Wikinews talk:Hotline/Collaboration

Chiacomo's Proposal for greetings

Main Greeting

Thank you for calling the Wikinews Hotline. Press one to report news. To verify reporter credentials, please press two. You may reach us on the web at Wikinews dot org. Wikinews is a non-profit, independent news organization run by the non-profit Wikimedia foundation.

Report news sub-greeting

To report news, please speak slowly and clearly. Be certain to include details such as the location and date of the event on which you are reporting. If you wish, include your name and a method of contacting you -- a wikinews editor may contact you for more information, to clarify details of your report, or to verify information. Your report will be considered public domain and may be used by Wikinews editors to begin a new story or expand and existing story. Remember that you can also submit news by visiting Wikinews on the web at en dot wikinews dot org.

Verify credential sub-greeting

Thank you for calling. To verify a Wikinews reporter's credentials, please leave a message. Make sure to name your organization and your contact information, and a Wikinews administrator will get back to you shortly. You may also check accreditation by visiting our web site at Wikinews dot org and searching for credentials. Wikinews reporters are considered freelance journalists.

MrM's proposals

Main Greeting

Thank you for calling the North American Wikinews hotline. To report news, press '1' now. To review credential verification, press '2' now. If you have any additional comments or questions, please visit our website at wikinews.org. Wikinews is a non-profit, independent news site run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. [pause two seconds] Please make your selection now.

Extension 1

To report breaking news, please start the message with the date and time of the phone call, along with your username and location. Recording will start after the tone. When you are finished with your message, please hang up and the message will be sent. [pause two seconds] [tone]

Extension 2

You have reached the Wikinews credential verification hotline. Please leave your name, contact number and organization you are calling on behalf with a short message including the user at question. Recording will start after the tone. When you are finished, please hang up and the message will be sent. [pause two seconds] [tone]

Wikinews Network addition

I have no problem adding the WNN forwarding to the hotline. However, I think that the current way the greetings are phrased, it's completely unclear what the network is. Especially since the word "network" refers to so many things (Internet? community of people? radio? things to catch fish?). I suggest that you use a description for what it is rather than its name. -- IlyaHaykinson 01:58, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing this up, Ilya. For the purposes of this hotline, I changed all references to the WikiNews Network Hotline to Wikinews Radio Network Hotline. -- NGerda 03:58, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Hm. I think it's still a bit cryptic. What do you think of calling it "press <whatever> to speak to a live operator" or something like that? -- IlyaHaykinson 04:18, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

We can add that in, but I think the line will mainly be used for people who have news they want to break live on WNN or Wikinewsies who are joining in on WNN discussions but have no computer. I'll add the live thing in. -- NGerda 04:23, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Shall we expose caller's phone number to the world?

As I looked on the recent hotline archives, I saw that the archive (logs) show caller's phone number (beside the recording, date, and time).

I am not sure whether this is a good privacy practice (I think it is bad):

• What if the caller wants anonymity? (a whistleblower, perhaps?)
• Aren't this thing is a kind of invasion of privacy?
• Did we notified the caller that caller's phone number will be exposed to the world? (according to the greeting message, no)
• If the news reports is sensitive, would this put caller's safety at risk? (see paragraph below)
• What if telemarketers harvested these informations?
• Do news reporting require us to expose caller's phone number to the world? (Aren't Wikimedia is known for its anonymity?)

Also, because the numbers could be traced back to their address [1], we are potentially exposing other private informations about the caller as well (e.g., name, address, and other private infos), potentially putting the caller's safety at risk (esp. if the news is sensitive).

So, I think, you should remove caller's phone number from the world-accessible logs (making it only available to a few trusted persons), or, even better, stop getting caller numbers entirety (unless they provided it).

If you decided not to remove caller's phone number, make sure to warn callers (e.g., in the greeting message) that their phone number will be exposed to the world.

61.94.149.207 05:33, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

Eh, perhaps. But if users in the US wish to stay anonymous for the meantime, call the DC number and dial *67 in front of the hotline number. Toll-free calls always will produce a Caller ID record. --Mrmiscellanious 15:39, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

And it's 141 prefix dialling the UK line from a UK phone to withold your number --Pvt Parts 00:07, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Initial Greeting

Perhaps "wikinews" should be spelled out...

Listening

How do I listen to a message from the archive? The attachments seem to be "scrubbed out"

good question. beats me. Maybe you should bring that up at the water cooler as this page is kind of dead. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:13, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

<chuckle> Yes, as a matter of fact, I do know. IlyaHaykinson is managing a list of people who are mailed any voicemail recordings received at this phone number. You may contact him on his talk page, I believe. Or call up the number and leave your request. - Amgine | ^talk 04:18, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

WAV format?

I was thinking, that if the wav file really gets sent out, I believe it is

1. A waste of wikimedia brandwith
2. A waste of users' brandwith

Thus it is a possible hog in the system. Why not convert the wav into some lossless (or better still, lossy e.g. mp3) format? This could be done easily.

The person above seems to be doing it on his own machine, so he/she probaby is using fetchmail + script to do the job (though maybe it is simply redirected to the list I dunno, but still), the script then could be easily changed, it probably takes about 1 sec. Only an idea... 195.56.194.129 00:25, 29 December 2005 (UTC) (User Msoos on Wikipedia)

I'd suggest that the raw audio (wav/aiff) be kept until the news goes cold (disappears off the main page?), and then use MP3/MP4, Ogg, or whatever has a Wiki-friendly license. ▪ NeoAmsterdam^Talk_Edits 20:40, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Actually, it's a service (RingCentral) that mails the .wav files, there's nothing I can do about it. We do convert to .ogg when uploading to the Commons. However, interestingly, when converted, the file is about the same size as the wave file. -- IlyaHaykinson 20:51, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Can you get away with using the Speex codec? Nyarlathotep 17:44, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Honestly, I don't think the files are that big. They were under 600K for the two of them together, and that's for a minute and a half of speech. I am sure I could get it down to less than half that, but is that worth it? The commons has a lot of space. -- IlyaHaykinson 02:27, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

UK 0871 call charges

Has anyone not realised that 0871 is the most expensive non-geographical number you can get in the UK without getting a premium rate number?

From a BT line, call charges are 10p/min including VAT. It is actually cheaper for me to call the US number, than to call this 0871 number.

There is a small movement to shame UK companies into dumping their somewhat cheaper, profit-sharing, but still wrong 0870 numbers at www.saynoto0870.com

I wouldn't have paid $50 for an 0871 number, considering that you can get geographical numbers for free if you know where to look, or 0844/0845 numbers which aren't so bad, although considered "premium" rate. Does anyone receive any profit as a result of any profit sharing on this number?

It may be worth looking into alternative codes.