Wikinews:Water cooler/proposals/Archive/14

Proposal for a Main Page design change

I believe our current design is not very aesthetically pleasing, and as such, I propose we replace the current main page design with this Yorktown1776-like proposal. If you wish to make a change with it, go ahead. However, it should be noted we're merely discussing looks here. Discussion on what really should go on the Main Page will be discussed at a later point. Don't worry about the redundant headers displayed in many areas — they'll go away once/if the new design is implemented. Let's discuss this at first, then a strawpoll if necessary. —this is messedrocker (talk) 02:35, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Support for the Yorktown1776-like design, gives more attention to the page terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 04:55, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Anyone else want to comment? —this is messedrocker (talk) 03:42, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

All it it is... (I don't want to say eye-candy) but that's all it is. The real problem will be how to sub-divide the Main Page to sort news by topic. I'm not interested in colors. -Edbrown05 03:58, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

like it. but (what did u expect :)) some suggested -
"candy" tweaks

1. i like OR and interviews being together, mebbe we can scatter a few prominent "exclusives" around them, say "OR" and "Wikinews interviews" as subsection of "Wikinews Exclusive"
2. rm Newsroom link at the top, retaining only "get involved", "help" and "breaking..."
3. "help and guidance" instead of "help and advice" below create article textbox.
4. leave out section headers "news of the day" and "in the news".
5. collapse repeated audio and print edition links below "Welcome to Wikinews".
6. dates on OR and interviews, if they're not very recent.
7. think the blue background color for devel/disputed stories box (#00bfff) is too blue, bump the 00 a little, perhaps?

"meat" tweaks (no, i didn't read messed's comment about "looks"):

1. reduce this day last year section to one or two articles, to be manually chosen.
2. reduce latest news to say, last 3/4 days.
3. remove the about wikinews, other languages boxes (perhaps even sister projects) at the bottom in favour of a prominent about wikinews link at the top, which takes leads to an iintro page which has more or less these boxes.

Doldrums 05:17, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Well Edbrown, even Eloquence has acknowledged we need organization/content changes on the Main Page. But that's a discussion for another day. Although, I wouldn't mind minor layout changes. As for the changes you've proposed, Doldrums, I'll get to that as soon as I can. —this is messedrocker (talk) 06:02, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm thinking scap the 3-column format in favor of a 2-column approach. The reason I think this would work and make sense for Wikinews is because it needs a wide right-hand column to present the 'Latest news' categorically by Topic.

The right-most, 3rd column, is not needed in its current form because #1) there is no advertising competing for that space, and #2) the -'Newsroom' appears effective in presenting the content the currently duplicates and hogs up that space on the Main Page.

With a loosely adhered to 2-column format for the Main Page, the left column remains basically unchanged. Space is freed up to better organize and present the current news headlines. It can also be flexible enough for allowing as the need arises the inclusion of a "newsbox" that could/should be floated into the right-column healdlines flagging some important development. -Edbrown05 01:26, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

And actually, besides my blanching at the introduction of eye-popping candy-colors implemented by the the Yorktown1776 proposal, it is hitting the mark by bridging the center and right columns and making them into one right-column. -Edbrown05 01:59, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Wikinews:Proposed deletion

There hasn't seem to be much discussion about WN:PROD, so take a look at it and tell the water cooler if we should implement it or not. —this is messedrocker (talk) 19:45, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

WP:PROD is goodness. WN:PROD seems good too, and its time guidlines are wise. Nyarlathotep 12:38, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

There has never been any outstanding opposition to WN:PROD, so if you don't want it, or you think something should change, please speak now. —this is messedrocker (talk) 17:52, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Pro.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 23:36, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Looks good--This policy will be a real time-saver. Why not make it official? PVJ(Talk) 12:38, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Proposed Deletions is now in effect. Don't list abandoned, minimal, or copyvios on WN:DR, because now they can be deleted under Proposed Deletions. —this is messedrocker (talk) 09:50, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Proposed new template for scientific articles

I propose Template:Source-science as a new template for citing scientific sources.

The idea grew while I was editing several articles on scientific studies. There is currently no template for scientific sources. There are many different styles of referencing in scientific papers, I believe this is a very common one.

Please comment and propose changes, then it can be added to the templates page after a while, if consensus is reached.

I know it's kinda complicated, but I think that's necessary to suit the needs of scientific accuracy and protocol. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Talk) 18:22, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment: We do have Template:Apasource. --+Deprifry+ 16:21, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but as you might have noted it's quite different. I thought apa was for books. This template allows more accurate scientific citation IMO. I wouldn't use that other template for scientific purposes.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Talk) 12:56, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Looks great. Very nice template, however historically speaking, specialized source templates are rarely used, but good job nonetheless. Bawolff ☺☻ 08:37, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

By the way, I changed the way the braacket thingy works with databases (hope you don't mind). Now If you leave the databases blank, the braket's won't so up, but they're exsist if they're needed to. See template:Killbrackets. Great work on template. Bawolff ☺☻ 09:22, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I've added Template:Source-science to Category:Citation templates.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Talk) 11:37, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure its always suitable, such as for preprints, one might want to mention that subst: can be used to prodice customized versions of this template. Nyarlathotep 10:46, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Warnings on talk pages where there's deleted images

This is a feature if commons ticker that posts a message on relevent talk pages of pages with deleted images. Do we want to enable it? (notify in this list)

Infoboxes

Hi,

I noticed there existed two directories of Infoboxes: Wikinews:Template_messages/Infoboxes and Category:Infoboxes. The latter is very much incomplete now, but I think it's difficult to manually update the former, as we do now. The ideal would be I think to set up a bot to create a page like /Infoboxes using the Category, no?

--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 23:33, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I transcluded the wikinews page onto the cat, as that what we seem to be ding with others like Category:Citation templates. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:41, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

United Nations

I'm wondering if we can design the Category:United Nations page so that it has a list of "latest news" on top? I'd do it myself but I don't know how. Crimson 03:45, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Done, However there is some debate as to weather Categories should have that stuff, or if only portals do. I'm a believer in transcluding portals onto categories, but I might be reverted. (This is really an issue we should discuss and work out, and get a policy on). Bawolff ☺☻ 04:11, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

yet another attempt to change the wikinews stylesheet

I propose we change the stylesheet of Wikinews (Like we were going to in The meta:Wikinews design contest and on some other occassions). Our current stylesheet is great for an encyclopedia, but Its bad for News IMHO. I believe the new stylesheet I just made which is based on a combination of Datrio's style sheet, and the design of MrM's http://wikinews.blogspot.com (Well I'm presuming mrm owns that site, I'm not 100% sure) Would work great, or at least be less bad then the current. It still needs some finishing touches, but you can preview it by either going view→Page Style→Datrio+MrM or by adding this line to special:Mypage/monobook.css:

@import "http://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=User:Bawolff/Sandbox/Datrio%2BMrM.css&action=raw&ctype=text/css";

The main difference is a more bold background, and some transparancy here and there. It should work in Mozilla based browser. May partially work in IE and Opera, but I havn't tested it in thoose browsers as of yet. If people don't like this, some other options I'd like to explore is Clear and Blue with a navy background, Wikinews:Custom skin, and the designs at meta:Wikinews design contest All comments apreciated. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:37, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

A love the stylesheet and would love to see it implemented immediately. It changes our look to something different (but not terribly do) from the other Wikimedia project. Thank you bawolff. --Chiacomo ^(talk) 02:33, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

By the way, I think this would also look good with this page as the main page, using the no title JS thingy in use at Wiktionary and Wikipedia. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:13, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

---

This needs some major work in IE. Its definitly not ready for primetime there yet. perhaps if we could do it on moz only, but not ready for IE Bawolff ☺☻ 04:56, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

some minnor work needed in opera. doing that now. fixed region align. Bawolff ☺☻ 05:33, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Fixed majority of opera issues. Bawolff ☺☻ 06:48, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I shouldn't have advertised this until I had it working perfectly in IE. I'm still working on MSIE. Bawolff ☺☻ 05:02, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually some of the fixes for opera I made seemed to help with IE. Now the only problem is (For IE only if not otherwiase noted):

• tabs have wrong z-index
• selected tabs have wrong length
• hover affect on tabs is broken (thats okay)
• little user icon is to high (has head chopped off)
• lists that use inside bullets are too close to text and makes it look funny (thats low prioty)
• regions has wrong lineheight ( that happens in fx too) regions also has incorect hover in opera. I think I made a typo in one of the selectors including regions, but can't find it. (barely noticable)
• Of course rounded edges don't work in IE and Opera, but it would be very difficult to fix that (and not worth it)
• Some transparancy doesn't work in MSIE, but I'm not to concerned with that.

Problem is I'm not really sure how to fix it without a seperate IE only style sheet. I'm going to try and think about this well I sleep, and see if I can remember some magical way to make it work. Any suggestions appriciated. (Also if anyone is using KDE or Mac OS X testing for Safari and Konquor would help. If not I've got an old version of Knoppix somewhere I'll use for Konquor.) Bawolff ☺☻ 05:33, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually I just had a thought. Why don't I search google for an answer to my problems (how obvoius is that??). So I found some sites that talk about different ways to make internet explorer only rules, and It might serve my purposes. Anyways I'll try that tommorow sometime (hopefully). Bawolff ☺☻ 05:51, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Okay, Its usable in internet Explorer. Bawolff ☺☻ 19:38, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

---

It works Does anyone object to me making it the default stylesheet? Bawolff ☺☻ 09:46, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

If no one objects in two days, I'll implement it. Bawolff ☺☻ 18:24, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Oppose: The background is far too bold. It also contrasts far too much with the stark white of the background of articles. Sorry - but I don't think it works well at all. --Skenmy^{(talk)|(ideas)} 18:51, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Doldrums said a similiar thing, If the main content area had a bluish tinge would it be better (do you think)? Bawolff ☺☻ 22:24, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

I think that the background is just far too dark and bold. Perhaps if it was washed out? I prefer it to be easy on the eyes. --Skenmy^{(talk)|(ideas)} 20:19, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

w:en:Robert Scoble interview, anyone?

Since "Interview of the Month" seems dead, I'll ask here. I was recently emailing Robert Scobel, he's donated an image of himself to Commons as PD.

Scobel was inside Microsoft as an employee, and wrote a highly critical blog of the company. He since has joined Podtech.net as vice president of media development, and written the book Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.

Currently 80 stories on Google News mention him, many quoting or interviewing him. Would anyone like to create questions for an interview of him? He's agreed to being interviewed, but this isn't my area of expertise, so I want to pass the organization of it off to someone else. Takers? -- Zanimum 18:05, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

At first there is already way to get him answer questions by posting them into his blog comments. At second he is no longer interesting to general public after he leave Microsoft. He had access to all MSFT geeks without corporate approval and NDA - this is something that made him unique. Now he is working on filming PR polished CEO's, CFO's and others managers for money - this is something a lot of others people did before. The only difference is his distribution channel - he started to use internet while others companies used TV / promo DVDs. So - pick some other person who has no blog and is interesting to general public. P.S.> His last name is Scoble not Scobel --TAG.Odessa 17:22, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

So people that maintain a public prescence aren't interesting... okay. Is there a page that we can list notable people that Wikinewsies have contact to? -- Zanimum 17:09, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I've created Wikinews:Interview subjects, contacted, not yet interviewed. -- Zanimum 18:33, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Something nobody was able to do is to get story from Grigori Perelman. If somebody from Wikinewsies can reach him (over phone or email) or used to work with him before - this will be extremely good result. --TAG.Odessa 08:21, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

That would be good. His email address is public, and he has said he thinks math should be more "like Wikipedia". Anyone want to compose a message on this page, an invitation for him to be interviewed? I could even see (can't guarantee, though) if Jimbo/Brad/someone at Foundation could send it on behalf of Wikinews, to give it more clought. -- Zanimum 18:37, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

WikiBureaux

I have looked but can't find out where this idea was originally discussed. I have some questions about this, if anyone cares to join a discussion on this topic, I've created Wikinews:WikiBureau, so we can discuss it there.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 00:36, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Original reporting on front page

In {{template:Original reporting}}, there's a link to Wikinews:Original_reporting; could it be to the portal instead, Category:Original reporting? Also, could it have maybe the five newest stories, as there is a fair bit of original content these days? -- Zanimum 17:07, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

sure, why not. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:41, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

I changed the number of articles to 4 in template:Original stories. There is a more link that leads to portal (at bottom), so I don't know if we should delete it if the other link leads there as well or what. Anyway, I've semi-protected it so you can do what you think is best. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:50, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

DynamicList templates for on-going issues

I don't know if others had tried this before, but I played with the Template:Issues/Iran--nuclear template a bit and have gotten it to show the 8 most recent articles on the Iran nuclear situation. It seemed like a good way to allow people to see all of the most recent news about something which was updating fairly regularly (i.e. once a week at least) and was fairly easily to isolate using the DynamicPageList requirements (it takes the most recent 8 from anything in the "Iran" and "Nuclear proliferation" categories). I got tired of adding 10 "see alsos" to every article in this series because there are so many of them as of late. It also allows easy linking to the English Wikipedia article on the subject, for a more overall view.

You can see it implemented, for example, on this article. What do you think? I rather like it myself. It is a little long but since most of these articles don't have any other real illustrations anyway I don't think it makes them worse for it. I suppose one could probably use a conditional of some sort to make it just not display the article list, too, but I haven't tried that yet. --Fastfission 19:12, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Good work, but been done - WN:IB. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:49, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Creative Commons copyright Author?

Hi All

I would like to use sections of certain articles within my website under the Creative commons license. However the Creative commons states that I should:

Give the original author credit.

I want to be sure that I get this right and although it may be a slightly stupid question, can someone clarify who the 'original Author' is?

Is citing Wikinews as the source/author the correct way to do this?

Thanks for your help :)

Regards

Mark

The original authors are the individual contributors to Wikinews. The CC-BY 2.5 allows authors to designate other party or entity for attribution; our contributors do that by consenting to

Your work will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License and will be attributed to "Wikinews"

every time they make a edit. So attributing "Wikinews" as author and supplying the license terms is sufficient for compliant reuse. --+Deprifry+ 13:38, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Also if you could list yourself at WN:MF, that would be great (Not required, but its intreasting to know who's using our material.) Thanks. Bawolff ☺☻ 06:04, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Kill the crossword?

I'm guessing the crossword is never updated. Can we get rid of it entirely? (Archive it, but get rid of it.) -- Zanimum 19:20, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

I never use the crossword. It is perhaps never used or updated because there is nothing on the front page or anywhere where a user/reader can play/see it or whatever. I never knew there was one until now. Jason Safoutin 19:27, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Its never updated because the contrib who was maintaining it left (dysporia or something like that was the name). It was updated daily at one point. I think its safe to remove from Game page, but keep the crossword page.

Crosswords - is archive list.

proposed template for single-sourced articles

we had a discussion earlier about the use of only a single source in articles. i've created Template:Single source to be placed on single-sourced articles telling contributors that more sources would be nice. here it is -

This:

This article is based on a single source. Adding more sources is strongly encouraged, as they would help independently confirm the news events, bring a wider diversity of opinions into the article (serving NPOV) and avoid problems of copyright infringement.

Or:

This article is based on a single source. Adding more sources is strongly encouraged, as they would help independently confirm the news events, bring a wider diversity of opinions into the article (serving NPOV) and avoid problems of copyright infringement.

i chose placing the template on the article itself, as opposed to article or user talk page as i think that, this problem is quite often seen on newbie-created articles, and the creator may not always read discussions on the article talk page. i didn't think placing a message on the user talk page is a good idea either, as that would mean it's only that user's job to find more sources.

and so, should we start using it? Doldrums 12:24, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this is a good idea. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 14:24, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Note. based on a suggestion by User:Brian New Zealand, i've added possible exceptions to the guideline, using Template:Hidden. Doldrums 08:06, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't think the template needs the yellow exclamation point, that stuff scares people. Otherwise, yeah, Wikinews attempts to draw upon many sources. -Edbrown05 08:31, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

• Support —FellowWikiNews (W) 21:17, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Breaking News

What about a Breking News so that at least it's online and more news and sources can be added as they become available, within a specified time ofcourse before deletion. Ben57 13:57, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

the template {{breaking}} exists Jacques Divol 20:22, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

And it is frequently abused when an article should spend a few more hours in {{develop}}. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 20:40, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Good suggestion anyways. FellowWikiNews (W) 21:16, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Portal:Current events on Wikipedia

I suggest we put more of our stories on Portal:Current events. Seems only logical to me! We are shamelessly underrepresented on and overclassed by that page! --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 01:25, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Sure, why not. Bawolff ☺☻ 05:09, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Merging articles

Whilst merging two articles Pope's comments on Islam condemned and Muslim world condemns Benedict's criticism of Prophet Muhammad I wanted to make a discuss. I was thinking that there should either be a separate page for discussing merges (there won't be much on it though) or a guideline to say which page to discuss the merging on. Like newer page or older page. I'd perfer the latter (guideline on page of discussion) because there really won't be much discussion anyway.--Apartmento2 12:44, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

An Idea for News: QwikWikiNews... News with Maximum Clarity and Minimum Word Count...

When I go to a regular news website (i.e. msnbc, cnn, etc.) I am struck by the one-line or one-sentence "tag" lines which are given to each story and are designed to make me want to click to read the full article. Much of the time the "tag" isn't particularily accurate or relevant and is designed simply to tempt the reader to click it rather than inform him/her of any news substance. Yet at the same time it is nice to be able to look at, for example, the google RSS feed list or msnbc's list of one-liner tags as it is possible to QUICKLY gain a general sense of what is going on in the world and the stories of the day. Wikinews does a much better job with its "tags" and really helps to eliminate some of the "Enquirer" feel a reader often gets at other sites. However, I wonder if wikinews would be able to take news a step further. Right now, even with wikinews, you either get the one line tag or you click to read the full article. It would be possible to do something in between where the substance of the story is communicated in, say, a few sentences. In other words, the BARE MINIMUM of words should be used to get across the point of the story. It could be labled something like "QuickWikiNews" and provide MAXIMUM CLARITY WITH MINIMUM WORD COUNT. In fact, that's not a bad tag line for it... The result would be clear news which a reader could digest very quickly (i.e. in under a minute). The "tag" sentence(s) could still link to the larger story, but it wouldn't be designed as a quick advertisement but a true synopsis. Wikipedia is uniquely situated to provide this service. The following is an example of what i'm talking about:

This is a current tag line on wikinews:

"Muslim world condemns Pope's criticism of Islam"

My questions after reading this tag are these:

  1)  What did he say exactly?  (i.e. What was the exact quote?)
  2)  Where was he when he said that?
  3)  What was the context in which he said it?  
  4)  Why did he say that?
  5)  What has been the response to his comments?

When you click this tag it takes you to the full story which takes several minutes (took me 5) to read.

Now, "QuickWikiNews" might say something like the following:

== Whilst speaking in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a book recounting a conversation between 14th Century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian interlocutor. "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached'." Many Muslim leaders have condemned the comments, some of them stating that the Pope had fallen into "the trap of bigots and racists". Mohamed Mahdi Akef head of Muslim Brotherhood has asked Islamic nations to break off relations with the Vatican, until the Pope apologises for his statements. In response, Vatican spokesman Reverend Federico Lombardi said, "It certainly wasn't the intention of the Pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers," ==

This may even be too long, but what I did here was simply copy and paste the most relevant information from the original article. While retaining the key ideas of the article the read time is shortened from several minutes to a few seconds. Even with the shortening, however, I am still able to answer all of my initial questions raised by the tag line.

Now if that could be extended to the entire days news, wikinews (or QuickWikiNews) could conceivably become the news destination of choice for anybody short on time... er... everybody.

Thats a really intrasting idea. To me it kinda sounds like a print version of audio news briefs. Currently guidelines state that leads should have one to two line describing them. I don't see whats wrong with leads which have a short paragraph which contain the basic five w's, and If you want more you can click the link. (Also sort of similiar to Wikines shorts, or Buissness briefs, but for whole articles instead of the few that no one made into full articles) Bawolff ☺☻ 04:23, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

I guess it would actually be very similar to the podcast, and also to the regular print edition except 1-2 pages instead of 6-7. I guess the bottom line is that reading or watching regular news can be very frustrating because the reader (or viewer) has a different goal than the newspaper (or news channel). I want to tune in, get the info, and then go about my life. The news organizations want me to stick around as long as possible so that I can look at a million ads. Quicker news has the potential to take Wikinews to a higher level of functionality and eventually a broader audience...

Yes that is true, but there are sometimes people who want to read a long article if they're intreasted in a subject. Thats whats nice about paper news in someways. If your intreasted in the basics, you could proably read first two paragraphs, and get all the news you need, thenturn the page. In an online stting, its all or nothing, click the link, wait for it to load, and then since you got there you might as well read the entire thing. I think a cobination of the two (quick summary+in depth) is an intreasting idea to explore. (I'm thinking in my head something similiar to google reader and then the rss summary would have the 5 Ws, and how, and a link to the big article. (Proabbly not how it'd should be implented by wikinews [assuming that others think this should be implemented at all], but that would be a good metaphor) Bawolff ☺☻ 06:37, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

    Yes that is true, but there are sometimes people who want to read a long article if they're
    intreasted in a subject.

Absolutely. The long articles should always be available. The intial single "tag" headers should also remain. The Quickernews idea should be something separate entirely from these. My vision of how this would end up playing out would be the following...

I go to the Wikinews site just as I do today but there would be an icon link in the corner saying something like "Quikwikinews". I would click that link which would take me to a webpage which has all the same topics covered as are covered in the regular print edition. The difference would be how long it takes me to read them all. I think, optimally, there would also be a pdf/print edition available for the quicknews as well. I should be able to sit down at the table with my morning coffee and my quickwikinews which I just printed. However, in this scenario I would be done reading after two sips of coffee... instead of two pots. However, I will have taken away as much, or nearly as much, pertinent information... the "gist of the story" so to speak.

This actually orginated for me, not with thinking about news, but due to a magazine ad I read. The ad was for business professionals short on time but who wanted to read all the latest books by business gurus, the best CEOs etc. The ad was for a company which reads all the best books released each week and would then send out a summary audio CD which hit all the highlights, giving the busy professional all the pertinent information they could use to advance in the profession but without the time comittment. I thought that was a really good idea that could be applied to more areas of information distribution. Podcasting is one such method which I utilize and love because of time savings. I think the newsprint idea has great potential also...

This sounds like a good idea. FellowWikiNews (W) 22:20, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Yet another Main Page

This is an alternative design for the mainpage that gets more content in less space by using collapsed sections. There are some technical improvements as well which Doldrums put quite a bit of effort into helping me with.

Main changes are collapsing a lot of the sections down the right hand side that made the page really long. The dynamic section on older news is based on the fancy new {{#time:}} construct so doesn't rely on Craig's bot. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 22:14, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Support - I like the idea, and the design. I think we are supposed to Support/Oppose here, right? Thunderhead(talk) 22:18, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

That looks really great.--Sushi 16:04, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Actually as this is a sort-of v+.5 of our current main page I was looking more for comments about which bits are most useful. There is an issue for me with MSIE (the dynamic bits are all expanded and non-compressible). I can't see any fault in the code, and the templates I copied it from on Wikipedia seem to work fine. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 16:08, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Is it possible to individualize the page to each user? In other words, I may always like to look at the "This Day Last Year" section and prefer it to be always open when I load the page where someone else may not care about that section at all and prefer it to be closed. Either way the page looks simplified, neat, and classy.--Sushi 16:15, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't think we have features like that integrated into the Wikimedia software, it'd be an interesting addition but not a small thing to code in page layout "memory" on a per-user basis. Of course, you can create your own version of the page with the sections you want expanded, I think I'm going to create Main Page/compact from this and see how that goes. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 16:29, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

couple of things i think would make it better: (both would require reworking Template:Dynamic navigation)

1. in the OR and This day last year boxes, one story is left always visible and a "more" button will reveal some more stories
2. the developing and disputed stories list is made equal length by keeping a certain set always visible, and hiding the rest.

Doldrums 16:56, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

took a shot at this, creating Template:Dynamic navigation/alt, but then ran into DPL trouble. Doldrums 17:41, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Whats wrong with it. seems perfectly fine to me. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:53, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

list has repeated items. Doldrums 04:20, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

I see the Main Page is using the newly designed collapsible feature for older news days, I like it. One picky thing from me: I think it would look a little nicer if the dates were left-justified in the box. In other words, if September 20 appeared at the far left side of the box, and the [Show] button was center-justified. This alignment would more closely follow from the uncollapsed News day headings above. Good work! :) Edbrown05 18:09, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

oh. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:58, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

MessedRocker's version

I have just finished the second version of "Hitting the Nail on the Head", which aesthetically is based on Yorktown1776's work, but is organized very differently from other main pages. Take a look for yourself, and leave feedback. —this is messedrocker (talk) 07:58, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

clicklisten.org

Dear Staff: I would like to request permission from wikinews to post some of its articles on http://ClickListen.org for public access. ClickListen.org is a non-profit news site which contains a special program that allows users to click a headline and listen to a synthesized human voice narration of the article. The voice is indistinguishable from a human voice. Carlos M. Fabara ClickListen.org cfabara@gmail.com

You are more than welcome to post Wikinews articles on your website. Please remember to property attribute the article to Wikinews as all of our content is released under the CC-BY license. Any reproductions or derivitives must also be licensed under CC-BY. Something like this would be just fine:

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write! Released under CC-BY-2.5.

It would be very nice if you could link directly to the Wikinews article. --Chiacomo ^(talk) 22:06, 27 September 2006 (UTC) copied to his email

the voice is identical to a human voive I gotta hear that to believe it. Good luck with your site. there might be some slight overlap with spoken wikinews, though. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:47, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

your site is broken (in firefox). Bawolff ☺☻ 22:51, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Worked for me (in firefox). Seems pretty cool. --Chiacomo ^(talk) 04:23, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Wikinews Print Redesign

The print version of wikinews looks boring; there are no graphics, only text. I think it should be redesigned and made more enjoyable to read. It might be harder to put out a copy every day, but there are more wikinews users than staff on a newspaper. How could this be done? Yeti man5 23:04, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

CSpurrier is proablly the best person to talk to for that. user:Bawolff

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there is graphics occasionally, but only when the photos are freely licensed. -- Zanimum 14:16, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

I was under impression theres graphics whenever CSpurrier has a fast internet connection, as the print eddition is semi-fair use, and thats why its locally uploaded, as opposed to commons. (I may be mistaken) Bawolff ☺☻ 01:05, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I always thought Commons was completly free licensed and free to use on Wikimedia or other sites. So, if we use CC-BY, then it would have to be uploaded locally, right? Thunderhead(talk) 01:08, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

If it was only CC-BY, then we could use commons. However I believe it uses some fair use images, so therefor its a local upload. Don't quote me on that. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:15, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Exactly --Cspurrier 02:39, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Sigh, as fun as Wikimedia is, it's really confusing. Thunderhead(talk) 01:20, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Adding Images is the most time consuming part of creating the Print Edition. When I am short on time (a lot lately :( ) I skip them. I have also had to skip them a few times when I am away from home and on slow connection.--Cspurrier 02:39, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Wikimedia is confusing: stupid copyright laws. Support your local pirate party, and make the confussion stop. (Or if there is none where you live, support your imaginary pirate party (: ) user:Bawolff 06:50, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Inverted Triangle

So, I am talking Journalisim this year, and we learned about an 'Inverted Triangle' that editors use. It says that 'Who, What, When, Where, Why, and Sources' are the most important things in a news article, and all other information should be added to the bottom, so I am going to give you a link. I propose this as a policy, or guideline.

Inverted Trianle Example Thunderhead(talk) 23:22, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Quote

---

# most important and newsworthy facts first, with least important and least immediate facts last - this is opposite to development order in typical narratives, and is termed inverted-pyramid style

from WN:SG#Writing tone and structure. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:10, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

It's already basically required in order for an article to even exist, so making all sorts of rules out of it is not a good idea. —this is messedrocker (talk) 02:01, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

NewbieBot

Okay, I noticed that alot of users join Wikinews each day, and most users on the Welcomittie can't get to everyone. Is there any way to create a system that reads the User Creation log, and adds the {{welcome}} template? I figured this would be a good idea. Please let me know. Thunderhead(talk) 04:25, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure about this one. See [1]. FellowWikiNews (W) 15:46, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Part of what makes the welcome message so nice is that is comes from a human. Other then that though it is easy enough to create a bot to do welcome users. --Cspurrier 17:22, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I kinda like the human touch. however I do believe other wikis (commons?) uses a bot. Bawolff ☺☻ 03:46, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

How about adding a NewbieBot for IP addresses? We could edit it if the user causes a problem. Thunderhead(talk) 01:41, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

newspaper headline project

I am KaurJmeb, from zh.wikinews and zh.wikimedia projects. I start a new project in zh.wikinews, that is headline(tilte only) of daily newspaper. Actually, before this project, Taiwan and Hongkong users collect these for two weeks. And we think that is very good to read so many headlines from another country. I hope this project not only play in zh.wikinews, but also all of wikinews languages. We can share and translate these headlines, then we can read headlines from everywhere.

category:Headline of Taiwan Newspaper 2006

category:Headline of HongKong Newspaper 2006

--218.167.100.106 19:19, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't understand what you're doing. can you re-phrase that? Bawolff ☺☻ 03:48, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Move Sports news to Current Events

I propose that Sports is not news but current events and human interest matter. I feel that sports is a branch of entertainment, not news. Therefore, I propose that articles relating to sports be posted in the current events wiki rather than in the news wiki.

News is history in the making. Should an event in sports also qualify as history, as information that reflects the world, the event can or could be discussed as something that could be added or moved to the news section.

Sports and entertainment events offer up a lot of clutter; too much clutter. Although these kinds of areas are human interest stories, there is far too much deeper and more significant matter that needs and deserves attention as news proper.

PlasticDoor 19:00, 11 October 2006 (UTC)PlasticDoor

I feel that news stories can be as valuable as other news... Discussions about moving them between current events and news would lead to more process which slows things down...--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 21:02, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I can understand your sentiments. I'm not intending to trivialize sports or its news. I can also appreciate that confusion could happen if the reasons for doing so aren't made explicit. Informational news items like "The ABCs move to the quarterfinals" is certainly valuable. So is XWYs beat 486s in playoffs." I'm saying these are *sports* news, and that sports falls under entertainment in periodical content divisions. Can't articles be redirected from the News forum to the Current Events forum with a minimum of hassle?--PlasticDoor 02:58, 15 October 2006 (UTC)PlasticDoor

You misunderstand the difference between Wikinews and Wikipedia. all news on wikipedia: is current events. all news on wikinews is what you see here. We are seperate projects. Also this is in violation of WN:NPOV/W:WP:NPOV. Sorry, but I just don't see that happening. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:03, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Helpme function

After reading this I created Template:Helpme, which I think should be added to the sample greetings, which are apparently protected. Until now, assistance was centralised at the water cooler, so is this a good idea or not? Also, could someone with more experience with IRC tell me if this would alert people on wikinews-irc?--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 19:19, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Not at the moment (unless someone makes a bot). It will alert people listing to irc://irc.wikimedia.org/en.wikinews (if its in edit summary, but if a user edits there own page I always look, because i find it intreasting) but not irc://irc.freenode.net/wikinews (or wikinews-en). However we're small enough that people listen to the RC and will notice it. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:01, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

You beat me to it, Bawolff :). Yeah, I think everyone here is an RC Patroller. We could get people to make a DPL on thier talk page, and when a new person add's it, it'd say "New Message" I think... Thunderhead(talk) 01:02, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

By the way, Wikinews:Welcommittee/greetings isn't protected. Thunderhead(talk) 01:03, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I remember a while back when you could see almost entirely what happened in the last 24 hours just by going to special:Recentchanges. Thats one of the reasons why I like Wikinews better then pedia. You can see whats happening everywhere (Plus, if your bad at writing stuff, like me, there seems to be a lot more other tasks to do here then at 'pedia). Bawolff ☺☻ 01:19, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

"Those who can't write, edit." Thunderhead(talk) 21:07, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

So you think this is a good idea and we should put it in the greetings?--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 22:37, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Feel free to if you want. I personally think Wikinews is still to small to need it, but it won't hurt anything. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:40, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah I tend to think ahead, one day we will have millions of editors... moehahaha :-p . No really, I agree, let's just keep it there and start using it the day we need it, when lot's of newbies are swamping the watercooler because wikinews is world-famous... --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 22:49, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

At the rate we're growing, we'll start using it next year. Or at least some people will. I don't think there's a day I don't see (User creation log) on RC. Thunderhead(talk) 01:43, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Top menu

The top menu links for the Water cooler, Live chat and Style guide, I think should be removed and placed in the sidebar navigation menu instead. I could do this but I don't know where the navigation menu file is located. --Nzgabriel | Talk 06:27, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I know where it is if there is concensuss for the change. Which nav menu? Navagation, or a new heading? Bawolff ☺☻ 00:58, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

The Navagation menu. --Nzgabriel | Talk 04:00, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Well to do that you would add a line (or change an exsiting line) in mediawiki:sidebar. its format is

• Heading
  • someMediawiki:page|navItemName
  • someotherMediawiki:page|NavItemName2
• Head2
  • Some other mediawiki:page3|NavName3

etc.Some other mediawiki page is some page in the Mediawiki namespace (like mediawiki:portal-url) that has the title of the page you're linking to. NavItemName is some page in mediawiki ns (e.g. Mediawiki:portal, ) that gives the name of the link. However, this only works for the monobook skin (for other skins, look through special:allmessages). Note, I'm personnally neutral on this idea, as I don't like the sidebars too long.user:Bawolff 06:42, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I would only do it if there was, like you said before, a community consensus. --Nzgabriel | Talk 08:42, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Forum:Index

Should Wikinews use the Forum namespace for public collaboration as an extention to the Water Cooler? I was wondering, because I use it on my wiki and I thought it might be good here. Thunderhead(talk) 23:14, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

A forum namespace, eh? Sounds like a good idea. But hold off on making pages in the Forum pseudonamespace because it'll be counted as real articles and show up on the main page, plus I hear it causes problems when the namespace is being created for real. —this is messedrocker (talk) 23:15, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

No problem. I let you all deal with the technical stuff. Wikia had to guide me step-by-step on mine. And you can add an extention (sorta like the Bot flag) so that topics won't be counted on the main page. Thunderhead(talk) 23:19, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Here's a manual about forums on MediaWiki from Wikia. This can be adapted to Wikinews. Thunderhead(talk) 23:29, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Intreasting idea, but if I understand this right, it requires an extention, (proablly meta:DPLforum), and we'd need to get the devs to put that on, and I believe it takes a lot more convincing to get them to install an extention, as well as a new namespace (That statement could be wrong. thats just what I heard). I'm kind of mixed towards fourms altogether, I sort of like the standard wiki talk pages. However I'm not opposed to a trial. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:02, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Also if we want a temporary system thats similiar, until the technical details are sorted out, we could try my discussion system I made for talkiing about articles (That failed for neutrality reasons). - user:Bawolff/idea. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:02, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

That looks good for a temporary system. Could we possibly create a portal page, and use the "Start a new article" box and have a no-publish included when you go to the edit screen? Like the Date template? Thunderhead unlogged @ school (talk)

I don't quite understand what the benefits of an extra namespace could be, would anyone like to explain it? What do you mean by "for public collaboration"?--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 21:43, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, you know what a Message Board is? This is the Wikinews version we are proposing. Look here for an example

So, what are the extras? And why would it be more public? It looks a lot to me like a normal talk page...--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 22:13, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Benifits: more structure, mote tradittional fourm like. People can't trample over each other. (Well they shouldn't, since you can't post to the page well its protected they could edit it, but it'd be noticable.) Depending on your opinion that could be good or bad. The link thunderhead provided (The help:fourm one) explains its benifits in more detail. However now that I think about it, I think it'd be best just in the project (wikinews:) and talk namespace, as a fourm ns would be superflours in my opinion. phraser functions + inputbox when I made this phraser functions didn't exsist, and I didn't really know how to use inputbox, they could proablly be worked in there. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:22, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Maybe it would be better if we were more Wiki-like, since this is something most Wikimedia projects don't have... I don't see any really benefit, and too much trouble.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 22:35, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Disregard what I said above. I misunderstood what DPLForum was. Its basiclly an enhanced version of template:Flag + an inputbox. In addition to the article the discussion is taking place on, it says the date of the last edit, who last edited, and if you've seen it yet. It also has an input box to start new discussions. My comment idea, doesn't really full thoose functions. We could restructure the WC to be like that (archiving would be easier), but short of the extention, the only thing we could get is: an input box to start new discussions, a list of discussions, ordered by last edit, and the date they were started. The actual discussions are like normal talk pages. User:bawolff 23:54, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

ALright. Thanks for listening. Just wanted to make a suggestion! Thunderhead(talk) 23:56, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I didn't say that its a bad idea, I just thought it was something else, this may still be a good idea. user:Bawolff 23:58, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I know. What I meant to say was, I'm glad I got a good conversation started. Thunderhead(talk) 19:51, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

rename Template:Finished

to Template:Ready.  — Doldrums(talk) 05:43, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

• Sounds like a good idea, because "Finished" could be confused by new users on the wiki. I'll Support. Thunderhead(talk) 19:50, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
• Support per Thunderhead.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 00:07, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

renamed. don't know much about redirected templates. a check for unintended consequences wld be nice.  — Doldrums(talk) 06:45, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Special:Random

Should Special:Random be in the navigation toolbar? Thunderhead(talk) 01:08, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I think a random news article really doesn't show our quality... Besides, who wants to read random news articles?--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 00:02, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

"who wants to read random news articles?" - people who visit wikinews, given our somewhat whimsical coverage of events till date :)  — Doldrums(talk) 05:43, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, we should try to do better in stead of putting in a random function.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 13:34, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

I think special:random is kinda pointless. I don't think anyone really used it one it wwas their. Anothe intreasting thing is special:random/portal. Bawolff ☺☻ 21:34, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Template:Unblock

Wikipedia has a Template:Unblock that blocked users can use to have their block reviewed. This is a useful template if the blocked user does not want to e-mail an Administrator or if the user's talk-page is not watchlisted by a sysop. It would be especially handy now, considering the fact that we may have to use IP range blocks to enforce bans on certain users. Could someone create such a template for the benefit of the community? PVJ^(Talk)_{(Articles I have written)} 05:05, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Good question. I would create this, but mabie we should get a second opinion. FellowWikiNews (W) 13:12, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

I already created it, and I put it as Template:Unblock here as well. See if you like it. Thunderhead(talk) 00:51, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Publish checklist, and changes to Template:Develop, Template:Ready

i've created a checklist to be used to verify that an article is ready to be published. it is meant to be a ready-reckoner of policies and guidelines currently written down or followed. i plan to include a link to it in the new {{develop}} and {{ready}} (formerly {{finished}}) tags and so is going to be a high visibility page. comments and criticism on these proposed changes are welcome. — Doldrums(talk) 07:34, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

I, the Wikinews Community, have agreed to this and made the changes.  — Doldrums(talk) 09:28, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

lol :D . regards Sean Heron 20:53, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Competition

How about a new writing competition but this time make it on a randomly selected day we choose articles that have been written and give them a score and the person who has made the most articles/had the highest overall ranking wins? --Nzgabriel | Talk 00:36, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Good idea, but I don't know how we would 'rank' the articles. Consensus, and such wouldn't fit. Let me know on my talk page if you want to explain this better. Thunderhead(talk) 00:51, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Most articles that you some how use magic to make them appear here? Bawolff ☺☻ 00:01, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Wikinews Search Engine

The (unofficial) Wikinews Search Engine. I talked to Google, and they said that since the WMF is a 501(c) Non-Profit Organization, we don't have ads! Comments are welcome! Thunderhead(talk) 06:14, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

We could potentially add it MediaWiki:Googlesearch and a couple other places. The only thing I'd change is - Wikinews logo, use image:Wikinews-logo.png, image:Wikinews-logo-en.png not Image:Wikinews logo.png. Make the creator pict into a Wikinews logo. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:14, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, I didn't want to violate copyright til I talked to you all since that logo is copyrighted. Thunderhead(talk) 02:21, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Oh yeah, forgot about that. Since its not official of the wikimedia foundation, we'd proablly have to ask if its okay from the foundation. Bawolff ☺☻ 03:57, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

BBC Citizen journalism video thingy

...

Shakespherefan00 brought up an intreasting thing on the BBc website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/6114950.stm . Basiclly the BBC wants to encourage citizen journalism and is willing to air a short (2 min) news video on TV. Anyone intreasted? Bawolff ☺☻ 23:28, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

If anyones intreasted, previous things done on wikinews relating to video include: Wikinews:Broadcast (Excellent 3 videos [only one is still online though] made by DV) and A short moving text thing by MRM as part of WNN. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:26, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

I think as a whole Wikinews should do something. DragonFire1024 23:29, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Wikinews really needs to get behind multimedia, in my opinion. We already have the cablities for audio (in ogg), and (technically) for videos (theora in a ogg continer). I know MrM brought up WNN for videos (and i brought over to audio (hence Wikinews News Now) So why doesn't Wikinews do multimedia, heck, I'll help ;-D terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 00:06, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

We more then technically have the capability, — (Direct link). Bawolff ☺☻ 00:25, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

AH, see, never knew we could upload video! I see we can. Thanks for bring it to my attention (interesting broadcast) terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 00:34, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Yep can upload ogg theora vide ( and proablly other ogg video formats too). We can also upload avi, if we change the extention, as mediawiki can't tell the difference, but we're not supposed to. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:13, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I would love to be part of a Wikinews News TV station. It would be great I think. DragonFire1024 00:13, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

DF1024, i have a good idea where DirecTV could put our channel, channel slot #360 DirecTV Lineup

MobusSorry but its already taken by Fox News Channel.

We have the capabilities yes, but not the funds or equipment technically...and we would need to of course get clearance from the foundation...but I would love to be part of it. DragonFire1024 00:29, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

How many of us attend school were we can easily obtain access to cameras and video editing software (I'm in Digital Video Editing & Sound Fundimentals myself, would be a big problem for me!) terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 00:34, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Also, most software has FLOSS equivelents. (I know they exsist, but I've never tried, or used them so I can't say about the quality). Bawolff ☺☻ 01:13, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Its only natural that they do, i saw one the other day.

Bawolff: our friends at wikipedia seem to suggest Avidemux or Jahshaka. Those two are cross platform, the full list being List of video editing software. I tried Jahshaka, wasn't too happy with it. terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 04:42, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

By the way, I restored the links on the Wikinews:Broadcast page. All formats should work now. -- IlyaHaykinson 03:44, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

If we could, I'll love to help bring together Wikinews' non-wiki subprojects (print, newsbriefs, newsline, and video) into collabration, more like what MrM proposed User:Mrmiscellanious/Sandbox/WNN/About. Right now the different subprojects don't collbrate or, what has unforunately happened with newsbriefs, stop producing. (i've fixed my audacity install, so expect a new episode of newsbriefs soon!) With the help of others, i don't see why wikinews can't reach into other markets. And one up for the challege and ready to join me? terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 08:44, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

I would be willing to help out with background stuff, but proablly wouldn't be able to contribute very much in actual content to them (So in other words nothing useful :( sorry ). Bawolff ☺☻ 00:40, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

del.ici.ous, etc.?

Can we add icons for del.ici.ous, Digg, Furl, Google boomark, Reddit, and Yahoo bookmark, to try and improve readership? -- Zanimum 19:11, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Sure (May have some technical hurdles, but its possible) , but the proper place for thoose icons is at WN:RSS, which is linked to the main page, but isn't read very often. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:34, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Sure, we might have to copy&paste onto every story (and remember, no crazy javascripts and such, this isn't de.wikipedia ;-D ). But yeah, more readership = more contributors (and more spam and such, but it comes included, more readers + more spam, or no readers + MyName and clone spam) terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 00:03, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone know where I can get one of these cool icons? Bawolff ☺☻ 04:23, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Erm, digg.com? terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 08:45, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Commons also have categories on icons and logos. Somehow these might be useful. Shyam ^(T/C) 09:34, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Interview - a new namespace

I came here to propose here a very nice idea that all the interviews should be in a new namespace, i.e. "Interview:". The way of writing should be in differnet styles also, like Q&A seesion and some summary of the interviews at the top. Please suggest your views about the proposal. Shyam ^(T/C) 10:35, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, I don't see why we need a new namspace, ns:0 + Category:Interview works fine imo. I think being written in a different style is a given though. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:38, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Bawolff, cat's are good. As for styles, I've never read an interview (in a magazine or such) that wasn't in Q&A format, surely Q&A should be used on WN as well terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 00:00, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Audio Wikinews Newsline

Hey, I put the proposal up at my namespace User:Terinjokes/AWN terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 22:58, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Interviews/ Poll on Climate warming

Hello, I have an idea thats been floating around in my head for a few days now, that I wanted to voice here. Since the the Stern-review has been released, I view climate change as the most important topic concerning our future, and therefore I was thinking that by polling people on their opinion on it, I could kill two birds with one stone, and not only advertise the issue, but possibly also contribute to an interesting Original Reporting artice.

My basic concept is that, as climate change is a global issue, I'd like to involve as many wikinews Projects as possible (in contrast to the Korean poll where I was the only canditate able to conduct it). I've already made a start and posted on the german wikinews. I was thinking that the english wikinews could serve as a hub for the article/preparations, as I recon its the language most people are familiar with, and it is also the most active project.

Of course the whole idea rests on the assumpion that other contributors are willing not only to help, but to actually conduct polls. While I am willing to (and most certainly will) do some interviews in germany, the quality and relevance, rises proportionaly to the area covered and the number of people questioned. Therefore I would like to know what you think of the idea, and who might be willing to conduct polls/ do interviews. Thanks in advance ! Regards Sean Heron 14:48, 9 November 2006 (UTC) P.S. I`ll probably make an empty page and use the discussion or subpage for drafting a questionare or exchanging thoughts on interviewing soon.

I don't know if this kind of poll have a real value. Many web sites exist full of poll. It's a very difficult task to conduct and build a real professional poll : the questions, the goals, the samples (who answer (age, sex, job...), the sorting, the analyse of the results. Jacques Divol 14:56, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree that its a good bit of work, and that we are not likely to be able to match a proffesional poll. However I don't see the problem in doing the things you listed (putting together the questions, sorting, etc.), but in actually having people going on the street and interviewing people.

I'm thankful for your comment that such polls are presented on websites already, as I didn't realize this was the case :D . Wikipedia linked me to this, in my eyes very good, site, which had a number of polls on precisely the topic of climate change:

• Consensus that climate change is a serious problem
• Public willing to bear cost of combating climate change

For me thought, this is encouraging news! For one, we can easily steal some questions :D, and the metholody/questionare pdfs are well worth checking out, they're certainly a good way to present summarys in a good fashion. Also, we can see which kind of questions they did not ask, which makes these questions more interesting for us. Some of the questions I had been thinking of earlier, and have not been asked in any of the polls I saw, are :

• "Have you heard of the Stern-review?"
• "Do you believe that taking strong (and potentially expensive) action now, will economically pay for itself in the future? /Do you believe that, if no major changes are made in reducing greenhouse emmisions, the economic damage in the future is going to be severe?"
• "Do you think politicians are tackling the job fast enough ?"
• "Are you willing to cut back in living standard in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emmisions ?"
• "Have you taken actions to reduce greenhouse gas emmisions/ Do you take care so as to minimize emmisions due to your living?"
• "Do you think more pressure needs to be exerted on polititians to take action... ?"
• "Have you exerted/do you exert pressure on polititians ...?"

Regards Sean Heron 21:11, 9 November 2006 (UTC) P.S. some more links to opinion polls coming soon.

meta:WORTNET might have some stuff for cross-lang. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:24, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Adopt a people project

Since we've only one user (so far!) particularly concerned with categorisation with people I've moved the discussion here where we can look at what has been done, and how we move forward from this.

Discussion from WN:ALERT

Old discussion reproduced here'

1. shld WP links be replaced with WN links? as the style guide would like it to be?  — Doldrums(talk) 16:03, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

I've done so where there are multiple wikilinks so we have ours plus 'pedia's. A more thoughtful going through the category afterwards might end up with links to people categories. In any case, I think it is something to look at when RC patrolling new stuff. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 16:45, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

What do you all think of (eventually) doing this for All figures. Just start at our first article, and do every single person ever mentioned in a wikinews article. Or should we keep this to only the rich, and famous? Bawolff ☺☻ 00:48, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

If they've a wikipedia page I think there's no debate, but in other cases it'd have to be up for discussion. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 07:06, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

I would disagree there :) Okay just say a NZ MP who has a WP article, but will properly only have 1 or 2 news articles (very unnotable).

Earlier in the year I thought we decided we were against these people cats, we even sent some to DR. Other Lang wikinews could have them, but they were not a en thing.

This should have had more discussion, before it was a all out run to add them. Brian | (Talk) | ^{New Zealand Portal} 18:41, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

All I can say is it seemed like a good idea at the time (it was prompted by a complaint on the Water Cooler that someone couldn't browse GWB stories). I think your NZ MP with 1 or 2 articles should have his category, although I may have held a different position on this in the past. The problem that exists is, if a figure is covered by people who hold a biased opinion of them then this bias creeps into the category. However, if we categorise comprehensively then things should balance out on the whole.

Anyway, I seemed to manage to launch the idea the right way, you're the only one expressing concern and there has been some enthusiasm among other contributors to "bag" their favourite public figure. I believe it makes the wiki more useful, it gives us more options for local wikilinks, and it should be easier to find appropriate related news if you know you can rely on people categories. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 19:17, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

That then brings us to the question, as which point should the cat be added? If there was one reference of the person name in a article ie in a article about the NZ PM, it says something in passing about another mp. Should that mean articles about both MP’s are added? I’m a bit uneasy about this. For example when the UN had its General Meeting should there be cats for every member who was there? Brian | (Talk) | ^{New Zealand Portal} 23:06, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Just for fun, join the dark side Brian and adopt Helen Clarke. Looks like she could do with some "tough love" parenting. ;-) --Brian McNeil / ^talk 19:33, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm pro having categories for different people: it facilitates searching here and linking from other projects, like "Wikinews has news related to George Bush".--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 19:33, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

i think we can start by having categories for people who have a large number of articles about them (more than a few 10s, say?). one useful thing having a cat will accomplish is to allow articles about the subject to be listed in chron. order using dpl.

when i categorised Blair articles, i did leave out a couple of articles in about 100, where i thought the referencing was incidental, (eg., article on Romanian president(?) meeting Bush mentioned he met Blair the previous month). i agree that this may need some figuring out.

taking BrianNZ's examples above, if one MP makes a substantial statement about another, categories of both get added to the articles if they are "category worthy" - there are enuf articles about each to merit a category. as for the UN GA meeting, countries specifically mentioned in the article will get listed. this has been the practise anyway, 'far as i can tell.  — Doldrums(talk) 06:08, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Who to Categorise?

Off-the-cuff guideline would be 5-10 article minimum, open to discussion.

Use of [[Person's Name]] pages

Since we're setting these up, should we use them in articles in preference to wikipedia links?

How to arrange the Category pages?

Do we want photos? DPLs? A profile, a synopsis and link to their Wikipedia page? Do we assign an importance level and have differing templates for more "newsworthy" people?

Since these are people we are talking about, there categories should reflect the fact that they are people, not random digits in Wikinews' SQL database. I believe we should have a basic biography of the people, not going into much detail, but just a breif description of who they are, maybe a photo of them, and oviously a link to their WP page. (I hope this makes since, it's almost 4AM!) terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 08:50, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Beyond People - organisations

We already have patchy cover of groups such as the UN, Al-Qaeda. I've added the CIA and FBI as pseudo-people, what other groups need identified in this way?

I decided to check up on how well done the United Nations category was, and I think I've had to add about 50 articles so far.

In going through the process I've identified a few new candidates for categorisation. Fidel Castro, Kofi Annan and Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Also one that falls into the "organisations" class, Hezbolla.

Oh, and the UN portal could probably do with a makeover. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 09:41, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Full RSS Feeds

Hi,

Is it possible to have the RSS feed(s) include the story, rather than repeating the headline?

Hamish.MacEwan

I would think that what might want to be considered is an additional bit of markup for stories that would compliment the headline such as slug: One sentence that captures the key fact of the story or captions a photo. that could be included in the RSS feed. It would then be pretty easy to run the RSS feed with headline and slug in a ticker or feed-enabled application as in the news ticker proposal. But I'm just a new guy. ---cman- 17:59, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Its definitly possible, (<span class="summary"> first lines that you want in rss</span>, but you'll proablly have to find someone to do it. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:32, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Photojournalism

Can I ask people to please review WN:PHOTO and make some comments / give some ideas? I'd like to follow tis through and make it a contributing part of Wikinews. --Skenmy^{(t•c•w•i)} 14:40, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

looks fine. place a link to it on the newsroom. — Doldrums(talk) 06:08, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

We should get involved or merge some activities perhaps with m:Press Corps?--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 00:40, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Wikinews Ticker?

All news orginizations have a news ticker that runs a synopsis of each story so that people on the move can get their news quick. I propose that we get a Ticker for Wikinews that will run down the stories. I think it will be an informative and useful tool for all Wikinews readers.

No, not "all" news organizations. Really, that's not too helpful on the web, where you can flick to stories at whim. I am considering creating such a service for GO Transit trains, though. (GO is a public transit system across Ontario. They had commerically-owned ad tickers in each car, that have been inactive for at least a month.) -- Zanimum 19:57, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

This has been sugested before. I'm neutral about it, but you'll have to find someone else to make it. (and <marguee> is evil and isn't happening for a number of reasons.) Cowicide [indef blocked user, for thoose who don't know wikinews history] had a neat little ticker he suggested a while back. (go through water cooler archives if your curious). Bawolff ☺☻ 06:22, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi Bawolff, I was unblocked a little while ago (maybe after a checkuser was done? I'm not sure). Anyway... After the holidays, I'll put that same ticker code up somewhere/make it available to wikinews so you guys can peruse it again and/or alter/use it if you'd like. : ) Cowicide 11:20, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Revamp Main Page

I propose that the front page be revamped to display more articles at any one time and should displya categories like any news site. In order to sustain people's interest in the project, we need plenty of updates all the time and that featured main page stories be categorily arranged. Please check normal news sites such as googlenews for an idea on what I am saying. The revamp would include the following changed.

• More stories on the homepage.
• Bigger Picture for main story.
• News Categories
• Change title fonts back to Arial.
• Change logo to resemble Wikipedia's main logo.

Please discuss this matter. TownCrier 01:24, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

see also Wikinews:Main Page redesign for prior attempts at this.  — Doldrums(talk) 09:07, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

WikiCast

Hi,

Attempting to revive the WikiCast project suggested earlier in the year...

Is anyone from Wikinews willing to assist, given that the Audio Wikinews seems to have stalled for a bit?

ShakespeareFan00 23:25, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Support with Wikinews's Audio Wikinews Project dead, why not team up with other to create something better? terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 01:16, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Question: what is wikicast? Bawolff ☺☻ 06:15, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

If I am correct, it is the scrolling bar that appears at the bottom (or top) of news sources on TV. lemme know if I'm wrong. Thunderhead - (talk) ^{Congrajulations to Kat!} 06:25, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

IDENTITIY THEFT -- A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

I have been subject to identity theft by the same individual since 1997. From that time until now I have been a law abiding and creditworthy citizen.

The experience has all but ruined my personal credit, not to mention other aspects of my life it has negatively impacted, and caused me considerable anquish, angst, and frustration both in my constant attempts to clear my credit agency records of the crime and enlisting the assistance of law enforcement agencies in apprehending and convicting the perpetrator. Moreover, I have in my possession evidence that strongly suggests my credit agency record files are being tampered by either the perpetrator of the crime or an insider employed within one of those firms. (I have reported the crime to both the F.B.I. and U.S. Secret Service, both of which have been of no avail as of yet.)

Is this the type of article, i.e. a first-person account, that you would consider publishing?

I look forward to receiving your guidance as to your policy related to this proposal.

Sincerely,

Steven W. Collins

We probably could publish it as original reporting, if you could provide some verification. Zeest^(Talk)_(Newpages) 12:53, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Wikisari

Can someone write about how Jimmy Wales of Wikia did not actually intend to announce the launch of a project, but his quotes were mangled by a reporter who found really old archived stuff? -- Zanimum 19:44, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Countries with no articles

Here is a list of countries which have no articles about them.

In Africa

• Benin
• Central African Republic
• Ivory Coast
• Gabon
• Lesotho
• São Tomé and Príncipe
• Seychelles
• Western Sahara

In Asia

• Macau

In North America

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Dominica
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

In South America

• Guyana
• Suriname

The list is now sufficiently small as to be managed, after that it's the minor territories that aren't covered. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 13:22, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Local Town Portal

I'm starting an experiment in local journalism in my small town in Iowa. I'd like to encourage the local people as well as journalism and writing students at the high school/junior college/university to contribute local news to a new Wikinews portal. I've made a stab at setting up the category here: Clinton Iowa. However, I'm not sure if it is properly coded (although it does show up on the Articles in Category, Portal section on the Category: Portal page. It is not preceded by Portal:.

Secondly, a question. Some information on subcategories in the portal. If someone submits a sports story, for it to appear on the portal page how should the category be tagged [[Category: Clinton Iowa Sports]]? Any help would be appreciated. I think this will be an interesting project on participatory culture and rural America. If you make any changes, please document some of the code methods so that I can learn. Thanks.---cman- 18:08, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

All sports stories should have Category:Sports. If your story is about Clinton Iowa Sports it should have Category:Sports and Category:Clinton, Iowa. Also, Clinton Iowa should be preceded by Portal:. —FellowWikiNews (W) 18:14, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I know this is technical but it deals with the setup of the portal page. Check out this article Iowa_Falls_To_Texas_In_Alamo_Bowl The categories for North America and Iowa and Sports work fine. However, since the Portal-fication of the Clinton, Iowa page neither Category: Clinton, Iowa or Category: Clinton Iowa works. ---cman- 19:29, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Categorys that have never been created have w:redlinks. I created Category: Clinton, Iowa to fix your problem. —FellowWikiNews (W) 19:33, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for that. But I'm not understanding the difference and relationship between categories and portals. Shouldn't a article contributed under category: clinton, iowa appear in the portal page? I'm not just being pedantic. I'm going to need to explain how this works to a bunch of much less computer literate people than I am. So, here is what I need to know:

What is the syntax and markup needed to submit an article that will appear by default on the Clinton, Iowa portal page under the subheadings of, Latest News, Politics and Government and Sports. and please, don't just do it for me. Show me how to do it so that I can show other people too. If I'm venturing out into uncharted territory here let me know. Thanks and Happy New Year.---cman- 20:03, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

We use an extension called "DynamicPageList" to automatically create lists of articles that fall within a particular category or an intersection of categories. The best way to get the Clinton portal started would be to copy the code of another portal, for example Portal:New_York, and modify it to intersect with "Clinton, Iowa" categories instead of "New York" categories. In general, you would do something like:

<DynamicPageList>
category=Published
category=Clinton, Iowa
category=Sports
notcategory=Disputed
count=5
</DynamicPageList>

which will generate: There are no articles for this topic. -- IlyaHaykinson 20:08, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Aha. I saw that code in another portal page when I was noodling around. I think I'm getting it. But to clarify, does the "DynamicPageList" code goes in at the end of the story such as

[[Category:Sports]]
[[Category:North America]]
[[Category:Iowa]]
[[Category:Clinton, Iowa]]
{{publish}}
<DynamicPageList>
category=Published
category=Clinton, Iowa
category=Sports
notcategory=Disputed
count=5
</DynamicPageList>

or in the body of the section i.e. 

==Sports==
<DynamicPageList>
category=Published
category=Clinton, Iowa
category=Sports
notcategory=Disputed
count=5
</DynamicPageList>

---cman- 20:52, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

It goes into the body of the section, like your second example. -- IlyaHaykinson 20:59, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Very good. Cheers Ilya and Fellow.---cman- 21:03, 31 December 2006 (UTC)