This page states using templates as-is, however it is preferred to make an edit where you substitute the text from the template onto the user's page. So, for the standard hello template you'd put {{subst:Welcome}} --~~~~. The advantage of this is that the user has something they can edit whereas use of the template can lead to newbies being confused when they attempt to edit the template itself - which may well be protected.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Type: {{subst:Welcome-anon}} ~~~~ to get a result like this:
Welcome
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.
I would recommend that you get a username. You don't
have to log in to read or edit articles on
Wikinews, but creating an account is quick, free and non-intrusive,
requires no personal information (not even an e-mail address), and
there are many benefits of having a
username. (If you edit without a username, your IP
address is used to identify you instead.)
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.
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.
You
don't have to log in to read Wikinews. You don't
even have to log in to edit articles on Wikinews—anyone
can edit almost any article, even without logging in. Nevertheless,
creating an account is quick, free and non-intrusive, and it's a good
idea to do so, for many reasons.
If you create an account,
you can pick a username. Edits you will make while being logged
in will be assigned to that name. That means you get full credit for
your contributions in the page history (when not logged in, the edits
are just assigned to your IP address). You can also view all your
contributions by clicking the "My contributions" link, which is only
visible when you are logged in.
You will have
your own user page where you can write a bit
about yourself. While Wikinews is not
a homepage provider, you can use this to display a few pictures, write
about your hobbies, etc. Many users use their user page to maintain a
list of the articles they are most proud of, or to collect other
valuable information from Wikinews.
Also, when you are not
logged in, all your edits are publicly associated with your IP address
at the time of that edit. If you log in, all your edits are publicly
associated with your account name. They are also still internally
associated with your IP address.
In addition, There are many
features of the MediaWiki software (which powers Wikinews) that are
only available to registered users. For example, registered users can
mark edits as "minor". Minor edits can be filtered from the list of
"Recent changes". We do not give the privilege to mark edits as minor
to anonymous users because we do not know who is behind a given IP
address at any time, so we cannot build a basis of trust. (Marking
edits as minor if they are not is considered very rude.)
Type: {{subst:Aussiehello}} ~~~~ to get a result like this:
Hi Welcommittee/greetings, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! I see that you've been contributing to articles about Australia. If you're an Aussie, you may want to take a look at the Australian portal, and the Australian discussion page. If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.
By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes (~~~~), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome!--Steven Fruitsmaak
(Reply) 22:59, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
Hi Welcommittee/greetings, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! I see that you've been contributing to articles about the UK. If you're British, you may want to take a look at the UK portal. If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account to protect your identity.
By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes (~~~~), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome!
--User:Anonymous101 18:21, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
Type: {{subst:Canadianhello}}—~~~~ to get a result like this:
Welcome
Hi Welcommittee/greetings, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! I see that you've been contributing to articles about Canada. If you're Canadian, you may want to take a look at the Canada portal, and the Canadian Workspace. If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.
By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes (~~~~), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome!
—FellowWikiNews(W) 01:23, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
Type: {{subst:Needorsources}} ~~~~ to get a result like this:
Welcome to Wikinews! Thanks for creating [[{{{1}}}]], we appreciate articles like this. This article appears to be what Wikinews calls original reporting. Wikinews articles must cite sources for all assertions they make. In the case of original reporting, you are the source. The way we usually deal with this is for you to place a comment on the [[Talk:{{{1}}}|article talk page]], stating who you are, what your relationship is to the story you are covering, and describing the nature of the reporting (i.e. interviewing, taking notes, observing events, etc). You should also read Wikinews:Original reporting.
If you are intimately involved in the event being reported, it may be more appropriate for you to request an interview, rather than write an article.
Discussion about your article will occur on the [[Talk:{{{1}}}|article talk page]]. Please go there to participate in the discussion with other Wikinews contributors. Keep at it and try to get this article published, which can sometimes be difficult, but you will find that it is worth the effort.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 22:59, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
Type: {{subst:Copyvio sas}} ~~~~ to get a result like this:
First off, we really appreciate your contribution.
But sometimes users submit an article from somewhere else, not realizing that Wikinews cannot keep copy-and-paste versions of articles which are published elsewhere under a restrictive copyright. An article created in this way is a copyright violation, and Wikinews policy is to erase these even if they are excellent article ideas.
Another problem which sometimes comes up is press releases: Press releases are sometimes excellent sources, but they do not qualify as unbiased news articles so they can't be published as they are. Two key things to remember about press releases is that they're usually written to represent the viewpoint of an involved party (Thus likely running foul of our Neutral Point of View policy). And second, they are generally covered by copyright which can conflict with our open editing approach.
A better way to get an article on an exciting subject published here is to write an original article following the guidelines described in writing an article, or to write a brief explanation of the subject and include the url address of articles or websites to use as sources. If you are part of the story that the article is about, you may also wish to consider requesting an interview rather than writing the article yourself.
Type: {{subst:test}} ~~~~ to get a result like this:
Welcome
Thanks for experimenting with Wikinews. Your test worked, and has now been reverted or removed. Please use Wikinews:Sandbox for any other tests you want to do, since testing in articles may disrupt the site and will be reverted quickly. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:56, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Type: {{subst:Missinginfo}} ~~~~ to get a result like this:
{{{1}}}
Hello, Welcommittee/greetings! Thanks for creating [[{{{1}}}]], we appreciate articles like this, however it is missing essential information such as Who, What, When, Where and Why. This is the bare minimum of information that most of our readers (and editors) expect in an article before we publish it. The way we usually deal with this is removing the {{publish}} tag, and starting a discussion on [[Talk:{{{1}}}|the article's talk page]]. We invite you to participate [[Talk:{{{1}}}|here]] so that we can get this article published. Keep at it, and we'll help you get this article published. It can be difficult at times, but when it's all over and done with, you'll find that it's worth it.
