Wikinews:Introduction sisterprojects

See also Wikinews:For Wikipedians, which is more recent and complete

This introduction differs from the 'assume nothing' version here. The assumption here is you're not new to MediaWiki but new to this particular Wikimedia Foundation project.

Like Wikipedia, or any other project, the best way to get started is to dive in - but there are some points to bear in mind...

Wikinews is a news source, if it has been published for 24 hours+ then you should avoid adding new material and restrict edits to grammar, typographical errors, and such.
We don't use Wikipedia's style of referencing, we use {{source}} to cite sources such as BBC News Online.
The Categories in use on Wikinews are not as extensive as on some sister projects. Avoid creating redlinked categories that you might be used to from Wikipedia.

Include parent categories where appropriate. When using Category:California, Category:United States should also be used.
Continental categories such as Category:United States should be used.
At least one major topical category, eg Category:Politics and conflicts should be present.

Everything that gets published goes on the main page.
Reports are frequently time-critical, single paragraph pieces may be combined into a day's news brief and be gone if you come back the following day to develop the story.

Required reading

The Style Guide should be among the first documents you read through rather than just skim. This covers what may in some cases seem like trivial details such as when to use words for numbers but checking an article against it is a good way to check you're ready to publish.

Review

All articles must be reviewed by a non-involved editor before being published. Only people approved by the community can review articles.

Article states

Articles can be:

Developing {{develop}}
Waiting for review {{review}}
Published {{publish}}