Wikinews:For Wikipedians

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Welcome to Wikinews, the free news source that you can write.

Wikinews: it's not Wikipedia's Current Events articles on steroids.

As a Wikipedian, you understand what a wiki is, how it works and how to edit; this page focuses on the important differences between Wikipedia and Wikinews, to help you get acquainted with how things work here. A news cycle runs considerably faster than development of an encyclopedia entry; you may have to edit more frequently to meet project standards and get published before news becomes {{stale}}.

Key differences between Wikipedia and Wikinews

• Time sensitivity — On Wikipedia, you can go back and create an article about an event that happened last year or a hundred years ago. On Wikinews, we only care about what's news — this means no biographical or other encyclopedic content etc. If a story is more than 3 days old, it has become too old to be considered current "news" and may be marked as {{stale}}. Then, it becomes encyclopedic content rather than news, thus is more appropriate for Wikipedia.
• Peer review before publishing — On Wikipedia, you can write an article on whatever you want and it is effectively published the second you hit the save button. On Wikinews, we require that all articles go through an independent review process before they are {{publish}}ed and go live on the main page and RSS feeds (which is enforced thanks to some of the technology we use, more on that later).
• Wikinews articles are not works in progress — Wikinews stories should be a "snapshot" of history, and reflect only information known at the time. If a story is over 24 hours old from date of publication, it should no longer be edited for content changes, but only for minor grammatical and spacing corrections. All news articles will be fully-protected after they are one week old (this is called archiving, see WN:ARCHIVE for more information on that, and if you find an archived article that needs a correction, use {{editprotected}} on its talk page.).
• Right here, right now — On Wikipedia, articles evolve over time — in stark contrast to the time-sensitive nature of Wikinews articles, with a {{date}} template attached. The text within an article should not refer to future or recent events described therein with fully qualified dates; events should be referred to using terms such as today, yesterday, last Friday, third of this month, etc.
• Importance of the front page — On Wikipedia, most users ignore the front page and go in search of their topic. On Wikinews, the Main Page, and the articles on it, are our entire focus. Most users don't go back into our archives on a regular basis. (Many readers also find content through tools like RSS, Twitter, and Google News, which replicate the "Latest News".)
• The exceptions that make the rules — On Wikipedia, original reporting is outlawed. Period. On Wikinews, original reporting is not only allowed, but encouraged. This allows you to carry out interviews and a variety of research for publication on Wikinews.
• Fair use isn't quite the same — On Wikipedia, it is perfectly acceptable to take an image or other media file from a news website to illustrate an article. However, on Wikinews that would be unacceptable as they're technically a competing news agency. When it comes to images of living subjects, there is less insistence on finding a freely-licensed photo. Where appropriate, a non-free image may be used, but should be flagged as deprecated if a freely-licensed alternative becomes available for use on future articles.

How to write a Wikinews article

Content

See also: Wikinews:Content guide

• If it's not an event, it's not news.
• If it happened more than three days ago, it's not news. (Though relevant background might extend further back of course - but you should be able to lead with a recent development.)
• Like Wikipedia, Wikinews also has a Neutral Point Of View policy: Wikinews:Neutral point of view.
• Wikinews does not have a Biography of Living People policy; however, to comply with NPOV, unfavourable or damaging details relating to people must be clearly attributed to a source.

Time perspective

On Wikipedia, it's said that "there is no deadline". There isn't an explicit deadline on Wikinews either, but the aim is for articles to be published within a day or two of an event happening. (Followups would go into additional articles.) As a result, you also need to write in a "newsy" style, looking at the recent past. Wikinews articles aren't designed to be read a year afterwards: you're addressing an audience more-or-less in the present. So, for example, if an event happened today or yesterday, say exactly that: "Tropical Storm Gonu headed toward Iran today, after lashing Oman yesterday with high winds and torrential rains. The storm is expected to continue losing strength by tomorrow." (Wikinews:Style guide#Date and time).

Style

See also: Wikinews:Style guide#Basic news writing

Besides the difference in time perspective, there are other differences between writing a Wikipedia article and writing a Wikinews article. For example, the first paragraph of a Wikinews article should try to answer the questions of who, what, where, when, why and how.

Citation

See also: Wikinews:Style guide#Citing your references

• DON'T use inline <ref></ref> citation.
• Instead, use the {{source}} template, at the bottom of the page, in the Sources section. It's the equivalent of Wikipedia's citation template.
• To compensate for not using inline citation, make sure you're explicitly attributing within the text. So instead of saying "X happened (footnote: according to A)", say "According to A, X happened". Don't go overboard though - just make sure it's clear where information is coming from.
• Unlike Wikipedia's ban on original research, Wikinews permits "original reporting". But you still need to document how/where you're getting information - see Wikinews:Original reporting. If you are doing original reporting in your first few articles on the project you can expect to be asked to share detailed information about your research and interviewing.

Cultural differences

As of 2009, the community of Wikinews contributors is very small compared to Wikipedia; there are only about twenty or so active editors on the site, and it is not difficult to become acquainted with every active contributor. The project's IRC chatroom on Freenode can be quite busy at times, but that can depend on the geographic distribution of contributors — if seeking help — don't leave after 5-10 minutes. As experienced by some newcomers to Wikinews, the review process can present a significant challenge. Consider your draft carefully, remove bias, obvious expression of a point of view, reference your work carefully — following the Wikinews style guide — for sourcing and external links. As a small project, reviewers may respond curtly or discouragingly, they may respond in a blunt manner — they are human, possibly overstretched, and defending the project's credibility and gravitas of reportage. Should you receive a rejection, consider it a challenge; focus on the content of your article, policy and stylistic differences, and the "going to press" nature of an article being passed at review, published on the main page, distributed through Google News, RSS, and various other social networking sites.

Good luck; the standards set are high, and the timescales can be challenging.

Technologies we use

• Dynamic Page List (aka DPL) is the technology we use to power our "Latest News" on the Main Page. It dynamically updates the list based on what categories an article is or is not in, along with its "Sight" status (see FlaggedRevs).
• Flagged Revisions (aka FlaggedRevs) is a technology that allows us to easily control vandalism AND aid in the process of preventing errant articles from being published without a proper review. Only users of the Editor group can "sight" edits on an article, which is part of the peer review process. You won't get editor status instantly or automatically, but it's easy-come, easy-go; it doesn't take a lot of work to prove to the wider community that you understand the responsibility it confers.

Differences in user rights

Administrators and bureaucrats on Wikinews serve pretty much the same purpose and have the same tasks as on Wikipedia (with the exception of archiving, see the above sections for more on that). We do, however, have one extra user group that isn't found in WP — it's called Editor. This is a sort of intermediate group between "user" and "admin"; basically, it allows users in that group to "sight" or approve articles in order for them to appear on the main page. This is part of Flagged Revisions, and it helps us have some quality control in what articles are published, which gains us a listing in Google News, and also helps reduce the possibility that vandalism and other unconstructive edits will be seen by a casual reader.

Editor status also comes packaged with rollback, the same sort that is used on Wikipedia. The editor right can be granted to or removed from a user by any administrator, although all requests should go through WN:FRRFP first. Those given Administrator access for technical needs may be asked to avoid performing the initial review on articles; this may be for reasons like being a non-native English speaker, or having appalling spelling.

Transwiki content

For legal reasons, it's not possible to transwiki content from Wikipedia: see the Wikipedia page Wikipedia:Wikinews.