Sainsf
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Welcome to Wikinews
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Getting started as a contributor
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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.  | |
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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
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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
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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!
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Your articles
editHi there! It's great that you're creating articles for Wikinews. However, the style in which you write isn't suitable for this website. We try to write articles as a way to get information accross to the reader, in a formal, broadsheet as supposed to a more informal, tabloid-esque newspaper. I suggest that you try to write articles on single issues, trying to keep to the style of websites such as BBC News, or the New York Times. You may wish to have a quick glance at the style guide, which sets out the style in which to write. More importantly, Wikinews:Writing an article will take you through the steps to make your new article a successful one, worthy of being posted to such outlets as Google News. If you have any questions, feel free to ask at the water cooler (just pick the correct forum and click "add comment" near the top), or ask me on my talk page by clicking here. You can also get back to this page by clicking "my talk" in the top right hand corner whenever you are logged in. Regards, — μ 08:51, June 11 2010 (UTC)
- Hi there, Shefali. I think you might have tried to post a message to me, but all I managed to get was two equal signs (==). Could you try again, or just ignore me if you sent it in error. Thanks, — μ 09:01, June 11 2010 (UTC)
- I regret to inform you that I haven't been able to pass your article as it is at the moment. You've managed to fulfil two (or maybe three) out of the five criteria required to be published, but there is a problem with your sources. You can read my comments here. Don't be discouraged! It's almost ready! — μ 09:09, June 11 2010 (UTC)
- Babel boxes are a way to facilitate cross-language co-operation, by showing other users what languages people know in an easy-to-understand way that is standardised across (most) Wikimedia projects. You add them by typing {{user en}}, or {{user fr-3}}. Here's how it works: each language has a specified "ISO code". For example, English is "en", French is "fr", Spanish is "es", German "de", and so on (you can search them here). The number relates to their fluency level:
| lvl | description |
|---|---|
| 0 | the user cannot communicate at all in that language. |
| 1 | Elementary; the user is able to write very simple questions and statements, and might be able to understand more complex sentences with difficulty. Their vocabulary is limited (excluding understanding based on similarity with other languages). |
| 2 | Intermediate; the user can participate in simple discussions using simple sentence constructions, but needs help with more advanced vocabulary or structures. |
| 3 | Advanced; the user can effectively participate in discussions with native speakers, and can participate in technical discussions with relative confidence. They have a good grasp of grammar and their errors virtually never interfere with understanding. |
| 4 | Near native; the user can read and write fluently and accurately at all levels of normal discussion, including technical discussions. The user can reasonably pass off as a native speaker in written discussion, and makes few errors. |
| N (or blank) | Native speaker; the user has spoken the language from birth, and has a large vocabulary and an intuitive understanding of grammar. The user can participate in all levels of discussions with ease, and can understand most errors in others' writing. |
So, from my userpage, you can see that I am a native English speaker, who speaks some French and a bit of German. Regards, — μ 09:24, June 11 2010 (UTC)
- Hey again. One problem is that Mandela isn't going to be at the opening ceremony any more. Also, your articles need a category for the location & subject of the article -- I've added this for you. It might be worth removing all the section headers and merging it into three paragraphs of flowing prose. Finally, as a side note, I've noticed that you've changed your signature.
For now, could you make sure that the "Treat signature as wikitext (without an automatic link)" box is clear? Thanks, — μ 11:25, June 11 2010 (UTC)
- If you go into Preferences, the Gadgets, you can enable something called HotCat. Then, at the bottom of every page, you can click the + sign, then type in a category name -- if it autocompletes, it exists. Perhaps just add some more information: use Google to find some sources, and add as much information about what is happening today as you can, documenting all your sources. I'm not going to be able to review your article (as I've denied it twice, someone else has to review it the third time), so you'll have to wait until someone else comes online. Regards, — μ 11:54, June 11 2010 (UTC)
Images
editHi there,
We cannot accept images from competing news organisations as we cannot claim fair use for them and therefore I have deleted your image. You can read more about this on the following page Wikinews:Fair use. Regards --MarkTalk to me 15:22, 12 June 2010 (UTC)
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Hello Sainsf. You have new messages at User talk:Fetchcomms |
| Hello Sainsf. You have new messages at User talk:Fetchcomms You can remove this notice by removing {{replied}} from your talk page |
Reply
editHi Sainsf. Basically, userboxes are small boxes that you can place on your user page to tell people a little more about yourself, such as what you do on-wiki, what languages you speak, etc. They're optional, but could be useful to others. Although we're not Wikipedia, nevertheless the Wikipedia page on userboxes has useful information on how to use them that we generally follow.
Category:Userboxes contains a list of some userboxes that exist on Wikinews. Also, you're encouraged to use "babel" userboxes (see here) to tell other people what languages you know - that's very useful in news. Hope this answers your question :-) Tempodivalse [talk] 12:49, 14 June 2010 (UTC)
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Hello Sainsf. You have new messages at User talk:Fetchcomms |
| Hello Sainsf. You have new messages at User talk:Fetchcomms You can remove this notice by removing {{replied}} from your talk page |
—fetch·comms 17:45, 15 June 2010 (UTC)
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Hello Sainsf. You have new messages at User talk:The wub#Reviewer |
| Hello Sainsf. You have new messages at User talk:The wub#Reviewer You can remove this notice by removing {{replied}} from your talk page |
Categories and prose
editThanks for your message. Here are some suggestions for finding categories for a story:
- Start at the continent and work down to the place involved as far as possible. So for a story in London, you'd go "category:Europe, Category:United Kingdom, Category:England, Category:London" and stop.
- Think of the broad themes of the story and go through Category:News articles by section - add it to any relevant categories and subcategories, not just the top-level category. This is different to e.g. the English-language Wikipedia, where articles are only placed in the most specific category, not the higher-level general categories too.
- If the story involves particularly prominent people, check Category:News articles by person to see whether that person has their own category.
- Find a similar story and check to see whether you've missed any categories.
As for improving your writing, it comes with practice. I get the impression (and sorry if I'm wrong) that English isn't your first language, and it's sometimes difficult to explain why something "works" when written one way but doesn't quite sound right when put another way. A couple of quick tips looking at the changes I made: (1) avoid starting sentences with "Because"; (2) try to write something like "He branded them Neaderthals" rather than "They were branded Neaderthals by him" (i.e. put the speaker at the beginning rather than at the end; in grammar, it's the active not the passive). But there are plenty of people around, some even on this website, who aren't first-language English speakers and who have got good enough to contribute well. Just do the best you can, see what if any changes are made to your articles, and if you don't understand why a particular change was made, ask! Regards, Bencherlite (talk) 09:59, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
- I've left a couple of suggested extra sources on the talk page. It's too short at present, and your two sources were the same press report reprinted twice, which isn't the best idea. Regards, Bencherlite (talk) 10:26, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
Interviews
editI have zero experience with interviews, so I'll let others (like Cirt) explain in more detail, but to answer your most basic questions:
- Interviews can be taken by anyone.
- Interviews can be about any newsworthy subject.
- Interviews can be done using any medium. Email, Livechat, Telephone/Skype (preferred), In Person (always good, when possible), or any other reasonable method that I haven't mentioned.
Someone else will probably come along and give you more information, but if they don't, feel free to ask for more information on the Watercooler, or on the #Wikinews IRC. Gopher65talk 15:29, 12 October 2010 (UTC)
Length?
editYou commented that a recent article was too long. As far as I know, there is no maximum length at Wikinews, and, though I haven't counted the words, several featured articles appear to be the length of an in-depth newspaper article. --InfantGorilla (talk) 16:10, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
- I thought, as given in the style guide, that all news articles should be of 3 paragraphs, not more. But I see that the article is consisting much info, so it is lengthy (it isn't appropriate-I change 'lengthy' to 'complete'!) Thanks --Sainsf :) (talk) 10:25, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
- That is not what was meant. The policy should say that all news articles should be at least 3 paragraphs. Therefore, lengthy and complete are both good things.
- Is there an error in the policy somewhere?
- --InfantGorilla (talk) 12:16, 19 October 2010 (UTC)