User talk:Turtlestack

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BG music

The music you used for AW, is incompatible for Wikinews usage. We are technically commercial and the Commons do not accept any CC-xx-NC licenses. I'm sorry that I'll will have to nominate the file for deletion at the Commons. The license is at [1]. Maybe you can find a free use some free(er) music. --Mikemoral♪♫ 01:47, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

I didn't realize we were commercial. I'll find something else. Thanks for the heads up. Turtlestack (talk) 02:13, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

My understanding is its not so much we are commercial as that there are idealogical issues (yay! free culture... everyone loves a good zealot). Basically you can't use any cc files that have nc or nd in the license name. If you're not sure, look at the license page. Licenses we can use, like for example http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ have a "Approved for free culture works" sticker on them. Also any audio file on this website is fine to use. Bawolff ☺☻ 18:51, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

message from talk page

>First of all, when I go to the news brief takes up the entire top of the page and everything else that is linked to that date is at the bottom (this is an issue for all dates starting on April 15)

I'm not sure if i know what you're referring to, but If you mean the category:April 18, 2010 pages have the briefs on them, thats ok - they're supposed to. The reason why older ones didn't is we stopped doing them for a while. However pages from a long time ago also have them - Category:April 20, 2006.

>..one is News briefs:April 19, 2010 and the other is News briefs:April, 19 2010...

Yeah, i made News briefs:April 19, 2010 into a redirect. Don't worry about it. Just in future make the files with the comma after the day, not the month. (btw if you do want to rename a page, there is a rename button from the drop down menu beside view history in the upper right. but don't worry about it for that page)

>If you have a few moments, if you could look at what I'm doing wrong then I'll fix it all up, but I'm just so confused now I don;t even know where to begin

Don't worry, You're doing fine. Trust me, if you screw something up very badly, we will notice and fix it ;). I'll fix up some minor things on Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/Releases/News Briefs/Archive, but overall, I actually don't think there is much here that needs fixing. If you're still confused let me know (You can also try on the chat channel - WN:IRC usually someone is on there). Cheers. Bawolff ☺☻ 18:51, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

p.s. before i forget, One other minor thing, on the news briefs page - at the bottom there is a part for categorization. You had it like:

[[Category:Wikinews audio]]
<noinclude>
[[Category:Audio Wikinews News Briefs]] 
[[Category:Brief]] 
[[Category:April 15, 2010]]
</noinclude>

It should be like:

<noinclude>
[[Category:Wikinews audio]]
[[Category:Audio Wikinews News Briefs]] 
[[Category:Brief]] 
[[Category:April 15, 2010]]
</noinclude>

Bawolff ☺☻ 18:51, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, one other thing - when uploading audio file to commons, use the category [[category:Audio Wikinews News Briefs]] not [[category:Audio Wikinews News Brief]]. (This is just because the rss feed only recognizes it with the Briefs being plural). Bawolff ☺☻ 19:19, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

AW

I'm gonna go ahead and work on the news script for today. That's about all I have time to do today. I'm assuming the page is News brief: April 26, 2010. --Mikemoral♪♫ 16:56, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Yep, that's the page. Thanks for signing up, by the way! Lemme know if the workspace page descriptions are confusing and if they need work. I kinda just brainstormed everything but looking at it now, it seems like a lot of info. Turtlestack (talk) 17:32, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

I just skimmed through, but all seems fine. --Mikemoral♪♫ 17:33, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your hard work!

I award Turtlestack the Audio Barnstar for all of the time and effort he has put in to revive the Audio Wikinews project!

Hi Turtlestack. I just wanted to let you know that your work with Audio Wikinews is very much appreciated. I therefore have chosen to give you a barnstar! :D Benny the mascot (talk) 19:37, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Just for the record, I fully second this barnstar. Great work. Tempodivalse [talk] 19:44, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Thank you so much! Turtlestack (talk) 20:26, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Re: News brief clean-up

Not a problem - glad you like it! --Thunderhead ^{(t - e - c)} 18:34, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Audio news

It's great to see new life in Audio WN. James Pain and I were going to set up a system whereby I wrote the briefs and he read them after the new year, but as you just might have noticed that never happened. I'll need to listen to some of the new material to learn exactly what's what under your system, but I'm willing to fill the role of Brief Writer - though I should warn you that fluctuating real world issues mean that I may be unable to do the work without notice on some occasions. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 18:57, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

I contacted James a while back but when he never replied I just decided to re-launch it myself. I've rebuilt a lot of the infrastructure to make doing these easier and to spread out the responsibilities so that no one person feels like they need to do everything. Hopefully, in time, more people will want to take part. It would be great if you want to write briefs whenever you can. Don't worry if you can't do them all the time, just jump in whenever you want to and do as many or as few as you are comfortable doing. I have a Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/Workspace page set up for scheduling and on the discussion tab is where all the discussion takes place when making the show. Really, all that is needed is to sign up on the schedule and then as stories are posted on the discussion tab, just add "working" and your time stamp under the story. Once you have the brief written, just post the text under that. Thank you for your interest and I really look forward to having you on board! Turtlestack (talk) 19:07, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Congrats!

Great job on Audio Wikinews! Keep it up! :-D Although you mispronounced Pichilemu :-P --Diego Grez ^{return fire} 00:14, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Uh-oh :( Sorry about that. How is it pronounced? --User:Turtlestack

I don't think it's too important :-P But IPA says [pitʃiˈlemu]. --Diego Grez ^{return fire} 23:23, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

So phonetically it would sound like pit-sh-lemu with a hard stop after pit followed by a hard sh sound? Turtlestack (talk) 23:29, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Yeah. --Diego Grez ^{return fire} 23:30, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! I'm practicing right now :)

:) Hey. Chiguayante is pronounced "chee-wa-e-an-te" :P --Diego Grez ^{return fire} 23:34, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

And... why don't you ask for reviewer? That would really help you and to us :) Wikinews:Flagged revisions/Requests for permissions. Cheers. --Diego Grez ^{return fire} 23:37, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

I've thought about being more active on wikinews, but I'm kind of nervous about over extending myself. The show takes up a fair amount of my time and I'm not sure I'd be all that useful in reviewing articles since I usually only look at them after they are published (though I do poke around the newsroom a little bit to see what's coming up). However, I will think about it and I appreciate you asking me. I would like to get more involved here in some capacity, I'm just not sure what the best way to do that is right now. Turtlestack (talk) 02:37, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't even see this thread up here, sorry for repeating down below. I should note though that reviewer is a technical thing, you don't neccesarily have to review stuff if you're a reviewer (as a volunteer project you don't have to do anything you don't want to, and you already do more than many others). Having reviewer rights though would allow you to make edits to flagged pages without having to wait for someone else to ok them. Bawolff ☺☻

No problem. I'm still learning my way around how the wiki culture works, that's why I try to keep a low profile as I learn the ropes and do the show. I suppose I've been a bit cautious about coming in and stepping on anyone's toes, per se, but looking at the audio stuff, I have contributed quite a bit so I'd be happy to get a bit more involved. Maybe soon I'll even try to write an article :) Turtlestack (talk) 02:52, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Code shamelessly stolen from Mikemoral

[2] ... who stole it from me, I from Juliancolton, and Juliancolton from someone at Wikipedia. Nice user page. Tempodivalse [talk] 18:05, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

I stole it from Tempodivalse's :-P --Diego Grez ^{return fire} 18:06, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

LOL - well, I still wanted to make sure credit was given where it's due ... though I had no idea it had such a grand and complicated lineage :)

C.O.N.G.R.A.T.U.L.A.T.I.O.N.S.

Hello, you may know me as the previous main contributor of Audio Wikinews. I've been away for a few months getting work sorted out (I'm now working for myself, yey). I remember getting your email not too long ago, I wrote a draft reply and never sent it so apologies for that.

I do have to say, well done. The moment I saw the Audio Wikinews link on the front page, I perked up and instantly clicked on it with high hopes. I was not disappointed.

I love the effort you've put into each Brief and you've actually made a schedule in Audio Wikinews/Workspace. Also the fact you've posted your doings in talk pages is fantastic, yet to read it all though.

Anyway, just wanted to congratulate you. I appreciate all who contribute to Wikinews, especially Audio Wikinews because it's like my god son that I've worked so hard on.

I'm back from my real life stuff and active on Wikinews again. Hopefully we can work together. --James Pain (talk) 03:49, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Hi! I'm glad you like the show, thank you. No worries about the email, when I didn't hear back I just assumed you were on to other projects so I just decided to jump in and reinvigorate the show. I have tried to keep as much of the same format as you had set up but with a few tweaks of my own and I'd love to work with you on this project in whatever capacity you are comfortable with / have time for. Turtlestack (talk) 04:36, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Awesome stuff. I do like the way you've turned it into a mini show with the 'on this day' segment and a song at the end. A few things I do have to mention though. I've been looking through your talk page posts, which are very helpful, and you are going through everything I have.

The problem with having a iTunes podcast is that iTunes only takes a format that commons will not allow us to upload so we would need our own hosting outside of the wiki for that to work.

Exactly. It's too bad there isn't a decent alternative for free hosting, but I haven't followed up with an iTunes podcast since I first mentioned it. Maybe someday ... but not now.

The time it takes to build the recordings is quite long, especially with those darn foreign names, that's just a plain fact. Without more people, it'll stay that way. The disadvantage of a one man show (as if there was an advantage) is that if they're away, everything stops.

It can seem like a very thankless and disposable job because you're devoting an hour every day to something that would only be of interest for 24 hours until it's time to do another one. The reason I liked doing recorded articles more than briefs is because it promoted wikinews articles well, made them more popular and accessible. It befitted wikinews as a whole and people really appreciated it. It also gave me a good chance to proof read and fix any typo's or errors.

That's a good point, but for me the briefs are more fun since I enjoy the production side of making a show. True, it only lasts 24 hours, but then it's on to something new.

A good way I got round foreign names is to let a computer voice pronounce it for me and I just copy that. Failing that, I watch the 24 hour news channel and wait for them to say it :P

I've been using it extensively, however, I fudge some names now and then or just edit the brief to omit names that are not necessary to the story. Some articles will list off every proper noun the author can get their hands on and so I just trim them back out :)

I have kicked myself a few times when I've just posted a brief and a ton more stories come out. What I used to do it set a cut off time of 23:00 UTC and warn everyone in IRC so everyone can get their stories in and ready for the brief.

This is why I have the schedule page with the UTC cut-off time printed in bold. Often, I'll go past the cut-off, but that just depends on the time I have for me. Some days, I am very strict about the UTC cut off and will just do the newer stories the next day.

The Wikinews audio name space is a complete mess, no doubt about it. It took me about 6 months to get to know every nook and cranny about it. I was going through a revamp in December but I have to jump out of that thanks to real life stuff. I still have some work in progress in my user space. I may be continuing that.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll talk more later. Get on IRC if you can. --James Pain (talk) 17:05, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Editorship

Do you mind if i nominate you for editorship/reviewership/whatever the permission is currently called. This allows you to flag revisions. You don't do very much involving articles, but you do edit template:MainPageMediaMenu. This would allow you to edit it without waiting for your edits to be approved. Do you accept the nomination? Bawolff ☺☻ 02:35, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the nomination. I was just replying to Diego Grez who was asking me if I'd like to be a reviewer and I was letting him know that while I would like to be more involved at wikinews, I'm cautious about over extending myself with added responsibilities. The show takes up a fair amount of my time and I'd hate to accept a responsibility that I may not utilize as much as I might be expected to. Still though, since I'd only be editing that 1 page, I think I can handle the "pressure" lol. I accept the nomination. Thank you very much. Turtlestack (talk) 02:45, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Glad to hear. Bawolff ☺☻ 02:48, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Reviewer Promotion

I have promoted you to the Wikinews:Reviewer class, as I feel you can be trusted to mark revisions of articles as sighted (review). Please take a moment to read:

• Wikinews:Flagged revisions
• Wikinews:Reviewing articles
• {{Peer review}}
• {{Review}}
• Reviewed article version
• Flagged Revisions extension information, on MediaWiki

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask for help on my talk page, and thank you for contributing to Wikinews! Tempodivalse [talk] 22:41, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you! I'll read through the links and get myself up to speed. Turtlestack (talk) 01:05, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Congratulations! :) --Diego Grez ^{return fire} 01:06, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Audio Wikinews

Hi Dan, I just want to say thank you for doing the Audio Wikinews.

But your pronunciation of some of the toen names from my articles seem not quite right, namely Leongatha and Traralgon. The pronunciation of the towns here in Australia (generally) are lee on ga tha and tra rall gon respectictively.

I don't want to sound like I'm ungrateful or talking down to you. Thanks again. --RockerballAustralia c 05:03, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the pronunciation. I've been struggling with these mightily and also wishing I had an Aussie accent because my Yank accent just can't get my tongue around these :) Oh yeah, one more thing, are you following box scores or are you more involved with these stories? I ask because if you are attending the games and have first hand experience with the games, I'd love for these stories to have some added "human interest". Basically, the scoring in A.R.F. is really foreign to me (and I'd image many people outside of the country too) and reading aheads and behinds does not really "mean" anything to me. But, if we could engage the readers and listeners more about some of the human elements of the games, that could generate more interest in them and help promote the sport too. Once people feel like they know who the key players are, that gives people an "in" into the sport and would maybe get people interested to learn about the sport and how it works. As it is right now, however, the box scores just don't seem to go far enough to really capture attention. Please don't get me wrong, I love the fact that you are doing these stories because it's something different and outside the "main stream" and you really seem to have a passion here and I actually look forward to seeing your stories, I just am curious if we can work on something to expand these a bit more. Turtlestack (talk) 15:39, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. I've been using the box scores because I've been unable to actually attend the games in person for the first half of the season (with one exception) but I'm planning on attending the second half and the finals. And while I remember, just in case I cover their games in future, Moe is pronounced with an ee sound on the end (listen here). --RockerballAustralia c 23:36, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the audio! It's funny, but when I started doing the AW, I never anticipated how much I need to learn about pronunciations and how hard it can be to get it right. Usually there is help online, but not always and so I have to wing it, and I think I have about a 10% track record of getting them right when I guess lol Turtlestack (talk)

You've actually done quite well actually with the GFL town names. Leongatha and Traralgon were the ones you mispronounced. I brought up Moe because I watch alot of The Simpsons. --RockerballAustralia c 05:36, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

LOL - I was going to sight your edit and I forgot you are a reviewer. Congratulations again :) --Diego Grez ^{return fire} 22:17, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

lol, when I saw the box, I had to think about it for a second because I was like, hmmm, what do I do now? Then I just hit the button and submitted it. :) Turtlestack (talk) 22:18, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

I can do the audio for one article today! I know, that's all, but come on IRC so we can coordinate this better. Mikemoral♪♫ 23:01, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

iTunes audio isn't working. File permissions are blocking me from downloading. Can you have a look at it? --RockerballAustralia c 01:56, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Can you send me the error report or a screen shot of it? I have never used iTunes to upload podcasts before, so this is all new to me and I'll need your help to track down exactly what the trouble is. Thanks. Turtlestack (talk) 02:53, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Its not an itunes error. The MP3's are giving an HTTP 403 error (which could be, but not neccesarily is, a file permission error).

http://turtlestack.podbean.com/mf/feed/qdaiu/AudioWikinews05-20-2010.mp3 redirects to http://media18.podbean.com/pb/056d2a09ad5abe61627d39ea6ea761bb/4bf74778/blogs18/261054/uploads/AudioWikinews05-20-2010.mp3 which gives a 403. Bawolff ☺☻ 02:55, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

The main iTunes link is http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=373469947 That's the best way to subscribe since it goes straight through iTunes. All the files have d/l fine for me so far that way. Turtlestack (talk) 03:15, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Hmmmm, Looks like PodBean is having issues. I can't upload today's show and I'm nearly out of bandwidth for the month to boot. I'm starting to think PodBean is a shitty service if I'm just about out of bandwidth after just a few days. Turtlestack (talk) 03:30, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm gonna have to tackle this tomorrow since I need to be at work at 4am and it's already 9:30 pm :( Turtlestack (talk) 03:31, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

I took one more look at PodBean and none of the files are playing on the site so it's a PodBean error. Hopefully tomorrow it will be working, but then again, the site is pretty much useless since bandwidth is going to be the real issue. iTunes may have to be dropped as quickly as it got started (unless we know someone who can host 5-10GB HDD space with 50-100GB bandwidth usage per month for free) Turtlestack (talk) 04:18, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

50-100GB (!)(!) thats a lot of bandwidth. Are there really that many people downloading those files? At ~1 mb per file, thats 50 000 downloads a month. Thats a much bigger number than I would expect. Bawolff ☺☻ 07:47, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

The files are anywhere from 8MB to 20 MB in size so the bandwidth adds up fast. Actually, at first, I thought maybe I was encoding them wrong when you said > 1MB, but looking at all my other podcasts that I d/l from iTunes, for the length of the show, the files are about the correct size. Turtlestack (talk) 22:14, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Right right, I'm not sure where I got the 1mb number from, but even still 50 - 100 GB seems very large. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:58, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

The bandwidth adds up with each new epsoide. Last I checked, there were 50 subscribers to the podcast, so let's say each file is 10MB (which is roughly accurate - ranging from 8-18). 10MB X 50 d/l's = 500MB for one day. Now, if we go to just a 5 day a week schedule then we take 500MB per episode X 20 episodes per month which = 10,000MB (10GB). That's at only 50 listeners. Also, that's just 50 people who only knew about the podcast just from here - imagine if AW had a larger base (which is what we want). It is well within the realm of possibility to have 200-300 listeners (maybe more) per episode. If that was the case, then we might need even more bandwidth than what I originally thinking about. Basically, it adds up fast (and that's not taking into account each new subscriber downloading 5 total episodes their first time (1 new episode + the 4 most recent). Imagine if we kept an archive of all the episodes? :) Also, imagine how much bandwidth shows like This American Life or A History Of The World In A 100 Objects have since they have tens of thousands of subscribers! You are talking terrabytes per month (more for 100 Objects since that is 5 times per week, and American Life, though just once per week, is an hour long. Podcasting hostins is expensive and is why you always hear the hosts begging for money. Turtlestack (talk) 23:24, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

About iTunes and AW

To make a long story short - the host I was using is not doing its job and so I'm gonna have to pull the iTunes side of AW. I've been all over the PodBean account, but there is no help available to free users, and though I get error messages when uploading the files or when using the embedded player, those error messages have no links attached to them telling me what the problem is or how to fix the issue. It's weird too, because for a couple of days everything was fine. The files that don't work now were working before and iTunes had no trouble picking up the feed and even adding the podcast to the iTunes store - everything was fine until all of a sudden it was not fine.

Sorry to disappoint you all, I really tried but for now AW will just have to remain the humble little show that it is and pretty much just live here in commons and on the Internet Archive and my blog. Turtlestack (talk) 16:16, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

I might be able to ask around. I can think of a couple people who might be willing to host it if I ask nicely. Bawolff ☺☻ 08:00, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Audio WN

Per the notice on today's show - if I have time, tonight I might write up a story on a couple of investigation reports coming out on serious incidents involving Finnair. If I do, I'll do that brief for whatever day's show it ends up on.

I haven't vanished entirely, by the way - just pretty busy. I'll be back to more serious briefwriting sometime. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 18:55, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Good to hear! I'm glad you are still around. Get with me before you write up any briefs, however, because as the AW is now, briefs aren't exactly "brief" anymore - stories are really just edited so that they work well as a spoken piece to make the AW seem more like a show. In fact, I'm going to change the title "brief writer" to "segment writer" since that's a more accurate description anyway. Turtlestack (talk) 02:27, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Again...

Thanks for your superb work with Audio Wikinews! --Diego Grez ^{return fire} 02:16, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. I hope my new microphone sounds better too :)

Audio

Do you mind if do the ARF article only? I'm thinking of doing ad libish (not Reading a script) --RockerballAustralia c 04:52, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Not a problem, that sounds really fun actually. Just let me know the link to the .ogg file on the workspace or you can even email me the file if you want to. Sorry again about forgetting to do the story, but maybe it will work out better since you'll get to read it after all. Turtlestack (talk) 05:00, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

I thought it missed the cut off. I might email you the raw m4a from my iPhone but we'll see --RockerballAustralia c 05:22, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

It did (I had checked the front page before recording) but I knew it was there in pending and I was fine with adding an extra story, but no worries, just email me the file in any format - I can use VLC to convert it to .ogg. Turtlestack (talk) 15:06, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

┌─────────┘
Replied. —Mikemoral♪♫ 04:54, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

If you wouldn't mind hopping on IRC I have a few ideas for TDH (yep, I abbreviated This Day in History). —Mikemoral♪♫ 05:02, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Notice of Appreciation

${\color {Blue}{\mathfrak {Wikinews}}}:{\color {Sepia}The\;Free\;News\;Source}$

Great Work!

Thank you for all you Audio Wikinews work.

—Mikemoral♪♫ 02:46, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Thank you! Turtlestack (talk) 22:07, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Awarded to Turtlestack upon the completion of his 50th AW recording!

Hi Turtlestack! I see that you've recorded your 50th Audio Wikinews show... congrats! Just wanted to let you know that you are now a Staff Reporter. Benny the mascot (talk) 21:57, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Wow! Thank you!! Turtlestack (talk) 23:17, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Well technically that designation is only for contributors with 50-99 articles, but I don't think anyone cares about such technicalities. :D Benny the mascot (talk) 23:41, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Quote

See [3] —Mikemoral♪♫ 00:18, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

I should probably note it's note the best recording, I need to work on the whole voice acting thing and I need to get into it. I might even have to enlist a few friends with less monotone than I have. ;) —Mikemoral♪♫ 03:00, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

If you can find a female voice, that would be best, bester and bestest! I tried using yours and two male voices just don't work well (at least on my recordings) - I need a softer voice to balance mine out, imo. Whoever you get, the more acting experience they have the better and since you're in California, everyone's an actor, right? lol. Turtlestack (talk) 03:03, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Heh, Californians with acting talent. Hmm, I think I'm going to ignore the quote of the day thing and choose them myself, just to wave my bias around. :p Or we can set up a quote submission thing. Probably best to take from Wikiquote, of course. —Mikemoral♪♫ 03:25, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Wikiquote should be where we get our quotes from, and, imo, we should probably stick to what they have as a quote of the day. My thinking is that the AW is a great resource to combine and highlight as many elements of the wiki community as possible. I'm also considering adding the picture of the day to the id3 tag for each mp3 for iTunes also. I use a tag editor, so all I'd have to do is drag the image to the program and it's done. Also, since not everyone enjoys putting together a TDiH segment, I came up with some new ideas for other segments : a Today I Learned from Wikipedia segment (idea stolen from reddit :) and a quiz where after the first break (where I usually put a music break) the reader asks a question pertaining to one of the news stories then at the end (where TDiH would have been) the answer is read there - just like the GeoQuiz on BBC The World. Turtlestack (talk) 03:37, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

┌─────────────┘
there's WN:WNQ for your quiz needs. I'm going to attempt to recruit a friend from recording quotes (male). Btw, do you have suggestions from a cheap, less that $20 mic, but decent, I can use? —Mikemoral♪♫ 20:51, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/News Briefs/Show/Guide Turtlestack (talk) 22:49, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Darn, the mic is $30. :p —Mikemoral♪♫ 23:54, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Most podcasters use a microphone that is over $300, so $30 is a bargain :) Turtlestack (talk) 23:57, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Well, I've been using the built in mic on my laptop, so maybe I'll buy a better mic. —Mikemoral♪♫ 23:59, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

It's worth it. Think of it this way, to write articles you need a computer, so to record audio you really need a microphone. Turtlestack (talk) 00:01, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

┌────────────────┘
Yeah, I'm going to invest in one soon. I'm going to talk to my friend tomorrow to convince them to record. —Mikemoral♪♫ 00:59, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

Sounds good - make sure they familiarize themselves with the Style Guide to help them out too. K, now, I'm gonna play some more Okami on my new Wii :) Turtlestack (talk) 01:02, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

You got your Wii? :) I'm stuck writing a letter. :( —Mikemoral♪♫ 01:04, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

Welcome back!

Just wanted to give you a huge "welcome back" from my part and my fellow Wikinewsies! How you've been! :-) Diego Grez ^{return fire} 22:40, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I've been good - busy with work, but I gotta pay the bills somehow since AW hasn't been sending me any checks :) How are things with you? Turtlestack (talk) 03:25, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

• /me dances. Hey Turtlestack! Glad to see you're back! :D Benny the mascot (talk) 22:43, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

LOL, I've been back 10 min, that is fast :) Thank you. I will do my best to keep up with the scheduling but my work load is pretty light this week and next, so things look good. After the end of next week, I go back to overnights at my job (10pm-6am) so I'm not really sure how that's gonna work out. Again, thank you - glad to be back after my little break. Turtlestack (talk) 22:43, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

• Hiya! —Mikemoral♪♫ 23:36, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Hiya, Mike. My "little" vacation is over so it's back to the microphone and history books for me lol Turtlestack (talk) 03:24, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I'll make sure to send some composers' births and deaths to you with the archive.org link. —Mikemoral♪♫ 03:30, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Starting in mid-late November, I might start a new segment. It would still be technically a This Day In History, but it will follow one event over the course of a year. I'm not quite sure how to pull it off and may have to do it on the side, but if I can add it to the AW that would be best. I'm still researching put the project over the next few months and I don't want to give it away what it is since I want it to be a surprise, but it could be a lot of fun (for history nerds, anyway). However, it has nothing to do with composers, sorry :( Turtlestack (talk) 03:46, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Well, for one year events I can think of one ("What I learned on Wikipedia today"-ish). It's the New York Conspiracy of 1741 which ended in the execution by hanging and burning of the 34 "conspirators." You can probably cover the (North) American slave revolts. Most would be (probably) one year long. —Mikemoral♪♫ 03:55, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm not thinking of a one year even - I'm thinking of a year long event - actually, it would be about a year and 4 months I believe. I don't want to say too much more or you'll figure out what I'm maybe planning :) Turtlestack (talk) 04:15, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Gah. I don't want to wait. :p Btw, how many iTunes subscribers do we have now? —Mikemoral♪♫ 04:19, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

┌───────────────────┘
"We'll even accept fine china." :D —Mikemoral♪♫ 04:59, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Ha ha! You actually listen to my ad-lib donation puns?! Thank you - those are my little easter eggs I've been hiding in nearly every episode and I was wondering when someone was going to notice them lol! Thank you :) Turtlestack (talk) 05:22, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

By the way, its 186 subscribers, but only 2 people actually download episodes from iTunes and one of them is me, so as far as I know, only 1 person listens to them through iTunes. From the Internet Archive and from my blog, there are probably a few more, but not many. Turtlestack (talk) 05:24, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Oh, then I'm the other. :p —Mikemoral♪♫ 05:25, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I'd make 3 --RockerballAustralia c 07:09, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Requests

Great to see you back! Is it too late to request a couple articles? I kinda suspect you've recorded the intro already; if so, no worries. I'm just glad to see you running the show again. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 23:09, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I haven't recorded yet, but as I've been outta practice for a few weeks, I'd kinda like to be selfish and do this show straight through. If you get with me early tomorrow, however, I'll have more time to set things up and we can hammer out a schedule for the July 13 show. I want to work with you but, for today, I really wanna just get back into my groove. Turtlestack (talk) 23:12, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

No problemo. However, it could be a while before we speak again - starting tomorrow it's my turn to take a break. So I'll see ya... sometime. Have fun. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 23:15, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Darn... well, enjoy your break - I enjoyed mine :) Just send me a message when you get back and we will hammer something out. Turtlestack (talk) 23:18, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Audio and the RNIB

Hai!

I just sent out an email a little after 1230 BST, to the w:RNIB. Obviously my primary issue with them is if they can use audio Wikinews, or if they can contribute recordings of articles. There's likely a good deal more scope beyond that for WM UK.

I'm hoping to hear back from them in the next day or so. If you've any suggestions around that, please let me know. And, obviously, please make sure there are audio files go up over the next couple of days. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 13:47, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

That's a really good idea. I had thought about the AW as a good resource for the vision impaired, but I am not familiar with the community so I didn't know who to contact. Thanks for making the contact, I look forward to seeing what comes of it. Turtlestack (talk) 16:46, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

• The RNIB have, in an unrelated matter, approached WMUK. From there it seems I've been given another opportunity to try and persuade them to get involved. -- Brian McNeil (alt. account) /^{alt-talk • main talk} 05:14, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Cool. Hopefully something will come of it. If they have any questions or need anything at all, don't hesitate to ask me or send them my way. I'm more than happy to assist them anyway I can. Turtlestack (talk) 11:33, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Pat on the back

Here's your figurative "pat on the back." :p —Mikemoral♪♫ 04:47, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

lol, thanks :) Turtlestack (talk) 04:55, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

By the way, I'm such a nerd that the image in that blog post is a file I count towards wikinews and so I saved a template image then retook the image of the directory so it would be exactly correct - like I said, big nerd Turtlestack (talk) 04:56, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Heh, wow. lol. —Mikemoral♪♫ 05:04, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Voting and such

Just to be clear, whenever I cast my Support for anyone, it is because I have had direct experience with that person coupled with a positive impression I've gotten from them. There are many, many good folks here who do a lot of excellent work, but if I abstain from voting for them it is only because I have yet to have any direct contact with them.

I like to stay out of the drama as much as possible and for being such an active member, I've pretty much avoided it - however, I do tend to just do my own thing with the AW (my own little corner of Wikinews lol) and I really only ever get "involved" if I really feel it is important or I get a real bug up my ass (I can be a real bastard when I need to be). But, overall, I tend to keep to myself so that I can concentrate on the AW so please, I hope nobody takes it too personally that I am not a real social butterfly. Turtlestack (talk) 03:22, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Has the stress got to you?

There is a feedback form for a reason. The reader hated Ahmadinejad criticizes Paul the octopus, and we gave them an opportunity to tell us. They probably won't even see your reply, but I wonder what others will conclude about you or the community when they read your tirade.

Every talk and opinion page says at the top, "please refrain from offensive or inflammatory comments." You have read that many times. The reader hadn't, and used a mild expletive.

--InfantGorilla (talk) 07:17, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Being Not Free From Sin, But Owning A Lot of Stones - I am forced to agree with InfantGorilla. Was that really justified or even an appropriate amount of bile launched back at the nameless person who will remain uneffected by that comment? I am one to talk, but really... a clever retort is better than a disgusting long winded paragraph of obsoletism. BKCW8 talk 08:46, 29 July 2010 (UTC) p.s Why was shaving ur pubes even an option in the conception of that passage - surely there are plenty of other things you can harvest before going to ur private area...

To further add to this, its rather inappropriate to attack the reader, as that is the hand that feeds us. I understand how its quite annoying when people make negative comments without even the pretence to help out. Its perfectly acceptable to say something like "Consider creating an account to help make us better", but telling people to STFU simply for expressing a negative opinion is generally not ok. Also bear in mind, as InfantGorilla said above, that people are asked at the bottom of the article what they think, so its natural that some people will be negative. Bawolff ☺☻ 09:31, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Here Here BKCW8 talk 09:42, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree, it's a bad call on my part. The only thing I can say is that it ticked me off (obviously). I know how much hard work we all put into what we do and when I read such a short, idiotic comment like that in response to a good piece of work that probably took not only a lot of time but also talent to put together, I just raged half from anger, half from defense for the people who work hard around here. But still, I'm in the wrong and it was a bad call. Won't happen again. I am sorry. Turtlestack (talk) 12:59, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Apology accepted. Idiotic comments are a side effect of the feedback form. If you would like your comment and the followups deleted, I expect that an admin will honor a {{delete}} tag on [4] on the grounds of WN:NOT a theater of war. --InfantGorilla (talk) 13:31, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

I'll leave that up to an admins, but I'd be uncomfortable if any comments were deleted since that almost feels like censoring. I goofed and I deserve to be called out on it for as long as people wish to do so. Turtlestack (talk) 13:39, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

As you wish. (Regarding censorship, a look into the memory hole might surprise you.)

In my opinion, a prominent apology on that comments page would be good form.

--InfantGorilla (talk) 15:07, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Fundraising Committee

Hi there! Thanks for volunteering to sit on the Fundraising committee. The work of the committee will be really valuable to making this year's annual giving campaign really effective. I've posted an overview to Fundraising 2010, and would love your thoughts on the talk page. I'm also going to try to set up an IRC meeting soon, and hope you'll join for that. Keep an eye Fundraising 2010/Committee for a couple of proposed times! Thanks again... Philippe (WMF) (talk) 18:21, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

getting Audio Wikinews on Google

Hey Turtlestack! I just wanted to let you know that I've started a Water Cooler thread on the above topic here. Benny the mascot (talk) 02:04, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Need to be away

I've been struggling to balance work and the AW and right now work is winning. I'm gonna have to take at least this and next week off and hopefully by then I won't be working overnights anymore and be back to a 4am-1230pm schedule. I have still been putting together TDiH segments [on my other blog] in my spare time, however, so if you are wanting your fix, you can still get it there :) Turtlestack (talk) 20:04, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

• Thanks for the notice. Looks like, with help from WMUK, we've made some good contacts with the RNIB and might work more closely with them. -- Brian McNeil (alt. account) /^{alt-talk • main talk} 20:11, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Hi there!

Please check your meta talk page :) Keegan, WMF Fundraiser 2010 (talk) 07:10, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi Dan

While I'm not sure I can jump in this month.....I'm very motivated to help with the audio project. Give me a little time......I'll contact you again, soon.Buddpaul (talk) 21:04, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

:(

That's sad Turtlestack :( I really appreciated your work in Wikinews; I used to listen to the Audio 'news reports when I had nothing else to do, that helped me with pronunciation! You are a hero :P I wish you luck in whatever you are doing in your real life :) Cheers, Diego Grez ^{return fire} 06:11, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

You know, every time I hear Chile on the news I think "That's Diego's country!", as if you are the King or Emperor there and it's "your" country with your face on the money and statues of you all over the place :) I really, really enjoyed working with you and there's a possibility I may start up again if Kamnet is wanting to work on the project too. He and I are discussing some technicalities about the show right now on his chat page and if maybe things look like they are workable, I'd be more than happy to come back - this time with a lighter workload.

I hope you and your family are well and that Chile is treating you well too! Turtlestack (talk) 21:48, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm glad to hear that! I hope the same for you. Diego Grez ^{return fire} 02:08, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Wikimedia Podcast

In one of our conversations someplace (I can't remember where now) you mentioned the idea of having a podcast that is more representative of all of Wikimedia's projects. Out of pure coincidence I came upon WikiVoices, a podcast that did just that, but hasn't been updated in awhile. -- kamnet (talk) 09:44, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Looks like we both found that project at around the same time :) I left a message on the talk page there just a couple of days ago in hopes it might spark some interest over here for the AWNB.

To be honest, my gut tells me that the AWNB show should be more than just reading news stories, it needs a broader focus and something to make it stand out from other podcasts on the internet. However, as you mentioned over on your talk page there is very little interest in the wikimedia foundation and most of those projects just slowly fade away. That's why I'm excited to see what direction you decide to take the show in. Hopefully your new ideas will breath new life into the AWNB and make it a success.Turtlestack (talk) 21:40, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Newsbriefs?

Hi Turtlestack, Is it my understanding you are no longer involved in that (newsbriefs) project? I ask because you are still listed on the project page, but it appears the project has been abandoned...Robert Beck (talk) 20:16, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm no longer doing the briefs, however, when anyone has a question or needs advice or anything related to the project, I am still available to help anyone out. Turtlestack (talk) 20:42, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

privs

Busy elsewhere? We understand, but this is a notice of privilege expiry!

Note! Your privileges on English Wikinews have been reduced.

Under the Privilege expiry policy (enacted October 13, 2012) the rights held by your user account have been reduced due to inactivity, or lack of privilege use. You can view your user rights log here.

Point 4 of the Privilege expiry policy provides for fast-tracking reacquisition of privileges. We all understand that real-life commitments can severely curtail the level of commitment you can give to Wikinews; the privilege reduction is in no way intended as a reflection on your past work, or to imply you are unwelcome. The aim in curtailing privileges is to address security risks, and concern that a long period of inactivity means you may not be up-to-date with current policy and practices.

--Pi zero (talk) 23:16, 19 December 2012 (UTC)