Belovedfreak

Welcome

Belovedfreak, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these!

• Wikinews:Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
• Wikinews:Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced

Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews:

• Wikinews:Introduction - overview of the site
• Wikinews:Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
• Wikinews:Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
• Wikinews:Style guide - how articles should look before publishing
• Wikinews:Contents - the contents page.

There are always things to do on Wikinews:

• Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
• The front page lead articles often need updating
• Developing stories need finishing and publishing
• Discussions need your input
• Audio Wikinews could always use more contributors
• And of course, stories need writing!

By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes (~~~~), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! Cirt - (talk) 12:17, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi there! I'm going to drop you a copy of the updated welcome template, as one or two things have changed since that appeared - although the 'For Wikipedians' link you added pretty much covers it. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 21:34, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikinews

Getting started as a contributor How to write an article Pick something current? Use two independent sources? Read your sources before writing the story in your own words?. Do choose a unique title? before you start. Follow Wikinews' structure? for articles, answering as many of who what when where why and how? as you can; summarised in a short, two- or three-sentence opening paragraph. Once complete, your article must be three or more paragraphs. If you need help, you can add {{helpme}} to your talkpage, along with a question, or alternatively, just ask? Use this tab to enter your title and get a basic article template. [RECOMMENDED. Starts your article through the semi-automated {{develop}}—>{{review}}—>{{publish}} collaboration process.]

Welcome! Thank you for joining Wikinews; we'd love for you to stick around and get more involved. To help you get started we have an essay that will guide you through the process of writing your first full article. There are many other things you can do on the project, but its lifeblood is new, current, stories written neutrally. As you get more involved, you will need to look into key project policies and other discussions you can participate in; so, keep this message on this page and refer to the other links in it when you want to learn more, or have any problems. Wikipedia's puzzle-globe logo, © Wikimedia Foundation   Used to contributing to Wikipedia? See here.

All Wikimedia projects have rules. Here are ours. Listed here are the official policies of the project, you may be referred to some of them if your early attempts at writing articles don't follow them. Don't let this discourage you, we all had to start somewhere. The rules and guides laid out here are intended to keep content to high standards and meet certain rules the Wikimedia Foundation applies to all projects. It may seem like a lot to read, but you do not have to go through it all in one sitting, or know them all before you can start contributing. Remember, you should enjoy contributing to the project. If you're really stuck come chat with the regulars. There's usually someone in chat who will be happy to help, but they may not respond instantly.

The core policies Neutral point of view Cite sources Writing an article Content guide Style guide Reviewing articles

Places to go, people to meet Wiki projects work because a sense of community forms around the project. Although writing news is far more individualistic than contributing to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, people often need minor help with things like spelling and copyediting. If a story isn't too old you might be able to expand it, or if it is disputed you may be able to find some more sources and rescue it before it is listed for deletion. There are always discussions going on about how the site could be improved, and your input is of value. Check the links here to see where you can give input to the running of the Wikinews project.

Find help and get involved The Water Cooler The Latest News The Newsroom Articles for deletion Audio Wikinews Recent Changes

Write your first article for Wikinews! Use the following box to help you create your first article. Simply type in a title to your story and press "Create page". Then start typing text to your story into the new box that will come up. When you're done, press "save page". That's all there is to it! It is recommended you read the article guide before starting. Also make sure to check the list of recently created articles to see if your story hasn't already been reported upon.

No problem. I'd probably have written Rwandan myself, but it doesn't really matter. Interesting story, by the way. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 22:47, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Contest

To keyboards!!

Points to remember The competition page is here. Remember, you'll need to move from the newcomers to experienced section as the competition progresses. Everyone who's new to Wikinews remind yourselves of the article guide and style guide. And, use the Enter an article tab in this template to correctly start your competition articles.   Wikipedians! See here.

Published entries • More...

All other entries

Getting Help Possibly the fastest way to get help is to look for the regulars in the #wikinews IRC channel on Freenode. See this page for more details. Remember, many people will lurk, connected long-term, but not regularly checking for messages. Please be patient when looking for answers to queries, it can be annoying to see someone ask a question but leave before you notice it.

The usual places to look The Water Cooler The Latest News The Newsroom Articles for deletion Recent Changes

Start here for competition-ready templates Use this form to create a competition-ready article. Be sure to check the Main page and Newsroom to see you're not creating a duplicate. Please also add your article and point score to the log so that your score can be counted. Good luck!

--Mikemoral♪♫ 17:37, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

—Message delivered by MikemoralBot on 00:37, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Congrats on your article

You did fine. Perfection is unattainable, every article is an opportunity to learn tricks that might make an even better article next time (I've never written a Wikinews article I didn't think how to do better somehow, after the fact), but that's a given, so it doesn't at all lessen the accomplishment. Mattisse got upset, I think, because she was afraid her hard work might go to waste, and you just got caught a bit in the crossfire. Cheers! --Pi zero (talk) 14:54, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for that, and see below! :) --Belovedfreak (talk) 14:52, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Apology to you

I'm sorry for the comments I made about your article, as it was a perfectly fine article and what I said was unwarranted. Really, the Reviewers should have put a "merge" on it so things could have been done properly, as I didn't know how to do it. I regret the ensuing mess and regret my actions if I made you feel bad. Your article was a very good article. Again, I am so sorry. Best wishes, Mattisse (talk) 20:47, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

No it's fine, actually I'm sorry, I probably overreacted. I was slightly "miffed" by what you said, but it's really no big deal. Your article was better; I was just trying to get the story on the front page to be honest. It's always difficult entering a new arena where everyone else seems to know what's going on. I'm experienced on Wikipedia but tend to feel a little lost on other Wikimedia projects. I don't mind at all whose work ends up published, it was more what you said, but I know it's easy to say things without thinking and to forget, when we're making improvements, that the things we improve were put there by someone with (usually) good intentions. But thanks for the message, and no hard feelings.--Belovedfreak (talk) 14:52, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for being so gracious. Really, there is no excuse for my comments, and they weren't even true. You did have important information in your article that mine lacked and your article was very well written. I hope I have learned from this. Best wishes, Mattisse (talk) 18:33, 26 June 2011 (UTC)