatever}}) should be the date {{publish}} is added to the article. It should never be changed after that, as it will make it jump around on the main page and thus confuse readers ("I thought this story went out yesterday? Is it a new one? Oh, no, it's not."). If you have more information, add it to the existing article. If a new event related to the story occurs, then, as per the content guide, start a new article. Dan100 (Talk) 08:53, August 20, 2005 (UTC)

Image vandalism

Sorry for the image trouble. I got a little confused and had problems finding the original image to upload over the vandalism. It should be fine now (but please delete the image I uploaded here instead of to Commons by mistake). Dcoetzee 07:12, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

New Main Page Design

I believe it is time for Wikinews to go to the next level. The way we've been operating up until this point has been that every article had to be of national or international interest to be published (1, 2) because if an occasional local story was written, it would show up alongside international news stories (which we've mainly focused on at Wikinews). Many other citizen journalism sites focus solely on very local reporting, and all Wikinews contributors I've heard express their opinion on this have supported local journalism and the idea of localism. The Portal system is designed to accommodate reporting on all levels, from international interest articles to neighborhood reporting. We recently moved the Create an Article input box to the top of the Main Page to make it easier for readers to see that they too can create articles for Wikinews. So, as I see it, Wikinews is expanding its horizons into local reporting in addition to its national and international coverage, and an overwhelming majority, if not all, of Wikinews contributors agree with this growth.

The first step I would propose to further this localism development would be to modify the Main Page in a manner that displays international interest stories, as not to upset some readers, and to focus the main page more towards larger issues. Concerns about the main page have already been made. In my opinion, not all local stories should be published on the main page. We have a Featured article section, and we can even have a neat list of local articles we think others might be interested in as well. So my proposal is this: we implement a revised Main Page that instead of listing all articles published, lists the last 5 (or more) published articles, along with automatically-created lists displaying the three most recently published articles for each of the continents we report on and the three most recently published articles for the topics we report on. Not to worry, There would still be two links to the complete list of published articles within the past few days in the area where it lists the 5 most recently published articles. I have spent scores of hours preparing a Main Page design for these ideas here. Please, let me know what you guys think, and if you like the idea, we can have the Main Page updated in about a week, perfect timing with the International Wikinews Writing Contest, as an opening ceremony of sorts.

Sincerely, NGerda 07:14, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

Community input

• Oppose: We can't do that yet Nick. Story output has plummetted over the past few months to barely 5 articles a day. I beleive we should publish everything on the main page until we hit 20 stories a day on a regular basis. Yes the contest will increase output, but only for a while. → CGorman (Talk) 09:30, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

And you do not think a more colorful, better-designed main page will hep attract new writers? -- NGerda 00:38, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

• Oppose: Agree with CGorman. Our existing design is perfectly good. The phrase "fiddling while Rome burns" leaps to mind - we don't need changes to the site, we simply need people to write more stories. Dan100 (Talk) 11:43, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

So you have nothing against the design itself? -- NGerda 00:38, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

• Agree:Your new design isnt the best, but it sure beats the current one. I am encouraging all of my local friends to take a look at Wikinews, so hopefully they'll post some stories. Also the "5 stories a day is more like 10, which is 70 a week! I think that is a lot for how many active (daily) users there. -Telecron 13:05:34, 2005-08-30 (UTC)
• Neutral: I wasn't quite sure how each user's display will know which area (or areas) are local to them, but any such system seems overly complex to me. Can't we just create and use local categories to do this ? For example, I believe a "Midland, Michigan" category has been created for stories there. I do think we need a "Global" category, only for stories of global interest, to keep stories like the one about Irish college entrance results from being displayed outside of Ireland. Only stories of global interest should be displayed on the main page, IMHO. The Pat Robertson story might be of global interest, but the Little Ceasars story would only be of interest in Ireland and the US. StuRat 17:18, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

This main page design insures that only global-interest articles will be displayed on the main page. -- NGerda 00:38, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

• Neutral. In all I can say, we do need a new main page - but there are other items we need to get done before this (CGorman's comment pretty much sums it up). Making the process easier for newcomers, making sure they know all the ropes around here, and just plain getting more articles are much more important than a Main Page right now. But if you have some free time, please consider a new page - I take a hard look at it and realize it can't really be a easy thing to navigate if you haven't been to it before. But that's for the future, we have other things to focus on now. --Mrmiscellanious 19:25, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

There is no need to focus any more heavily on this now than liking the design and approving its uploading.  :) -- NGerda 00:40, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

My mind exactly - focus on the stories for the moment! I appreciate your effort Nick, but I think we should put this idea into the warehouse for a few months and then re examine it. → CGorman (Talk) 19:28, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

The new main page is already designed. There is no need to do any more work on it, unless anyone has a roblem with the design itself (which no one so far does). All I need is for you guys to say "OK" to me uploading the new design, nothing more.  :) -- NGerda 00:38, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

• Support I'm up for a trial run. --Mrmiscellanious 00:40, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
• Oppose: I like the new leads, but I dislike the rest of it. The colours are excessive and look bad. The page is almost impossible to use with a 15in monitor, even on a larger monitor the page feels overly busy. I also agree with what CGorman said. Even ignoring all these issues I like my news listed by day and I will oppose any change that changes that. --Cspurrier 02:05, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

Cspurier, I took your concern about listing into cosideration long ago and made two links on the page to the full list of articles - exactly where you'd expect to find them, above and under the list of the 5 most recently published articles. The fact is, we will never be able to do local reporting if all articles are dsiplayed on the main page; unfortunately readers and editors simply will not put up with it, as they didn't with the sandwhich shop story. Regards, NGerda 02:32, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

• Oppose: I too like the new leads, but the page is much to busy -- and, as some have already said, our article count is terribly low. We'd look silly to have days or weeks old stories on the main page. Perhaps some middle-ground could be worked out, but I oppose implementing this design at this time.... --Chiacomo (talk) 02:10, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

Can you please point me to where we have weeks-old stories on the main page proposal? -- NGerda 02:32, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

Must you comment on every oppose vote? It's kind of irritating -- and makes it difficult to read. In response to your query:

• Central America - U.S. Congress passes CAFTA with 2 vote House margin - July 28
• Health - First unvaccinated survivor of rabies discharged from hospital - January 8
• LGBT - U.S. study of gay sheep may shed light on sexuality - August 15 (not too old, but still)

There are others of course, but these are good examples. I would hope that there aren't stories more than 7-10 days old on our main page. --Chiacomo (talk) 02:40, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

Then let's write more stories! :D -- NGerda 02:47, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

This is my point exactly! Our article count should and must increase before we change the main page substantially and in a way that includes categories that have old stories. Perhaps we (myself included) should spend more time writing articles and less time (scores of hours?) worrying about policy, design, etc... I hope that the writing contest will "jump start" us all, but again, I Oppose this implementation at this time. --Chiacomo (talk) 02:51, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

This is exactly why I oppose this too. This isn't the first time a DPL-based design has been suggested and, as with the last few times, come back with it in six months when we might be ready for it. Dan100 (Talk) 17:19, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

You do not think a more colorful, better-designed main page will hep attract new writers? Face it, our current Main Page is boring. Would you trust a news source with that kind of main page? -- NGerda 02:57, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

It's the content, not the presentation. -Edbrown05 04:43, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

Indeed. Also, our current presentation is pretty good, imo. Dan100 (Talk) 17:19, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

I would say the main page presentation is pretty darned important if our average page-loads per visitor is 1.9. It is unfortunate that we are not supportive of any change here on Wikinews. Good night. -- NGerda 06:18, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

Super suspicious Wikinewsies leave a story like Broadband users kicked off service for constant questioning lanquish for 4 days until it's hardly news at all. It's no wonder you have a citizen news organization with a traffic count like Indymedia vs. Wikinews when it takes forever to get over it all here... (sour grapes I know). --Edbrown05 05:04, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

• Support The current home page is incredibly jumbled. It does need a refresh. It's rather confusing for visitors to the current HP to see Technology news mixed in with regional news, disasters, etc. etc. etc.
  • Whoops, sorry the above post was by me. --Spe88 07:40, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

• Weak Support. I like the overall design of the page. It looks fresher and kinda "cool" to me :). I also like the fact that categories are now displayed on the main page. It highlights the stories and gives the reader a quick overview of what Wikinews has to offer, the topics we cover etc.. The leads also look a lot nicer now, but I think three of them should suffice. Some other minor corrections I'd like to suggest :
  1. I think the latest news section should be expanded a little, to maybe accommodate the last 2 days or so.
  and 2. I don't think it necessary to treat all topics alike. Low traffic topics like LGBT, Education or Health should list less articles on the main-page than categories where we get a lot of articles like Politics and conflicts.
  But that aside, the Main Page needs a reboot, and your design is a good way to start IMHO. --Deprifry 12:01, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

• Weak support too. I find the (proposed) main page slightly busy. Right now I think the main thing we need is a new skin( which the contest ended 2 months ago) . The main page right now Looks ugly in the default skin. but in my skin it looks okay and i don't mind it. However my skin looks un-professional in every way posible, especially for the 99% of the population who doesn't like the color yellow. Anyway what i'm trying to say is lets get away from monobook to something different. Monobook is good for an encyclopedia, we arn't an encyclopedia. After we've got a general un-encyclopedic look lets work on the main page.

Now, coments just about the proposed main page: I like the way the leads are in your page, however i think three is too much to display like that. I think it would be better to display the third lead like it is now and put lead 1 & 2 as it is in your design. the other problem is there are too many catagories listed and it makes the page look busy. I have no idea what to do about that to fix it, other then ditching cats on the main page. Also categories should have distictly altranating colours in my opinion so its easier to follow. The last thing i wanted to say is if it is posible and if someone knows css beter then i do maybe they could make the browse by section link do the hover trick to make a menu like this for all the categories. Other then that, and if we can't get the skin soon we should do a trial run of this. Bawolff 21:19, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

• Neutral. I quite like the overall look of the English Wikinews main page. It's not perfect, but I don't think that any of the proposed replacements are very nice. However, I do believe that we should do something to deal with local stories (and until we do, people will be intimidated out of writing them, thinking that they shouldn't). However, I'm not sure if this is the time to do this. Also... why do we have a LGBT category? --Munchkinguy 03:54, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Dunno about LGBT. Do know we have a Munchkinguy to make a very valid point about local stories. Wikinews has a monster trying to crawl out from underneath the bed... A local story nightmare pressing against the inside of the closed closet door. Bill Cosby would be up all night with coffee, scared off in one of his comic routines. How 'neat' do you want your news? Life is messy, so I prefer news that reflects the messiness. -Edbrown05 04:36, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Regarding the local stories issue, my suggestion is that we add a "Global" category, for stories of global interest, and only display those on the main page. StuRat 04:52, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Support, but with Deprify's suggestions - Automatically having smaller categories pop up when they have one recent story will mean the page changes frequently and is a way to promote different portals/categories. Perhaps have the main regions and main topics with a section of about two 'minor' topics and four individual countries below, perhaps expanding that when there is greater use of the local only category: this should lead to a diverse main page. People will be able to see exactly what they're after then, whether it's latest worldwide news or a topic. Can we lose the green behind the category boxes? ClareWhite 11:01, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

• Weak Support. Again, content should definitely come first. It needs to be a bit less busy, too. Kudos, though, for the effort and for thinking ahead. --Dvortygirl 16:23, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

• Strong Support but .... We have only very few truely "local" stories, placing them in a getto won't decrease front page content. However, here local should mean "sub-nation" in most of the word and "sub-state" in the US. Moreover, we do not have enough local stories to support seperate local sections, so we should have a "local stories" box which shows any recent local stories, unless you configure it to show only your local stories. As we get more local stories, we can add automatic IP based identification of localation and make sure that at least one or two stories from that location show up in the box, if it has not been configured. - Nyarlathotep 22:14, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

• Oppose: I much prefer the current design for as long as the article count is low enough to make is feasible. I don't like having a closed view of current events and quite like having every topic listed together based simply on when it was posted. At the rate of articles being posted currently, the only thing I'd really like to be different is that each article specify in the title (perhaps even always at the beginning) which country it applies to... I have no clue what some of these titles are talking about, and I sure would feel like a jerk changing all of them myself so that it was easier to tell geography on the main page. Also, IP-based localization would likely give lots of Canadians a bunch of American internal stuff they don't want while hiding their own. We should all use .ca but we don't come anywhere close to doing that uniformly, so... --Orbz 01:16, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Support: 9
Neutral: 2
Oppose: 5

Trial run

Is anybody opposed to a trial-run for a few days? We can come back and analyze it after 3 days or so. -- NGerda 16:57, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

Yes, please don't push it right now. --Dčabrilo 01:21, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

So you are opposed to moving forward and developing this proposal? -- NGerda 16:24, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

I also oppose, it is a major step backwards. --Cspurrier 16:52, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

Just give the site a little more time. When we have enough stories a day on an on-going basis (ie not because of any contests), then we'll be ready. It's important not to put the cart before the horse. Dan100 (Talk) 17:58, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

Main Page pic

We really should change the pic of the Mosul bridge on the Main Page; it's really totally unrelated to the story.--Pharos 00:12, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Done. No pic of the bridge in question was available, so I put up a map of Iraq showing Baghdad. StuRat 04:47, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Votes for "Global" category to keep local news off front page

I propose that we add a "Global" category, and only apply this to stories of global interest. It would not be used for stories of local interest only, or in two countries only (like the US Little Caesar's pizza chain moving into Ireland). The front page would only display stories with the "Global" tag. StuRat 05:05, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

• Approve. StuRat 05:05, 1 September 2005 (UTC)
• Oppose. The [[Category:Local only]] keeps a story off the 'Main Page'. So this mechanism is already in place. -Edbrown05 05:23, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Ok, I withdraw the suggestion then, and will add that category from now on. Thanks ! StuRat 05:33, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

However, I encourage people to keep posting stuff to the main page even if it is local news. At this point in Wikinews development, we need to see what other people are doing, especially original reporting. When we have so many articles that the main page is overflowing, then we can start marking articles as "Local only". - Borofkin 05:36, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

I would actually recommend Category:Local. -- NGerda 05:38, September 1, 2005 (UTC)

I assume that articles with the "Local" category still show up on the main page ? StuRat 05:42, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Agree with Category:Local -Edbrown05 05:55, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Hold on with that. We still need to decide what is global and what is local. Is a gay parade in Cologne global or local? Is a gay parade in Kabul global or local? Let's get more articles before we even start thinking about such things. --Dčabrilo 05:57, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

I believe the route to more articles is to open the door to reporting contributions from what people know best, their own neighborhoods. And then, every news monger will come crashing down on Wikinews with and against constant sloppy, irrelevant, silly and stupid stories about 'dogs biting dogs' and every nightmare you ever dreamed of as an editor will come true. "Be careful of what you wish for." comes to mind. -Edbrown05 06:40, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

I do wish for that. I know many, maybe most oppose. -Edbrown05 06:43, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

I think most people, like me, would very much like to read about stories local to them, but have absolutely no interest in stories local to everyone else. Tagging such articles with "Local only" to keep them off the main page, and then looking up your local area by category, seems like the best solution with the current structure. StuRat 07:03, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

• Oppose. We have so few stories, that we have no need to try and hide any, oppose unless the local tag is applied by original author. --Cspurrier 11:51, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Craig, my point is that we won't get any local stories until we create a system that alows for them, or at least take them off the main page. -- NGerda 00:46, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

I disagree, hiding them can only make the problem worse --Cspurrier 00:48, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

We wouldn't be hiding them; they'd still show up on their respective portals and the complete list of articles. What we would be doing is keeping most local stories off the main page, unless an article is viewed as exceptional be the Wikinews community. The BBC doesn't display every single local story in England on their main page, because it just doesn't make sense. We need to asses what the main page should be. -- NGerda 00:58, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

It makes complete sense to use Category: Local only at editor's discretion, preferably with the agreement of the original author. Some stories just look plain odd on the main page, other quirky local stories may be felt to be of international interest. This has worked well so far both for Quakers and Brampton, Ontario. ClareWhite 15:03, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

Personally I prefer to keep everything on the Main Page, as I reckon readers are pretty good at quickly judging what they do and do not want to read. Dan100 (Talk) 17:10, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

Second lead and Feature Article ?

They aren't displaying for me. Is anyone else having this prob ? StuRat 15:18, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

This issue seems to be fixed now. StuRat 17:16, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Stories in Development

News briefs:September 2, 2005 has shown up under "Stories in development", even though it does not have a {{develop}} tag. Furthermore, it not an actual story, but a compilation of newsbriefs for Audio Wikinews. Can someone remove it from the "Stories in development" column? --Munchkinguy 17:46, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

It should now be fixed. The {{develop}} tag is no longer required, the list is a list of all stories on Wikinews that do not have the published tag on it, it also excludes a few other types of stories, such as briefs, and portal pages. --Cspurrier 17:57, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

use the Brief category to keep them off the develop list. the developing story template shows all the categories that are excluded from the list so people should check that for the most appropriate category to use in their own case. pages show there if they have been innapropriately placed, which is quite useful. ClareWhite (no tildes)

Make a nice big blue (navy inset) border in {{template:FrontPageMenu}}

like this:

I've been playing around with different parts of the main page on user:Bawolff/Sandbox/Main Page, and I tried putting a border around template:FrontPageMenu. I personally think that it looks much better with the border. Bawolff 22:06, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

I think it looks scary.  :'( -- NGerda 16:21, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

It would look better with a 1px border. --Ardonik.talk(*) 05:07, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikinews, the free-content news source you can write!

December 26, 2024 18:16 UTC

Get involved | Help with breaking news | Workspace | Crossword | Audio | Print

How about a skinny outset with a darker blue? Bawolff 21:26, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

Very nice. The purple is pretty, but a tad too dark. --Ardonik.talk(*) 18:40, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

This is a similar banner to what I proposed under the Main Page Redesign Proposal (see above). Looks nice ;) -- NGerda 22:14, September 5, 2005 (UTC)

Main page update compromise

There has been ongoing discussions, and disagreements, about returning topics to the main page. NGerda has proposed and, twice, implemented a version of the main page which has not achieved a consensus, in part because of the large changes proposed in it.

One possible resolution would be to use "top" categories - only a very small number of them - which would take up far less of the main page. A still large and predominant "latest news" section would be the primary element of the main page, and a broader topics/regions menu on the main page would allow topic-oriented browsing which is currently not ergonomically implemented.

I would personally suggest the following top categories: International [stories of global resonance], National [stories of great importance in a given nation] and Sports [all sports]. These are not traditional Wikinews content categories, but categories regarding the percieved audience interest in the articles.

There have been comments regarding the use of color on the main page. Although the current main page is not monochromatic, the use of color can severely hamper the ability of people with accessibility issues to use Wikinews. Specifically, varying levels of color "blindness" make text on even mildly colored backgrounds unreadable. If color must be an element of the design, it should be reserved to borders.

Would these two issues, severely limited topics and reduction or elimination of color, allow for compromise on updating the main page layout? - Amgine/^talk 00:08, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

These are excellent ideas, Amgine. Allowing some topical grouping based on the categories you suggest would be great. My only concern about the "National" category is that in current "main-stream" media sites (and I know we're not trying to be compete with main-stream media), the "National" sections refer to one nation. Readers are presented with the appropriate nation depending on which portal they visit. Would we simply include all nations in our topic box -- would we segment them in some way? I'm not objecting in any way to a grouping of national news that is not segmented; I'm just asking.. :D --Chiacomo (talk) 01:58, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

My thinking is that "top-level" 'Topics' are workable on the Main Page in the center column of a 3-column layout as proposed. I don't see how 'Regional(National)' coverage (to echo Chiacomo comments above) is workable since Wikinews coverage aims for all Global events.

I would very much like to see the 'Latest news' section list at least 2 days of stories, because I notice a lot of edit activity being done on day-old stories.

Finally, I really like the idea of getting all lead stories placed in the center column. How the left and right columns are ultimately developed is another matter. -Edbrown05 16:33, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

The problem isn't the layout. It's that MonoBook is NOT adapted for any sort of news site. It needs to be redone first. If the sidebar and top bar are redone to account for the "news" layout, we could get a lot more free space for real news. For example, a categeory list could be put down the left, there could be a links bar at the top, etc. Cap'n Refsmmat 22:08, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Speaking of which, I've been working on a new Wikinews skin, tentatively called "Linear". The idea is to maximize the amount of space devoted to the articles. I've got more details about it at User:Brent Dax/Linear skin, if you're interested. —Brent Dax (talk) 09:13, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

I like Linear :D. Don't forget about wikinews:custom skin and m:Wikinews design contest. We really need a new skin. Bawolff 06:16, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Typo

Nuclear has one l, not two. (the error is in the North Korea headline)

css is badly screwed up in MSIE 5

Yeah I hate using IE5 but i have to. 199.216.246.56 18:10, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

seems fixed now. 199.216.246.56 18:15, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Original reporting

Craig removed the OR box with the summary: removed Original stories, the stories are offten old and it just adds clutter. I have restored it, for these reasons:

• "Old" by what standard? Currently, they're about a week old, that seems to be fairly typical. Given that they are, by definition, original, they don't have to be hot off the presses to be interesting.
• I find it extremely important to highlight that OR is allowable and practiced on Wikinews, to encourage people to submit such material.
• I don't really see it as a main source of clutter, since there are only 4 stories in it anyway. The main source of clutter on the right side is the developing stories list.

We can tweak the format, but I would strongly recommend that some version of the OR box remain on the Main Page.--Eloquence 07:45, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

I don't necesarily see the point of having 'developing stories' on the front page, as readers don't want to see stories that are being written and editors can go to the workspace. Any rationale on that? — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 20:35, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

I do, it is very important to readers that they see we have an open and productive editing process. Many people wonder how articles are made in an open source community...might as well show them! Most importantly though is the time factor. To be a news source that people use regularly we need to have changes and new stories out quick. Editing can take hours, thus the need to have it listed on the main page so people can read a story right away as it devolops. Flying Canuck 04:53, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

Ditto. Having developing stories on the main page is essential to make the nature of WN clear to our readers. --Deprifry|+T+ 10:01, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

Podcasts

Who does the podcasts? --Thorpe89 23:18, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

I don't know the answer to that one, but along a similar line of thought, are we compliant/compatible with screen readers? Is there any W3C WAI planned? NeoAmsterdam 02:14, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

(P.S.: Ogg doesn't play on iPods, so it can't really be a "podcast" but that's just me splitting hairs...)

Girl's flu case found to be drug-resistant

A girl who likely caught avian influenza from her bother needed high doses of medicine to fight off the virus.

from her bother? G Clark 00:43, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Random page

Why is there link to Special:Random like there is in other Wikis?

THere needs to be a link to http://www.vorbis.com/ next to the Audio Wikinews files. .ogg is not a very common audio format and few people outside of the opensource community know how to listen to it. 69.162.17.100 19:20, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

I've added a link to the Wikipedia article about OGG. This should explain what .ogg is and how to listen to it. --Deprifry|+T+ 19:28, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

There used to be a link to special:random but it got changed with browse by section because most people thought that no one used random page. Bawolff 22:21, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Lets change the default skin to cologne blue or amethyst

I think it would be a good idea to change the default skin to amethyst(some pages might need changing) or Cologne blue. Other skin choices that might work:

• simple
• chick gives us lots of room
• Standard (note — not the same as monobook.
• somthing off of m:Wikinews design contest
• Wikinews:custom skin
• user:Brent Dax's Linear skin (looks promising. not sure if its done yet.

Bawolff 17:34, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

• I like cologne blue. Some of the design contest templates are nice. This one particularly: Wikinews:Custom skin

• Of the two, I like the cologne blue better. Anything with a dark background is like venturing into a black hole. -Edbrown05 18:10, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

• I also like cologne blue a lot (but then I'm probably biased since I was born in Cologne:)). I guess the main problem with changing the default skin is that it would move us away from the, as my economy teacher would call it, corporate identity of Wikimedia. I don't think this would be a good thing to do since I would IMO confuse a lot of new readers who come here from Wikipedia. --Deprifry|+T+ 18:27, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

• True, but I find the Wikimedia projects look exactly like every other non-WM Wiki out there.--Wolfrider 18:34, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, and people are used to it, that's how a wiki looks in their minds. An entirely new look might scare them away (or it might attract them, but the line is pretty thin IMHO) --Deprifry|+T+ 18:42, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

That's a good point. --Wolfrider 20:29, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

I really like colgne blue (and the Wikinews Custom skin -- and, while it is useful to appeal to editors from other WMF projects, it might also be helpful to change to something more "dynamic". Let's continue discussing this and try to draw in other opinions. --Chiacomo (talk) 03:54, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

<grin> I'm partial to Datrio's design contest entry, which is a css modification to Monobook so people from WP are familiar with the elements and layout, while at the same time improving the color functionality/useability. A working implementation is at Journowiki.org - Amgine /^talk 04:08, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Portals

I see that Wikipedia has portals, such as the Computer and Video Games portal. I think this concept is a good one as they can act as a nice summerizer of issues / topics.

Could this portal concept be extended to Wikinews? Portals could cover specific topics, much like how newscientist.com has different topic areas such as health. Instead of by topic, some portals could be for specific locations or organizations. Should Wikinews get portals like Wikipedia, is there a better term (newscientist calls them channels)? --ShaunMacPherson 19:57, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Portals take effort to maintain. I think the categories on Wikinews serve this purpose well enough for the moment. 65.27.72.14 23:47, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

We do have portals. some are more like topic pages and some are more in the style of wikipedia portals (Portal:Australia and Portal:Brampton, Ontario comes to mind.) see also wikinews:SectionMenu.Bawolff ☺☻ 22:04, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

Oct 22 2005

The internal link for October 22 actually points to Oct 21. I don't know why it would be designed to do this.

fixed, thank you for calling that out. -Edbrown05 18:08, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Dynamic Page Lists on the homepage

Hi folks. Looking at the daily DPL blocks, I noticed that they look like:

<DynamicPageList>
category=October 23, 2005
category=Published
notcategory=Disputed
suppresserrors=true
</DynamicPageList>

Where they should look like:

<DynamicPageList>
category=Published
category=October 23, 2005
notcategory=Disputed
suppresserrors=true
</DynamicPageList>

Note that Published is the first category. This is required if we want to list stories in the order they were published, rather than some random order they were originally tagged with the date. -- IlyaHaykinson 08:06, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

I think I've gone insane

Twice today I've tried to add new stories, twice today it looked like it was going to do it, but failed. I shan't be adding to this anymore, it's bloody infuriating! --Irishpunktom 19:39, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Rosa Parks died

Rosa Parks died - someone should update this page -- Raul654 02:35, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Language link to he:

Admins - please add the following to the interwiki language links at the bottom of the Main Page:

he:עמוד ראשי

For Hebrew Wikinews, which was just created today. Dovi 07:44, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

I added it to the Other lang Box, but somebody beat me to the interlang link. Bawolff ☺☻ 02:36, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

---

Good Luck To Hebrew Wikinews

Thinks Bawolff is evil, very evil... - 24.85.85.76 03:02, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

??? Bawolff ☺☻ 03:18, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

"Text-decoration:Blink" - Amgine 03:19, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

ahhh. lol - Bawolff ☺☻ 19:36, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

avian flu infobox typo

the list of pandemics lists the current pandemic as "H1N5", but it should be H5N1. -- 4 Nov 05 -- doublez

Thanks for pointing that out.☺ by the way you can also edit it yourself. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:04, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

Thnx for that link, couldn't find it. -- doublez

privelidges

Someone please fix "privelidges" on the front page.

Done. Thanks for the notice. And btw, you can also edit the page yourself --Deprifry|+T+ 20:00, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

How frequently does Wikinews get updated?

How many people do you have working on articles because news is 24/7 a day please NEWS is important!!!!!!! Maoririder 20:34, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree, we always need more people. Are you willing to help? Bawolff ☺☻ 01:44, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

validation problems

[1]I don't know how to fix these as they apear to be somewhere in MediaWiki: Land. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:17, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

Accreditation requests...

How long do they take, on average? -- user:zanimum

Until an admin gets to it :). I have been dealing with them mostly by myself so it can take some time til I remember about them. --Cspurrier 19:39, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

Okay, no prob. -- user:zanimum

W3C Validator

[2] There's a problem with main page. In the page footer (line 523) there's <div align="center"/> and there should be: <div align="center"> . --Derbeth 18:03, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Theres a couple more problems then that. However they're all spread through MediaWiki: land. If you can find the actual page its on I'll be glad to fix it. I think the automatic HTML Tidy got disabled which is part of the problem. Bawolff ☺☻ 07:10, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

That seems to be in MediaWiki:Copyright, but my html knowledge is hovering a few cm above ground, so I better not try to fix it myself ;). --Deprifry|+T+ 14:03, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Fixed. Main Page validates now. -- IlyaHaykinson 17:42, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

List of current events

Why are some of the events listed a day late? Tueni was killed on Monday, not Tuesday, The Aus Guantanamo prisoner got British citizenship on Tue, not Wednesday. Compare with Wikipedia Current events. -- SGBailey 16:16, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

We currently publish stories when we are done developing them, not when the event happens. Otherwise, let's say someone starts an article on Monday but it takes us two days to get the article fixed up per style/content/npov guides; if we publish it in the Monday group, it'll likely scroll off the page and nobody would see it.

In general, though, I agree that the way we show things right now isn't great. I've been an advocate of not grouping articles by date on the homepage, but rather by topic / region. -- IlyaHaykinson 17:17, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Crazy pictures

What is going on with the front page right now?70.153.252.130 16:05, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Vandalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTO_Ministerial_Conference_of_2005 has been vandalised 129.128.166.158 22:34, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Was vandalized. For 9 minutes. - Amgine | ^talk 22:35, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

New York City transit strike

Howdy folks - I'm a seasoned Wikipedian but completely new to Wikinews - I live pretty close to NYC and the transit strike is coming soon, which seems like it would be newsworthy...I would love to create a video news segment ( a friend with video experience is on board to help)...could anyone give me some guidance on this? I think we can probably make a pretty professional looking and overall nice looking video but I'm a total n00b and need to get acquainted around here. If anyone can help, please give me a call at 516 659 0689 or leave a comment at my Wikipedia user page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:PaulHanson ) .....thanks a bunch and hope to talk to you soon PaulHanson 06:13, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi Paul, thanks for dropping by. A video would be of huge use here, however it would proably have to be hosted externally. We had a user called DV who produced a number of videos a while back, however he has since left the project. I'm not that involved at present and my experience with video would not be that strong, but I would suggest you talk to Ilya (our resident techie), Craig or Nick (our Audio guy). Good luck. → CGorman (Talk) 11:17, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

I've been covering the TWU negotiations on-and-off for the last couple of days (Still have a few final exams this week, so I'm kinda hoping there is a strike). If you want, I can set up an I have set up an article collaboration section on the NYC Transit Negotiation Category page to coordinate coverage. Worst-case I'd be an hour-and-change away by LIRR; best-case, I'm there when it happens.

NeoAmsterdam 02:23, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

I beleive nick left the project after he switched license. Is he still here? Bawolff ☺☻ 05:52, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Did he? God i've been away for too long! → CGorman (Talk) 20:34, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Bush Authorizes Wiretaps without Warrants

Hello, I have no idea what I'm doing so forgive me if the format is off or something, but has anyone started a story on the New York Times article about Bush authorizing line taps without warrants in 2002. 64.12.116.203

Articles in development are found on the right side of the main page with the newest ones on top. That's where you can check if an article has already been started on a subject. As it turns out, an article seems to have been started on the subject you mentioned: Bush autorized N.S.A spying on Americans without court-approved warrants. Feel free to contribute to it! - Apollyon 22:50, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Links off-site to news reports?

What happened to the links to news articles outside of wikipedia and wiknews on specific news? It was really helpful to have that external link right there... now I'm redirected back into Wikipedia and left to search for a brief blurb about the new event. 18.187.1.234 21:55, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

There isn't even a link to the wikinews article. :( 18.187.1.234 21:57, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you are talking about. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:12, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

On wikipedia's front page, in the wikinews box, there used to be the one-line summaries with wikilinks to wikipedia entries on the subject, and at the end of that, there was an external link to CNN or Rueters or BBC. Now, the external links not there anymore. 18.187.1.234 22:33, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Are (a) the external links going to come back, or (b) be replaced by a link to the appropriate wikinews article, etc? ... (b) would be a good idea as long as the wikinews articles continue to be well referenced. :) 18.187.1.234 22:42, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Oh you mean the current events/In the news box on 'pedia. Links are not on the main page, and i don't think they ever have been. however there is links at wikipedia:Current events. This is external to wikinews and not under our control. you should probally ask at w:talk:current events. (assuming your talking about the thing I think you are). Bawolff ☺☻ 23:37, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Hmm... thought it used to be on the main page. Maybe I'm just confused. Thanks for the clarification. :) 18.240.5.139 02:43, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

no problem. Glad I could help. Bawolff ☺☻ 03:57, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

"Black vulture population targeted for reduction at Virginia boat launch"

... and who says Wikinews is parochial?

Fix Links to Sisterpojects?

See my comment at Template_talk:Sisterprojects

Responded there. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:08, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Photojournalism?

Does WikiNews handle photojournalism? Is there a news gallery? -- NeoAmsterdam 19:55, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikinews supports photojournalism via Wikimedia Commons. If you are willing to contribute news images to commons they can immediately be linked in Wikinews articles. Make sure your photos meet the minimum requirements for Commons: freely licensed, correctly sourced (including a link to the original web publishing site if previously released on the internet), and so on. Please add a wikinews category to the image description on commons, and a link to articles in which it is featured. (Someone with time to donate might want to go through Wikinews articles which have images and provide links on the image description pages...) - Amgine | ^{talk en.WN} 20:02, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I'm currently scanning in photos I took for transit strike coverage. I was thinking of setting up an image gallery page of photos for each day of the strike. Ideas? -- NeoAmsterdam 21:09, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I think the easiest way to do that would be to upload the photos to the commons, creating categories there like "NYC Strike - Day 1" or something and then sorting the images into those categories. That way you'll get a gallery pretty fast. --Deprifry|+T+ 21:14, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Once again, I owe you one. :-) -- NeoAmsterdam 21:26, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I think theres also a <gallary> tag for making image gallary's that might be useful. (don't know anything about it though, so you'd have to ask someone else) also all Wikinews images should have [[Category:Images for Wikinews]] as some people(from what i've read on the talk page) find the plain wikinews cat to crowded. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:13, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Disproportionate Number of Australian Headlines

I just added an RSS feed of Wikinews to My Yahoo and am noticing a rather large percentage of Australian headlines. How are headlines selected to make the front page, and why are so many Aussie articles being selected? Should I be linking to a different feed?

All articles produced by Wikinews appear on the RSS feed, and it just so happens that there are currently a large number of Aussie articles being written. I don't know of another RSS feed that you can use. - Borofkin 02:57, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Australian woman wins right to have dead husbands baby, who cares about this? I agree too much Australian headlines...--130.161.31.21 19:43, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Then write articles about other places and they too will appear on the front page. It would be great if we could get specific feeds based on what type of news it is, but we don't have that now. Complainers should do more writing of their own. --MateoP 17:56, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, MateoP is right. We won't have specilized feeds until we get enough articles. Australian's shouldn't be discouraged from writing, others should be encouraged to write. Nyarlathotep 00:41, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Adjectives

Regarding "Egypt court sentences opposition leader", do the writers of this news source have something against the use of adjectives?

Please purge the main page

Someone please purge this page so that it will no longer show the corrected grammatical error, "Australian wheat to loose out in Iraqi market grab", which I have corrected to "Australian wheat to lose out in Iraqi market grab". (loose is the opposite of tight; lose, on the other hand is the opposite of keep, retain, or win). Actually, a purge button on the main page would facilitate this without introducing the risk of vandalism. Cheers! BD2412 00:03, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

• Thanks. BD2412 T 02:16, 26 December 2005 (UTC)