User talk:Michael.C.Wright/Archive 1

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User page deletion

I have requested my user page on Wikinews be deleted. I am not requesting my user account here be deleted. I'm hoping the verbiage on the banner is incorrect.

I have created a global user page with meta.[1] I would like to use the one profile for all wiki sister projects. An example is my profile on commons: User:Michael.C.Wright is actually the global user page transcluded to commons.

Thank you!

Michael.C.Wright (talk) 14:42, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Well, it is impossible for technical reasons to delete an account, even for stewards/global sysops, so at worst the request would just be declined. Heavy Water (talk) 14:44, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Okay. That sounds promising. If there are any questions about global accounts, here is the page on meta: Global user pages.

Thank you for the clarification.

Michael.C.Wright (talk) 14:58, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Awards

		The Order of the Humble Pencil For completing 5 edits.

		The Order of the Modest Pencil For getting your first article published!
		A very thoroughly researched one, too! And good to see you're looking through the archives-one can gain a lot of insight into the history, people, and rules of Wikinews by doing that. --Heavy Water (talk) 04:54, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

Thank you Heavy Water for the awards! Michael.C.Wright (talk) 15:30, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

Category

You can create a Wikinewsie category for yourself to keep track of your articles, if you want, by the way. Also you can add the correct one of these to your user page, if you want. It's just for fun, really. Heavy Water (talk) 16:14, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! Will do. Michael.C.Wright (talk) 16:50, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

Senate just voted for 2002 AUMF repeal

FYI. Heavy Water (talk) 17:36, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Yeah. I planned on writing something today. Thanks. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:35, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

US appeals court upholds ruling lawyer for ex-President Trump must cooperate with federal investigation

This did go stale. I do want to say: please check the edit history and its "diffs" (click "prev" in the history) after each review (including on this article) to see what you can improve in the future. Addressing those things can significantly speed up review. There just wasn't the time to finish this. Reviewing often is, in my experience, actually much more labor-intensive than writing, which did surprise me. You write detailed articles with a lot of background, which I appreciate, and I don't intend to discourage that, but it is a fact they require more time to review (not necessarily a bad thing). Heavy Water (talk) 00:18, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Since it is stale and now needs Gatwicked, I don't plan on continuing work on that article unless another editor or reviewer see's benefit in me doing so. There will certainly be more news on that subject for us to cover in the future.

I do know my articles take more time to review and I am sympathetic to that fact. I actively seek recommendations from reviewers on ways to prepare an article for easier review. I've also proposed technical changes that I think will benefit both authors and reviewers here.

From my brief experience with Wikinews, the review process is one key hinderance to Wikinews being agile and able to produce timely, relevant articles. If we can figure out how to make that process easier and more efficient without reducing the thoroughness of the process, I believe we'd make progress.

Regarding the length of the articles I write; I read through the sources you linked at a recent discussion at the water cooler, specifically other comments at the Meta page Proposals for closing projects/Closure of English Wikinews. There are comments such as "...a lot of these are very short" and "...none of them has any real depth." I generally agree with those comments.

A short Wikinews article that is not original reporting is more than likely, mostly a paraphrase of existing news. In those cases, it provides little value to Wikinews readers above what they'd get from the original news source. The value I try to bring is providing deeper background and synthesis — synthesis of sources to provide a richer background, not in arriving at new or unique conclusions.

I'm not a journalist and won't be doing much, if any original reporting. Therefore, the value I can bring is mainly articles with more depth and cohesion between articles, i.e., tracking news developments regarding AUMFs over the course of multiple articles.

I know you aren't trying to discourage longer articles. I'm offering here a bit of explanation into motive, in hopes of furthering the discussion around improving the writing and reviewing process because I do see that as a core hurdle hindering the number and depth of articles, generally speaking.

Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:31, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Specialty Coffee Expo

Did you ever end up getting to go to that? If you did and just haven't written it up yet, there's certainly still time per precedent for OR (and the rules are bent more often for OR than synthesis; looking back, the last OR pieces of comparable significance were from about 2014). BTW, I must have been pressed for time when I first saw what you wrote above. I just read it in full, and you clearly grok the problems we face, and offer good solutions. Heavy Water (talk) 21:17, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

I did three on-camera interviews but two of the three were quite coffee-centric and I didn't think that was a good angle for a general audience at wikinews. I thought about doing spot interviews of random attendees but ended up prioritizing other networking while there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:54, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

It's understandable to a general audience and interesting (in my view); not as niche as many of the articles in Category:Halloween (specifically, the Haunters Conventions). That could be a great article even with just minimal text introduction (depending on how much time you have to work on it). Heavy Water (talk) 15:51, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Sorry for butting in here.

Just wanted to say that I would find such an article of interest. I am saying this as a reader of Wikinews who knows coffee tastes good and that's about all I know, Ottawahitech (talk) 16:20, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Documenting the event (assuming you have additional photographs) and interspersing it with bits and pieces from the interviews surely would be newsworthy WN:OR. The full videos of the interviews could then be linked (if uploaded to Commons) for those coffee aficionados who want to get in deep. Or it could be an article about Indonesia's efforts to gain market share in the US. (Guessing the Ted Fishcer interview would be less applicable for the latter option.). Cheers, SVTCobra 17:42, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

I should have time on Friday to dive deeper into this. I'm pleasantly surprised by the interest! Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 12:43, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Sorry guys. I just didn't have time to do the article any justice. I had other priorities that needed my attention. The good news is that if things pan out the way I hope they will, I will have an opportunity to do some original reporting on coffee production in Africa. Fingers crossed! Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:14, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

Ah, OK. Well, Africa OR would be extra good, offer something the regular media usually does not (since they practically only cover Africa when something tragic or destabilizing happens). Heavy Water (talk) 15:10, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

Coffee quote

Hi again, Michael.C.Wright/Archive 1 I found a coffee quote for you at wikiqote. I hope you like it:

Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying a chocolatey cafe mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. From the Spanish exportation of Aztec cacao, and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, on down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA, and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle's Starbucks, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much. ~ q:Sarah Vowell

Ottawahitech (talk) 15:39, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

Nice! Thanks for sharing. Wikiquote is a project I've been interested in contributing to, just never have.

One of the coffee quotes I've collected: "Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard." - Anne Spencer

And there's always the very quotable Dave Grohl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=fhdCslFcKFU

Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:22, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

Advice on getting an article reviewed

Hi @Michael.C.Wright, I really appreciate your contributions here and I wanted to reach out to you for advice on how to get my first article reviewed. I originally wrote it as a prepared story two days in advance of an event on February 16-17, but then I was unable to get a complete review. I have WN:GATWICKed the article several times since then, but I fear this will be its last chance to get reviewed before it goes stale and gets deleted. I've reached out to five administrators and several other reviewers in the last three weeks but all have either said they are too busy to review it or not responded yet.

The article is here: Two world records fall at the World Athletics Indoor Championships. Understanding that you are not a reviewer, do you have any advice for me such as ideas to improve the article and bring it up to Wikinews standards, to make a future reviewer's workload easier and to increase the chances it will be published?

Thank you, --Habst (talk) 21:37, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

I'm glad you're sticking with it and really trying to contribute.

Here are some quick tips—things to keep in mind that I've learned along the way (and don't always achieve myself). In some of the tips I provide specifics for you. Hopefully this helps!

• Longer articles with many sources take longer to review.
  • The review process here is pretty stringent and thorough. In my experience, the reviewers seem to read every sourced article.
  • Be sure to remove sources if facts you use are established in another of your sources (I make this mistake frequently)
  • Wikinews definitely benefits from longer, in-depth articles and I personally prefer to write longer articles with a lot of background. However, they are harder to get published. Pick your poison. ;)
• The title states the main point of the article. If your title mentions two broken world records, that's what the article should talk about; who, what, when, where, why, and how two world records were broken. This is the WN:5W&H
  • Based on your title and the lede, how does the last section of the article fit? If you could cut that entire last section and sources associated with it, that could help the reviewer.
  • Similarly with the second section. The second section doesn't mention Bol, Charlton, or the two broken world records.
• In longer, more complicated articles, I indicate to the reviewer my source for a given statement or paragraph. I do this using HTML comments. You can see it in pre-reviewed versions of some of my articles.[2] Look for text such as this: <!--Source: Everytown-->
  • That tells the reviewer that a specific fact or statement can be found in a specific article.
  • The reviewer removes them as they review the article so they aren't in published versions.
  • Not all reviewers see or use those comments.
• Be sure to structure your article according to WN:PYRAMID.
  • Readers get hooked by your title and are reeled in by your lede
  • Your lede should answer the 5w's and summarize the entire article (and should be able to stand alone)

I like the style in which you've written the article. I would recommend looking at past sports articles that have been published on Wikinews to see the format and style they followed. I'm not saying you should robotically follow them, but they will show you what is acceptable. I seem to recall I had an article with sections and the sections were removed as part of the review process...I'll look to see if I can find it.

For whatever reason, things are really quiet here right now. No new articles have been published since January 4th. I had an article go stale without review last month. I just posted another for review today and intentionally kept the article as short and to-the-point as possible in an attempt to make it as easy as possible to get something new posted. Maybe for your first article and given the quietness we're currently seeing, you cut down your article to the smallest size you can stomach so that you can go through the review process and experience it.

Based on the dates of the articles included by the {{athletics}} infobox, we could really use a sports writer!

Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 23:16, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright, thank you so much for your detailed advice. I have changed the title and the lede keeping this in mind, so that the main point is communicated clearly and is reflected in the title and body. I'll work on adding the HTML-comment inline source attributions if anything isn't clear.

It seems like your new article (which I do appreciate) has just been taken out from under review today ― this is the same thing that happened to my article before it went stale, so I fear the same thing will happen to yours. I was wondering if, based on Asheiou's response to your question at Wikinews:Flagged revisions/Requests for permissions/Asheiou, could you please vote (not asking you to vote one particular way or another)? I think your input is important, because you are one of the two or three active community members who are writing articles this year (technically, there are zero members who have published articles since Jan 4) and the requester is uncomfortable with taking reviewer action without community consensus. Thank you, --Habst (talk) 16:00, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

I do intend to vote but I would like to hear more from Asheiou as well as other editors. I find Bawolff's comments interesting and would like to hear more about that as well—specifically what a new version of the review process might look like.

I like that enWikinews has a stringent and thorough review process. I appreciate the feedback I've gotten from reviewers and feel the resultant, published articles are always better than what I posted for review. But the lack of reviewers to perform that process is effectively blocking new content. One quick and easy solution to that is to simply add more reviewers. And one unintended consequence of that may be reduced quality in the review process.

I am interested in hearing what other editors ask Asheiou and what her answers are. If no one else asks questions, I'll ask more. But right now I don't want to dominate the process by peppering her with my own questions.

Lastly, I've had four articles go stale so far. I've gatwicked a couple and let a couple more go unpublished. As frustrating as that is—to spend the time putting an article together only to have it not reviewed and be deleted—I don't want to rush the process simply to get one article reviewed. I'd like to explore a solution to the current log-jam that is least likely to cause new problems later. If that means another, complete overhaul of the review system, I'd like to hear ideas of what that looks like.

I don't think we're at a stage where we should improvise a solution (but I'm open to be proven otherwise). The way I see it, raw page-views of en.wikinews surprisingly aren't dropping.[3] That obviously won't last without new content. But I think we have some time yet to be intentional.

Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 16:54, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Hi.

I started a new story hopefully I can get more information soon, thanks, also if you need anything don't hesitate to ask me, thanks!!! BigKrow (talk) 21:16, 19 March 2024 (UTC)

I posted on the Collab page of the new article. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 00:32, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! BigKrow (talk) 01:30, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Have a good night Michael. Talk soon. Thanks for the helping hands! BigKrow (talk) 01:45, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

PGP??

What is this PGP key business??--Bddpaux (talk) 18:58, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

PGP is encryption software.[4] Individuals can use my PGP key to encrypt messages to me. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 19:36, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

It can also be used to verify identity, sign messages, etc. Unfortunately, it isn't very user friendly, so it never got the broad acceptance it should have. I've used it in some form or fashion for almost 30 years. I used to carry a copy on a 3.5" floppy. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 21:48, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Article???

Palestinians article close to publish or review??? Thnx 64.39.81.54 (talk) 21:25, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Are you referring to the article titled "12 Palestinians, possibly more, drown trying to get aid parcels dropped into the sea?" If so, work is being done on it to get it ready for review. I'm not a reviewer, so I can only help get it ready prior to someone else reviewing it. You are also welcome to contribute to it. BigKrow started the article and is currently the main contributor. You might check in with him to see how you can work together. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 21:31, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

The IP is me Michael sorry for confusing BigKrow (talk) 21:36, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Ahhh. I thought the three question marks (???) looked familiar.

Whenever you feel it's ready for review, feel free to re-submit it. I just wanted to get some of the basic stuff ironed out before a reviewer maybe rejected it. The orange banner and [Not Ready] can be a de-motivator. ;) Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 23:13, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

In your opinion do you think it's ready? I'm not sure and I hope it doesn't go stale, lately my articles have been doing better. 64.39.81.54 (talk) 00:36, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

I think it could be published as is. It exceeds the minimal amount of three sentences. If it were me, I'd expand it more. The CNN article presents three points of view that you could write about: Hamas would like the airdrops stopped, humanitarian bodies assert that Israel is using starvation as a weapon, and a US official says the amount of aid arriving by land is increasing. Both articles mention that the airdrops are located in a way that makes it more likely they'll land in the water.

This might be an odd way to look at it; but I'd personally expand the article at least enough so that the sections from "Have an opinion?" and lower all fall below the image on the left. That makes the article look better/fuller in my opinion.

The nonexistent category:Gaza should also either be created or removed from the article. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:19, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

FYI, there's already a Category:Gaza Strip. Heavy Water (talk) 14:57, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

Copyrighted

I thought they looked suspicious just saying. BigKrow (talk) 01:14, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Yeah. They all look suspicious. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 01:34, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

If you don't like suspicious, revert to remove copyright violations by editing and not copy-pasting the news, but "Amber Alert cancelled after B.C. infant" and "Rare 4.8 earthquake hits New Jersey and New York" does not like the copyright violations on news, such as the websites that copy-pasted edits, is not suspicious but it's normal. Yay. 199.212.250.163 (talk) 15:42, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Hi Michael

How's my article looking so far? Thanks. BigKrow (talk) 20:18, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright im going offline for now talk soon. BigKrow (talk) 20:26, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Which article? Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 18:23, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Bargi_plant_in_central_Italy_felt_with_explosion BigKrow (talk) 21:09, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Without digging too deeply into it, I can see there are two broken (red) links. There are line-breaks or carriage returns in the middle of the first and third sentences. Remember also to attribute all images using {{image}} and to describe the image with a full sentence, and mention it's a file image if it pre-dates the story. Those things should be corrected before a reviewer gets to it (to save their time).

If it were me, I'd also expand it with some background. Also, the article states "At least three people were killed and four other bodies are missing..." That implies we know four people are dead (four bodies), but we don't, as of today.[5] You could improve that sentence by saying: "At least three people were killed and four others are missing..." Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 23:49, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

New article

I submitted a new article. BigKrow (talk) 02:10, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

I responded in the article talk page. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:49, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

When there's a long string of edits that need to be reverted

Like here, instead of reverting them one by one, you can go back to the diff immediately before the first edit, like Special:Diff/4776306, click the edit tab, and then save. That reverts everything afterwards and is a lot faster. Also, you can warn disruptive users if you want, but there's no requirement to on this project. Thanks for your work both on countervandalism and evaluating submissions, it is really helpful. Heavy Water (talk) 14:50, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

I figured there had to be a better way of doing that. Thanks for the tip and the kind words. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:30, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

My word!

This is horribly past due!

This award is presented to new reporters who have started 10 or fewer news articles.

---Bddpaux (talk) 15:54, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! You know the interns routinely get pizza on Fridays, right? Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:58, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

And: if only for your perseverance, a Cool Cat award!

You deserve this!

You deserve this, you Cool Cat!

---Bddpaux (talk) 16:03, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

Hey BigKrow

@BigKrow, I was going to leave this message on your talk page, but there's some wonkiness with it. Your talk page is being redirected to a template. Was that vandalism?

The message is this: you don't have to delete the whole article Clear message after bomb threats three Tucson, Arizona area schools if you want to continue working on it. Just remove or completely change the last sentence and move on. Mistakes happen.

Let me know if you need help fixing your talk page.

Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 02:06, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright It still needs a lot of work but, I hopefully got rid of the Copyvios??? Thanks. BigKrow (talk) 02:18, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 02:21, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

IP harassment

I pinged @Bddpaux this needs to stop @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 16:47, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

Agreed. I think we should implement a long-term block on the entire IP range, as recommended here: [6] and less clearly here: [7]. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 16:58, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

Check User please

2607:FEA8:1F1D:8400:FAF9:19F7:C1C3:D56 BigKrow (talk) 20:49, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

It's likely our friend from Canada. An admin needs to block a couple of IP ranges to help combat the disruption. We had a temporary block of the IPv6 range but it expired. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:29, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

My user talk page

It was vandalised and now has nothing there anyway you or others might be able to restore? Thanks much. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 16:26, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

The vandalism is a rat's nest for sure. Was there more content that you are missing beyond the comments here: [8]? Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 16:53, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

That vandal account created that page and overrided my whole talk page, yes that is my entire history of my talk page, thank you for trying to help! @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 16:58, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

It might take an admin to delete your current talk page and then to move this version of your old talk page to your new/current talk page. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 16:59, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright thanks Michael. BigKrow (talk) 17:00, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

@Bddpaux We found BigKrow's old talk page along with history here: [9].

I am unable to move that page to make it the current User_talk:BigKrow because that page already exists. I think it will take an admin to delete the current talk page and rename this version to become the new/current User_talk:BigKrow.

I believe this may be how the talk page became a redirect in the first place. When you try to move a page, it gives this message: "Note that the page will not be moved if there is already a page at the new title, unless it is a redirect and has no past edit history." So I think someone was trying to fix it by making the talk page a redirect so they could then move it. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 17:09, 26 April 2024 (UTC); edited Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 17:22, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks everyone appreciate it. BigKrow (talk) 17:13, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

I struck part of my earlier comment. The redirect was created with the first move/rename of the talk page. But then somehow a template was involved and a rat's nest ensued. If only the vandals would focus that energy into constructive editing. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 17:22, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

I know, right, sigh.... BigKrow (talk) 17:25, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

• Posting to simply prevent auto-archive. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:51, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

Pre-review

For the sake of chatter: I'm not opposed to that process. We could use a bit of streamlining in that regard. I look forward to seeing how it might play out over a year or so.--Bddpaux (talk) 01:55, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

Hi.

Just saying hi, we haven't talked in awhile, hope you're well. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 02:34, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

Hello! Yes, I was AFK for a few days. We took a long weekend in the mountains for some R&R. Things weren't quiet around here I see, LOL. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:35, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright, Welcome back! BigKrow (talk) 16:44, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

Mistakes

Hi, Michael @Michael.C.Wright, I messed up the Texas weather article by mistake, any help? Thanks. BigKrow (talk) 17:26, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

@Heavy Water BigKrow (talk) 17:36, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

Boston Celtics defeat Dallas Mavericks

Hello, please review the article I wrote about the Celtics' win against the Mavs. Thanks. 173.76.102.69 (talk) 19:21, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

Please note I am not a reviewer and can neither review nor publish articles. However, I may have time today to take a look at it and make some suggestions. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:25, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

pre-review

I give you all the credit in the world for working on it, Cheers!!! BigKrow (talk) 16:57, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, but it is a team sport. ツ Hopefully it develops into something helpful. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 17:03, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Sounds good, but I also wanted to thank you for your work on your testing pre-review! @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 17:05, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

OMG CAT TITS account

Is that name appropriate for wikinews? Thanks just curious sounds like a possibility of a bad editor. BigKrow (talk) 16:31, 19 August 2024 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright, this one too Manifestation of the Witch's Titty BigKrow (talk) 16:33, 19 August 2024 (UTC)

OMG CAT TITS (talk · contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

If you find it offensive, I recommend raising the issue at WN:AAA, where administrators (or possibly global stewards) can review it in accordance with our username policy (WN:U). If you do post to WN:AAA, it is always helpful to use the {{user2}} template, which links to the user page, talk page, contribs page, etc. It's what I used just above.

Alternatively, you could also address your concerns directly with the user on their talk page. I agree that the username is not indicative of someone who intends to contribute constructively to the project, and it may indeed be a violation of our policy. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:04, 20 August 2024 (UTC)

Same with Manifestation of the Witch's Titty (talk · contribs · page moves · block user · block log). I don't see how that username indicates someone who is serious about writing news articles and I can see how it could be offensive to some. –Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:07, 20 August 2024 (UTC)

Pings inter wiki

I think they work. I just pinged you on another wiki, did you get it?

Needed to type your name manually, just "@Michael.C." offered no results there (it does show your account name here for that). Gryllida (talk) 10:41, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

It worked, but maybe because you posted on my user-talk page there, whereas when I tried it from a regular page, the other user didn't seem to get pinged. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:34, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

@Gryllida, interwiki pings do work (but I think the user might need to have an account on that wiki). Me Da Wikipedian (talk) 11:42, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

interesting , important condition Gryllida (talk) 11:52, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

Continuing discussion from your reviewer request...

It's getting off topic so Ill reply here... Mainly the fact that I've essentially been here for under 4 months, and I only have 11-12 published articles (much lower than virtually any reviewer). Also, I haven't done or pre-reviewed any OR, and there was a pre-review where I didn't really know the policy on something. Yes, I would like to become a reviewer, but do you (or anyone else) think that I am ready for it? Me Da Wikipedian (talk) 16:41, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

I think you would learn it quickly and if there were an active reviewer willing and able to mentor you, it could work. You also figure out the mechanics of Mediawiki quickly (i.e., how to update the Main page, templates, etc). You are persistent and can be dogged with certain things. One of the things I learned from my block at WP is that some people don't take doggedness too well, justifiably or not. If your goal is to collaborate more and work towards consensus more, consider trying to figure out how to adjust that doggedness or more importantly how it's presented so that it is more-often perceived as collaborative rather than combative. I have to work very hard on that myself. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 17:58, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. I see that we have now arrived at the point in every discussion about improving Wikinews, the "this could work if there were active reviewers". Hopefully you being a reviewer can help with that. Me Da Wikipedian (talk) 18:34, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

http://quassel-irc.org

Do you have a list of your published articles somewhere? @Me Da Wikipedian

Thanks Gryllida (talk) 10:38, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

@Gryllida nah, just check the 20 most recent published articles, the majority are mine... Me Da Wikipedian (talk) 00:55, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Google reports thirteen percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions

Hi, I am going through Newsroom deleting stale articles. I just found the one linked in section heading. I enjoyed the read and it looks like an important topic that is not immediately stale if they're still having that increased energy usage. Would you be interested in interviewing Google and several major giants (Microsoft, Facebook/Meta, OpenAI) about this, for example, by video call or email?

If so, the first step would be to add a note on article that it is being worked on to do interview, and make a list of questions on the talk page. Gryllida (talk) 20:02, 9 September 2024 (UTC)

This...

...was human error, I was aiming for the 'thank' link but the mouse slipped. Thought I'd let you know. Thanks for the tag. Gryllida (talk) 19:54, 9 September 2024 (UTC)

Ahh, no worries. Thanks for letting me know! —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 12:47, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Special:Diff/4796888

Could this be also marked as abandoned? It was not edited for many days before. (Perhaps the 'stale' template could automatically change itself to Abandoned if no edits were made for N days. I haven't explored how this could work from technical perspective, yet.) Gryllida (talk) 23:08, 9 September 2024 (UTC)

Yes.

Perhaps the 'stale' template could automatically change itself to Abandoned if no edits were made for N days. The CategoryTests extension[10] might be useful in that situation, but it isn't installed. I have tried to use it with a Pre-review category to automate certain maintenance functions around that template.

I'm not sure how to accurately test for the duration an article has been in a given category. Perhaps DPL could be used if we had a more robust version of DPL. But also, I believe Mediawiki is replacing DPL eventually. It has caused problems when used heavily by a project, specifically ru.WN on their main page.

Anyway if we can figure out how to automatically change categories based on duration in one or another given category, we could use the function in {{copyvio}} as well, to mark violations with speedy delete after 48 hours of being in Category:Copyright violations. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:19, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Congratulations on the successful request for Reviewer permissions

Hi Michael.C.Wright

Congratulations on the successful request for Reviewer permissions. You are now able to formally review and publish articles. After the review you will be presented with a step to add the new published article to home page.

There are several places where you can ask a question:

• This talk page is likely being watched by several contributors involved in discussions at the request.
• Article talk page, if related to article and contributors are being helpful.
• Wikinews:Water cooler/assistance can be used to discuss concerns worth keeping, in case they apply to more than one article. (Other sections of water cooler exist for policy, technical, proposals, and miscellaneous issues.)
• Administrator noticeboard (AAA) in case sysop action like a block or a page deletion is required.
• Live chat for real time discussions, with '#wikinews-en' for English Wikinews, and '#wikinews' for international-related or translations-related discussions that may require attention from other language editions, and '#wikinews-tech' for technical discussions.

Please let me know if you need help at any point.

Again, welcome to reviewing; thanks for volunteering, and have a great day!

Regards, Gryllida (talk) 00:05, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. I look forward to working with you. I know I can rely on you for advice and mentorship. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:11, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

Re: the helicopter story

I have just replied to you at the article talk page. (Please advise whether you want to continue getting such notes on your personal talk page, or you already receive Notifications through the wiki.) Thanks and best regards, Gryllida (talk) 10:11, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

I have my preferences set up so that any page I edit gets added to my watchlist automagically. I also keep an eye on the recent changes special page. With our low volume of edits, that combination keeps me pretty much up-to-date.

Pings and/or heads-up are always welcome on my talk page, as long as the necessary discussion remains as centralized as possible. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:24, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

scoop access

Hi, congratulations on receiving the reviewer bits! As I understand, now as a reviewer, you should be granted the scoop access. Would you be able to hop in on IRC some time, so I can talk to you about it and grant you the access, so you can proceed with reviewing ORs? •–• 16:26, 13 September 2024 (UTC)

I am on it now (nick: MichaelCWright) and just sent a message to you there. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 16:46, 13 September 2024 (UTC)

Sorry, I got an important work in between and I had to leave, so I could not detail everything. However, I will use the EmailUser feature to send you information later today. Once I get the acknowledgement on that, I shall create the email. By the way, do you use any email client on your computer?
•–• 02:06, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

I am fine with just using webmail to check Scoop, I won't need to configure any email app for that, if that is what you are asking. I will likely configure my Scoop account to forward emails to my personal account, if that is possible. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:27, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

I have not received anything via EmailUser. Did you send it? I have alternative contact info on my userpage. Thank you, Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:26, 21 September 2024 (UTC)

Wikibreak (over)

I'll be offline for up to the next seven days and won't be checking in during that time. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:32, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

Are you still there by any chance? The helicopter story looks ready, and freshness is about to expire now. Gryllida (talk) 23:36, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright pinged. Please respond. BigKrow (talk) 23:43, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

BigKrow & Gryllida, sorry I missed your requests! As soon as I signed off here, I hit the road for a long-planned backpacking trip. I am back now. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:27, 21 September 2024 (UTC)

Welcome back. Wow, that sounds good. I hope you enjoyed the trip.

In the newsroom there is a story which I edited, about the exploded pagers, which I cannot review.

Could you please skim all stories in review queue and pick something that looks relatively easy to publish? I keep finding something to pick on and not publishing anything. Gryllida (talk) 19:10, 21 September 2024 (UTC)

Congratulations

Didn't get a chance to congratulate you before you left. Not sure there was really a consensus there (only one reviewer weighed in) but fine. We all know what happened last time; and I don't want to create the impression I'm trying to stir up drama by doing this repeatedly. I may not have opposed, actually (wow, what a vote of confidence). I just wanted to say, of any of the regulars who weren't reviewers, I'd have trusted you to handle the job best because of your knowledge of your own limited knowledge (of course, there's what you do know, too) — and I can see you demonstrating that already. Did I mention WN:Tips on reviewing articles at some point? Really, really helpful. I use the checklist every time (you mentioned you developed your own checklist based on a 2010 discussion, but this one's been kept up to date and it's just detailed enough). Heavy Water (talk) 05:59, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:41, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau survives a no confidence vote

Thanks for reviewing the article. The article on the main page where there is a photo, still has Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau passes confidence vote title. BilboBeggins (talk) 17:15, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

I got this fixed. It could have been that I chose the wrong article from the widget/gadget that helps update the lead articles on the main page after one published an article. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:30, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

California ied article

Getting close to staleness if not already hoping u can review it again? Thanks. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 14:27, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

For some reason I missed this message, I do apologize.

I would have published it per my pre-review, but @Bddpaux still has it under review. It has now gone stale and will need to be Gatwicked and re-reviewed to be published.

In hindsight, I'm not sure my plan as a new reviewer to pre-review articles that have time before going stale was a good idea. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:30, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

Vote about license upgrade

Hi!

You have now added a conclusion ("Yes, WN upgrade to CC-BY-4.0 if the the other WN also upgrade."). Thank you for that! And I agree that it seems to be a fair description of what concensus is.

But I think we need to clarify what that means. We know that some versions of wikinews want to change too. None that I know of had said no. But many have not made a formal vote and given a clear yes or no. So can we say that the other WN will also upgrade so therefore the final result is a Yes, English Wikinews upgrade to CC-BY-4.0? Or do we have to wait for the final result from all the wikis or from a RFC on meta?

As I understand it some wikis wait for the result from English Wikinews before they do anything. So it is a very slow process to get anywhere.

Also if we agree that it is a yes then we need to know which date the upgrade will take place. I think it would be good if we could send a message to all WN with something like this:

"English Wikinews will change to CC-BY-4.0 with effect for all edits made from December 1, 2024 (or another date). Arabic Wikinews have allready changed, German, Polish, Chinese and Esperanto Wikinews have also decided to change or support to change. You can read about it at en:Wikinews:Water cooler/policy#Update of license.

We hope that you will also change license so we can continue to share articles across the different versions of Wikinews.

To complete the change we need to file a request on Phabricator. To make it easier we plan to make one request for all the versions of Wikinews that will change the license.

To be able to coordinate the change of license we will therefore start a vote here suggesting that you also update the license to CC-BY-4.0. The vote will end on November 15, 2024. That will give some days to prepare the update.

If your wiki have allready decided or have an existing vote please leave a message here with a link to the vote/result.

Please note that if there are no comments or protests it will be taken as a support for the change per m:Requesting wiki configuration changes.

We will appriciate any help to make sure this vote is announced the correct places and the text is translated with a translator so if there are any errors please help correct it. If the local policy have different rules than the one we suggest please correct as soon as possible.

Vote

The vote end on November 15, 2024. All users with more than 250 good edits can vote.

Question: Do you support to upgrade to CC-BY-4.0 too on the same date as English Wikinews upgrade their license?"

So perhaps we need a new section where you add the final conclusion (English Wikinews will update per <date> and we will send out a message to all versions of Wikinews to try to get everyone else to update too) and perhaps also a section where we can keep track of the progress (and can discuss the wording of the message to other wikis). Maybe we can use the page I created: User:MGA73/Licenseupgrade. If you think we can move it to a new name so its not in my namespace (Wikinews:Water cooler/policy/License_update_2024 for example). MGA73 (talk) 15:16, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

That's a lot to unpack. ツ I'll try to go point-by point:

• So can we say that the other WN will also upgrade so therefore the final result is a Yes, English Wikinews upgrade to CC-BY-4.0? Or do we have to wait for the final result from all the wikis or from a RFC on meta? Would it be better to say something along the lines of 'English Wikinews will upgrade on date X. Other Wikinews projects are managing their processes internally and independent of English Wikinews.' I think waiting for all other language projects to align and work through things would be time-consuming and detrimental to maintaining momentum for the ones who want to move forward. And I would hope that a change in share-ability (due to license incompatibility) might spur action. I think it's best to post this conclusion after en.WN has all pages prepped (edit-protected pages are all that we think are left). Once that is done we could come up with a date and post the message to all language projects.

• Related; To complete the change we need to file a request on Phabricator. To make it easier we plan to make one request for all the versions of Wikinews that will change the license. Should we instead provide each language project with instructions on how to do so? That way we all aren't held up and can instead each work at the pace our projects can support.

• As I understand it some wikis wait for the result from English Wikinews before they do anything. So it is a very slow process to get anywhere. Agreed. I think the only thing holding en.WN up is the edit-protected pages and Gryllida has committed to making those changes over the next few days. 🤞

• Please note that if there are no comments or protests it will be taken as a support for the change per m:Requesting wiki configuration changes. My reading of the linked document is that it does not state an absence of comments or protests are interpreted as a vote of Support. I understand it to instead be summarized as 'you had your chance.' "[I]t should be enough to show that you have tried to gain consensus, and that you have given an opportunity for objections." It might be a difference without a distinction, but for such a formal and impacting procedure, it may be worth sticking very closely to what the Meta page stipulates. Maybe the verbiage could be along the lines of

"A lack of opposition or absence of comments during the polling period is not automatically considered support. Rather, it reflects that participants had their opportunity to express their views. If no objections are raised, the poll will default to a 'proceed' action, assuming no opposition was voiced."

• If you think we can move it to a new name so its not in my namespace... I agree and I am unsure of where that should be moved to. Since it's in your user space, it will be cleanest if you or an admin move it.

Thanks for sticking with and managing this! —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 16:32, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

Lol yes it was a lot. Sorry about that. But I think we have to figure these things out.

The reason I suggest that we coordinate the change of license is because then it can happen on the same day and as you can see on https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/source/mediawiki-config/browse/master/wmf-config/InitialiseSettings.php$10882 all wikinews have the same license per default. If the wikis change separately then some dev (or whoever make the changes) have to edit several times and add each wiki separately. So my plan and hope is that we can get all or most to change. If lets say 3 wikis do not want us to change then we can say on phabricator that "Please change the default license for wikinews to cc-by-4.0 but make exceptions for these tree wikinews: Foo1, Foo2 and Foo3 (they stay with cc-by-2.5 unless they decide otherwise later).".

I agree that it is perhaps a bit too much to say that no comments = support. I just wanted the wikis to know that the change will also happen if there are no protests. So that if they ignore this vote the license will change.

So perhaps the conclusion can be as you suggested but with a little addition:

'English Wikinews will upgrade on date X. Other Wikinews projects are formally managing their processes internally and independent of English Wikinews however the magical M@M duo will try to coordinate a joined change of license on all Wikinews projects at the same date.'

And if we want to do it like that then we need to chose a date that is minimum 1 month away. If we do that then Gryllida have plenty of time to fix the pages while we set up the messages/votes on all the other versions of Wikinews.

But of course we can also do as as you suggest and change license on English Wikinews and write to all the other versions of Wikinews that English Wikinews have changed and then still try to make all the other change license too. --MGA73 (talk) 21:35, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

Please review now

Hi Michael.C.Wright

I've written these two news articles:

• New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS Manawanui capsizes one nautical mile from shore (event October 9 Saturday)
• Rio Negro tributary of the Amazon River experiences lowest water level on record (event this Friday)

Please, review them now. I purposedfully wrote them short and as few sources as possible.

If something is not verifiable, please take it out or leave a note.

Many thanks.

Regards, Gryllida (talk) 04:40, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

Edit: the second story was published by RockerballAustralia (thanks!). The first one is still in queue. Gryllida (talk) 07:49, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

Queue: *3* in total: Monday (1), Tuesday (2). It is currently *Wednesday*. One breaking story (hurricane). 🥺🥺🥺 Gryllida (talk) 09:24, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

I will have less time to dedicate to reviewing this month. I will also have at least two, maybe more periods of no access. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:24, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Notes about reviewing

Hi @Michael.C.Wright

I am very happy to see you around helping with the reviews following your successful application for Reviewer. I believe you are very good at wikification (a point I am not doing well) and at reading the sources to verify the information. This is very good. For future I would suggest to increase your "sense of urgency" by pinging the article authors on the article talk page to attract their attention. This is probably something that the software should do automatically. I will inquire at the technical water cooler about this shortly.

I am wondering what other reviewers would suggest to you (@Heavy Water? @Acagastya? @Bddpaux? Last 3 active reviewers I believe) for feedback.

Have a good day. Gryllida (talk) 07:20, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for posting this. Hopefully others will respond.

I can work at creating more of a sense of urgency. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:34, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes please update leads

Hi Michael.C.Wright

When I am editing from mobile or among noisy environment I don't touch the leads -- easy to mess up. Please continue to update it when you have a moment. There was no decision against it. I will try to do it also as often as I can.

Thank you. :-)

Regards, Gryllida (talk) 22:45, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

Will do... —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:24, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Corrections

Hi. You probably saw the debacle with the pager explosions story that warranted a correction. I found one of the problems there — inaccuracy in dates — to also be present in the article on Ryan Routh's superseding indictment. In both cases, it seems likely you missed converting relative to cardinal dates. So please be more careful about this immediately pre-publication in the future. Both were also missing some important cats; the Tips on reviewing articles checklist prompts the reviewer on this. If you add a cat for a country, you have to add the relevant news region cat(s) as well; so Category:Hungary needs to be accompanied by Category:Europe.

I have a habit of writing headlines that are too long, but if I were you, I would've added altered the headline to something a bit more unique (e.g. "golf course attempted assassination"). Heavy Water (talk) 23:39, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I will pay closer attention to date conversions. I should have caught that.

That's one aspect that the pre-review process can't include so I'm unfortunately not in the habit of checking it. This is a good reason to have an active and seasoned reviewer on hand to address these things either before hand or within the 24-hour grace period immediately afterwords—so corrections aren't necessary. I'm not saying it was anyone else's fault, just that it would help new reviewers if we had some sort of a transition/training period for them.

Regarding the requirement for two geographical categories, I don't see that in Wikinews:Tips on reviewing articles or Wikinews:Reviewing articles. Tips says "At least one geographical category..." Am I missing something?

Also, how do you update the five lead templates? Do you normally do it manually—one at a time—or is there a widget/gadget/javascript page you use to move them?

Thanks as always for the help. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:47, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

"it would help new reviewers if we had some sort of a transition/training period for them": Yeah, absolutely. I think it could've helped me a lot when I was new too. In the past, experienced reviewers would meet on IRC once or twice with a reviewer candidate or prospective candidate to co-review an article, perhaps with the newbie demonstrating how they would review the article, making edits on-wiki; the experienced reviewer could offer corrections and evaluate their readiness.

That minimum requirement is accurate, although I can't think of a situation where a country cat wouldn't be needed. All I'm saying is when you do use a cat on an article, its parent cats need to be used as well.

Oh, yeah, Wikinews:Make lead is the JS tool. I tend to use it except when I need to use the edit summary to explain the rationale for my editing or switching around leads others put on the Main Page. Heavy Water (talk) 21:49, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Headline verb tense tip

Hi Michael C. Wright

Tip: news headlines are in present tense.

E.g. Bruce Lehrmann judge said to have no links to published book of judgement

FYI. I don't think any action or correction is required on this page (unless it's less than 24 hours and you dig up a policy that allows change).

Regards, Gryllida (talk) 05:22, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Agreed. I wanted to change the headline because Lehrmann is not the main focus and using his name to identify the judge could be misleading/confusing. I didn't, but I should have.

It's been over 24 hours since it was published, so we're stuck with it, unfortunately. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:41, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

resubmitted

I've resubmitted story about Qantas for your review. Gryllida (talk) 21:24, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Can you review

Can you review my UK Tory leader page? CSM.in (talk) 14:44, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

I may not have time today to review any articles but I'll see what I can do. Fingers crossed. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:11, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

Israel confirms death of Hamas leader in Gaza

Israel confirms death of Hamas leader in Gaza it's not that it was abandoned, I did make the corresponding improvements but you wanted it to be eliminated and that's it, but I'm telling you something that you would love. HERE I WILL NOT CREATE ANYTHING AGAIN? thank you. Pitille02 (talk) 05:25, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

I appreciate the effort you put into the article and the improvements you made. My feedback was intended to help bring it up to en.Wikinews standards, which can be challenging, especially on a first attempt. Thank you for your contributions. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:00, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

live chat

Hi,

I would like to provide you with access to my w:Quassel Core so that you can access IRC continuously. You will need to install a 'Quassel Client' (no Core) from the http://www.quassel-irc.org web site. When this is done, and when you connect to IRC next time, please send me a private message to nick 'gry' while logged in; I will provide you the login details.

I consider this relatively urgent as new articles may die when people work on them asynchronously.

Regards, Gryllida (talk) 02:31, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Correction: the url is w:Quassel IRC. Gryllida (talk) 02:32, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

I routinely remain logged into IRC and there is rarely any chatter in #wikinews-en or #wikinews. I don't think access (or lack thereof) to IRC is what is holding us back. I really do think we need more active reviewers and likely an updated review process that is quicker and easier for both authors and reviewers. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:23, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Next step

Hi! I may be a bit slow here so sorry to bother you again. What is the plan related to license upgrade? I think we need to know what needs to be done, when and by who. Can you help me out here? MGA73 (talk) 14:36, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I've been thinking about setting up a dedicated project page so we can track everything in a central location. We currently have conversations and lists scattered around and it makes it difficult to track.

We'll also need to request outside help with the admin work that needs to happen, as we don't have enough active admins here to get it done. We can't upgrade en.WN's license without an admin due to edit-protected pages.

I'll create the project page sometime this week and try to consolidate and organize all the info. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:27, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! Sounds good. You are welcome to move my page or copy if you can use it. Perhaps we should just request a change at phab and when it is done we can ask global sysops at meta to change the relevant pages. Usually they respond within a few minutes. Once license is changed we can inform other languages and hopefully they will change too. --MGA73 (talk) 15:37, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

what admin work do you need done? Gryllida (talk) 00:13, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

@Gryllida: The request made here[11]. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:04, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

As I understand it some of the changes need to say something like that content is 4.0 except content from before <date> that is 2.5. It will be hard to make those changes unless we know which date the change will happen? --MGA73 (talk) 14:31, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

I started a new section at Wikinews_talk:Copyright#To_do_per_November_2024. Feel free to update and/or move somewhere else. --MGA73 (talk) 15:10, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

lost it, archived discussion means no further work needed? can you open new inquiries to admins at AAA before asking global sysops Thanks Gryllida (talk) 04:06, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

If the archival you are asking about is the list originally at WN:Copyright, I archived that version yesterday. As the archive reason states, it has been moved to: Wikinews:2024 Copyright license upgrade#pages-table (the project page). The table is collapsed by default, you will need to click the "expand" link to see the full table. The work is still needed.

I have previously made the following requests for this work, to include at WN:AAA: [12], [13], [14], [15]

In addition to the above requests, I have also made edit-protected requests on several (but not all) of the talk pages where changes are needed: [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22]. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:31, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

side note and a few questions

There is a "ignore groundless accusations" principle of journalists. May apply to that recent discussion with Ssr.

I am still awaiting your message on irc and staying on for a few hours to setup you with a quassel irc account.

You have a message in scoop with interview content. Did you rrceive it?

Are you using a linux OS on the device you are reading emails from?

Thanks. Gryllida (talk) 21:20, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

Please also note I have an open request for interfaceadmin permissions. May be worth a vote as then I can start editing several wiki tools which are programmed in js in the mediawiki namespace and potentially a guided tour. Gryllida (talk) 21:23, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

There is a "ignore groundless accusations" principle of journalists. May apply to that recent discussion with Ssr. I am genuinely curious what they see as the cause of the problem. I am also, as I said there, generally in agreement that en.WN is stale and abandoned and will remain so if we don't change something. So I don't see it as a groundless accusation.

I am still awaiting your message on irc and staying on for a few hours to setup you with a quassel irc account. I already have an IRC client and routinely connect and idle in #wikinews-en and #wikinews. I do not see IRC as a solution to any of the challenges we face here at en.WN at the moment.

For example, I sent you a direct message there three days ago about the email you sent to Scoop. Remember, I can't reply to old or send new emails from Scoop. I also responded on the article talk page about the interview with Nikolai. I'll need to verify the interview was indeed with Nikolai. Furthermore, if I expand the article with the interview myself, I'll no longer be 'uninvolved' and can no longer review it. I'm okay with that, it just means one of the other reviewers will have to review it and Heavy Water has already said it wasn't newsworthy from the beginning. So that will essentially leave RockerballAustralia to do the review.

So in the case of that article, we've used en.WN talk pages, Scoop, and IRC to try to coordinate the publishing of the article and we're still not successful. I don't think the solution is another app. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:52, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

Ssr's point is "Wikinews is dead and always will be". That comes without any attempt to solve the situation and with ignoring recent progress (or attempts at such).

I am seeing recent reviews with "that sentence is misworded or not attributed" comments from reviewer. Then the article dies. Yes, that is a problem. Pinging me on irc and asking me to fix it can solve this.

I couldn't reply to you three days ago on irc because your nick was offline. I would be happy to reply if I could. Could you not close your irc client? Timezones are a possible problem here, but really the main problem is motivation. If we wanted to chat on irc daily we would schedule a time. Gryllida (talk) 18:23, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

I believe we want the same thing; articles more easily reviewed and more quickly and efficiently published.

I just don't see IRC as a viable solution to that problem. If you saw my message on IRC three days ago, then you knew three days ago that 1. I can't respond via Scoop (a problem you've been working on since I've had the Scoop account) 2. That there are more details on the appropriate talk page and 3. from that, what needed changed in order for me to review the article. Your being able to respond to me via IRC was not an impediment to you moving forward with the article. Besides, you and I seem to be the only two who use IRC to the extent that we do. How do you see IRC helping with new authors getting articles published when the articles aren't in compliance with our policies and guidelines (PaG) and they aren't already IRC users and frequent participants at #wikinews-en? Is it faster and more efficient to first coach them through IRC usage then coach them through en.WN PaG?

Besides, any conversation we have on IRC is disconnected from Wikinews and not kept as an historical record should an article get published. I think IRC should be used sparingly for real-time coordination when it's needed, not as an 'always on,' frequently-used method of communication for en.WN issues.

I share your sentiment regarding Ssr's complaint in that it so far lacks any attempt at identifying the source of the problem—which is why I asked them for their opinion. I also feel they are accurate in their evaluation of en.WN's lack of both relevancy and future prospects of improvement. You and I have spent more time futzing about IRC and Scoop than working to figure out if the review process itself is a problem that can be improved or otherwise fixed. The copyright license upgrade project has been going on for over a year and we still can't get edit-protected pages changed in a timely manner. We are struggling to keep the lights on. Ssr was largely correct. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 18:44, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

wmflegal

https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_talk:2024_Copyright_license_upgrade#Set_date_of_actual_upgrade_(a_poll)

what happened with wmf legal reply for it, did they reply or not

do you need sitenotice revised or did someone already do it.thanks Gryllida (talk) 04:07, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

The latest is at the link you provided. I have not heard back from them. However, we can now demonstrate to Phabricator that we did our due diligence and reached out for feedback. Hopefully since several other Wikimedia projects have already upgraded to 4.0 it will be seen as straightforward and non-contentious. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:26, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

clarity

"We have organized the project here: Wikinews:2024 Copyright license upgrade. In addition to the mass deletion request above, we have a long-standing request for admin asstance listed here: Wikinews:2024_Copyright_license_upgrade#Pages_to_update_when_license_is_updated_from_2.5_to_4.0."

This is confusing.

1. organised project here 2. in addition to mass deletion request above [this is about sxw files or what was their name] 3. we have request for assistance in same page as link 1

Just sharing with you that it takes my time to understand what you mean. It would be simpler to write "The required admin actions are listed at Wikinews:2024_Copyright_license_upgrade#Pages_to_update_when_license_is_updated_from_2.5_to_4.0 (here); please also see the mass deletion request above".

Hope it helps. Maybe I missed something, if so, happy to learn of it.

Have a good day and thank you. Gryllida (talk) 18:18, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Style question

Do I use European English on articles pertaining to European topics? Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Lofi Gurl (talk • contribs)

That is typically determined by where the author is from, but authors can also do it on a per-article basis, as needed:

On Wikinews we generally follow either the spelling patterns of the subject of the article (British English for articles about the UK, American English for those about the US, etc), or those of the article's first author.

– WN:Style#Spelling

—Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:37, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

please review

there are a couple articles i expanded and cannot review. please review something when you have a moment. Gryllida (talk) 18:55, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

I'm nearly out of time today and I dedicated my time today to the license upgrade project. I won't likely have time to review articles until Sunday, at the earliest and that is questionable. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 19:26, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

thanks have a great weekend Gryllida (talk) 19:27, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

contact

do you use matrix or telegram or viber or sip or discord - could be used to connect with me for urgent queries thanks Gryllida (talk) 19:15, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

I can use telegram or discord, yes. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 19:23, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

i am SvetaT23 at telegram, and grylli at discord, please connect when you can thanks Gryllida (talk) 19:24, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Any ideas?

Hello! I have a question totally not related to Wikinews. But I noticed that you knew about "DynamicPageList" so I wondered if you had an idea how to get the number of files that meet some criteria.

I have made this list om meta: m:User:MGA73/GFDL files/Categories. I would like to know for each category how many (if any) of the files that are uploaded after October 15, 2018 and not dual licensed with cc-by-whatever.

I can use Petscan and make a query for each category but I have to create it manually and click a few times to get the number of files and then put them in the table. I was thinking perhaps I could make something more fancy. I know that cc-by-sa-3.0 is not always named cc-by-sa-3.0 so there will be a few errors if I assume that. But looking at d:Q5614379 most use that name. MGA73 (talk) 19:30, 27 December 2024 (UTC)

Looking at this Petscan tool, I don't think DPL would be any easier to use for this (and in fact if I understand correctly most wikis don't have the DPL extension so you wouldn't be able to use DPL on any of those). Heavy Water (talk) 20:38, 27 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you Heavy Water! Well worst case I just have to check the categories one by one. I made a better list at c:User:MGA73/GFDL-list without categories with 0 files. If there are very few files it is probably easier to check files manually. I asked ChatGpT and it suggested that I just moved all the files to Commons. Yeah... See you again in ten years with a result! :-D --MGA73 (talk) 20:45, 27 December 2024 (UTC)

Lol, good luck! Heavy Water (talk) 20:48, 27 December 2024 (UTC)

The DPL installation here at en.WN is pretty minimal. I believe we're limited to the parameters listed here: Wikinews:DynamicPageList. I don't believe our installation will allow a search based on date. The parameter addfirstcategorydate simply returns the date something was added to the category. I also don't know if DPL can be used cross-wiki from Meta. Like Heavy Water said, many projects are moving away from it and I believe because it can be resource-intensive on the servers. See this old thread on en.WP for more on the downsides of heavy DPL usage. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 15:55, 28 December 2024 (UTC)

Wow. Well that tells us never to write or import 1 million articles in one day :-) Thank you. I will have to find another way. --MGA73 (talk) 16:14, 28 December 2024 (UTC)

Trump article

Excellent review/coverage of what/why it failed. I'd like to see that one get doctor'd up a bit and published.--Bddpaux (talk) 16:08, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks.

I'd like to see that one get doctor'd up a bit and published. I agree. Some of our political articles get good page-views. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:05, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Bddpaux, I have a last-minute commitment and will not likely have time to review any lengthy articles until next Tuesday. If you have the time, Trump removes X gender option on American passports has been resubmitted for review.

Question I was going to upload an image from the White House Instagram account. The image depicts Trump signing a bunch of EOs on inauguration day. However, I'm not sure if public domain extends to all content released by the government. Do you know of any similar uses of images from Instagram accounts of US Government officials? —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:57, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Well: it normally does, yes. But: I only post images via Commons (I should change that practice maybe soon. I know we can 'store' images here.)--Bddpaux (talk) 15:28, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Lead articles

You'd mentioned some trick on updating (re-freshing) leads on the main page -- I think you are a bit more adept at some wiki-foo (or whatevs) than I might be. [Maybe you might give me a lesson in that department soon??] That Chess article is ancient!!--Bddpaux (talk) 15:42, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

For the lead shuffle, the way I've been doing it is I open all five leads in separate tabs, then copy all parameters except id from lead 4 to 5, 3 to 4, 2 to 3, and 1 to 2 (and reduce the thumbnail size from 150 to 100px). Then I use the Make Lead widget to make (overwrite) lead 1. Be sure to tick the box to accept your edits (self-sighting). I frequently miss that step and have to go back to fix it—I typically check the Main page afterwords to make sure I got them all in the right order, images sized properly, dates instead of day names, etc.

Asked42 is working on a widget that might help do it all in one whack: User:Asked42/LeadManager. They mention the tool here. I haven't had time to play with it yet but plan to, as it could be useful! —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:56, 29 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. I recently used it (as a test) to update Lead 6 to Lead 10. Here, Lead 6 is considered as Lead 1. It sequentially shuffles all the leads. It is also supposed to auto sight the edits if the user has permission. But, I cannot test whether this auto sight actually works properly. So, if any of you can test it, please check whether the edits have been sighted or not. Asked42 (talk) 19:52, 29 January 2025 (UTC)

I have confirmed that all five lead templates were self-sighted when I tested LeadManager. I think it will be very handy and a very welcomed tool (certainly by me). —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 16:45, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

OK -- I understood about 40% of this. We'll see where things go.--Bddpaux (talk) 17:24, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Ummmmmm ----

So, I'm working on an article and my changes aren't showing when I save........? It shows that I made a 'change', but I can't see the change. I understand we have to have tools to help guard against vandalism, but.....? Ummmmmmm.......--Bddpaux (talk) 17:30, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Assuming you are referring to Heavy storms predicted to sweep across much of Texas, it appears that it is already using Flagged Revisions, even though it is not published. I just added two changes and the edit history indicated they were pending, not sighted.

I'm not sure how you started the article. Maybe you can try starting a new article using the widget on the Main page, in the section titled "Write an article" then copy and paste all the previous text into that draft and see if that helps. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:39, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Changes after publication

I'm not sure there are any guidlines relating to changes made after publication that are easily-accessible from the Main Page, unless I missed something. I had some uncertainties about my recent edits to the Sabbath article, so I went looking, but couldn't find the guidelines I was looking for.

Are only minor changes allowed within the first 24 hours of publication? Are wikilinks to notable people mentioned in lead, sister links to the focal point of the article, and additional photos allowed within the first 24 hours?

Thanks Lofi Gurl (talk) 20:43, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

Post-publication edits are governed by WN:Archive. We have a 24 hour grace period during which changes can be made but must also be sighted (reviewed and approved) by a reviewer within that 24 hour period.

After the grace period, the article should be protected so that only administrators can edit them. Any changes after that point must be discussed in the context of a correction or retraction. We as a community need to, at some point, discuss how WN:Archive and {{correction}} are reconciled. For example, when do we actually make an edit to an archived article and simultaneously issue a correction statement? When do we simply issue a correction statement? —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:19, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

Further frustrating the issue is the fact that we have no official correction policy, only a proposal: Wikinews:Correction policy. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Michael.C.Wright (talk • contribs)

UTC??

Wanna know something funny? I don't think I know how to easily convert time to UTC? Is there a quick method?--Bddpaux (talk) 16:14, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

I always search for the local timezone and it returns the UTC ± that I use for the quick conversion. I'm sure any AI can also provide a quick response. It could even be trained to format the output to match our style guide. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:03, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

@Bddpaux:I had ChatGPT develop {{ConvertTime}} that can be used to help with time conversion and formatting. Check it out and let me know if it would be useful. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 18:51, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

Looks cool. I will give it a go!--Bddpaux (talk) 20:15, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

ChatGPT

So people on wikinews can get assistance by ChatGPT? I want to try an article with assistance with ChatGPT.... can I? Thanks @Michael.C.Wright: BigKrow (talk) 18:26, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

There is currently no policy for or against its use. We have a proposed guideline here: WN:AI. There have been articles published already that were drafted with the assistance of AI. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 18:53, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Gun law article

Published!--Bddpaux (talk) 19:13, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

Thanks! —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:54, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

Question about death tolls and other statistics in news articles

Do we always try to avoid using statistics like that in articles? Or are there instances where that is appropriate? Lofi Gurl (talk) 16:20, 20 March 2025 (UTC)

It's specific to headlines (Wikinews:Style_guide#Headlines) and technically what is discouraged is exact statistics. So I suppose 'dozens' would be acceptable as it isn't exact. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 16:25, 20 March 2025 (UTC)

You ok???

Hope you are alright.... @Michael.C.Wright: BigKrow (talk) 16:01, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for reaching out—I had some unexpected things come up that needed my attention, but everything's okay. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:10, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

Widget/template....?

Darn it. Where is that little template you created to convert all times over to UTC? Can't find it!--Bddpaux (talk) 21:14, 1 April 2025 (UTC)

• Nevermind: Found it!--Bddpaux (talk) 21:17, 1 April 2025 (UTC)

  Glad you found it. Let me know what you think of it. I think it needs more work...it's a bit clunky to use because of the need to substitute. Let's call it a work-in-progress. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:24, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

Booker article

OK -- I fixed the Putin/Russia thing a hair.--Bddpaux (talk) 16:31, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

Thanks! I published it earlier—please feel free to take a look at my notes and let me know what you think. I’m still pretty green when it comes to reviewing OR, but I try to stay one step ahead of Heavy Water and his legendary red pen. ツ —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 21:57, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

Confusing edit

Why did you do this? —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:56, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

I was using User:Asked42/QuickCat to create all of the date categories for April and was running through the available script options to generate everything—date categories, the month category, etc. It looks like the script is smart enough to check whether a category already exists, and in doing so, it must have changed the case of the template name.

Asked42, I hadn’t noticed that behavior before—that it modifies references to {{Monthcategory}} by downcasing the name if the category already exists and references the template. I know that page names are case-sensitive, but templates can be transcluded in a case-insensitive way. I’m not sure what kind of issues this might cause when templates aren't called using their exact capitalization. It may be a complete non-issue—I just don’t know. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 23:08, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

It's the mildest possible inefficiency where the actual template is at "Foo", but if you call "foo", the software needs to then turn it into "Foo". Note that on Wiktionary, this is not the case, and all pages are case-sensitive. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 04:48, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

Generally speaking, I don't think this is much of an issue though. The first letter of a template name is not case-sensitive, so both uppercase and lowercase variants calls the same template. While this might be relevant on Wiktionary, it's certainly not a concern here. Asked42 (talk) 15:17, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

The mildest possible inefficiency is to be sure, not an issue of any importance. It's not a big deal, just confusing that it happened. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 16:17, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

Actually, the script always adds the {{monthcategory}} template regardless of whether the category exists or not. It's not intentionally downcasing the name; it simply replaces the existing content of the category with the newly added one. In this case, it just happens to use a lowercase name. Asked42 (talk) 15:18, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

I have just updated the script to always add the uppercase {{Monthcategory}} template. Asked42 (talk) 15:23, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

Review Help Needed - Update 1 (April 15, 2025)

Hello!

This is Gryllida. I am one of the reviewers at Wikinews. I'm contacting you to request assistance with the review queue. Here is my understanding of the articles which are in the review queue now:

Event Date	Link	Did I edit substantially?
April 6 Sunday	Deadly attack on gold miners in Papua leaves multiple casualties and sparks security response
April 9 Wednesday	Prison confession and police interrogation video of Delphi bridge murderer made public for first time
April 9 Wednesday	Helicopter crash in South Africa blamed on 'unsecured' penguin
April 10 Thursday	Authorities identify Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Sydney CBD, Australia	YES
April 10 Thursday	US Health Secretary vows to determine cause of autism by September	YES
April 12 Saturday	Nuclear negotiations between US and Iran commence in Muscat, Oman
April 13 Sunday	Nobel laureate writer from Peru, Vargas Llosa dies
April 14 Monday	President Bukele says he will not return wrongly deported U.S. man, confounding U.S. Supreme Court order
April 14 Monday	Pop singer Katy Perry safely returns to Earth from outer space

Suggested action:

• Start to review from the top of the list.
• As the list may be out of date, please check the WN:Newsroom at your earliest convenience.

I'm planning to send this reminder twice a week. To unsubscribe, please visit User:Gryllida/Notifications/New/Review and inquire at the talk page. If you wish, I can narrow it down to only notify you of new stories in your preferred region or topic. Please let me know if you are interested in this option.

Please let me know if you require assistance or would like to connect with me to do a few reviews together before you proceed to do them fully on your own.

Many thanks for your time.

Regards, -- User:Gryllida 11:44, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

Gryllida, thank you for this. I am able to track the review queue already and do not need this posted to my talk page. Please unsubscribe me. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 16:04, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

Unsubscribed. Gryllida (talk) 20:48, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

Top article programme

I think that reviewers who publish the 'top article' could also be recognised, not only authors. Reviewing something at Wikinews on time is a bit of a feat these days. Gryllida (talk) 20:18, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

Welcome back!

@Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 17:08, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

Thanks! And thanks for reminding me I needed to remove the wikibreak notice! —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:14, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

Your welcome. BigKrow (talk) 17:16, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

🥳🎉 Gryllida (talk) 18:10, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 19:03, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

Please look into

@Michael.C.Wright, @Theserbianembassy vandalism account only. BigKrow (talk) 15:02, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

woah woah woah calm down don't get "daddy on my shi" Theserbianembassy (talk) 15:02, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

@BigKrow, please link to the diffs showing the vandalism. I'm not an admin, so the most I can do is post to WN:AAA or global stewards if it's cross-wiki. You can do the same. Be specific and factual in your report to avoid the appearance of making groundless accusations. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 16:44, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

there is no vandalism i'm being falsely accused Theserbianembassy (talk) 17:03, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

I reverted many of your edits that should be considered "vandalism", if you truly don't mean harm please show good edits, thank you. @Theserbianembassy, @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 17:47, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

quoted, "woah woah woah calm down don't get "daddy on my shi"

@Theserbianembassy, @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 17:48, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

I feel bad for @Michael.C.Wright because you are dragging him into your antics because you cant counter bait Theserbianembassy (talk) 04:29, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

Review comments about removed content

I would suggest clarifying more specifically when a content was removed, in reviewer feedback. Most likely someone may want to work out where it came from. It can be disconcerting to dig through article edit history to figure out what was removed. So instead of "some unverified sentence was removed", rather, "the sentence about '36 staff in the jail' was removed". Saves time on subsequent revision -- next user can see which part was removed straight away -- and hopefully does not kill too much of your time. What do you think? Gryllida (talk) 17:05, 22 May 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, Gryllida — I agree with your broader point that reviewer feedback should be as specific as reasonably possible. It does make things easier for current and future contributors and improves transparency when changes are made.

That said, because you didn’t specify where the quote came from, I’m assuming you’re referring to my recent review of "Professional baseball is back in Tucson, Arizona, thanks to relocation of Mexican team". If so, I think there may have been a misquote. I didn’t write “some unverified sentence was removed.” The review summary actually stated:

"Statements previously presented in Wikinews voice were rephrased or removed where not directly supported by the cited sources. In particular (emphasis added), unsourced claims about the Saguaros' status were removed and generalizations about the reasons for the move were clarified."

And the corresponding edit summary[23] was:

"Remove unsupported claim. Tucson.com does not mention the Saguaros are 'currently one of the highest-level teams in the area'."

I try to provide meaningful explanations when removing material, especially when it relates to sourcing or attribution. I also think it's reasonable to expect that contributors review the article history and summaries. They're part of the process and exist for precisely this reason; to understand what was edited and why.

That said, I appreciate the reminder. I’ll continue making an effort to be clear and specific, particularly when edits might not be self-explanatory. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 20:47, 22 May 2025 (UTC)

I'd wager that the first sentence in that review feedback quote can be deleted without loss of meaning, and would make it clearer for the readers. Gryllida (talk) 22:00, 22 May 2025 (UTC)

See also third paragraph of feedback here. Gryllida (talk) 22:01, 22 May 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, Gryllida. I read your follow-up, and I stand by the level of specificity provided in both the review summary and the edit history. For reference, the third paragraph of that review stated:

"Removed subjective or unsupported claims, replacing them with factually supported titles and phrasing."

And the corresponding edit summary was:

"Remove unsupported quote. Replace with titles supported by all three sources."

Taken together, I believe these provide sufficient clarity to anyone reviewing the article history, which, in my view, is a reasonable expectation for contributors working collaboratively.

I appreciate peer input in general, but I also believe that feedback on the review process carries more weight when it reflects consistent adherence to verification and attribution standards. In this case, I don't believe your suggestions reflect a shortcoming in the review. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 22:30, 22 May 2025 (UTC)

I am concerned how another user would read it. They can, but not always do check history. Because of that, if there was a significant edit done by reviewer, it helps to put 3-4 words to specify thst in review feedback. This also helps author to more likely to learn. (I wanted to ping an author by mentioning nick inside the review comment, but the software said nope. It would be nice if that worked.) Gryllida 16:54, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

Indent

I have noted in several discussions that Wikinewsies' usage of indenting seems quite different from Wikipedians, and just now, you mentioned a need to indent in your edit to your comment at the water cooler/miscellaneous page, which seems worth discussing. I am not sure why you thought it was necessary to add an indent, because in Wikipedia, the level of indentation is used to show which comment you are replying to; to illustrate, on Wikipedia, if one is replying to a comment with an 'indentation level' of 3 (in markup written as ":::"), then the reply always has to be at an indentation level of 4, even if it is written after several interceding comments. GreekApple123 (talk) 16:34, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I don't think we have any policy or norm on indentation beyond how the visual editor handles them (which is basically as you described). Since you asked how I approach it:

• The 'reply' function handles newlines oddly—it doesn’t insert a blank line between paragraphs, which makes comments look cluttered to me. So I don't often use the "reply" link.
• I'm already verbose, and when my long comment directly follows someone else's without an indent, it feels visually cluttered—like it blends into theirs.

It's a personal, visual preference. I often use pings or @User to indicate a direct reply to another's comment.

In the comment you linked to above, I was not replying directly to anyone, but clarifying my position to any and all readers. The extra indent past your comment makes the two comments more visually distinct from each other. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 16:51, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I think the way that I would summarize it then is that the Wikipedia approach is to treat indentation as demonstrating continuity of theme/idea between comments, while that is often followed less here in Wikinews, as people prefer to be able to display urgency, individuality, and quickly highlighting new threads of discussion. I guess that kind of mirrors the difference in workflow and product outcome between Wikipedia and Wikinews themselves! GreekApple123 (talk) 16:59, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I don't think my personal way of handling my own replies should be considered how Wikinews does anything in general. In fact, just by stating something, there is almost certainly to be at least one person who will object to what I say, simply because I said it. So I'd take it with a grain of salt. ツ

I'll certainly be more mindful of it moving forward.

p.s., this comment was the result of the "reply" link and you can see how it mashes the paragraphs together. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:47, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I did not understand the difference, @GreekApple123 Gryllida 16:49, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

Feedback

I got this comment

‐---------

Edits as part of the review process have been made to bring the article into compliance with WN:NPOV, WN:SOURCE, and WN:IP:

Removed or revised statements not supported by cited sources, including the claim that Biden's treatment involves "daily medication for six weeks" and that "his medical team are also optimistic."

Eliminated unattributed editorializing and added appropriate attribution for direct and paraphrased statements.

Removed content not directly related to the focal event (Biden’s remarks on his cancer diagnosis), such as commentary on political divisions and his presidential record.

Reordered paragraphs to follow the inverted pyramid structure per WN:IP.

Removed test category and added appropriate publication category; removed redundant year.

Minor punctuation and tense adjustments for clarity and consistency.

Added an image to enhance the article.

Sources section has been formatted per WN:Source.

---

I have a few suggestions,

• Use active voice. It is easier to understand. "I removed the sentence" rather than "the sentence was removed".
• When noting removed claims, rather than "removed claims not supported in cited sources", suggest "removed claims that I could not find in cited sources". I think it is more fair to write that you did not find them then to write that they are not there. This, to me, sounds like a more open for conversation and collaboration, less dismissive.

Hope it helps.

---

Gryllida 16:46, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

Help with story

Hi there. Please can you help me with the page Wikinews:Story preparation/Competitive Scottish Parliament by-election held. It has been prepared but not reviewed. Moondragon21 18:10, 8 June 2025 (UTC)

@Moondragon21, Please review WN:Style#Headlines — the current headline needs a present-tense verb, active voice, and more specific detail. Consider revising the headline before moving the article.

To move the page out of "prepared" status, click "Move" at the top of the article. In the "New title" field, remove "Story preparation/" and just place your new headline. Add a reason in the "Other/additional reason" field and click "Move page."

Per WN:Source, only cite sources you used, avoid duplicates that don’t add new info, and note any conflicting accounts in the article. I would recommend going back over your sources and consider using {{verify}} to ensure all sources are used and all statements have a source.

Once the article is all buttoned up and you feel its ready for review, you can either click the "submit for review" button in the developing notice box at the top of the article, or change {{develop}} to {{review}} in the editor.

Let me know if you have any questions! —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:56, 9 June 2025 (UTC)

suggestion

sorry this is time consuming but i suggest tagging contributors when posting messages at an article talk . then maybe they will read. Gryllida 12:35, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

Balloon accident article

Thank you for the publish! @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 20:20, 17 June 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the article contribution. ツ —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:36, 18 June 2025 (UTC)

Re: U.S. strikes Iranian nuclear sites Fordow, Natanz, Isfahan overnight

Hello,

Thanks for sharing the story. I am wondering are you closely following this? Or did you just happen to write about it because it is popular in news and social media today?

There were further developments, like:

• June 24: ceasefire started
• June 24-25: NATO summit

It appears that I'm available next two days to review, in case you write a story.

Thanks. Gryllida 15:46, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

P.S. also Iran Attacking US Military Bases and US bombs did not destroy Iranian nuclear program says Pentagon, both incompleted. Gryllida 15:49, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

@Gryllida, thanks for your note and your offer to review upcoming stories.

To answer your question: yes, I’ve been closely following the situation, including post-strike developments. The article on the initial strikes did eventually get reviewed and I appreciate the time it took, especially given how much effort review requires.

But I’d suggest the more pressing question for us as reviewers is: how do we get more reviewers? We lost days on a time-sensitive, high-impact article not because contributors weren’t writing, but because no one was available to review in time. That’s a systemic issue.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 19:17, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

Wikinews shut down?

I don't even want to try and write news because most definitely wikinews will close, can we try and keep it? I mean it is apart of wikifoundation. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 23:04, 27 June 2025 (UTC)

Some good news, Wikinews is not shutting down. As of June 2025, Wikinews remains active in 31 languages, including English, with over 1.7 million articles and hundreds of recently active editors. The English Wikinews specifically is still operational, with more than 22,000 articles and ongoing user contributions. There is no official announcement or credible indication that Wikinews, or its English edition, is closing or shutting down.

Related

Is Wikinews planning to shut down or is it still active in 2025

What recent community discussions suggest about Wikinews's future

How has editor activity changed on Wikinews over the past year

Are there any official announcements about Wikinews closing soon

What factors are currently threatening Wikinews's sustainability

@Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 23:13, 27 June 2025 (UTC)

It's being discussed at m:Talk:Public consultation about Wikinews. There are several people there trying to find a way to save the project. Closure doesn't appear to be inevitable, but I imagine in order for it NOT to be inevitable, we need to make some serious changes. The nature of those changes is part of what is being discussed. You should read and comment on it if you want to save it.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 23:59, 27 June 2025 (UTC)

I'm not greatly concerned at this point. Probably an RfC to close down Wikinews would almost certainly fail or at absolute worst close as "no consensus", you can infer that from the already rather negative feedback at the report's talk page. I will continue writing articles, so should you, BigKrow, though I agree with Michael that we should be making significant changes if Wikinews is to survive in the long term (designing more templates, experimenting with new types of articles like liveblogs). Dsuke1998AEOS (talk) 22:38, 28 June 2025 (UTC)

On liveblogs: This comment on “evergreen portals” is worth revisiting. I think we could develop something similar—dynamic landing pages for ongoing stories like the Ukraine–Russia war or Israel–Hamas conflict, linking to our own recent coverage.

We’d need community input on whether to include short update blurbs and how to manage them responsibly. The main challenge is balancing agility with accuracy—keeping these pages current without relying too heavily on the formal review process. I’m hesitant about including blurbs that summarize other outlets’ reporting, as w:Portal:Current events does. But combining limited updates with links to our full articles might encourage more engagement from both readers and contributors. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 23:36, 28 June 2025 (UTC)

I actually couldn't find the comment you've linked to, though I more or less get a sense of what you're talking about (a liveblog-like page containing links to articles for each new development, correct me if I'm wrong). Dsuke1998AEOS (talk) 01:00, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

I should have checked the link I provided, sorry. I recently started using a new comments/talk interface and am still getting used to it. Use this link to read the referenced comment.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:28, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

I think that format could be successfully leveraged for those topics with an extremely high daily volume of news, like the Gaza war, the war in Ukraine or Trump policies. Of course, the biggest constraint is our severe lack of editors and reviewers. We should adapt the liveblog format to our own limitations. I'm thinking of something like writing a page styled like a liveblog spanning several weeks instead of only days, wherein reviewers would review it after about a week, and either approve or decline it. If approved, then they would pending-changes review it daily or every two days after each major developments (in reverse chronological order). If a different editor happens to write a full-fledged article about the major development, then link that article from the equivalent blurb, though I would expect those instances to be rare – it is already very difficult to publish a single article directly related to the Gaza war, the last one was Trump issues ‘last warning’ to Hamas over hostages on 8 March, let alone several articles. Dsuke1998AEOS (talk) 14:36, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

> I'm thinking of something like writing a page styled like a liveblog spanning several weeks instead of only days, wherein reviewers would review it after about a week, and either approve or decline it.

I like this idea. One of the thoughts I had about the 'liveblog aspect' is that it could become a source for others looking to write a full article. For example; say I am very interested in the Iran/Israel conflict. I could post blurbs or snippets from other news orgs in the liveblog, with links to the original news source, and then if another contributor wants, they can use that blurb as a springboard into a full article or in support of a full article.

We already provide links to external news orgs in our articles. Maybe it's acceptable to do so in "blurbs" too. We'd still need to ensure the blurbs are neutral, verifiable, etc (reviewed, as you said). I don't think an opinion blog would be desirable—I'm certainly not suggesting we publish opinion pieces. We just need to be careful about increasing reviewer work load without increasing active reviewers. In other words, don't upgrade the pump if the well is dry.

> it is already very difficult to publish a single article directly related to the Gaza war

True. Sensitive topics such as that rightly get more scrutiny and are difficult to write and review.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:15, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

I do like the idea of live coverage of news events. It would introduce an evergreen aspect to Wikinews, allowing us to cover ongoing developments in a more dynamic way. I'm interested in how we can incorporate this within our current workflow, perhaps by introducing it as a third article type, alongside synthesis and original reporting.

Each blurb could be followed by a timestamp (date or time), sources, and a link to related Wikinews articles if available.

From a readability perspective, we could consider incorporating a CSS-based template or layout for such pages, to make them more visually aligned and "news-like" in appearance. -- Asked42 (talk) 17:20, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

Random question

Are you using AI to write messages on talk pages? Just wondering. Gryllida 11:17, 8 July 2025 (UTC)

Hi Gryllida,
I use various tools and methods when working on the project, especially when trying to be clear, constructive, or policy-aligned.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 01:09, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

Welcome back

@Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 19:17, 8 July 2025 (UTC)

Article ready for review: Punia backs India women’s FIFA hopes

Hi @Michael.C.Wright,

Thank you for the helpful guidance on the article “Punia backs India women’s FIFA hopes, urges appointment of Indian head coach.”
I’ve now added a second independent source (CricketnMore Hindi) as suggested, included inline attribution, ensured proper formatting of sections, and confirmed that only one infobox is present.
The article is now marked with {{review}} and ready for your consideration.
Please let me know if anything else needs improvement.
Best regards, 2409:40D4:30D3:93B:5C76:4031:2798:C1D9 (talk) 14:19, 11 July 2025 (UTC)

Notice

Hey, just letting you know that I have responded in Talk:UK voting age to be lowered to 16, among other reforms § Stale, you have been active since and seemingly not responded so I have taken to the assumption that you haven't realised, for some reason or another. Thanks, Coleisforeditor (talk) 16:06, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Thank you!

Ideally or not, the public consultation has concluded. Thank you for your consistent participation, and for maintaining your presence on the English Wikinews front despite proposal pressures—reviewing content and providing suggestions. I look forward to more opportunities for collaboration and exchange with you in the future. I believe we can foster communication between language editions and, to some extent, represent the age diversity among Wikinews contributors. Whether young, middle-aged, or senior—across Chinese, English, Russian, or any language—let us remain diligent and courageous, persevering to the end. Wishing you health and success! ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 08:46, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the kind words and for your persistence throughout this whole process. As for “representing the age diversity,” I’ll do my best to carry the torch for the “middle-aged and sleep-deprived” demographic. At this rate, the next consultation may see me promoted straight into the “senior” bracket. I’ll start practicing my “back in my day” stories now.

Looking forward to continuing the collaboration, across languages, generations, and caffeine levels.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 12:45, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

The good news is, I'll also carry the torch for the sleep-deprived demographic; I just chugged a massive cup of coffee, It's morning at sydney, time to show the SPTF how we produce articles even when we're hazy-headed(same as them) Thanks ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 23:10, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

Um, The Wikinews public consultation has been extended. I wonder if such a long consultation will exhaust all of our energy. ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 10:08, 29 July 2025 (UTC)

I assume it was extended because there is another, scheduled consultation during Wikimania. You can register for a free, virtual ticket and attend. Its scheduled time is too late for me to attend. en.WN also doesn't have anything new to add that I'm aware of. Most people have gone very quiet here, except for the few die-hards. (They'll be the ones to save the project, if it's saved.)

> I wonder if such a long consultation will exhaust all of our energy.

I think many are past that point already.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 12:38, 29 July 2025 (UTC)

I personally think that the public consultation process leading up to the extension gave the remain camp a slight advantage. Unless the SPTF participates more actively in the discussions than before and addresses key concerns, it will be difficult to achieve any constructive results from this extension and will only further fatigue the community. As you said, we've already said everything we need to say. If the SPTF doesn't address concerns such as the data issues, I really don't know what else we should do on the public consultation page. What do you think ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 01:23, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

We should treat the feedback from this process as fuel for change. It echoes what many have been saying for years.

If we want to avoid closure, we have to change. We have to evolve.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 00:43, 31 July 2025 (UTC)

Hamas says it will allow aid for hostages if Israel halts airstrikes, opens permanent humanitarian corridors

@Michael.C.Wright:Excuse me, but can you please help me add more information at Hamas says it will allow aid for hostages if Israel halts airstrikes, opens permanent humanitarian corridors? PawPatroler (talk) 01:37, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

If I contribute to the article, I will disqualify myself from being able to review it. There might be one other reviewer currently active but I'm not certain they are reviewing many articles. It's not in the project's best interest for reviewers to contribute to articles and disqualify themselves from reviewing at the moment.

There are other contributors who might be willing and able to help. I'll tag the article for help and see what happens.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 02:00, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

User:PawPatroler

This account is globally locked. See global account details for more information. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 11:33, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

Thanks.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:14, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

Image of yourself

Why did you get rid of it? @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 21:12, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

It was out of scope on Commons.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 21:22, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Put up a new image then @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 21:25, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

I don't think people are that interested in me, let alone what I look like. ;)

"Unless you are notable enough for a Wikipedia article or are a significant contributor to at least one Wikimedia project, photos of you are generally not in scope and will be deleted." c:Commons:But it's my own work!Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 21:29, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Live chat software trial

Live chat software trial (August-September 2025)

Hi, i am running a software to make live chat easier to use. It requires installation of QuasselDroid on Android, Quassel Client on Windows or Mac or Linux, and I don't know what on iOS (let me know if this is your main platform). The software would connect you to the official IRC channel for Wikinews and stay connected including all chat history, including when you closed the app. I am achieving this by hosting it on my Quassel Core on my server. If you are interested in trying this option, please install the Quassel Client software, and after this is done (not before), ensure you have a working email in your Special:Preferences so i can email you login credentials, and specify your desired IRC nickname. Thanks. Gryllida 22:00, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Hi, please install the Quassel Client, it is free/open source, low bandwidth, low RAM and CPU usage

and tell me your desired nickname

I would greatly appreciated if you could use it for a few weeks and then leave me some feedback. This chat platform has 2 reviewers on it, and yourself being sitting in chat all 24/7 via this software could make collaboration much easier as then others could send messages to the group while your device is offline, and you could get notifications on mobile. Thanks Gryllida 20:05, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

WN:RFP

Hi there -- I'm not very active on Wikinews, but every time I visit your name is usually active. Have you considered going for administrator yourself? If you're happy taking over some of the janitorial roles, and given the low user count on Wikinews, I don't think there's a compelling reason you shouldn't get the role. Microchip08 (talk) 23:03, 29 July 2025 (UTC)

I've thought of that too, we're truly on the same page. Michael C. Wright has proven himself to be a calm, reliable, friendly, and neutral person with leadership skills. If he wants to run for administrator, I would certainly support him. ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 01:18, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

@Microchip08, @Sheminghui.WU thank you both for the kind words and the confidence you’ve expressed. I have thought about it and would be interested in stepping up if the community feels it would help. There are several janitorial tasks that would fit my editing style and goals, such as archiving articles, handling protected edit requests, and deleting pages, to name just three. More active admins would definitely help if we want to push forward with revitalizing the project.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 12:59, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

My thoughts are the same as yours. I believe that having an additional administrator who can contribute is not harmful. An administrator is not a commander, but a trusted and competent contributor in the community. I believe you meet both of this requirement, there will be benefits and no drawbacks, and it will surely be beneficial for our revival. Sheminghui.WU (talk) 23:28, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

We have 17 admins?? You definitely should be one ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 02:39, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

User:Cowicide4758 vandalism and Hoax account

User:Cowicide4758 please look into this vandal hoaxer. Thank you BigKrow (talk) 23:41, 15 August 2025 (UTC) @Michael.C.Wright I should have used admin alerts but came to you first since I saw you active.

Thanks. However, I'm not an admin (but I have requested privileges. You should comment and vote there). I recommend posting at WN:AAA in this case. Sorry I can help more! There have been a few admins handling vandalism recently and global sysops monitor that page as well. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 23:49, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

Sorry for putting up for deletion

@Michael.C.Wright, apologies. BigKrow (talk) 17:20, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

No worries. We just need the process to follow its course. You're encouraged to comment and/or vote on how to proceed.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 19:27, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Reviewing article

Russian propagandist Sergey Markov designated as "foreign agent" by Russian Justice Ministry. Please review the article. The event happened yesterday. Thanks fpr reviewing my previous article. BilboBeggins (talk) 11:31, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

I saw your edit in the article, thank you! I added language parameter. Any other suggestions? BilboBeggins (talk) 12:44, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the heads-up and for the article contribution. I've added a note on the article talk page.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 12:54, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Sorry @Michael.C.Wright, @BilboBeggins BigKrow (talk) 17:18, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Adminship

Hi,

Congratulations, you are now a sysop. Please subscribe to the AAA page in any way you feel comfortable -- it is the best place to share notes, questions, and receive requests.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks. Gryllida 19:03, 10 September 2025 (UTC)

Congrats on the adminship. Microchip08 (talk) 23:44, 12 September 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the support! I appreciate it.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 00:00, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

Great job!!!

@Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 00:11, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

PACTE'MA

Thanks for your review! From the start the article was promotional, I modified it a bit so it had a chance. Now it doesn't. It never did. Thanks. Earth605 (talk) 13:02, 20 September 2025 (UTC)

My other interview

How do you do. September 27th is International Tourism Day, so taking advantage of this timeliness, I interviewed a traveler. It will be publish on zhwn, I wonder if enwn would be interested in such an article. Based on past experience, we need to start discussing it in advance. If you think it's okay, I can send you a preliminary interview transcript. By the way, you still haven't responded to my post on the FusionParty talk page. Best regards ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 02:51, 21 September 2025 (UTC)

We would certainly benefit from more original reporting and interviews.

To publish an interview on en.WN, it must follow our policies and guidelines. The full interview, with private or sensitive details (such as email addresses) removed, should be posted on the talk page. The reporter is responsible for fact-checking: while the interview itself may serve as a source, any factual claims from the interviewee must be verified. All other content, such as the lede, general information, and background information must be properly sourced and attributed so reviewers can verify it before publication. Interviewee responses cannot be changed. If clarification is needed, it should come through follow-up questions or factually accurate, cited notes in the article. The only exception is very minor, transparent edits such as inserting square brackets to clarify a word. The article must also remain neutral and balanced.

> By the way, you still haven't responded to my post on the FusionParty talk page

As I noted there, that article is already published and past the 24-hour window for changes. I saw your response and understand your position. Under our policies and guidelines, no further action can be taken at this time.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:43, 22 September 2025 (UTC)

For Fusion, deleting a Q&A without adding it back is also against our policy and needs to be corrected. I'm also not sure if the homepage introduction is also subject to this restriction. For example, there are numerous precedents that indicate that emphasizing that this is an email interview is unnecessary. ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 03:21, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

The magnitude of the fact-checking workload is obviously unknown, so could I send you a draft first? ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 03:29, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

> could I send you a draft first?

Feel free to send everything to Scoop@wn-reporters.org so all reviewers can have access and you're not dependent on me alone.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 12:30, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion, but this is a machine-translated text and may be incomplete. It is a draft compeletely. I don’t know if it is a good idea to post it on Scoop. It is also not very convenient for communication because I don’t know who will see it and whether those who see it will understand my intention. ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 12:33, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

more than 24 hours

should block them longer so they might not want to come back? Just saying @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 17:23, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Wikinews:Blocking policy recommends 24 hours for vandalism. I've done 48 once on a Friday because fewer active people are here keeping an eye out over the weekends.

I see they are indef'ed at other projects and I may extend it later if they return. I believe there was also global action taken against them by stewards today.

I just need time to get used to some admin functions and counter-vandal actions. For now I'm trying to play it safe. ツMichael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:39, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Hi

Hi Michael.C.Wright

1) Thank you for your request at RfP/IA/Asked42. May i ask was the "I think we, as a project, need to get some forward-momentum on improving things around here." part AI-generated? It seemed like one of the most useless sentences I have read in my last 20 years at the computer. Please advise.

2) What utilities do you need developed to make sysop or reviewing easier? I'd like to keep track of them and ask around at other wikis if someone has them or can make them.

Regards, Gryllida 19:44, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

None.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 20:03, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Talk:Former mayor of Taipei, Ko Wen-je, released on condition that he pays NT$70 million

What now? Thanks. Tony85poon (talk) 07:59, 18 September 2025 (UTC)

The article will need review next. With only one reviewer active, it may take a few days. Meanwhile, as long as it isn’t marked {{under review}}, you can keep improving it:

• Go through the WN:Style guide and check compliance.
• Add English sources where possible. If not, note on the talk page which statements are supported by non-English sources and provide translation assistance. In some cases, if few English sources exist, the topic may not meet WN:Newsworthy for an English-language audience.
• Use {{verify}} to show which source supports each statement. This can help speed up review.

I also replied to one of your questions on the article’s talk page. The lawyer's name in English is Cheng Shen-yuan (鄭深元).[24]Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:53, 18 September 2025 (UTC)

Please help with refocusing. Tony85poon (talk) 02:33, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

Would you mind if...

...I offered to create the Wikidata items of newly published articles (like what I did here) and mass-create the date categories (like what I did here)? I was thinking of the fact that you, Gryllida and Heavy Water are the only reviewers actively doing work in the last months, and perhaps it would save you a handful of minutes of reviewer time per day. Redireditor ^(talk)_{aka Dsuke1998AEOS} 21:42, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

That’s greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Another step we can take is linking our stories from sister projects where appropriate, which should help boost readership. I try to remember to do this when I publish articles. The Task Force also noted we don’t get many inbound links from other projects,: “There doesn’t seem to be a significant volume of links to the various Wikinews projects from Wikipedia.”Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:16, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

Focus

You are an articulate contributor here. I considered email'ing this to you, but decided to put it on your page. A wiki is a strange thing. Much of its beauty lies in its egalitarian structure. I believe Citizen journalism is a righteous endeavor. I am (what should I call it?) -- carefully examining my place in the future of this project. I have been around this place for a very long time. I've seen some cool things happen here. Undergrad. journalism students, earning their stripes here. Major coverage of the Paralympics. Loads of great stuff. But: the bickering here, the prattling on about all manner of flotsam, 4,000 words on something at the Water Cooler (and 2 entries made by people who show up here once every 17 months) -- and most of it leading nowhere. I am largely fatigued by it all. Plenty of blathering and very little journalism. The purpose of this little micro-manifesto is clear: I am just clarifying my future efforts here -- and intend to carefully consider my future here roughly one year from now. I am, personally, going to narrow my focus at this project starting immediately. Reporter, Reviewer, Administrator -- Full stop. Maybe 3 minutes of mentoring per month if I can squeeze it in. Every person here works for free. My work life is very mentally demanding. I wish I could do more here, but just wading through the noise and chatter has become so fatiguing.--Bddpaux (talk) 13:25, 2 November 2025 (UTC)

I share your frustration with the constant debate, but I see a lot of it as part of a broader desire to improve the project. Change is needed, and it shouldn’t fall to any one person alone. The discussions, though tiring, are how we find consensus and move forward.

I’m back from my break and ready to resume my usual wiki schedule. Given how few active reviewers and admins we have, I think even a small, coordinated effort could start making meaningful policy and guideline updates. What are your thoughts?Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:29, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Mamdani article

• Essentially, another submission sort of beat this article to publication. A merge could've been considered, but I was too tired to make that happen. Not sure if this one, as it sits on the page, adds anything new to what was already published prior.--Bddpaux (talk) 15:32, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

  Ahh, thanks. I didn't see the one that got published.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:42, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Archive?

Some discussion(s) at the Water Cooler warrant being archived. For some weird reason, I have gotten terribly rusty about taking such actions -- I need to re-educate myself on that stuff. Trying to locate consensus on some of that stuff makes my head spin. Can you archive some of that stuff soon, please?--Bddpaux (talk) 15:35, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

No problem. If I’m actively involved in the discussion, I may hold off on archiving to avoid seeming like I’m taking the last word, but I can take care of it otherwise.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:41, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

It appears that MiszaBot is not auto archiving as normal for the Water cooler sub pages, since August. I'll have to dig into that a bit. I assumed you were referring to using {{Archive top}} to effectively close discussions but maybe you were referring to moving the convos from the Water cooler to an archive sub page (which the bot should do after 30d of no comments).Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 18:49, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Yeah -- really, I was just referencing the whole archive top thing, but I'm not going to really sweat it too much.--Bddpaux (talk) 23:03, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Article on Main page

I really don't bring a passionate opinion to the topic of Main page article placement. When I am pushing a published article out, I merely find the oldest article (in the grid on the right side) and just put the article I am publishing into the place of the oldest article. There is some sense in making the freshest article the top most I suppose. That is probably the most rational technique, just not one I've mulled over too deeply.--Bddpaux (talk) 23:06, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, I was never taught one way or another. Lead1 has a larger image than the other leads, pointing to some sort of increased relevance. I'm not aware of any documentation indicating how to order the Leads and have always done it newest to oldest.

Maybe now is a good time to document it in a guideline or help page or something, especially now that we have a new reviewer @Lofi Gurl and hopefully more to get into a pipeline.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 23:16, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

I never seem to finish an article lately

Am I burned out or just not motivated? If you have any tips would be great for a new news story. Thanks. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 00:08, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Maybe take a short break from it. When you return, do a short and easy article or two to get back into the swing of things.

It's been a bit rocky around here. I think largely because the SPTF recommendation was a gut-punch to morale and now we're waiting to see if the hammer will fall in December (folks are still debating it!). We lost a few active reviewers when we only had a few to begin with and the combination of the two started a downward spiral of general disagreeableness, malaise, and low output.

I took a forced wikibreak recently and came back recharged.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 02:31, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Wikinews is shutting down in December? OMG i surely hope not.... Fill me in @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 03:00, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

I don't know if it is or isn't. The decision will likely be made in December.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 03:06, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

I am so unspeakably angry…..

About this: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikinews_Pulse#c-Sj-20250703102500-Endorsements

I am not opposed to ANYTHING that helps us be better. But the exhausting issue of 98% of EVERYONE in the WMF universe not understanding what WN is or what WN does is enraging to me. WN is NOT WP—and it was NEVER supposed to be. This borders on criminal.—Bddpaux (talk) 04:07, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Discord

I'm going to try to use discord for recruiting people to WikiNews. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 23:45, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

I recruited two people from Discord. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 00:50, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

Cool!! Awesome! Somehow, it appears we've sort of lost the wind in our sails in re:getting 'Accredited' Reporters around here. We should visit that issue soon.--Bddpaux (talk) 15:52, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Archived vs. 'closed'

Should I have done 'closed' instead of archived? Still a hair rusty on this. Wikinews:Deletion requests --Bddpaux (talk) 15:51, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

On the deletion requests page, we seem to use the dedicated Template:closed-dr-box at the top of the section (just below the heading title) and Template:closed-dr-footer at the bottom of the section to be closed.

I think I used this one as an examle to figure out how to close the one I did recently: Wikinews:Deletion requests#August 28, 2023Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 16:01, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

OK. I'll fix it.--Bddpaux (talk) 16:10, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you

Hello Michael C. Wright, It's truly an honor to see my article at the top of the homepage. Thank you for your support and guidance. Turkish military transport plane crashes near Georgia border, 20 dead New mayo (talk) 11:11, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Very cool! We're happy to have you on the team. Note though, I didn't help with that article or review it.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:17, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Your article submission for review (November 19)

Hi Michael.C.Wright! Thank you for your submission!
Your article User:Michael.C.Wright/sandbox has been reviewed by Michael.C.Wright (talk · contribs), and it has been accepted and published. Congratulations!

Excellent work, please keep it up! We hope you will continue contributing to Wikinews. If you have some time, consider taking a look at other articles currently under development or awaiting review. Your help in improving or reviewing them would be greatly appreciated.

---

Note: If you don't want to receive such notifications for your submitted articles, please add {{NOREVIEWNOTIFICATIONS}} to your talk page.

-- Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:37, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

@Asked42 this is pretty slick.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:39, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Short articles

I chuckled a bit at your comment re: my idea. Time was (with major media sources) -- I'd get so angry when an outlet would publish an article, and then, 3 hours later: they'd update the article! I had this belief that an article should be frozen in time (maybe before I knew one could do that very thing via the Internet Archive)...? However, time often has a tempering effect -- and I'm not quite so upset about that now. Not ignoring the problem of focal event creep, I think us being able to start out with News Shorts (or whatever) and then (maybe) growing that into some bigger article might hold some very interesting potential. Can you imagine the potential there? We could give contributors that small hit of seeing their submission get published, but then them/other/many people could slowly grow that into something notably large as time moves on. Let's give the discussion a bit more time. See my comments over there, please. I think we should have a serious look at 'Briefs' or 'Shorts' that we used to do, back in the day along those lines. We could make it a BIG very visible project! It could be fun!--Bddpaux (talk) 21:01, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Some of the feedback we got at the public consultation was the suggestion to develop "evergreen content." I think we can have 'long term' coverage of 'long term events' such as the Ukraine war and I think that could be very useful. I'm very open to implementing the change immediately.

I don't think that will improve what I see as our core issue, which is lack of reviewer engagement. But I am also very willing to be proven wrong about that.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:12, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

That could take things in some interesting directions -- we'll have to see where it goes. I think (and I don't remotely have this hashed out in my head) we are overdue for a hard re-think pertaining to our Main page here. I continue to dig and fiddle and ponder the whole "Shorts" and/or "Briefs" thing -- my larger motivation is to streamline the process whereby new contributors can see their name in lights quickly.--Bddpaux (talk) 19:03, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

This can't be that hard....

I want to do a "Year in Review" listicle of our 2025 articles here. Can you advise me on making that page happen easily? Headline by headline will be a bit time consuming. And if I can make that happen: Can it be listed on the rolling banner at the top of the main page?--Bddpaux (talk) 19:05, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Hey, look here!

I don't (in the vaguest way) have this panned out in my brain. We have the Water Cooler and that is fine and serves a utilitarian purpose. But: sometimes I wish we had a prettier place/page/cluster (that was an eye grabber) to communicate:"Hey, look here at the cool things happening around this place." Further along those lines: Would it be easy to create an article (or whatever it might be) in late December for active people focused on, "This is the cool coding/changes/modifications we've been up to around here."? Main page is so focused on our 'customers', but I wish we had some cooler stuff to grab the eyes of contributors here. Just pondering.--Bddpaux (talk) 19:11, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Could we finish writing Wikinews:Newsletter/1 and put into site notice, around 15th of December. Gryllida 03:10, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

invited to edit 24_11

Hello!

Based on Taglet report the following 3 stories would benefit from editing

• Midtown Manhattan Nightclub Shooting: One Killed, Shooter at Large expand submit for review, event nov-23
• 3.2 earthquake hits near San Ramon, California submit it for review now mate Nov-20
• Dina Titus presses Nevada governor over dropped probe, fine against Musk’s Boring Co. minor editing for structure. check copyright of 3 large quotes. get info or comment from FD -- Nov-20
• UN Security Council approves Trump peace plan for Gaza major news, too short. see WN:IP. only work on it if it can be refreshed. Nov-18

There are 5-10 others that can be refreshed with some effort, also, in the report.

Regards, Gryllida 23:42, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

A new version of EzPR

Hi, a new version of the Easy Peer Review script has been prepared. Built on the legacy of the current version, it includes more features and has a more modern look and design. If you are interested, you can try it out and let me know what you think on this talk page. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them as well.

This is currently an initial testing version. After installing the script, you can test it on any of your user sandbox pages (make sure the page contains the {{review}} template). You may need to set up your sandbox to look like a draft article. If you don't want to do that extra work, you can instead try it on my sandbox page to see how the script behaves in different situations, such as pass review, fail review, exception review, etc.

I haven't prepared any documentation pages yet since it's still too early and more modifications may be needed. So you'll have to follow your intuition while testing it (I will try to prepare some basic documentation soon). Hopefully this won't be too difficult, as I have tried to keep the design simple. Still if you need help or don't understand something feel free to ask me.

To install it, copy the code and add it to your common.js page. You will then see a "Review (EPR v2)" option in your p-tb (or your tools menu) on any user-namespace page that contains the review template. After clicking the option a form should appear on the article.

{{subst:lusc|1=User:Asked42/EPRv2.js}}

--Asked42 (talk) 14:44, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

You can find some information about some of the features at User:Asked42/EPR (new version). -- Asked42 (talk) 14:45, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

I was just working through understanding the reporting templates. Do you still want/need me to work on those or does the new tool handle reporting on the talk page differently altogether?Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:30, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

If you want to make modifications to the notification templates or create new ones, you can absolutely do that. Currently, the script adds the templates to the author's talk page like "{{Template:Notify_review/passed|article=|author=|reviewer=}}". So if you introduce any additional parameters changes will also need to be made in the script. -- Asked42 (talk) 16:28, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

I created Template:Peer reviewed/Exception. Can you incorporate it into the JS for further testing and tweaking?

I think we could have a single template that has the logic incorporated to handle all three criteria (Pass/Fail/Exception). Do you agree? I don't see why we currently have two different templates for pass/fail (though I'm also not a coder).Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:32, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

We actually don't need to incorporate the exception template into the script. The next modification will need to be made in {{peer reviewed}}. The Peer reviewed template will handle the detection of pass, fail, or exception, and will use the appropriate subtemplate.

The Peer reviewed template currently uses the 'passed' or 'not ready' template based on the parameters of the five criteria. We can incorporate all three templates into one, but I think it is better to keep them separate and modular. -- Asked42 (talk) 17:39, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

I have prepared more comprehensive documentation: Help:Easy Peer Review (2025 version).

Do you have any other suggestions for the tool? And have you tried the "Sentence Marking" section, including the highlighting and unsourced marking? Should that marking feature be kept in the final version or do you think it isn't very useful or has limited use cases? Thanks. -- Asked42 (talk) 18:37, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

I just circled back and tested the sentence marking feature. I think that could be a great feature.

However, after inserting sentences, I received the following error: "Inline highlight or unsourced marking couldn't be applied because the sentences are too complex or no matches were found. They will be ignored." I tried multiple different types of sentences from the sandbox, to include the latin, english, and nowiki'ed code and I received the error for all three types. "Allow highlight in article" is selected. The inserted template for the most recent is below:

{{SIH
| text1 = This is a generic highlight (no type specified) for general emphasis.
| issue1 = english
}}

Let me know how I can help (even if that means more testing, happy to do it).Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:47, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright: Thank you for your time. The sentence you are adding, is it present on the sandbox page itself?

I just tested the in article highlighting feature, and it successfully marked the sentence as highlighted. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:58, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

You can also take a look at this revision with both highlight and unsourced marking. -- Asked42 (talk) 14:19, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Can you please review my article Many websites hit by major outage at online security group Cloudflare?

I replaced The Financial Times with CNN. Is that OK? Trash Taco (talk) 14:59, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Looks like it went stale. Another reviewer has suggested it be converted to original reporting using interviews. Remember that simply converting it to OR does not negate WN:Freshness, which still applies to OR.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:08, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

A Barnstar for You!

The Copyeditor's Barnstar

Thank you for your long-standing perseverance and hard work! Wishing you good health and every happiness. ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 10:16, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you!Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:22, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

I owe this success to you. I thank you, too. ¨¨¨¨ New mayo (talk) 19:20, 3 December 2025 (UTC)

AI discussion i sound like a broken record sorry

My straightforward question is if I can some help from AI? Thank you. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 17:54, 4 December 2025 (UTC)

Help from AI is okay. We just don't want content that has been completely generated by AI and not vetted by a human. WN:AI.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 21:59, 4 December 2025 (UTC)

Ok understood thank you @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 22:29, 4 December 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for helping me with my article!

Hi! I just wanted to say that I am very grateful for your help with my article. This is my first article here. I’m planning on making an account soon. I’m very glad to be joining this great community! It just feels so wonderful to create something, then have people all over the world help improve it. I appreciate the changes you made and am looking forward to create more articles on Wikinews. ~2025-38473-89 (talk) 16:17, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

Request for feedback on my first Wikinews article

Hello @Michael.C.Wright, I hope you are doing well,

This is my first contribution to Wikinews. The article Ramin Hosseinpour was initially tagged by you for adding elements (see this diff), and I have since tried to complete and improve it based on that guidance.

I have also written requests and clarifications on the article’s Talk:Ramin Hosseinpour. Since you were the first to tag the article, I wanted to reach out directly. If you have time, I would greatly appreciate your feedback or guidance on how to bring the article into better compliance with Wikinews standards.

Thank you very much for your time and assistance. Best regards,-- Vodnir (talk) 16:18, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

AI usage

I love AI and I think it is helpful with assisting news stories, I will write some in my own wording though. Please let me try @Michael.C.Wright Thank you. BigKrow (talk) 17:43, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

I use it frequently too. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying not to use it. Just that in that article, it seemed to me it wasn't helping get the article published. I think AI can be very useful. But it can also get in the way. Hope that makes sense.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 19:42, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

Understood, thank you. I'll try my best. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 20:53, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

Your article submission for review (December 17)

RE: MI6 story

The last paragraph is too long. Did you write it yourself? Please see inverted pyramid and rewrite.

Please add date when MI6 head started work.

Then resubmit for review. Please -- Gryllida 05:07, 17 December 2025 (UTC)

> Did you write it yourself?
See the edit history.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:53, 17 December 2025 (UTC)

Recruiting

recruiting people BigKrow (talk) 08:48, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Draft Recruitment Message

Subject: Join Wikinews - Write the News, Make an Impact

Are you interested in journalism, current events, and collaborative reporting? Wikinews English edition is looking for contributors like you!

What is Wikinews?

Wikinews is a free-content news source where anyone can contribute. We're part of the Wikimedia family, working to provide neutral, verifiable news coverage on topics that matter.

Why Contribute?

Develop real journalism skills in research, writing, and fact-checking

See your work published and read by people worldwide

Join a collaborative community of citizen journalists

Help fill gaps in news coverage on underreported topics

All content is freely licensed - your work benefits everyone

What We Need:

Writers to cover breaking news and original stories

Editors to review and polish articles

People with local knowledge to report on regional events

Anyone willing to learn our neutral point of view and verification standards

No Experience Required!

We welcome newcomers and provide guidance on our style, sourcing requirements, and editorial process.

Get Started:

Visit en.wikinews.org and check out our guide for new contributors.

Where to Recruit

Online communities:

Reddit: r/journalism, r/writing, university subreddits

Student journalism organizations and college newspapers

Citizen journalism forums

Media and communications Discord servers

Offline:

University journalism programs

Community colleges

Local press clubs

Writing workshops BigKrow (talk) 08:48, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 08:48, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Do you have a reddit? Could possibly help recruiting more journalists

Wikinews English May Shut Down Soon - We Need Contributors NOW

Body:

Hey everyone,

I need to share something urgent: Wikinews English edition is at serious risk of shutting down due to lack of active contributors.

For those unfamiliar, Wikinews is a free, open-content news source that's part of the Wikimedia family (same folks behind Wikipedia). Unlike traditional news outlets, it's written collaboratively by volunteers committed to neutral, factual reporting.

The situation:

With critically low numbers of active contributors, the project may not survive much longer. If we lose Wikinews, we lose one of the few truly independent, non-corporate news platforms where anyone can participate.

What you can do to help:

Write original news articles based on interviews or on-the-ground reporting

Synthesize news from multiple published sources into neutral summaries

Copy-edit and fact-check articles

Even just 30 minutes a week could help save this project

Why this matters:

It's part of the open knowledge movement

Completely independent from corporate interests

Your work is freely accessible to everyone, forever

We can't let another community-driven resource disappear

No prior journalism experience required - there are guides and experienced editors ready to help you learn.

Check it out at en.wikinews.org before it's too late.

Has anyone here contributed before? What would it take to get you involved? BigKrow (talk) 08:52, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

@Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 08:52, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

There are a lot of good points in that invitation.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:06, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Could Reddit possibly help? @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 14:52, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

I think recruiting can help, but we need to be deliberate about how we do it. Bringing in someone who isn’t a good fit can set us back. Sometimes a new contributor arrives with the idea that they’ve been invited to “fix” the project, only to discover how hard it is to change established processes. That frustration can spill into unproductive arguments, and we end up investing more time in debate than in developing articles.

It’s a delicate balance. I don’t want to discourage recruitment, but I do think we should approach it with intention. We need people who value collaborative work, understand how consensus and compromise function, and who can engage in difficult discussions in a productive, cooperative way.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:55, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

hi @BigKrow it would be good to have a reddit account for English Wikinews and post published news there ? Gryllida 23:21, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

i support reddit wikinews but not publishing articles there @Gryllida, @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 23:36, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

I mean each time article is published someone posts it there. Just link. Not contents. Gryllida 00:12, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

that sounds fine to me but ask Michael also @Gryllida BigKrow (talk) 00:14, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

It was done on Facebook before. But someone burned out. I am sure it is fine and there is no need for 'consensus' or 'permission' to start this activity. Gryllida 00:26, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

ok cool BigKrow (talk) 00:37, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────┘
@Gryllida and User:BigKrow, since this is something being 'officially' done by Wikinews, on behalf of the project, I think the community should have a say on if we want to focus resources on that if and how we do so. Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:44, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

sure thing @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 13:52, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

I disagree with what Michael wrote.

• I generally think anything that can be done immediately now to share a link to a published news to a wider audience should not be delayed.
• Any user can share a link to a news with a friend.
• You are welcome to dispose of your resources any way you wish.
• I do not think account name must include 'Wikinews' in it anyway as it is trademarked; in my previous attempts to post on Mastodon and Twitter I did not use 'Wikinews' in the name, so while it was helpful, it was not an official account. So you could start it like that straight away.
• If you wish, you can open a query in water cooler to request a comment about whether or not account may include 'Wikinews' in its name. This request should not delay your efforts to share news at reddit from your personal account.

Regards, -- Gryllida 20:01, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Published: House fire triggers explosion in Salisbury, North Carolina (December 24)

Hello,

This message is being sent to you as you contributed to the article at some point.

For your reference, as a part of my review, the article required several minor edits. Some of these changes may be related to your edits, while others may be related to edits made by other users. The list of minor edits is provided below.

1) The more recent/current information about health and return to work of firefighters was brought upwards to second paragraph inverted pyramid

2) That sentence was edited for past tense.

3) Fresh source was listed at top of the list.

4) Request was made off-wiki to add a verb to the headline. This worked amazingly well.

5) A paragraph was reworded as it was too close to plagiarising a source.

6) Acronyms were removed as they were not used throughout the rest of the page.

Please keep these in mind when writing or revising articles in future. And, thank you for creating and revising this article, it is interesting that there was additional explosion; I hope there will be an update when the cause will be identified.

Have a great day. -- Gryllida 20:27, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Domestic call in Rochester, New York leads to three police officers being shot

Could you please unprotect this article? The shooter is currently identified only as "Davis" with no first name. I am going to notify User:BigKrow and User:Gryllida about this problem, too. Thanks. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 15:23, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the heads-up. I responded at the article talk page. I will have time to dig deeper into the issue later today or tomorrow. 👍Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:52, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Hi Metropolitan90, the page WN:AAA can be used for that and also a template Template:Editprotected for article talk page. -- Gryllida 11:46, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

There was an EditProtected used. It's still there, just closed.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:09, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

It's over

Seems like Wikinews is definitely shutting down. It's horrible I loved this project so much. Could you please tell me if Wikinews will be revived elsewhere? Thank you for everything you do!!! @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 15:20, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Personally, I don’t think it’s a good use of our time to plan for a potential fork in advance. Doing so diverts limited contributor time and energy away from improving the systems and processes we already have and a fork is only one option of many possibilities.

There were a few options presented by the SPTF and a fork was not one of them. More importantly, if we’re struggling to make the project function effectively in its current environment, it’s worth asking what would materially change by moving it elsewhere. The same challenges — community capacity, governance, workload, and review — would likely follow us unless we address them directly, which we should be doing here.

From my perspective, our effort is better spent strengthening what exists here, rather than preparing to split off.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:43, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Hi BigKrow, source please? Thanks. Gryllida 07:46, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

No I was just saying I think the project is over I don't want it to be though. @Gryllida BigKrow (talk) 12:04, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

If someone is planning to 'archive' Wikinews, all I need to know is the date, at least two weeks in advance. Gryllida 09:22, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

The reverts

Sorry about that. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 14:04, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

👍Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 16:43, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

Revision requested: French court sentences 10 people for claiming that Brigitte Macron was a man (January 7)

Hi Michael.C.Wright! Thank you for your contribution.
The article French court sentences 10 people for claiming that Brigitte Macron was a man, to which you contributed, has been reviewed by Michael.C.Wright (talk · contribs). Unfortunately, it has not been accepted at this time. The reasons for the decision are explained in detail on the article's talk page.

You are encouraged to address the issues noted and resubmit the article once the necessary improvements have been made. Please keep in mind that news loses freshness quickly, so making updates in a timely manner will increase the chances of successful publication.

If you need help, feel free to ask at the Water Cooler assistance, or on the reviewer's talk page.

---

Note: If you don't want to receive such notifications for your submitted articles, please add {{NOREVIEWNOTIFICATIONS}} to your talk page.

-- Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 15:32, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Image author

I don't know how to add author information to a wiki commons image, could you please help me? For example, for the horse and buggy article. Thank you hope to hear from you soon! @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 00:43, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Use {{Image}} at the end of the description. So if I authored the image, it would be {{Image|Michael.C.Wright}} and that's it.

You can link the username, but for now, I'd recommend just getting used to including the attribution as-is.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 00:53, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Protection

hey Michael, could you please protect my userpage and talk? Thank you. @Michael.C.Wright BigKrow (talk) 13:13, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

Please post this request at WN:AAA so it is more visible and others can comment. Beyond the existing Wikinews:Protection policy, there is little specific guidance on this issue. That policy does note:

Where possible, pages are protected for as short a time as possible, as protected pages are considered harmful.

One concern with protecting your user page and talk page is that your talk page is actively used. I did recently protect another user’s talk page, which may have set a poor precedent, but that account is inactive here and their talk page is rarely used.

Posting the request at WN:AAA will allow others to weigh in before a decision is made.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 19:03, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

ok. BigKrow (talk) 19:04, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

A request

Could you please revdel the last five or six revisions of my user talk page? WeatherWriter posted something about a particular LTA that I don’t particularly want said LTA to read. The current revision is fine, because WeatherWriter blanked the talk page after. Thanks. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 04:35, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

I’d post my request on a noticeboard, but I want to keep it under wraps as much as possible. Don’t have email or I’d do that. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 04:44, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

You might as well leave it in the archives at this point. Said spammer has already found out and supposedly put it on archive.today. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 12:54, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

But if possible, could you or someone else please semi-protect my talk page on here? I have been getting spam for the last few days, and especially with what WeatherWriter posted last night, it has evidently angered A5 even more. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 13:01, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

I'd like to also ping @Gryllida into this, and also a couple of Wikipedia administrators who handled Andrew5 related trolling a couple of years ago: @Ponyo and @Bbb23, I think you two also probably need to know about this. I have been taking a WP:DENY approach but given all the fake block templates, I've gotten fed up and started posting on noticeboards. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 13:34, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

I also informed @WeatherWriter of what happened; and also asked that he never post a similar comment like that again. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 13:41, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Talk page semi-protected, Hurricane Clyde. Does that resolve the issue? Gryllida 16:32, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

It should resolve it. I never actually edit here anyway. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 17:40, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

For the trolls watching, I was lying about the FBI report. I did not report. I was just annoyed from all the notifications and wanted to scare you. My plan backfired. I do not even edit on here anymore, so please stop trying to troll me. I have turned notifications off now on all projects on Wikimedia. WeatherWriter (talk) 15:57, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

By the way, the one who archived the link wasn’t me; it was 6:20 AM Central and I was sleeping. Anyway, I’m done trolling. Have a great new year. ~2026-27826-1 (talk) 16:46, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Please minimize further engagement in this situation. Prolonged back-and-forth tends to amplify disruptions rather than resolve them.

Intentionally misleading comments, even if made out of frustration, are not constructive and are inconsistent with Wikinews:Etiquette. Recent exchanges suggest that several of us could benefit from stepping back and refocusing on article development and publication.

If you do not wish to participate in writing for Wikinews, that is entirely your choice. In that case, I would ask that you also refrain from actions that prolong or intensify ongoing disputes here.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:32, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

I just got a message from a TA asking you to revdel my talk page entry again. Don't know how truthful it is. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 17:59, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Apparently it's a different TA. But they sound like they're not a troll, claiming they supposedly contacted the archive.today webmaster (if that's even possible). Hurricane Clyde (talk) 18:00, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

I'm done commenting here though, and I will be turning off notifications on this page. Goodbye. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 18:01, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

TA pinged me on their talk page: "Do not reply this message so the LTA won’t see it. I have contacted the archive webmaster and they will be removing the snapshot. Have Micheal go ahead and revdel. You can thank to show you saw this." I am not going to give out the TA number per their request of not wanting A5 to find out. Now it's goodbye. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 18:33, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

This didn't occur on Wikinews that I can tell. I've seen your posts elsewhere asking for help and have looked into the local contributions of TAs you posted elsewhere. I see no further course of action to be taken by Wikinews admins at this time.

We also don't routinely revdel simple vandalism. We typically undo/rollback and block (this maintains evidence), unless it contains a threat, personal info, etc.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 19:01, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

It was on English Wikipedia Hurricane Clyde (talk) 19:03, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

And I intentionally didnt reply because I didnt want A5 to find out. He follows me around. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 19:04, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Feel free to use Wikimail, or other methods mentioned on my user page to reach me discreetly about local vandalism/disruption.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 19:12, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Again, I don't have wikimail. So my options on discreetly reaching out are very limited. I assume said TA was referring to the FBI comment. Hurricane Clyde (talk) 19:15, 13 January 2026 (UTC)