User talk:Robert Horning

Welcome

Robert Horning, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these!

• Wikinews:Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
• Wikinews:Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced

Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews:

• Wikinews:Introduction - overview of the site
• Wikinews:Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
• Wikinews:Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
• Wikinews:Style guide - how articles should look before publishing
• Wikinews:Contents - the contents page.

There are always things to do on Wikinews:

• Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
• The front page lead articles often need updating
• Developing stories need finishing and publishing
• Discussions need your input
• Audio Wikinews could always use more contributors
• And of course, stories need writing!

By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes (~~~~), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome!

Sorry

I'm sorry if it seemed like I was policing you. I really was trying not to (hence why I described the problem before I went and deleted it). We just have to be very careful here about copyright violations. But, anyways, I think you'll find Wikinews a nice, upbeat place to contribute. Happy writing! -- 03:37, July 31, 2005 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you very much for helping out with the portals system! I'm looking forward to working with you more on these important pages. Sincerely, NGerda 21:06, August 24, 2005 (UTC)

Can you please source your images?

We need to know where they have come from, to insure they fall into the (very limited type of cases) allowed by the Wikinews:Fair use policy. - Amgine/^talk 05:19, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Wendy's story

Incredibily, the way the early rendition of the infobox works for that story, the sources are listed in the bottom of the infobox! Go ... no don't go figure. :) -Edbrown05 00:52, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Speedy deletion

Thanks for marking article that have become dated or are not news -- cleanup is a major task on Wikinews and of course, the community needs all the help it can get. It is important, however, to give articles a chance to develop and a speedy deletion often short-circuits that process. The speedy deletion guidelines are quite restrictive for this reason. Often, listing articles on Wikinews:Deletion requests will draw attention to articles that deserve (for lack of a better word) to be written or fleshed out -- failing that, even though I'm not always in favor of policy for policy's sake, articles which have been abandonded or are not news should be be listed on deletion requests. Again, thank you for contributing and for helping out with the cleanup effort. Please let me know if I can be of assistance to you in some way on Wikinews (or anywhere else!). --Chiacomo (talk) 03:21, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

What do you think of category:space and Category:Astronomy now?

I changed cats space and astronomy as per you comment on WN:DR#:category:Astronomy. What do you think? Bawolff 23:24, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

In response to what you wrote on my talk page: no problemBawolff 23:40, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

Original reporting

Robert, I appreciate your willingness to listen to my criticism without being insulted.

Original reporting covers all reporting which involves research beyond looking up news articles from other news sources. For example, an e-mail or IRC interview with a news figure (such as any member of the WMF board) would obviously qualify for original reporting. The notes of the interview would need to be made available through the talk page of the article, and you would list yourself as a source for the article.

Other types of research which would qualify as original reporting:

• Fact checking at the library (list reference citations under sources)
• Fact checking by phone (list contacts on the talk page)
• Photo journalism (upload freely-licensed graphics to Commons)
• Attending meetings (include your notes via the talk page)
• Performing statistical analysis (include data and/or output and methodology on the talk page)

Really, there are many ways WN contributors can do original reporting to add depth and information to their articles. I hope you try some! - Amgine / ^talk 22:20, 18 October 2005 (UTC)