Wikinews:Water cooler/assistance/archives/2010/November

Bunch of questions

1. Are all articles published displayed on the main page?
2. What makes something "newsworthy"? Wikinews:Newsworthiness doesn't really explain much, but since WN has portals that, I assume, could at some point be full news sources for small topics/locations, the standard for newsworthiness is quite lower than that of the regular media? Could someone tell me which of the following things would be usually newsworthy (if any): the stuff that gets into the Wikipedia Signpost, news that gets put up on video game news sites, minor news about a small area of technology or something, news about competitive events that most people have never even heard of, news relevant to a very small area?
3. Wikinews:Article layout in a nutshell says that articles should "aim for at least three paragraphs". Is this required? Is there any way to create articles about things that can't be stretched out to that size?
4. Is this the right place to ask these questions?

Thanks. --Yair rand (talk) 23:33, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

• All news is published on main page (but not all articles are made lead articles where they get a blurb+pict on main page [although many/most do]. All articles get listed under latest news on the main page).
• Newsworthiness is subjective. Signpost stuff is generally considered out of scope because we want to avoid reporting on ourselves (and by extension wikimedia) unless its something really newsworthy. The canonical example of something not newsworthy is User:Edbrown05/Grass in Uncle G's back garden continues to grow. If its something that is not newsworthy enough to get into a local small town paper, it probably isn't newsworthy. (what is newsworthy is a matter of debate, at times similar to deletionist/inclusionist debate at 'pedia). If in doubt, feel free to ask (irc is best, but leaving a message here, or on someone's talk page is also fine).
• Three paragraphs is the minimum for normal articles. You can also do a collection of multiple super short articles - Wikinews Shorts: January 21, 2009 which don't necessarily have to be 3 paragraphs.
• This is as good a place as any to ask. Many wikinewsies hang out on WN:IRC, and that is also a very good place to ask (and will probably get you a faster answer).

Cheers. Bawolff ☺☻ 03:34, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Anyone care to review Robbery suspect flees on riding mower?

This story was already going somewhat viral when I wrote it; it wouldn't be a bad thing if we could pick up some of the audience that goes with that. (Just don't assume I didn't screw up badly.) --Pi zero (talk) 14:14, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Title Change

A review of my page said that my title was insufficient. How do I change it?ΦAbhaiΦ (talk) 15:00, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

On the top right hand corner of the screen there is a bunch of tabs like 'edit', 'view history', etc. There should also be a drop down menu. One of the entries of the drop down menu should be 'rename'. Click that. If you have trouble please don't hesitate to ask. (Note, If you're a new user [new = registered an account less then three days ago] you can't move pages until you're listed as autoconfirmed in special:preferences. If this applies to you, please ask someone else to move it for you, making sure to tell them what its current name is and what its name should be). Cheers. Bawolff ☺☻ 05:37, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Note, diego seems to already have done this for you. Bawolff ☺☻ 05:38, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

User account was created on the 12th. --Pi zero (talk) 11:43, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

• Allow me to do my cracked record routine and say the software is moronic; if somebody can create a page they can rename it. It makes sense. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 11:47, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Before publication, yes. After publication, right now it's too easy to rename. It's possible that a solution to the latter would help alleviate the former (since a "request rename" tab could be presented to registered users before they're autoconfirmed). --Pi zero (talk) 19:42, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

• I suspect many FlaggedRevs users would vote for a "request rename" bug. Off the top of my head, I can't remember all the details on the anon/new/autoconfirmed/reviewed currently in-effect.Definitely should be driven with Wikinews' usage for preliminary definition of the change request. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 22:52, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Permissions are listed at special:usergrouprights. If we want new users (or even anon's) to be able to rename stuff, its a trivially simple config change (the type that devs will do without a fuss if there is "community consensus"). The issue comes in with the interaction with flagged revisions not applying to page moves (I thought there was a bug for that. Maybe not, or in any case couldn't find it). Bawolff ☺☻ 03:06, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

┌─────────────┘
Clarification: by " 'request rename' tab", I meant to refer to an idea I'd floated at the tail end of a policy thread back in June, Limit page move to reviewers?. Only reviewers could actually perform page moves, but everyone would have a "request rename" tab (or something) that could be used to put a template on the talk page requesting that a reviewer please move the page to such-and-such. The template would be somewhat akin to {{editprotected}}, but presumably it would have a button on it so that a reviewer could grant the request with a single click. --Pi zero (talk) 04:46, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

? creating a category

I am new to wikinews and would appreciate advice about how to create a category to include articles related to the English county of Somerset. On wikipedia I edit quite a few articles related to Somerset as part of WikiProject Somerset. I have recently revised the Somerset Portal and it is currently a Featured Portal Candidate. As part of this it has been suggested I add a link to relevant stories on wikinews - however I have no idea about the best way to achieve this - any help appreciated.Rodw (talk) 22:14, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Portal:Somerset; Category:Somerset. — μ 10:09, December 9 2010 (UTC)