User talk:Brian McNeil

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(Un-)subscribe  |  Archives  |  Tip Line  |  Editors Issue XI - May 17, 2008

Administrators, Accreditation and Arbitration Since our last edition, no users have been given the mop and bucket. You can currently vote on a request by Adambro (talk · contribs) No one has became an accredited reporter on Wikinews. There are currently no accreditation requests that you can vote on. The 2008 Arbitration Committee election has started. There are nine candidates and six places on the ArbCom. Voting ends on August 1. Featured Articles and News In Pictures No articles were promoted recently. Several candidates are waiting for your vote, including two exclusive interviews. Several images were featured on the main pages, which you can check out in the News In Picture archive. Several images have been featured on the Main Page .The latest of which is available below. - Credit: Muji Tra Although the 34th G8 Summit had ended, the demonstration of anti-globalists exposed a critical issue on poverty, etc.  » Full story Original reporting Since our last edition, many articles have claimed original reporting. Here are the most recent: 20 November 2009: UK lawyer comments on court case against Boeing over London jet crash 17 November 2009: British rapper Derek B dies at age 44 16 November 2009: Non-industrial emissions key for meeting Kyoto targets in Europe 13 November 2009: Blown for Good author discusses life inside international headquarters of Scientology 10 November 2009: Creator of website satirizing Glenn Beck on winning domain name case 8 November 2009: South African Vipers win Singapore Rugby Sevens 6 November 2009: Wikinews discusses the H1N1 pandemic with the CDC 6 November 2009: Local community on Australian Sunshine Coast compromises with McDonald's 5 November 2009: Australian rules football International cup "community event": Australian Football League 3 November 2009: Scientology website hacked Several others wrote stories based on television sources. The Wikinews Reports blog activity was mostly related to some of these stories. You can ask any of the blog authors if you want to help out on the blog.

Editor's note In the last few months activity on Wikinews has started to increase again, and discussion has restarted on the embargoed wiki. Anonymous101 (talk) 11:50, 19 July 2008 (UTC) Site activity Wikinews supports the universal edit button firefox extention Move Wikinews:Story preperation into its own namespace (prepared:)? New rss feed extension prosed to be installed (see WC + Mailing list) Arbcom elections are now in progress. Discussion about flagged revisions is ongoing and in many places. This could be the biggest change to the Wikinews method since we abandoned the original article review system Brian proposes a new contest, and challenges everyone to get involved, donate something, or join! Try testing CSpurrier's new feed thingy. this may become the main wikinews feed at some point. Zach's new tool: Per category rss feed. Do a hard refresh, goto a category and click on the rss icon in your browser. (Now linked from most portals and categories via templates) Current RfAs: none Accreditation requests: none Wikinews Blog - Wikinews on Flickr - Wikimedia news - Wikipedia news - merchandise +/- IRC activity Some of the IRC topics include the embargoed Wiki . ... (add more here if you know more...) Wikimedia News Three new staff members were appointed, Rebecca Handler as the Foundation's Major Gifts Officer, Rand Montoya as Head of Community Giving and Frank Schulenburg as the public outreach coordinator. You can now contribute to discussion about the new community draft of the Wikimedia language policy which prevented the start of a Simple English Wikinews.

[edit] About the Article"The Bitter Reality of BITS-Pilani,Dubai

Well about the article, i have cited the source article from Gulf News. Actually i want to change the Article's main heading to "The Insight story of BITS-Pilani,Dubai" can you suggest me how to change the story's name?

[edit] Marx

Actually, you have the wrong Marx. Karl Marx is a relative of mine, and I like some of his ideals, although the ways in which they have been implemented has led to unfortunate results. Thanks for the consideration! Happy writing! Marx01 ^{Tell me about it} 00:43, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Oh, no. It's an old political online joke. "I like to consider myself a Marxist, I find his works reasoned, articulate, and compelling <link to Groucho &c>" --Brian McNeil / ^talk 04:09, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Well now I feel silly. At least now I have two things to laugh at; My own unawareness and the joke! Thank you for clarifying that! Marx01 ^{Tell me about it} 18:56, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

Or, "Karl, the never-seen on-screen Marx brother". :-) --Brian McNeil / ^talk 22:24, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Please review

Could you review AFL provides insufficiant support for European leagues: Germany please?--RockerballAustralia (talk) 14:55, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

I'll look when I'm finished what I'm doing, and you fix the spelling error in the title. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 15:02, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

I fixed the typo. :-) Tempodivalse [talk] 15:09, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Hey, thanks. If you spot another victim-editor, mug them. This is taking a little longer than I expected. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 15:21, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Anonymous users

I have nothing to do with 58.152.195.60 or 72.73.125.14, see [1] --House1630 (talk) 09:31, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

• Responded on talk

We don't invite anons to open an account quite as curtly as that; see {{Howdy-anon}}, and don't subst it. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:22, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
I don't give a damn if you're intimately related to those IP addresses or not. Don't use that message. It's borderline rude to someone who prefers not to open an account. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:59, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

--Brian McNeil / ^talk 10:02, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

The question is whether an article of anonymous users may be published, see http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Talk:Hong_Kong_launches_its_first_electric_car. I can only make a proof scientifically or technically, not personally - that means that I don't go to Hongkong to look if it is real. In the meantime this article has been submitted for speedy deletion according to the Criteria for speedy deletion. --House1630 (talk) 10:32, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

I have no idea whatsoever why you're harassing me about this. Read the policies, read the links in the welcome template on your user page. You cannot review or publish an article until you are granted the WN:EDITOR privilege. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 10:42, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Please Review

Can you review Wikinews interviews Zahra Stardust about the upcoming by-election in the Bradfield electorate of the Australian parliament --RockerballAustralia (talk) 12:14, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Hello BrianMC

hi! I have seen that User:Brian McNeil/Newsroom, you have copied some elements from my newsroom but some of them are wrong. In start a new article remove the parser {{#ifexist:...}} as you don't want the article intro and preload to be my supbages but the standard templates. So, the source change suggested is:

{{#tag:inputbox|
type=create
preload={{#ifexist:User:Srinivas/New page|User:Srinivas/New page|Template:New page}}
editintro={{#ifexist:User:Srinivas/New article intro|User:Srinivas/New article intro|Template:New article intro}}
width=45
}}

{{#tag:inputbox|
type=create
preload=Template:New page
editintro=Template:New article intro
width=45
}}

Srinivas 04:55, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

• jjez! No need to nag about it, it will go eventually. I've been busy on other stuff but got what I thought was the most important change live - the header. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 10:49, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Review

I cannot believe I let something like that go! I was mainly looking in the article for any biased comments and misspellings there. I will make sure that this does not occur in the future. Thank you for catching that! Marx01 ^{Tell me about it} 01:32, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Wikinews turns five COI?

Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm guessing your referring to the video and the last paragraph when you saying there is a COI issue in the above article? As per what I've done in the past I'm going to state my COI - or what i perceive it to be on the articles talk page --RockerballAustralia (talk) 11:01, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Numbers in headlines

I hesitated about writing "twenty" in the Berlin Wall celebrations headline as opposed to 20; in the interest of brevity I put 20 but in the future I will spell out numbers appropriately. Thanks Brian! --Александр Дмитрий (Alexandr Dmitri) (talk) 12:23, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Wrong date in today's news

Israel announces settlement expansion plans ‎ has had wrong time - today it is 18th ! --House1630 (talk) 18:08, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

• No. It was published on the 17th. DO NOT mess with dates post-publish. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 18:25, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

But the article appears many hours later on the main page - not in the morning of 18th ! --House1630 (talk) 21:38, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Articles are dated when they are published UTC. This article was published at 23:37 on 17 November 2009. And it shows up on the main page as soon as it was published. It may not have been made a lead, but that is of no concern. --ShakataGaNai ^{^_^} 21:41, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

• There is a list of articles, as published, most recent at the top, on the main page. It also feeds out to Google News, Twitter, Facebook, and the English Wikinews RSS feed. There should probably be a clear detail about that somewhere — but I've no idea where to fit that in that people will pick it up quickly enough. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 23:06, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Wikinews interview

More than a year ago, you have indicated that you're willing to conduct an interview for Wikipedia Signpost to promote better understanding and participation of Wikinews. I am wondering if you're still interested in doing the interview. Thanks. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 03:29, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps. It would depend a lot on whether this is related to various Wikinewsies' grumbling on strategy or not. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 08:47, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

It's more about promoting the project to attract more contributors. I'm pretty relaxed on what kinds of questions will be raised in the interview and you can certainly add your own questions to it if you prefer. You can take a look at previous interviews as reference. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 14:26, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Ah, okay. Otherwise it was really bad timing. Jimbo recently made a rather dismissive comment about Wikinews in an interview, and someone dug up the tired-old "Wikinews is useless." meme on Strategy.

So, what's the preferred interview method? --Brian McNeil / ^talk 15:16, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

I guess that was bad timing then. I'll come back later on and discuss how the interview will progress. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 18:55, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

• Meh, blown over now. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 21:46, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Archive edit needed

Could you please replace the raster map with the vector version here? SkyBon^{Talk/Contributions} 15:27, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Sure, but one thing first; can you dig up the version as-current when the article was published, make that a separate file on Commons, then request the change using the {{editprotected}} template on the article's talk page. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 15:34, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Done. SkyBon^{Talk/Contributions} 17:14, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

#fail. Re-read the above very, carefully. That is not what you did; you just asked in the right place. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 17:32, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

But, well, this map is redundant. It is used now nowhere but in this news. Changing map version is not going to affect main news' content. SkyBon^{Talk/Contributions} 19:42, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Do you understand what I'm asking for? The map, as it was when the article was published. That simple. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 20:13, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

That version of map is long gone. Current raster version of map is not the one when the article was published anyway. SkyBon^{Talk/Contributions} 10:09, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

• This is fixed - from Wikinews' perspective. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 11:27, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] wikilinks

Can you explain me what wiki links are? Does it mean an internal link to a wiki news page? I was expecting a internal link to wikipedia article. Is there any way I could give internal links to wikipedia article? --Pavi (talk) 19:06, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

• Yes. [[w:God|That evil dude that lives in the sky]]. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 11:27, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Concern about a comment you made

Brian, I'm gravely concerned about a comment you made on the watercooler section of this project, in which you said that "some people are only alive because it's illegal to kill them." I worry that it could be construed as creating a hostile environment, but - even worse - that it's (frankly) offensive. I do wish you would remove it. Philippe (talk) 13:32, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] I'm accredited

Hey, I'm accredited now, and was told to contact you WRT an @wikinewsie email address. Thanks! Dendodge _T\^C 10:12, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

And you haven't checked your email? I sent the unCABAL™ membership details yesterday. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 10:13, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Oh, OK, now I feel stupid. :P Dendodge _T\^C 10:48, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Questioning my motives :(

Thanks for calling for help to clean up the article Brian. I was surprised and discouraged at your questioning my motives though! Please be assured that I would like to be considered a volunteer who would like to make helpful contributions from time to time, and learn a thing or two by doing that. In this instance I very much hope to see Wikinews investigate this story and uncover what I cannot. Leighblackall (talk) 14:06, 21 November 2009 (UTC) PS, same message on the Collab tab of the article

• The concern is you set up on Wikinews very recently, as "credentials" you cite a very new blog, and a Wikipedia account which reveals you pushing a POV on this self-same subject there. You did so here too, and the sources you cite are somewhat suspect themselves. The two projects are different, and do have different criteria as to what is acceptable, but you should expect suspicion in journalism.

So, why are these sources credible? Have they carried out a competent analysis of the allegedly stolen data? Has anyone reported, or acknowledged, theft of data or illegal access to such? And, the place for that discussion is the article's talk page.

Some more established Wikinewsies might can use these sources, and do this sort of story, but they know they will be called on it and challenged to back up their assertions. I am afraid, as a newcomer you have to earn trust. AGF is significantly less-prevalent on Wikinews because people are more aware of motive and bias, and less likely to flog an issue to death over six months like on Wikipedia. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 14:28, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply Brian. I took this conversation over to the article's collaboration page, as I think your points will be useful for any other new comers... Leighblackall (talk) 15:04, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Speedy Deletion

Check recent changes and delete Dalius Aurelius Bio‎ please. I would ask on Admin Help but seeing as your the only admin visibly online, I thought it would be quicker to ask you directly. Cheers, The Flying Spaghetti Monster! 23:06, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] About: Ras Nas release a new music and poetry CD - Double Focus

Kongoi (talk) 23:42, 23 November 2009 (UTC) Dear Brian McNeil,

I submitted an article today “Ras Nas release a new music and poetry CD - Double Focus” at WikiNews but to my dismay, the story was removed with a claim that I have infringed copyright laws. What I do not understand is, I am the owner of Kongoi Productions (where the story originated) and thus I do not need to ask for any permission to reuse the story. In addition, I am also the artist of whose work is being referred to! I really do not see how I could infringe copyright laws here.

I hope this mail will help settle the matter and that the article in question gets reprinted for the good of both parties concerned.

Obs! I have also tried to use the talk page though I am not sure whether I have done it right. I have also sent this mail to the moderator using my Kongoi Production's admin e-mail.

Best regards,

Nasibu Mwanukuzi aka Ras Nas

CEO

Kongoi Productions

E-mail: admin(at)kongoi.com

www.kongoi.com

+47 41 62 89 37

• I passed your email through to the mailing list. Normally the list requires a subscription to post. Really, I cannot see any way for what you want published to ever appear on Wikinews. We do not act as a carrier for promotional or press release distribution. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 23:46, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Can you help me with the article "British Climatic Research Unit's emails hacked"?

I've not created it, but I hope you can suggest something and/or review it. Q0k (talk)

• As I said on the talk page of the article, I do not wish to do either; the way initially presented biased me against this article. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 10:52, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

I see your comments on Cirt's talk page. I'll see what I can do in terms of a critique once I've had my doctor's appointment later on. Right now I'm just catching up on email &c. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 10:56, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

The article has been published. Thank you for your collaboration! Gryllida (page, talk, contributions) 00:35, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Herman Van Rompuy named as first permanent EU President (sic)

May I suggest that you add "accuracy" to your check-list? Ten seconds on Wikipedia would have told you that there is no such post as "EU President". (He is President of the European Council, essentially just a chairman).

[edit] ezpeerreview gadget

I will make a mental note to use ezpeerreview in the future. However, it is important to note that Wikinews:Reviewing articles lists only two steps for passing/publishing articles. Neither makes any mention of ezpeerreview, sighting, or Google News. If these are policy, it should be made clear. Superm401 | Talk 04:34, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

You're obviously right about me forgetting {{date}}, though I don't think a WTF is warranted. Superm401 | Talk 12:42, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

• On that (WTF), I have to disagree; you've got editor status. A basic mistake like this is a little worrying coming from someone who can review and publish articles. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 16:42, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Heads up

Talk:British_Climatic_Research_Unit's_emails_hacked#Bias_and_Merging. Seems odd that there are multiple SPAs on that page... Hope you are doing well! Cirt (talk) 07:32, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

• I just reverted significant post-publish changes on this article, and removed a trolling comment from the talk page. Please, at least, semi-protect this as early as possible. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 11:26, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

You actually left some post-publish changes. See the talk page. Superm401 | Talk 12:42, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Please explain move

Hi Brian McNeil! Regarding this move you made, I believe I was using the singular form, whereas you have changed the verbs to the plural form. The noun "couple" is singular, so I think my version was correct. Do you agree? Benny the mascot (talk) 14:23, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

• crashes was, I'm pretty sure, wrong. Looking again now you ask it might be "couple passes, ... crash dinner'". Ask Amgine (talk · contribs). --Brian McNeil / ^talk 14:54, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

• I agree with Brian for the first move.    Tris   15:20, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) This is, i think, one of the differences in British English and American English. If I understand correctly (correct me if i'm wrong): in BrE, collective nouns are sometimes conjugated as plural in the corresponding verb, in order to stress that the noun consists of a group of people (i.e.: "Uruguay qualify to take last spot in 2010 FIFA World Cup" or "Government approve new proposal", etc.). In AmE, they're always conjugated as being in singular. See Wikipedia's article on this. In this instance, depending on which version of English you choose, one will be correct and the other will be wrong (e.g.: "the couple is" vs. "the couple are"). I'd say to use the AmE variant because this article is about the US. To quote WN:SG: "Follow the spelling patterns of the subject of the article or that of the first author of the article to avoid issues". Cheers. Tempodivalse [talk] 15:23, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

I normally use the singular if I'm referring tot he group as a whole, and the plural if I am grouping together people. For example "The team was playing football" but "The team were happy that they won", because the whole team is playing, but happiness is specific to an individual person, even though it is a trait the whole team share. I think that's BrE—it's what I was taught in my (English) school, at least. So, since it's a US-centric article, "couple crashes" seems to be correct. (I would use crashes even if it were a British article, because it better corresponds with how I was taught it). Dendodge _T\^C 17:26, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

I ended up renaming the article back to using the singular form. Benny the mascot (talk) 17:50, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikinews is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit This Page link at the top. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. Александр Дмитрий (Alexandr Dmitri) (talk) 20:05, 26 November 2009 (UTC) Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikinews is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit This Page link at the top. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. Александр Дмитрий (Alexandr Dmitri) (talk) 20:05, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

I agree, but IMO it's sometimes a good idea to consult other editors before you revert their edits. Benny the mascot (talk) 20:19, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

• Aaaaand, I've been told it should be "crash" - for reasons of active voice. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 21:05, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

• I don't think it affects active/passive voice. Active voice is "Couple crashes dinner" or "Couple crash dinner", while passive voice would be "Dinner crashed by couple". That's how I was taught it, and w:Voice (grammar) supports that. Dendodge _T\^C 21:41, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Agree with Dendodge. This has nothing to do with active/passive voice, it's just a grammar difference between AmE and BrE. Tempodivalse [talk] 21:48, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Mmm, no. "The couple pass the checkpoint." "The couple crash the party." Compare voice with "The couple passes the checkpoint." "The couple crashes the party." - Amgine | ^t 23:00, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Which follows from the wikilink posted by Dendodge, this is an instance where couple is singular, thus for the active voice it should be crash. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 23:01, 26 November 2009 (UTC)