Welcome

edit
Welcome to Wikinews!

 

Getting a head start as a Wikinews contributor

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 a short 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 want to look into the key policies for the project and other discussions you can participate in, so keep this message on your collaboration page and refer to the other links in it if you have problems or want to learn more.

 

 

 

 

 
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.

Where you can help and get involved
 

 

 

 

 


DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 02:05, 29 January 2009 (UTC)Reply

style guide compliance

edit

Please note these required changes to bring the Belgian rail crash article in line with the Style Guide. --Brian McNeil / talk 19:58, 15 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

The "learning curve" shouldn't be "steep": if it is, then that would be something to change to get more editors onto Wikinews. When I started writing my paper on the Halle rail crash, the top story on Wikinews was three days old! If you want the site to be a personal wiki, then give it a wikia domain name; otherwise, accept that papers will not always be in accordance with the arbitrary style guidelines and edit them without insulting the person who has spent his or her time giving the project a bit of content which might justify its name. Physchim62 (talk) 18:15, 18 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

Insult? Where? It was hardly a tucked-away corner of the style guide; you could have ascertained it from looking at any published article. We are prepared to clean up mistakes from newcomers, but that particular mess was avoidable. The learning curve has to be steep. We have deadlines. That's how news works. Note the new bit. As for the rest ('personal wiki' shite that you're spouting) - I won't even dignify that particular strawman with a response. You're a well-established WP editor; you should know better than to use fallacies. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 18:19, 18 February 2010 (UTC)Reply