Wikinews:Glossary

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This is a list of phrases and abbreviations commonly used on Wikinews. Still incomplete — please contribute!

A

accredited reporter

n. a user permitted to represent oneself as a freelance reporter for Wikinews.

admin

abbrev. Shortened form of administrator.

administrator

n. A user with extra responsibilities to protect and delete pages, edit interface messages, and block users from editing, amongst others.

AGF

abbrev. An abbreviation for 'assume good faith', a policy on many Wikimedia projects, but that has no bearing on Wikinews.

anonymous user

n. A user who is not logged in, generally identifiable by their IP address.

article

n. A wiki page in the main namespace written about a news event.

AWB

abbrev. Shorthand for 'AutoWikiBrowser', a semi-automated editing program.

B

ban

n. A more-or-less permanent revocation of the right to edit, cf. block.

bot

n. A user that has its edits, by default, hidden from Recent Changes, especially an automated user. The bot right is given by bureaucrats.

block

1. n. A technical temporary revocation of the right to edit.
2. v. To temporarily revoke a technical editing right from a user. Distinct from a ban.

bureaucrat

n. A user with special powers to flag users as sysops and bots.

C

chapter

n. A local country-specific version of the Foundation.

CheckUser

n. An identified user with the ability to view IP addresses of other non-anonymous users.

checkuser

v. To view the IP address of a non-anonymous user.

correct

v. (Wikinews) To retrospectively add a {{correction}} notice to an article, to highlight a mistake made during the publication process.

'crat

abbrev. Shortened form of bureaucrat. Often spelt without the preceding apostrophe.

D

de-admin

v. Less common synonym of desysop.

delete

v. To make a page or revision hidden to all but administrators.

desysop

v. To revoke or rescind the elevated rights of an administrators.

E

Easy Peer Review

n. A tool used to automate the publication process on English Wikinews.

editor

1. n. (obs. chiefly Wikinews) A reviewer.
2. n. Someone who edits a page.

EzPR

abbrev. Shorthand for Easy Peer Review.

F

Foundation

n. Shorthand for the Wikimedia Foundation.

G

gadget

n. A snippet of JavaScript and/or CSS, defined by project administrators, that can be toggled on and off in one's preferences.

H

hide

v. To selectively delete a revision from a page history by an administrator or oversighter.

I

identify

v. To disclose one's real name and date of birth to the Foundation. A pre-requisite of gaining access to non-public data.

L

lede

n. The first paragraph of an article.

M

Manual of Style

n. Alternative phrase describing the style guide.

MediaWiki

tm. The wiki software upon which Wikimedia sites run. Always written in CamelCase.

MediaWiki installation

n. An installation of MediaWiki on a site.

N

NPOV

abbrev. Shorthand for Neutral Point of View, a central tenet of most Wikimedia projects.

O

Office

n. Colloquialism for the Wikimedia Foundation, especially its legal department.

oversight

1. v. To permanently erase an edit from the edit history, only accessible via direct database access by a developer.
2. n. The technical right to perform oversight, given to an oversighter.

oversighter

n. A user able to oversight an edit. A user must be identified to the Foundation to become an oversighter.

P

POV

abbrev.An abbreviation of 'point of view'.

POVior

1. n. A portmanteau of POV + warrior; a user who, generally aggressively, presents xyr point of view to the exclusion of others; cf. NPOV
2. v. To push a specific point of view, especially to consciously violate the neutral point of view in articles.

Q

queue

n. Shorthand for the review queue.

R

review

v. To check an article prior to publication, by an independent third party. Generally involves fact-checking and style formatting.

reviewer

(Wikinews) n. A user with the ability to sight pages prior to publication.

review queue

(Wikinews) n. The list of articles currently requiring review before publication.

S

salt

v. To protect a title from being created.

shortcut

n. A metaspace redirect that forms a quick way of reaching a certain page, ex. WN:WC.

steward

n. A user who has complete access to the wiki interface on all Wikimedia wikis, including access to change all user-rights of users.

style guide

n. A list of standards an article must follow before it can be published.

sysop

cont. The technical name for an administrator, derived from the phrase 'system operator'.

T

template

n. A standardised boilerplate for formatting or text which may be included in multiple wiki pages.

transclude

v. Automated including of the contents of one wiki page into another via the MediaWiki software. Templates are transcluded.

transclusion

n. A specific instance of transcluding.

U

user

n. Someone who uses Wikinews, but commonly more specifically a person who edits, especially one who has logged in.

V

vandal

n. Someone who vandalises.

vandalism

n. A bad-faith edit.

W

wiki

n. A freely-editable website.

Wikimedia Foundation

tm. The charity that runs websites such as Wikipedia, Wikinews and MediaWiki. Never 'WikiMedia'.

WMF

abbrev. Shorthand for the Wikimedia Foundation.

X

xe

pron. A gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun.

xyr

possess. A gender-neutral way of saying 'his/her'.