Talk:Second Darwin's sandwich shop opens in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

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[edit] Is this news?

can this be considered news? TiB 11:57, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

More troublesome than "can this be considered news" (and my answer would be no), is the question: what happens to Wikinews when every company with a PR department starts using Wikinews as a dumping ground for their press releases? IMHO Wikinews NEEDS national and local interest areas for this kind of thing, so that press releases can be isolated to a spot where they might actually be of interest. Ajs 15:00, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• My answer is "yes". Something new has happened. (You are aware that news is simply the plural of new, aren't you?) A new shop has opened, in May 2005. It may be minor and of local interest only, but that doesn't stop it from being news. Wikinews doesn't publish press releases, and press releases are regularly pruned from Wikinews:Submit a story. But this isn't a press release. It cites one source and claims to be original reporting (see below). In other words, this appears to be actual citizen journalism: User:pingswept reporting on a coffee shop that opened where he lives. Uncle G 15:23, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yeah this is news - an event has happened. Dan100 (Talk) 19:42, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Seems more like an advertisement to me --apollo2011 20:55, Jun 3, 2005 (UTC)
Wikinews is not a very usefull outlet if ridiculous articles like this are published. --harburg 2005-06-03 21:22 UTC

Definately news. I was delighted to see this story this morning. → CGorman (Talk) 21:48, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I thought pingswept was one of the more responsible journalists here. Veritos 01:18, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

A new stationery shop has just opened in Belfast. Should I write an article on it? Jayem

[edit] Is this original reporting?

This article has the original reporting tag attached to it, but the tag was affixed by an editor other than the author and there is no indication either here or in the article's notes that the original author is the actual first-hand source. User:pingswept, please confirm that this is original reporting. Uncle G 15:23, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

See my note below, Uncle G. (The answer is yes.) Pingswept 19:15, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Vanity Article

When someone finds a finger in their sandwich and initiates a multi-million dollar lawsuit, or - keeping with the "Darwin" theme, the sandwich evolves into a distinct, higher-level sandwich and scientists confirm it as a new species - then it will be news.--Jpbrenna 18:38, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• That's not the current community-decided definition of news. Of course, if more people begin to feel the same way you do, it will become policy. But until then... Dan100 (Talk) 19:44, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
  • News is relevant. Being Wikinews - global and internet-based - stories about local news may need to have their relevance explained for our international audience. Stories should appeal to a large number of people.--Jpbrenna 04:44, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)
    • According to w:Cambridge, Massachusetts, there were 101,355 people in that city in 2000. Uncle G 13:52, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)
    • 2.2 times that many people live in my city. Would you be interested to know that Hall's Family Restaurants in Fort Wayne have opened another location, and that councilwoman Dede Hall lost her bid for re-election a few years ago after opposing a city-wide no-smoking ordinance that she thought might hurt her husband's business? You probably wouldn't. Why is Darwin's Sandwich Shop relevant to the world's 5.9 billion people who don't live in Cambridge? Could you at least add some interesting details? Maybe Harvard students like to go there? (Harvard is an institution that many people around the world have heard of; Darwin's is not) Maybe John Kerry, Ted Kennedy or other famous Bostonians have stopped in for a sandwich? I really do want to give a hoot about Darwin's, but you're not helping me do that. --Jpbrenna 14:19, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Irrelevant News

This is indeed news, but extremely local news. I believe the subject matter is irrelevant to the majority of Wikinews readers, furthermore the content is insignificant to all but the residents of the locale. I would expect this sort of story to be tucked away in a sidebar of a non descript internal page of a low quality local newspaper, written by the local high school intern. Certainly not on the front page of a world wide news source viewed by thousands each day?

I realise that wikinews needs to build a readerbase by emphasising it's unique areas, where anyone can write stories and therefore provide more varied news than is regurgitated by the mainstream western media sources, such as CNN, Reuters, BBC etc.. This story has taken this to extremes, it proves a point, but is a weak editorial decision.

[edit] An exciting debate!

I'm the original author of this article, i. e. I did the "original reporting." (Just for the record, I don't work for Darwin's, and I don't know anyone who works there. I'm just some dude who noticed a new sandwich shop down the street.)

Here is my stance on hyperlocal reporting: this is significant news to a small audience (people who live in Cambridge, people who used to live in the area, sandwich addicts, etc.) When the time comes that we have enough stories of wide appeal to fill the front page, I will gladly, I repeat, *gladly* move local stuff to a local subpage.

As it is, we have 10-15 stories a day for the entire planet. The lead story is getting updated once every two days or so. We're still young and slow. In a few years, I'd love to have the front page be purely international news, with subpages for national news, and then state news, and so on.

The onus is on all of us. I want to read local news, so I'm writing local news in the hope that others will follow my example. Jpbrenna, apollo2011, Ajs, TiB, harburg, and whoever wrote the anonymous comment above mine, please, start writing the international articles that you want to read.

Pingswept 19:13, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)