Sou Boyy

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.

-- Wikinews Welcome (talk) 06:53, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

User pages

Hi. We're quite sensitive about advertising-y things here at Wikinews. We allow a little leeway on the user pages of contributing members of the Wikinews community. --Pi zero (talk) 11:04, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Articles

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.

Some points to make clear about Wikinews up-front.

• We have a strict neutrality policy. We don't do advertising. We do factual articles about newsworthy recent events.
• You don't self-publish. Don't ever manually place the {{publish}} tag on an article; that's considered attempted self-publication, a severe policy violation.
• We don't create a category until there are at least three published articles that belong in it.

You need to get a sense of how the project works, starting with what kind of articles we publish, and how our process of independent review works. I recommend reading WN:Pillars of Wikinews writing to start. --Pi zero (talk) 12:40, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I'm familiar with the principle of not biting the newcomers. :-)  It's obviously a good principle broadly, though the details necessarily differ between Wikipedia and Wikinews because we're a news site while they're an encyclopedia.

We put a lot of our volunteer labor into trying to help out newcomers. Keep in mind, our purpose is to enable anyone on the internet —who is willing to put in the considerable effort— to publish quality news. That's a tall order. Contributing here can become relatively easy, if one has a knack for it, and after one has learned how, but the learning curve to get there is steep. Hence our wish for an interactive article wizard (and various other things we're working on). An essential part of news production is not letting things get published until and unless they meet our standards, and that requirement defines the bounds within which we have to operate while helping newcomers. --Pi zero (talk) 17:33, 25 August 2013 (UTC)