Welcome to Wikinews

A nice cup of coffee for you while you get started

Getting started as a contributor
How to write an article
  1. Pick something current?
  2. Use two independent sources?
  3. Read your sources before writing the story in your own words?. Do choose a unique title? before you start.
  4. 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.
  5. 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
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
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
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.


Excess sources edit

Please do not unneeded sources to articles. Unless there is a good reason – essentially that it is required to add content – sources should not weigh down articles.

Additionally, please refer the the style guide for the rules on the formatting of dates when you cite sources.

Thanks! --Brian McNeil / talk 07:28, 10 June 2010 (UTC)Reply

There was good reason to add new sources, since (if you had checked), these included video and pictures. As you probably know, it is an objective to provide original sources wherever possible. At the same time, I fixed some minor errors with existing citations. I trust you agree, since this is not an article I want to invest much effort on.
I was previously unaware that the (current) style guide for WikiNews is to use the USA date standard, which is not necessarily the case with the other WikiMedia projects that I am familiar with. You should note that I have restored my contributions, but have retained the US date format. However, you may be interested to read the comments on date format here:
* Style Guide: Talk: Date format
Hope this helps! Enquire (talk)
By the way, it's only MediaWiki that has a capital in the middle of the word. Wikinews, Wikipedia, Wikimedia et al. do not. — μ 08:13, June 10 2010 (UTC)
The whole point of not overloading articles with sources is that Wikinews employs Flagged Revisions, and has a formal, independent review requirement for articles. Overloading with sources is likely to stop articles being reviewed as a reviewer is required to read all sources. Trust me, we've been working on this stuff for years - there are very good reasons for the way a lot of things are done. --Brian McNeil / talk 08:37, 10 June 2010 (UTC)Reply
I think I'd better warn you of WN:3RR, before you continue (I'd hate to see you blocked for something you didn't know about). — μ 09:32, June 10 2010 (UTC)
I looked at the style guide but couldn't find what you mentioned. Did you mean original reporting (although the sources you link to aren't OR). — μ 09:35, June 10 2010 (UTC)

Date format edit

Sorry, but the Wikinews date format is extremely unlikely to be changed; it will remain as-specified in the style guide. Should you wish to review past discussions around this, please see the archived history of the style guide. I do know there are the standards you cherish, but they're machine-convenient, not human-convenient. Our choice is for unambiguous dates. --Brian McNeil / talk 10:41, 10 June 2010 (UTC)Reply

I don't "cherish" the ISO standard, however I do understand their lack of ambiguity internationally. I am not quite sure what you mean by "human-convenient" since I don't quite see in what way the ISO format is inconvenient. However, I have noted that Wikinews has an established preference for US style date standards and respect that consensus. Enquire (talk)