User talk:VF

Welcome

VF, 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! CGorman 14:08, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Wikinews writing contest launched

Dear VF,

thanks for registering for the Wikinews writing contest! It now begins officially. Every day, I will try to make a tally of who has and who has not managed to fulfill their story/day requirements. If you do, however, believe I am missing something, please do not hesitate to contact me. Best of luck in the contest!--Eloquence 06:20, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Lead Article?

I certainly would consider your article a good choice for the Template:Lead article... - Amgine 00:59, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll do that. VF 01:02, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The "Akayev flees Kyrgyzstan as protesters seize control of Bishkek" story is a good lead article. Good job. — DV 22:50, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Cerainly is a good choice... we were looking poor in comparision to the mainstream media today without the Kyrgystan story. CGorman 22:53, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Thanks guys. This one took me quite a while so I appreciate the compliments. - VF 23:14, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Sometimes boring is good

Hi VF,

Sometims a watered-down name is best, to avoid unnecessary controversy. There are enough opportunities for disputes on Wikinews over stories with political angles, so who needs the headache from haggling over the names used for different elements of the site?

Your "Offbeat" choice is just suggestive enough of something slightly different, while at the same time not being overtly humorous, so I won't feel bad if your more "boring" choice wins out over some of the more silly suggestions I added to the Wackynews naming section. — DV 11:12, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Reply here - VF 11:29, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Bishkek series of articles

Your series of story contributions on this breaking news is truly appreciated. -edw 19:33, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, it's good to see that my work's being appreciated. - VF 04:57, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

"See also" vs "Also see" and "Wikinews" template

Hi VF,

I noticed that there is some back and forth going on between "See also" and "Also see".

It's a small matter, but I googled both phrases, and "See also" appears to have a three-to-one advantage over "Also see".

So, in theory, using "See also" will cause Wikinews to appear in more search results, if one extrapolates that three times as many searchers are likely to search on phrases which include the sub-phrase "See also".

By the way, I also set up a "Wikinews" source template, which you may have seen used in the See also section for a few articles by now. Here it is:

This template is designed to make the site more sticky by sending users to the Main Page instead of to Wikipedia wherever Wikinews is referenced as a source for an article in a See also section.

This template also solves a small problem when citing Wikinews using the Sources template - it's inefficient, because the Sources template uses an external http link to the Wikinews article on Wikipedia, instead of an interwiki link, which doesn't look quite as elegant.

This template also has the nice side effect of promoting the Wikinews Main Page on Google, by creating more links which point at the Wikinews Main Page.

Cheers,

— DV 23:11, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Replied on his talk page. - VF 23:22, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Press release

Pingswept is going to give it a few minutes, see if the editor removes/rewrites the article. Good catch! - Amgine 04:32, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Pope

NB: Im giving this message to the 10 or so people I suspect may be on Wikinews when the event occurs.

I've created a story announcing the Popes death - when the Vatican or BBC/Reuters announce he is actually dead please insert the date & time and publish - we will be the 1st news group to break this story (besides our source)! The story is located here User:CGorman/Sandbox. Whilst waiting please improve the story. → CGorman (Talk) 22:50, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Good Job

Nice articles, very professional 209.148.146.46 04:50, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikinews:Story preparation

Seeing how well preparations have gone for the Pope story, i've created Wikinews:Story preparation. Instead of users preparing stories on their own computers and saving them on their own hard drives, they can place them here to allow other writers to add to them before the event. This will help eliminate duel coverage of the same story - Teeks99 had spent some time yesterday evening writing a Pope story - but did'nt load it onto wikinews resulting in his version being made redundent. Hopefully by allowing users to collaborate on a story from an earlier date, our article quality will be dramatically improved. → CGorman (Talk) 15:12, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Askar Akayev says he resigns

I thought of you when I came across the Voice of America article.

Wow!!

Latest comment: 13 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

--25 articles! Wow.....you deserve at least this!!! --Bddpaux (talk) 02:19, 17 September 2011 (UTC)Reply