Booksworm
Welcome
editBooksworm, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.
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: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
- 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! Jason Safoutin 15:18, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
Welcome to Wikinews! Thanks for creating Tram derails in Geneva, articles like this are appreciated. There are a few issues that must be dealt with before it can be published. The most important is that all Wikinews articles must cite sources for the information they contain. Articles should cite sources by using the {{source}} tag at the bottom of the story. When you click "edit" there are instructions for using the {{source}} tag underneath the "Save page" button. If your article contains original reporting, you should read the information at Wikinews:original reporting. If you are part of the story that the article is about, you may also wish to consider requesting an interview rather than writing the article yourself.
Discussion about your article will occur on the article talk page. Please go there to start or participate in the discussion with other Wikinews contributors. Keep at it and try to get this article published, which can sometimes be difficult, but you will find that it is worth the effort. - Borofkin 23:48, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
By the way
editThank you very much for writing that article on North Korea's (failed) weapon — it is very important news. But some things I'd like to point out:
- We don't bold the first paragraph on Wikinews
- We typically stick to the grammatical conventions of published resources, and not how the Associated Press writes. This means that single-sentence paragraphs should be avoided, and rather expressed as parts of a larger paragraph on a single general topic. When you get to a new topic, make a new paragraph.
- Sources are mandatory
Once again, thank you for your involvement. Please continue to supply Wikinews with great articles. —THIS IS MESSED
OCKER (TALK) 21:06, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
- i don't think we can use the image u added to the N Korea article, as it wld be a copyright violation. Doldrums 10:42, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
First off, we really appreciate your contribution.
But sometimes users submit an article from somewhere else, not realizing that Wikinews cannot keep copy-and-paste versions of articles which are published elsewhere under a restrictive copyright. An article created in this way is a copyright violation, and Wikinews policy is to erase these even if they are excellent article ideas.
Another problem which sometimes comes up is press releases. Press releases are sometimes excellent sources, but they do not qualify as unbiased news articles so they can't be published as they are. Two key things to remember about press releases is that they're usually written to represent the viewpoint of an involved party (Thus likely running foul of our Neutral Point of View policy). And second, they are generally covered by copyright which can conflict with our open editing approach.
A better way to get an article on an exciting subject published here is to write an original article following the guidelines described in writing an article, or to write a brief explanation of the subject and include the url address of articles or websites to use as sources.
Thanks again! Doldrums 09:00, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
- sorry about not signing the comment - escaped my notice. i've fixed it now. note that making minor changes, copyedits and rewrites to a copyrighted article does not make it a non-copyvio. ideally, a wikinews articles draws substantial information from multiple, independent sources, and this information is presented in the words of the wikinews' editors (not lifted straight from the sources), and the selection and emphasis of information in the wikinews article is different from that of the sources, allowing wikinews to claim that the article is substantially "new" work. if u're not convinced of this, u can speak to other expreienced wikinewsies and look at w:Copyright, w:Plagiarism and w:fair use for more. Doldrums 09:00, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
Well done. I found this article quite interesting and quite different to the articles we normally run :) —FellowWikiNews (W) 00:53, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
click templates in infoboxes
editHi, thanks for adding them, but currently we're in the slow process of migrating away from the click template, to using the imagemap extension. Please use imagemaps for all new images that click to random places. See the modified version of Template:United Kingdom. Thanks. Happy editing. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:49, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
Quote Templates
edit
|
Maybe you want to look at this template | 
|
—Brian McNeil | ||
I'm currently trying to encourage users to move away from inline quote templates as I do not believe it is an appropriate style for news. I've created two templates which I recommend for use highlighting quotes or sections from them. They are {{QuoteLeft}} and {{QuoteRight}}. The expected usage is that you highlight a quote or quote snippet that readers will be drawn to and leave the quote within the article in normal quote marks.
Here's a couple of examples:
- U.S. Senator Obama announces presidential candidacy
- DUP and Sinn Féin make gains in Northern Ireland Assembly election
There are a variety of other quote templates already in place on the wiki, personally I think having the quote graphics break up an article is a bad idea for news. --Brian McNeil / talk 21:05, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
Images of yours bbeing deleted
editHi. I have deleted Image:Harry patch pic.jpg (used in The second-oldest British survivor of World War I turns 108) as it was a copy-vio. I also deleted File:Tram pic.jpg as it was an orphan and did not have a source. Last of all, I deleted Image:Tram pic final.jpg as it was a copy-vio. (used in Tram derails in Geneva). See Wikinews:Fair use for more information. Happy editing. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:56, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
