User talk:Dkmarshall

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-- Wikinews Welcome (talk) 16:04, 29 October 2013 (UTC) {{helpme}} I need help making wikinews shorts. Dkmarshall (talk) 01:07, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi, Dkmarshall. (I set the {{helpme}} template up as a transclusion rather than subst'ing it in, btw; much more compact this way, and when the item is taken care of we can easily disable it by inserting "tl|" into the front of the template call.)

Shorts are an unusual form of article, nowadays. The usual basic format is illustrated by UK Wikinews Shorts: July 8, 2013, which looks like it's probably the only example from 2013.

There should really be at least three items for a shorts article, though occasionally a shorts article has ended up published with just two because it was possible for two to pass review while a third got cut in order not to hold up the others. Each of the individual items is one or two paragraphs, which is shorter than the minimum length for a standalone article (a standalone article has to be at least three paragraphs, and its total content equivalent to at least three medium-sized paragraphs though it doesn't have to be distributed that way). One might think this would make a shorts article easier to write, but no. It's really a rather difficult form, which is why it's not often used.

Each item has to have two independent sources, just as a standalone article about that item would. There should be a lede; and the section heading for the item is its headline. The amount of effort it takes to collect two sources, and write a headline, lede, and perhaps one more paragraph, for a news item is actually not all that much less than what it takes to write a minimal standalone article for the item; nor is it all that much less effort to review the item than it would be to review a minimal standalone article. So, multiply that by three and it's a good deal of work to write and a good deal to review. --Pi zero (talk) 01:47, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

I started a page earlier and now I can't edit find it. How do I find work that I have edited? Dkmarshall (talk) 06:27, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi. See Special:MyContributions, linked as 'contributions' next to your username at the right top of the page; you may be looking for User:Dkmarshall/Wikinews Shorts: Febuary 11, 2014. --Gryllida 08:39, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, I made a wikinews short for February 11, 2014. Is there anyway someone could take a look at it and offer me some suggestions? Dkmarshall (talk) 20:59, 12 February 2014 (UTC)