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. |
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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Am I right in thinking you're a name I know from enwp? (I'm almost certain it was a Wizardman who proposed me for adminship there :P) If you are, Wikinews:For Wikipedians should be very useful. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 18:33, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
- Also (sorry for butting in here), would you be interested in joining the ongoing writing contest? It's partially intended to encourage en.wp regulars from making the move over here. The contest's already started, but entrants are still being accepted. Just a suggestion. Cheers, Tempodivalse [talk] 18:35, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
- BRS - Yup, I'm the same. Tempo - looks interesting, read a bit of it before writing, so i may join. Wizardman (talk) 18:37, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
- Good to see you round here :). Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 20:16, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
- BRS - Yup, I'm the same. Tempo - looks interesting, read a bit of it before writing, so i may join. Wizardman (talk) 18:37, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
Contest entrantEdit
To keyboards!!
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Points to remember
The competition page is here. Remember, you'll need to move from the newcomers to experienced section as the competition progresses. Everyone who's new to Wikinews remind yourselves of the article guide and style guide. And, use the Enter an article tab in this template to correctly start your competition articles. |
Published entries
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All other entries
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Getting Help
Possibly the fastest way to get help is to look for the regulars in the #wikinews IRC channel on Freenode. See this page for more details. Remember, many people will lurk, connected long-term, but not regularly checking for messages. Please be patient when looking for answers to queries, it can be annoying to see someone ask a question but leave before you notice it. |
The usual places to look
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The competition bot was supposed to give all contest entrants this template, but it appears it didn't send it to you because you signed up after the launch. So i figured I'd drop it in here manually. Don't forget to add your article to the log after it's been published, and please create any future articles through the "Enter an article" tab on this template, as it contains pre-prepared page formatting and categories essential for the competition. Welcome and cheers, Tempodivalse [talk] 19:24, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
Nice jobEdit
Excellent work on the article Historian Howard Zinn dies at age 87. Cheers, Cirt (talk) 19:43, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
undervaluing your articlesEdit
Just a heads up, Historian Howard Zinn dies at age 87 is worth even more then you thought it was! When calculating its point value, we count the number of characters, with multiple spaces collapsed together, templates removed, but with their parameters exposed (except for url on source which is deleted) So {{foo|bar}}
→ bar
. Anyways, in order to ease figuring out how many points you get, their is a gadet in special:preferences that counts points. Cheers Bawolff ☺☻ 23:27, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
The Wikinews Writing Contest 2010 NewsletterEdit
—Message delivered by MikemoralBot on 04:48, 1 February 2010 (UTC)
super bowl articleEdit
Hi Wizardman, I wanted to create the super bowl article but you beat me to it :-b I notice you've entered the article in the competition, but is it okay if i help expand the article? Perhaps we can work out a way to split the points later. I watched the entire game on telly, and should be able to add some {{broadcast report}} to it. Cheers, Tempodivalse [talk] 02:52, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
- Eh, you've already covered everything, there's no need for my broadcast report notes now since they don't have anything to add. I won't be contributing to the article, i don't think. But, great work writing up a fine article so quickly. Tempodivalse [talk] 03:22, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
Writing contest newsletter: week 2Edit
—Message delivered by MikemoralBot on 03:31, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
Contest newsletter: weeks 3-4Edit
—Message delivered by MikemoralBot on 22:34, 21 February 2010 (UTC)
Contest newsletterEdit
—Message delivered by MikemoralBot on 00:41, 11 March 2010 (UTC)