text:
Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/Archive/9

=Miscellany= See also the archives.

Interview with Jimbo Wales
''The wiki movements seem focused on local expertise; people work on things they are interested and expert in. Why is there very little local news on Wikinews, which it seems like it would be best qualified to produce?''

Personal comments: I dont see this kind of trouble with Latin Wikinews. In both Spanish and Portuguese Wikinews, for example, there are a lot of good local stories written by local people. The news in Colombia, Brazil, Spain generally are written and revised by people who live at these places. The stories are very detailed, even more then tradictional news agencies who report international news.

I think that the problem with Wikinews in English is that it doesnt have a good support for non English speakers. We dont have this kind of trouble in Spanish Wikinews, for example. Is Spanish Wikinews, almost every user knows English and Spanish. The Spanish and Portuguese languages are not very different, so, Portuguese and Spanish users can contribute and understand each other, without big troubles. Sometimes, even a French or Italian can participate. --Carlosar 13:23, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

The QuakeAID story
The story of the QuakeAID article on Wikipedia is quite interesting. Wikipedians have found evidence that this charity may be a complete scam, but at the very least it has dubious connections and is operated by a company which publishes Holocaust denial. They are also behind the alleged "class action" lawsuit against Wiki[pm]edia.

The problem with the Wikipedia article is that it is chock full of original research which doesn't really belong there. I have proposed on the talk page that this story should be investigated and developed on Wikinews instead until a clear picture emerges, at which point it could be published here and cited on Wikipedia. I'd like to invite your comments on the Wikipedia talk page as well.--Eloquence 06:09, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

 * I tend to disagree, just because I don't think you should try to make wikipedians write for wikinews by deleting their information. Of course, it would be nice if someone simply took their original research, wrote a complete wikinews story about it, and cited that story when they repeat said information on the wikipedia article.  But deleting the information from the wikipedia article to try to get them to write it here before reintroducing it to the wikipedia article seems a bit nasty to me.  What I would have done is to leave their article alone, and just start a story focused on justifying their claims.  If I ran into trouble, or got lazy, I'd add a sources tag to their article and explain that the wikinews article needed to be the source.  Nyarlathotep 12:37, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Blog mention
I this interesting blog post concerning Wikinews and thought it would be great to share. --Chiacomo (talk) 07:26, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for sharing that Chiacomo. -Edbrown05 18:41, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

How to approach on ongoing event
I'm not sure if this question is in the right place, but I'll ask anyway: I need opinions on how to cover the ongoing NYC transit dispute (see NYC's_transit_workers_approve_strike_authorization and NYC_Transit_Strike_Looming).

One possibility is to have many articles as more information comes out. This means many writers, small articles, and little to no updating of the content would be required. The other possibility is to have one article covering the entire strike threat in a collaborative effort, but it would have to be updated continuously until the contract negotiations finalize.

Anyone favor one option over another? -- NeoAmsterdam 02:57, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

 * The Wikinews way has been to create an article every time there's a new development. In this article you can re-use a lot of the content from prior articles instead of rewriting from scratch again, though. If a situation is prolongued enough, you can build an infobox for it, or create a category. If a situation is a huge emergency — like the Indian Ocean Tsunami, or London Bombings, then a single status page is typically maintained in addition to the detailed spin-off articles. Hope this helps! -- IlyaHaykinson 03:02, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Indeed it does. Thanks! -- NeoAmsterdam 03:22, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Blanking request
Several users from #wikipedia wish for User:Death2Fuhrer to be blanked due to it's libelous and racist content. (w:User:Zscout370) 10:15, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Done. What's up with this guy? --Deprifry|+T+ 10:18, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
 * No clue either. (w:User:Zscout370) 11:19, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Interview of the month
Check out the meta page on the Interview of the month. We have several people on the list and we are voting. --Sfullenwider 22:44, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Voting has closed for January and suggestions are being taken for February, please make your February suggestions now.

The top 5 potential interviewee's for January are:

 * 1) Electronic Frontier Foundation (5)
 * 2) Roberto Jefferson (5)
 * 3) Roberto Jefferson's neighbor (5)
 * 4) Christoph Schultheis (4)
 * 5) John Seigenthaler Sr (4)

Attempts to contact these people by voice will be made shortly. First one who agrees to be interviewed gets the interview.--Sfullenwider 00:56, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

 * EFF is closed until Tuesday But I will be calling people tomorrow. I may be into the lower candidates fairly quickly. -  Amgine | talk en.WN 01:11, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
 * We are going to hold two Interviews as two interviewees have agreed to be interviewed. The first one will be Bloggist Roberto Jefferson's neighbor, a popular bloggist on the huge Brazilian government corruption scandal.  The second will be Electronic Frontier Foundation.  Please post your questions for these two, especially Roberto Jefferson's neighbor as he is first, now. January 2006 Questions --Sfullenwider 03:30, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

According to a comment passed to me in IRC, the EFF interview this month is on. There's a discussion page on Meta, and I've started using the talk page to build up a list of questions. It'd be nice to, if the EFF agrees, a two-stage interview with some questions by email for in-depth answers, and a followup Q&A in IRC. There should probably be an "upcoming interview" template applied to the EFF page on Wikipedia for this as well, but we might have to vet the questions after that. :) --Brian McNeil / talk 22:43, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

are we in for future vanity/nonsense/non-notable articles?
We all know that people often create vanity pages on Wikipedia. While Wikinews is nowhere as popular as Wikipedia, Wikinews will still grow in popularity.

Do you think that we'll get "articles" like "Craig kisses Sarah during lunch" or "George farts in English class"?

I think that it's only a matter of time. --66.122.115.90 18:12, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
 * We already get them, but they'll get deleted pretty fast. I think detecting vanity is easier here than at the 'pedia because IMHO News is better defined than the question what is encyclopedic and what's not. --Deprifry|+T+ 18:21, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

 * I think the major problem is inbetween articles (like Customer Finds Bizarre Item In Sandwich) Its not clearly vanity, but its not newswrothy (IMO). Plain vanity articles are easy to delete. Bawolff ☺☻[[image:smile.png]] 03:44, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

wording on water cooler
"Below is a list of all current stub news articles on Wikinews. Please contribute to them before responding to posts here:"

Is it just me or does that sound a bit demanding? Bawolff ☺☻ 23:21, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Question on policy summary availability
Has any sort of concise list of what current policies are and how they are currently enforceable been compiled yet? I have resolved to attempt to join this community as a user once again after a series of contributions, but have yet to come across any definitive statement of policies regulating user and administrator activities. Is there any formally designated component material for such community approved policy itself, rather than its proposal and discussion? Is there any sort of summarised form that may be studied and used to judge the merit of material for contribution before its submission or material to judge the appropriateness of sources or related actions in varied situations by those classes of users (if there are other classifications other than these two that are regulated, please consider the request as expanded to include them also)? 68.210.70.211 22:29, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Please see Policy. Consult the style guide as well. --Chiacomo (talk) 06:22, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

RedBolivia.com
This site is reproducing some Wikinews content in English and Spanish... Julián Ortega 19:56, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
 * adding to WN:MF. thank you Bawolff ☺☻[[image:smile.png]] 05:33, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

=Interviewing the illustrious "Jimbo" Wales=

It has been brought to my attention that an interview of the Wikimedia founder, Jimbo Wales, is scheduled for the 5th of December. The topics suggested for the interview are the Wikinews project of the Wikimedia Foundation, and the upcoming Wikimedia Foundation fund drive. This will not just be of interest to Wikinewsies (where I would hope it can generate an article), but other news organisations will probably be interested in the material as they may not be so readily able to get material on Wiki projects as we can.

Of course, the thing is what sort of interesting — and thought-provoking — questions would people like to see put to the project founder? This is an open call for questions, which the interviewers (Kim Bruning and Mats Halldin) will comb through for material.

The one I'd like to propose as an opener is, "Do you believe that Wikinews, or any of the Wiki projects qualify as a meritocracy?" Brian McNeil / talk 21:20, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Jimbo Interview: Technical
I have noticed on Amgine's talk page that there is a discussion about how to get a conference call together and record this all for further processing. I suggest the service called freeconference.com -- it's free to use. If you want to do recording it can cost a bit of money (you have to do toll-free with that service to do recording), and if nobody wants to pay then there are probably other options that are cheaper. -- IlyaHaykinson 21:34, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm currently looking to get a permanent conference call facility for Wikinewsies on Telephreak. The conference call system can be accessed with standards-based Voice over IP (i.e. not Skype) as well as through use of direct access numbers throughout the U.S. with a few in Europe. Anyone who is interested in having a play with the Telephreak stuff could go to to the FreeWorlDialup site and download the pulver.Communicator, sign up for an account and have a play.  The FWD numbers that should give you access to Telephreak are 75831, 63556, and 61513.  Don't be surprised if you get someone without a clue about Wikinews, the guys that set this up and use it are a bunch of phreaks. :-)
 * Of course, this may not be all done in time for the interview, but it does offer some interesting possibilities. During Katrina Telephreak relayed emergency service radio from the area to extension 5 on their PBX, this has now been replaced with recordings of prank calls.  Extension 69 is also worth dialing for a laugh.
 * If anyone has any questions on using pulver.Communicator, just let me know on my talk page. The one that is most likely to catch people out is dialling extension numbers.  You first have to click on the poorly drawn keypad icon and then punch in the extension number you want. Brian McNeil / talk 09:19, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

=Story suggestions= I try to scan the news from multiple websites on a daily basis and I usually find several stories that I'd like to turn into articles here on Wikinews. However, I simply don't have the time to write as many articles as I'd like to. Is there a section where users can suggest stories to be written by other Wikinews users? Possibly an "article brainstorming" section? Thanks. Sawran 18:36, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Just stick in three or four sentences for articles on the ones that really interest you, the worst that can happen is they get deleted as abandoned. On the other hand you can look at it optimistically and hope someone will be interested enough to flesh them out and move them to published. Brian McNeil / talk 18:40, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
 * That's one way of doing it, yes. However, it seems a bit crude and the risk of having the article being abandoned is most likely high. In my opinion, it would help if we had a section, such as Wikinews:Suggest a story, where users could edit the page and post story ideas on. Then any Wikinewsie could reply and say that they will try to write an article about the topic and give an estimated completion date. It would be somewhat similar to an editor assigning a reporter to do a specific story, but there would be more freedom involved. Sawran 19:08, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I think that's a good start, but I have a much more radical idea that's been kicking around in my head for years. We need a way for the community at large to decide what is important news. It's a horribly complex problem, but one that Wikinews is in a position to address. Basically we need a debating and voting system on "what's newsworthy". Now it's true that what's important to someone in upper Uganda may not be important to an ecology professor in Denmark, so it needs to be categorized. But imagine a simple example. What if we could somehow create a list of the (for example) "Top 10 most newsworthy African ecology issues". How do we do it? We need to somehow combine Wikinews with a sophisticated voting mechanism. That would be something I'd be willing to contribute to. Zero 14:32, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
 * 32, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Chinese Wikinews
I know this isn't really the place for this, but I didn't know where else to put it. Simple question: WHY IS THERE NOT A CHINESE WIKINEWS? Wikimedia has already been blocked so the old logic that "we have to be good boys and girls, otherwise the Communists will block us" is kind of obsolete. Or maybe Wikimedia has become so spineless that we've moved onto the next level: "If we don't start a Chinese Wikinews, maybe the Chinese Communists will stop blocking Chinese Wikipedia and other projects." We're effectively asking "How high?" before the ChiComs ask us to jump. And before anyone uses the "you're-not-Chinese-so-your-opinon-is-irrelevant" line, no, I'm not Chinese, but I speak Chinese and really, really think that the current lack of Chinese Wikinews is a disgrace.

More than the minimum of 5 have expressed an interest in a Chinese Wikinews here: --->

A fully functional pre-launch exists here: --->

If you agree that the refusal to create a Chinese Wikinews is a desertion of Wikimedia principles, please tell Jimbo Wales ---> how unhappy you are. Thanks. --Ce garcon 17:08, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

 * I personally think there should be a chinese wikinews (and from user pages I've seen, theres a couple others that agree with you), but shouldn't you be complaining about this at ? Bawolff ☺☻[[image:smile.png]] 04:06, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

 * My initial reaction is to say we shouldn't let any government or set of government policies dictate which language editions we have, but I'd rather this had been brought up here as a request to participate in the discussion on Meta than as a call to harass Jimbo Wales. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:34, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Addendum: The discussion there is closed, isn't it now just a matter of waiting for the Chinese edition to be set up? --Brian McNeil / talk 09:37, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

 * "isn't it now just a matter of waiting for the Chinese edition to be set up?" So I have been thinking for months. But where do you see a Chinese Wikinews? 没有了! 为什么没有? --Ce garcon 18:08, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Having examined the dates on the poll I've linked to I'm not too happy about this. It will soon be a year since this poll was started, and there's no Chinese version. Who do I ask why this is the case?  If, as Ce garcon suggests, the delay is based on keeping Wikipedia available in China that fact may be newsworthy. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:58, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

 * I think a Chinese Wikinews is a great idea, however I have equal concerns for it. One - as most media is censored in the PRC, we could be hosting something that is unable to be worked on from the primary location for the language.  Two - As it has been shown on other languages of the wikis, the NPOV policy is usually disregarded.  This creates a huge problem, especially for a Chinese language Wikinews - in which would be hard for users to not take a POV in most news.  I think it ultimately should be started, however I should tell the users to take extreme caution.  Now is where it counts more than ever.  --MrMiscellanious (talk) – 22:17, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

 * "...we could be hosting something that is unable to be worked on from the primary location for the language." - A bit defeatist, no? Anyway, what about all the other Chinese people outside the PRC?
 * "the NPOV policy is usually disregarded." I don't know what tat's supposed to mean! Are you suggesting that Chinese people are more likely to be biased than English users? Why? SInce Chinese Wikipedia is already blocked, there is no pressure to toe the line. --Ce garcon 14:29, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

 * I don't know how many people actually speak Chinese outside of China, and the blocking from the country where most users of the language do speak it could mean very small contributions on that language. Additionally, I said the part about the NPOV policy based on observations from current non-English versions of Wikinews.  I do think it would be more prevelent on the Chinese Wikinews, partially because of the government's stance on the press.  It is an imperative portion of the wiki.  --MrMiscellanious (talk) – 17:40, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Chinese is not only spoken in the PRC. As I know, the zh.wikipedia community consist of Chinese, Taiwanese, people from Hong Kong, Macau, and many oversea Chinese people. Do you think that small contribution shall be ignored? Actually, we are not small as you thought.--Theodoranian 03:39, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Not at all, I'm just raising some concerns I have about it, hopefully in a non-combative fashion. As you can read above, I'm supportive of the notion, but there are many obstacles I'd hate to have Wikinews in because of the nature of the project.  --MrMiscellanious (talk) – 03:52, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

What a wipe out
I look at collaboritive writing... you have let a writer run with the thought. Where there are facts, or spelling, or clumsy sentences to fix, that they ought to be addressed. But [18 killed in U.S. air strike on village in Pakistan|18 killed in U.S. air strike on village in Pakistan], except for the headline, is an awful read. I am as guilty as any one of us for not expanding on the story by creating a new story with a new angle. The story sucks (gonna take another look before I sign off)... I don't know where that new lead came from, but it's "ruin't" -Edbrown05 09:16, 15 January 2006 (UTC) Wikinews still holds on to stories too long as a hangover from Wikipdihaa, how do you say it 'Pediabrotha'. Cut / new story. -Edbrown05 09:23, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Stop_Loss
I put up a little idea at Stop_Loss. Feel free to play with it, rename it, etc. Or just tell me its stupid. :) BTW, today is my birthday.  :)  BTW, its not meant as "policy" as I don't even know how such a thing could be "policy", but if it needs some sort of non-policy disclamer, feel free to add it. Nyarlathotep 17:26, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't make the short cut active yet, as I'm sure people will want to comment on the name. ;) Ok, off to drink beer.  Nyarlathotep 17:36, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

 * I think this is a great idea and can only think of good reasons why we would want such a page. Oh and, btw:

--Deprifry|+T+ 17:37, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Enjoy your birthday beer, how about WN:STAY for the shortcut? --Brian McNeil / talk 17:50, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Great idea! This isn't policy, any more than Welcommittee is policy, but a voluntary group of people working to support/expand the community. And a good idea, imo. (I said that already, I know. I would suggest making a list of users contacted, though, to avoid accidentally spamming people dozens of times with the best of intentions. -  Amgine | talk en.WN 18:57, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Happy birthday, Nyarlathotep! --MrMiscellanious (talk) – 22:13, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Google News listing
As those who follow Recent Changes may have seen, I have been doing a bit of archive protection. Assuming I can get all of last year done (help appreciated, I'm working backwards through the months) can we approach Google about having their news service spider our old stuff that is marked as protected? It might not get us visibility on up-to-the-minute stuff, but it may help with being a historical source. --Brian McNeil / talk 22:06, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. Bawolff ☺☻[[image:smile.png]] 01:37, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikinews domains
The current ruckus over wikipedia.de pointing to de.wikipedia.org got me wondering what names have been registered for wiki projects. I find wikipedia.co.uk works, but wikinews.co.uk is "for sale", and wikinews.com claims to be "coming soon", but has no relation with the Wikimedia Foundation. Is Wikinews a registered trade-mark? Should these domains be disputed to get them handed over to the Foundation? Here's the list from one of these awful "flog any domain sites"... [I hope you don't mind if I add to this list] --Brian McNeil / talk 15:31, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
 * wikinews.be - taken. Hosts site of  Jerril J. Krowen, a Massachusetts lawyer.
 * wikinews.ch - taken. "parked".
 * wikinews.de - correct, redirects to de.wikinews.org
 * wikinews.it - taken. Looks like a web-based email service.
 * wikinews.nl - almost-correct. hosts a Wikipedia entry page with various language options offered.
 * wikinews.pl - correct, redirects to pl.wikinews.org
 * wikinews.co.uk - taken, "for sale" but made to look like a news organisation site.
 * wikinews.com - taken, some "coming soon" site that has no relation to the Foundation.
 * wikinews.net - Taken - parked but for sale. seems to be some company(sedo) that takes domains and sells them
 * wikinews.us - taken - parked, same as above
 * wikinews.biz - taken - parked same stupid domain hog company
 * wikinews.info - taken - whats with these people. I'm just try all gTLD's. who wants info anyways.

 * Wikinews is expected to become Wikinews® on February 7 (Details) with registration according to the Madrid system AFAIK pending. Meta had a detailed page on the status of the various Wikimedia trademarks at one point but that information has been moved to the internal wiki. But at least we could do something about U.S. based domains pretty soon. --Deprifry|+T+ 15:38, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
 * See and  --Deprifry|+T+ 15:54, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for that, some interesting information there. I just don't want to participate in the discussion over whether wikinews.be should point to fr.wikinews.org or nl.wikinews.org.  The Flemish versus the Walloons is generally worse than Scots vs English. :-) --Brian McNeil / talk 16:54, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

 * http://wikinews.com has been coming for about a year now. before that it was one of those misconfigured servers just showing the directory structure. At least thay point people in the right direction. Bawolff ☺☻[[image:smile.png]] 23:44, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Country wikinews domains (i.e. wikinews.org.au or wikinews.be) should point to a page which links to the portal for that country in all Wikinews language projects. - Borofkin 22:55, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
 * As I alluded to in my earlier comment, this would cause problems for some countries such as Belgium where there are three official languages: Netherlands, French, and German. --Brian McNeil / talk 23:01, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Why would this cause a problem? The domain would link to a page which linked to Portal:Belgium (or whatever) in the French Wikinews, the German Wikinews, and the Nederlandic Wikinews, as well as the English Wikinews, the Klingon Wikinews, and any other Wikinews which had an active Portal:Belgium. All countries have people who speak different languages. - Borofkin 23:04, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

IOTM- Feb 06
Voting has closed for February and suggestions are being taken for March, please make your March suggestions now.

The top 7 potential interviewee's for February are:

 * 1) Don Brash: 8
 * 2) Michael Geist: 7
 * 3) Anne Abernathy: 6
 * 4) Dennis Hwang: 6
 * 5) Derek Sivers: 3
 * 6) Steve Mariucci 2
 * 7) Toshiba or Sony: 2

votes

Michael Geist has accepted a request for an interview with Wikinews.

We will be doing research and developing questions at: Wikinews/Interview_of_the_month/February_2006_Questions

Time:Wednesday, 15 February 2006 at 19:00 UTC.

Another interview with Jimbo Wales
I'm the editor of the Wikipedia Signpost on the English Wikipedia. I'm currently working on an interview with Jimbo Wales for the Signpost. Regarding the article, I was approached by a contributor who wanted to know if I could dual-license it for Wikinews. I'm happy to do this, but I know that you did an interview just two months ago, so I'm not sure your opinion on doing this. My question is whether you feel this is something you'd like to be a part of, or whether it's largely irrelevant in the face of the prior interview. What do you think? Ral315 03:56, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I think it wont hurt :), so yes I support dual-licensing it for Wikinews. Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 04:01, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Sure why not. the last one went over very well. Bawolff ☺☻[[image:smile.png]] 20:16, 5 February 2006 (UTC)


text:
Wikinews:Why create an account?

You don't have to log in to read Wikinews. You don't even have to log in to edit articles on Wikinews—anyone can edit almost any article, even without logging in. Nevertheless, creating an account is quick, free and non-intrusive, and it's a good idea to do so, for many reasons.

Note: to create a user account for Wikinews, go to the login page.

User name
If you create an account, you can pick a username. Edits you will make while being logged in will be assigned to that name. That means you get full credit for your contributions in the page history (when not logged in, the edits are just assigned to your IP address). You can also view all your contributions by clicking the "My contributions" link, which is only visible when you are logged in.

You will have your own user page where you can write a bit about yourself. While Wikinews is not a homepage provider, you can use this to display a few pictures, write about your hobbies, etc. Many users use their user page to maintain a list of the articles they are most proud of, or to collect other valuable information from Wikinews.

You will also have a permanent user talk page you can use to communicate with other users. You will be notified whenever someone writes a message on your talk page. If you choose to give an e-mail address, other users will be able to contact you by e-mail. This feature is anonymous—the user who emails you will not know your e-mail address.

Identity implications
When you are not logged in, all your edits are publicly associated with your IP address at the time of that edit. If you log in, all your edits are publicly associated with your account name. They are also still internally associated with your IP address. See Wikinews's draft privacy policy which has some information on this, but is only a draft.

The privacy implications of this vary, depending on the nature of your Internet Service Provider, local laws and regulations, and the nature and quantity of your edits to Wikinews. Be aware that Wikinews technologies and policies are not set in stone.

People's opinions differ on the desirability of perfect anonymity. Some people find anonymity reduces perceived accountability, which can lead to unproductive behavior. Some people find contributing without having a fixed identity to be disempowering and unpleasant. Creating an account is one way to resolve such feelings.

New editing options
There are many features of the MediaWiki software (which powers Wikinews) that are only available to registered users. For example, registered users can mark edits as "minor". Minor edits can be filtered from the list of "Recent changes". We do not give the privilege to mark edits as minor to anonymous users because we do not know who is behind a given IP address at any time, so we cannot build a basis of trust. (Marking edits as minor if they are not is considered very rude.)

One very important feature which active contributors will likely use a lot are watchlists. You will get a new link "Watch this page" on every page you view. If you click that link, a page will be added to your watchlist. This list is basically a filtered view of the "Recent changes" page which only shows changes recently made to items in your watchlist. This way you can keep track of pages you work on without having to follow all changes.

Only registered users are allowed to rename pages, a feature that is very important to maintain structure and consistency on Wikinews.

Also, you must be logged in if you want to upload images.

Many user preferences
Aside from these features, you can customize the way MediaWiki behaves in great detail. You can change the entire appearance of the website by picking, for example, the previous "Monobook" skin over the new default "Vector" skin, you can choose how you want mathematical formulae to be displayed, how large the editing box should be, how many pages should be displayed in "Recent changes" and much more.

Sysop status
Administrators (or sysops) can delete and undelete pages, protect them from being edited, edit protected pages, and block users for violation of our policies. They generally carry out the will of the wiki community on pages such as Votes for deletion. For obvious reasons, only signed in users can become administrators. Usually it is sufficient to have done some semi-regular work on Wikinews for a few months without clashing too much with others, though standards seem to be becoming stricter. If you are a signed in user and want to be a sysop, see Administrators.

Voting, polls, elections, surveys and reps
While in most Wikinews polls, anyone can express their opinion, whether logged in or not, your opinion may be given more weight if it is attributed to a fixed identity with a record of sensible commentary and informed edits.

There will be two users' representatives on the Wikimedia board - one of them represents the interests of all users, where the other represents the interests only of users with an account. Thus, if you have an account, you have a choice of representatives who can intermediate between yourself and the board in cases of dispute.

it:Wikinotizie:Perché creare un account uk:ВікіНовини:В чому доцільність реєстрації zh:Wikinews:为什么创建帐号？

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Wikinews:Why create an account?


text:
Wikinews talk:Water cooler/Original

Grandma Pepper's comment deleted
While potentially understandable, I'm wondering under what justification it was deleted? - Amgine 06:58, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Isn't most of her comment back now? (The first half is there, but not the second half.)

 * Amgine, you were just pointing out how ridiculously long the water cooler was a day ago. Davodd went through and archived a number of messages, and organized the page to be quite smaller in the process.

 * If you would truly like to continue the discussion with "Grandma Pepper" about how to establish a groundswell to redirect all of the funds for the American Presidential inauguration ceremony to the tsunami relief efforts, and to ask everyone to lay down their arms, I'm a bit surprised, but I'm willing to discuss it.

 * I'm all for reporting on the first half of such an effort should a notable organization have much success with advancing the idea, heck, I'm the one who made the most noise to have a donation banner on Wikipedia, and also asked for it here on Wikinews. After all, there is no enemy on the other side of the disaster (it's humankind vs Mother Nature), so we aren't sacrificing a NPOV by pointing out where assistance is being asked for.

 * But we cross a serious line in the sand if we start advocating for Grandma Pepper's second idea, which was to "ask everyone to lay down their arms and help out their Muslim brothers in the affected countries". That second request would make it impossible for us to be recognized as a neutral reporting source in the future, so it seems rather pointless to discuss it.

 * Anyways, that's my two cents on Grandma Pepper's ideas.

 * By the way, it appears that you have a bit of history with Davodd. I hope you two are able to work out your issues with each other, as just about everyone else has got along with each other quite well here on Wikinews (at least so far). — DV 16:36, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Hi All - by checking the page history -- that section was deleted by User:Simmo|Contributions  as detailed -  HERE  The user did so without comment as to why the discussion should be censored.  -- Davodd | Talk 17:46, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Davodd, thanks for the clarification that you weren't the one who deleted the comment.

 * Sorry I didn't follow the history of this comment more closely.

 * The first part of the comment in question is back on the water cooler, right? I see that the second follow up comment is what was lost.

 * However, for the future sanity of the water cooler, I would propose that it's not censorship if comments are archived after they appear to be dead or abandoned. Hopefully Amgine can clarify if he feels there should be a different policy.
 * — DV 18:19, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * — DV 18:19, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * In case anyone doubts my support of newbies around here...

 * It appears that "Grandma Pepper" has company in the "jet set".

 * Mr. Cuban is hardly a charitable organization, but it's the best I could do on short notice. :)

 * — DV 19:50, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Moved FAQ
I moved the FAQ section to FAQ to cut down on the length of this page.-- Davodd | Talk 21:49, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

title: Wikinews talk:Water cooler/Original


text:
Template:Todolist

These article tasks could use your hand
See also the Newsroom
 * Update or replace the Main Page lead story, the second lead, or the Featured story.
 * Make sure new stories listed on today's new articles page have been listed on the correct region or topic pages.
 * Expand or copy-edit one of the almost-complete stories with a final polish - then replace the develop tag with a publish tag!
 * Bring an abandoned article back to life by completing what another Wikinewsie could not finish.
 * Edit an article under dispute to bring it up to Wikinews standards.
 * Try implementing one of the great ideas the community has come up with, but haven't yet figured out how to do!
 * Review the Accreditation requests page and vote on outstanding requests.
 * Deal with images that have problems.

title: Template:Todolist


text:
Wikinews talk:Criteria for speedy deletion

/Archive one

Article rename redirects from before later publication
I propose a new criterion under Redirects, to replace the current R3: Some thoughts on this: --Pi zero (talk) 16:04, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Were created by renaming an article prior to publication, and the article has since been published.
 * Qualification "and the article has since been published" is meant to avoid speedy-deletion crusades over unpublished articles. Any admin is already free to suppress redirects when renaming an unpublished article, justified technically under "author request", and this would have no effect on that.
 * Correcting a typo before publication can be handled well enough without a special rule for it, and correcting a typo after publication should leave a permanent redirect anyway.

 * I do not like it. I regularly redirect new duplicate articles to older ones, and likewise on occasion when articles are merged. Viewed retrospectively, pre-review, pre-FR, publish was easily-undoable; not such a big deal. Those redirects should stay. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 18:43, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

 * If I'm following you rightly, that situation would be unaffected by my proposal. It seems to fail two different prerequisites for the proposed criterion:  it isn't the result of a move, so the criterion would not apply; and the redirect has significant history, so the criterion would not apply.  To be very clear, the proposed criterion would apply only when all of the following conditions are met.
 * The redirect has no useful history; this is a precondition for all of the redirect speedy deletion criteria, stated at the top of the section.
 * The redirect is the result of a move.
 * The move occurred before publication.
 * The article that was moved has since been published.
 * --Pi zero (talk) 19:10, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * To respond to your edit summary, the impression I get is you've correctly understood one scenario and not noticed the second scenario. To re-iterate differently, redirects from moves before the current regieme, which has made Publish into Srs Bsns™, should generally remain. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 19:46, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Do you have a date we can plonk to that? "Redirects created after J u l y 1 7 8 9 t h a t w e r e " — μ 20:04, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * That's a little tricky; the new system evolved over a few months iirc through a series of transitions. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 12:43, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Would it suffice to exempt anything created before 2009? That has the virtue of simplicity.  --Pi zero (talk) 13:32, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Works for me. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 14:23, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Revised proposed criterion. --Pi zero (talk) 15:06, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Were created, not earlier than 2009, by renaming an article prior to publication, and the article has since been published.

 * We've just recently demonstrated the need to further clarify when it is not permissible to remove a redirect speedily; and after some lively and productive discussion here, there have been no further comments for over three weeks. I've deployed the change.  --Pi zero (talk) 17:10, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Criteria shakeup
flag How about we re-order much of the article SD criteria to apply to all pages, like so: ...as well as deleting a few that seem duplicated:
 * Articles:
 * 1) Self-requests by the author with no third-party edit history.
 * 2) Obvious hoaxes, spoofs, April Fools-type pranks or other works of fiction that damage the credibility of Wikinews. In some cases, it may be desirable to preserve the content by moving it to a user subpage of the author.
 * 3) Foreign language articles which do not appear to be news (for news items, some attempt should be made to move them to the appropriate language edition of Wikinews, if it exists).
 * 4) An obvious copyright violation that is a cut-and-paste exact or near-exact duplicate of content from a copyrighted source. Speedy delete does not apply for public-domain sources, when public domain reprint permission is granted from the original source and specified in the article talk page, or to articles with a third-party edit history
 * 5) Obvious mistaken posting of encyclopedic entry (delete as possible copyright violation from Wikipedia or similar incompatibly licensed source.)
 * General
 * 1) No meaningful content or history (e.g. random characters or words). See patent nonsense.
 * 2) Test pages (e.g., "Can I really create a page here?").
 * 3) Pure vandalism (see also dealing with vandalism).
 * 4) Very short pages with no context (e.g., "He was a funny man that created Factory and the Hacienda. And, by the way, his wife is great.")
 * 5) Deleting a page for subsequent renaming to that title following a cut and paste move which loses edit history.
 * 6) Advertising or spam.
 * 7) Content reposted without changes that was deleted according to established deletion policy.
 * Image
 * 1) Any image that contravenes the fair use policy.
 * 2) Unused fair use images.
 * User
 * 1) Personal subpages, upon request by their owner.
 * 2) User and talk pages on request of the user, where there is no significant abuse, and no administrative need to retain the page.

It might also be worth creating a section for threads: I personally am generally unsure when to delete a thread, or when to let the discussion run its course. — μchip08 11:15, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Thread deletion
I'm of the opinion that threads should be deleted if:
 * 1) Solicit an illegal act.
 * 2) Are substantial copyright violation without any plausible justification.
 * 3) Breach a court order which could apply to the WMF, or to contributors.

Any other suggestions? --Brian McNeil / talk 15:55, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

 * Spam, and testing/nonsense (obviously). The first is hard to define; much that is illegal here is lawful over in Florida where the servers are. Are we basing this in FL and US Federal law? Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 16:43, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
 * How about "solicit an obvious, and widely illegal act"? So, murder, property damage are the no-brainers, with the rest (as is always the case on Wikinews) sinking into ever-darker shades of grey. --Brian McNeil / talk 10:09, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

I just came back to this page about to open a new discussion about this, only to find my past self already here. I've just tried to delete a page (Comments:Whitney Houston has 'wardrobe malfunction' during UK debut on TV show 'X Factor) which, if it were an article could be speedily deleted under "patent nonsense". However, as it was a comments section, it technically didn't contravene any rules (so I resorted to WN:IAR). I think it would be helpful to generalise many of the currently article-specific criteria, such as "test page", to apply to any page. I suspect the reasons we haven't done so are purely an oversight on the part of the original creators of the policy. Microchip08 (talk) 21:34, 23 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Well, the criteria rarely mention non-mainspace pages; threads and comments, templates, project space, user space. I've always just stretched principles to fit when it made sense. Certainly generalizing is preferred over detailing; thus avoiding red tape.  I've always especially liked our blocking policy, which says at the top that admins have to exercise their good judgement and everything else on the page is going to be just guidelines; and, especially, when blocking for creation of a page I've often treated Special:Nuke as an instrument of the blocking policy.  If creating a page is block-worthy, surely the page is speediable. A bit of thought may be wanted in exact wording, to encourage being a bit more lenient on some points (though not others) in user space. --Pi zero (talk) 01:36, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
 * My issue with the current policy, as I read it at least, is that at the moment it says (e.g.) spam can only be deleted if it is in mainspace. I'd like to explicitly move most article-based reasons (everything but A8 Hoaxes?) to be under "general" instead of "article". I think that reflects de facto policy anyway. Microchip08 (talk) 17:24, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
 * A few miscellaneous thoughts.
 * The article-oriented criteria don't actually say "mainspace", and articles do sometimes show up in other spaces; prepared articles often reside in project space, and articles are sometimes set up in userspace. It seems the main issue here would be clarifying criteria that ought to apply to pages regardless of whether or not they're "articles" as such, with a secondary goal of making it especially clear that those criteria, and even the ones that really are about "articles", aren't limited to mainspace.  There might also be one or two additional non-article-oriented criteria we'd like to make explicit.
 * I'm not sure but what there may be several criteria under "article" that don't actually make sense for anything that isn't an article, provided one has clarified that an article isn't necessarily in mainspace. Though that sort of thing could get tricky; for example, might "obvious hoax" apply to some pages that aren't articles?  With some exceptions...
 * If the criteria are moved around in some such manner, the existing anchors on them have to be kept the same so that old links to those anchors —many of them in permanent edit summaries— continue to work correctly. (This is why I never really liked having generic anchors like "A3" or such anyway, but, what's done is done.)
 * At this point I think we're sorting our thoughts out, preparatory to fashioning a draft. --Pi zero (talk) 18:11, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

No "attack" category?
Have wandered over here from Wikipedia while clearing up some content related to the (possibly hoax) "Nongoloza cult", and was surprised to see no equivalent criteria to Wikipedia's db-attack. For 24 hours or so, Wikinews had a photo of a named individual with a prominent red "WATCH OUT! CULT LEADER" banner pasted across the bottom, and no sources to back that assertion up. I flagged it for speedy deletion but User:Pi zero rejected it with the suggestion that we "wait and see" how the admin action alert played out. (It looks like they demurred and deleted it as "Contravention of fair use policy" a few hours later.)

Should Wikinews have a simple db-attack criteria for (in the words of Wikipedia's version) "pages that disparage, threaten, intimidate, or harass their subject or some other entity, and serve no other purpose"? --McGeddon (talk) 14:29, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

 * If I'd been sure it was an attack, of course I'd have deleted it. As I recall (and yes, contrary to rumor I'm human and have been known to make mistakes), when I looked at the article it was not immediately clear to me that the image was making an claim about the individual rather than somehow illustrating something; it needed further investigation on my part, which I think was happening at the same time we had an inundation of student submissions on the review queue.  --Pi zero (talk) 14:36, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

 * On the general principle: I don't see that we need anything we don't already have.  Obviously we won't host an attack on someone; if I were deleting something for that reason and I didn't want to bother with a custom-written reason for the deletion I'd probably select "vandalism" from the menu.  If something didn't work as well as it should have in this case, the thing that didn't work seems to be that we should have been having a discussion about whether or not that the image was actually an attack, yet for some reason discussion kept taking other directions.  I'll certainly be thinking about what I could have said differently/better along the way that might have guided things in the more needed direction.  --Pi zero (talk) 14:58, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

 * I might have deleted it as "HOAX/SPAM", but I'd have had to understand the context first. I don't think anyone would hesitate to delete an attack page, the moment it became obvious it was such. I've deleted some of those myself at some point, but I'm not sure what justification I used. I probably just selected "custom" and put a summary of "attack page". That's what I'd do today.

 * I'm actually in favour of adding an attack criteria though, just to spell out in writing what everyone already does in practice. — Gopher65talk 20:30, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

 * One would have to word such a criterion robustly against wikilawyering: neutral news about a person is not an attack, regardless of whether a reader might construe it to reflect badly. --Pi zero (talk) 22:50, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

 * There are also some situations where removing a particular edit in a discussion becomes deletion of the page — removing an off-topic remark from a talk page when it's the only thing on the page sometimes becomes deletion, and removing an off-topic thread from a comments section means deleting a thread. --Pi zero (talk) 01:44, 24 September 2018 (UTC)


text:
File talk:WorldTempsCurrent C.jpg

why is Berlin missing from this image?

 * This image is a standard one, based on the meteo services. I believe Berlin is missing because the airport is listed as something else, but I'm not certain. - Amgine 08:15, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Actually, the selection of cities is entirely under our control. The map is built upon generic satellite topography over which we can overlay whatever we like.

 * Concerning the omission of Berlin, I asked the contributors on the German Wikinews to pick out which city they wanted to use for Germany, as I felt it would be better to use the limited space in that region of the map to show a German city rather than Paris, seeing how we have a German Wikinews but not a French one.

 * Since no one on German Wikinews has made a preference known on their local weather page, I'll change the map to display Berlin, as long as their airport has a reliable reporting station in or near the city.

 * — DV 16:26, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Why is New Zealand not getting weather? We exist as well. Preferably Wellington's weather as it is in the centre and Auckland as it is the largest city in New Zealand.

 * Again, the choice of cities was fairly arbitrary. No one was intentionally excluded. I'm happy to add cities where there is room on the map.

 * I just tried out the above requested cities. Berlin is returning 7c, Auckland, NZ is returning 20c and Wellington, NZ is returning 17c (as of 05:00 UTC), so their reporting stations all appear to be working. I will add Berlin, and one or both of the NZ cities (depending on whether or not I can fit both of them onto the map) to the next edition of the map.

 * In the longer term, I'm thinking of providing regional maps so we can call out more of our reader's favorite cities.

 * — DV 05:09, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

title: File talk:WorldTempsCurrent C.jpg


text:
Category:Wikinews

Pages pertaining to the policies, community, or information of Wikinews.

ar:تصنيف:ويكي الأخبار bg:Категория:Уикиновини cs:Kategorie:Wikizprávy:(vše) de:Kategorie:Wikinews el:Κατηγορία:Βικινέα eo:Kategorio:Vikinovaĵoj es:Categoría:Wikinoticias fa:رده:ویکی‌خبر fr:Catégorie:Wikinews ko:분류:위키뉴스 분류 it:Categoria:Comunità he:קטגוריה:ויקיחדשות ja:カテゴリ:ウィキニュース pt:Categoria:Wikinotícias ro:Categorie:Wikinews ru:Категория:Викиновости sr:Категорија:Викивести sv:Kategori:Wikinews tr:Kategori:Vikihaber uk:Категорія:Вікіновини zh:Category:維基新聞

title: Category:Wikinews


text:
Bush to Propose Major Overhaul of Social Security Benefits

January 4, 2005

Republicans and lobbyists close to President George W. Bush have reported that the White House will propose changing the formula for establishing initial Social Security benefit levels in order to cut guaranteed expenditures on future retirees, according to today's Washington Post. The Social Security Administration would no longer use the increase in wages over a worker’s lifetime to calculate retirees’ first-year benefits but would use inflation rates instead. The new “price indexing” formula will reduce individual benefits and overall Social Security outlays because the inflation rate typically is much lower than the rise in wages. The full impact of the change will be felt in the middle of the century.

The Bush Administration proposal, which will be offered to Congress in February or March 2005, is part of an overall Social Security reform package that also would create “personal investment accounts” into which individual taxpayers could divert part of their payroll taxes. The White House believes that the shortfall in benefits created by the adoption of price indexing would be made up by capital gains from the stocks and bonds held by individual taxpayers in their personal investment accounts.

The move is akin to the private sector's migration from defined benefit retirement plans to defined contribution benefit plans such as 401(k)s as almost half of a worker’s benefits will not be guaranteed by the year 2075. President Bush will support the move to price indexing for calculating initial benefits by pointing out that it was the approach recommended by his 2001 Commission to Strengthen Social Security.

Benefits currently are calculated by averaging a worker’s earnings in their 35 highest-paid years and adjusting earnings to factor in cost of living standards at the worker’s retirement age. Under the Bush proposal, rather than adjusting benefits on the basis of earnings growth, the calculation would be based on the increase in the consumer price index over those years.

The implementation of "price indexing" would cut future Social Security costs by trillions of dollars. However, the cuts in guaranteed benefits for middle-class and some high-income workers would be substantial: 9.9% for workers retiring in 2022, over 25% for workers retiring in 2042, and 46% for workers retiring in 2075.

Opponents of the price-indexing proposal point out that inflation-based calculations of benefits, by linking benefits to prices but not wage levels, would cut retirees out from future increases in living standards since it is wages and not prices that determine standards of living. While American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Policy Director John Rother concedes that many of the arguments of opponents are valid, price indexing is inevitable and must be viewed in the context of President Bush’s total reform package.

Rother points out that Social Security benefits, which currently equal 42 percent of the earnings of an average worker retiring at age 65, would be reduced to 20% of pre-retirement earnings for future retirees, thus potentially freezing retirees into today’s standard of living. However, Rother says that price indexing has to be linked to Bush’s private investment accounts as income from the accounts give retirees the chance to make up the shortfalls.


text:
User:IlyaHaykinson/Sandbox

This is a timeline test:

title: User:IlyaHaykinson/Sandbox


text:
User:RichardWeiss

Articles written by me

 * Proposal to ban VoIP in Costa Rica
 * Cocaine smugglers robbed while fleeing authorities in Honduras
 * New London police commissioner blames middle-class cocaine users for violence in Colombia and on British housing estates
 * Bob Marley birthday celebrations marked by dispute over possible reburial
 * BBC unveils plans for new Britain only iMP player
 * Bolivia rejects Chile's OAS candidate
 * Virgin of Suyapa visits Honduran suburb devastated by massacre
 * Honduras' Head of Congress illegally standing for President
 * First ever corruption conviction of public official in Honduras
 * Chile's candidate convinced of enough votes to become OAS chief
 * El Salvador presents Flores as OAS candidate
 * Honduras deploys 8,000 troops to ensure peaceful elections
 * Mexican candidate confident of winning OAS leadership race
 * Guatemala nominates Rigoberta Menchú for OAS Secretary General
 * Two women strangled in further political violence in Honduras

title: User:RichardWeiss


text:
User:IlyaHaykinson/Sandbox2

Storing an XML file:

 blah

title: User:IlyaHaykinson/Sandbox2


text:
Billionaire Mark Cuban asks President Bush to cancel inauguration parties

January 4, 2005

Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, has asked U.S. President George W. Bush to cancel the inauguration parties that are planned in his honor and redirect the cost to aid for Tsunami victims.

"It’s up to President Bush to set an example," Cuban said in his web blog. "Could there be anything more confusing and shocking than to read that our country was offering $35m in aid to the areas affected by the tsunamis, but that the cost of inauguration parties would be about $40m?"

"Does anyone else think that this is wrong?" he said.

The U.S. administration has since raised its aid pledge to $350 million, and sent a contingent of up to 1,200 Marines along with a carrier group to provide assistance to the affected areas.

But many reader comments posted to Cuban's blog agree with him and say that the United States is still not doing enough to help. Other bloggers have accused Cuban of politicizing the Tsunami disaster relief efforts.

Rex Hammock, publisher of Rexblog.com, wrote that Cuban's statement is unfairly political and takes focus away from the victims.

"Why not call for the cancellation of the NBA season and take all the dollars advertisers have committed for broadcasting it and send those funds to tsunami relief?" Hammock said. "What, the advertisers won't do that? Have you asked?"


text:
Talk:Indian Sensex reaches a New All-time High

requires link to Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) statement about all time high?


text:
Nias Yet to Receive Aid 10 Days After Quake

January 5, 2005

Various sources have indicated that as of today no significant international aid has arrived in the island of Nias -- a small volcanic island off the coast (North Sumatra province, Indonesia) -- a full ten days after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred. These observations were noted by former Indonesian central parliament member Firman Jaya Daeli, activists from Howu-howu (a Dutch NGO), and Surf Aid International.

Most international aid in Indonesia has been focused on the province of Naggroe Aceh Darussalam (Aceh), as it is where the biggest number of dead has been reported.

There has also been other reports from local media that the island of Simeulue is suffering similar fate.

Although the number of dead in these two islands is relatively small compared to other areas, the number of people left homeless is far from insignificant. In Simeulue of the 15 000 households 7 500 have permanently lost their homes. The number of destroyed houses in Nias is estimated at 4 500. Infrastructure damage, leading to slow distribution of food aid, has lead to the very real possibility of widespread starvation.

Early reports of the situation in Nais suggested the islands were "submerged" and "obliterated", however these stories were later suggested to have been greatly exaggerated , fortunately most of the islands estimated 600,000 inhabitants were spared loss of life. The estimated death toll is over 100. Eleven members of a Taiwanese medical team arrived on Nias on December 31 most of whom relocated to Aceh due to more pressing need.

The island is popular with surfers who have mounted a considerable grassroots campaign to provide aid to the island (see links below).

Communication to and from the isolated island proves to be difficult.

 * NOTE: Wikinews cannot endorse or verify charitable efforts to aid victims of the tsunami and earthquake*


text:
Category:Speedy deletion

The following articles are nominated for speedy deletion, using the template.

Articles listed should follow the Criteria for speedy deletion.

title: Category:Speedy deletion


text:
Two women strangled in further political violence in Honduras

Two unidentified young women were found bound and strangled along the road between Villanueva and the village of Santiago in Honduras. A message threatening the same fate to the followers of Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, the presidential candidate representing the National Party, was discovered with the women's bodies.

Lobo, who is the head of Congress, advocates the return of the death penalty in Honduras. Lobo's support for the death penalty and strong anti-crime views have provoked hostility and violence from Honduran street gangs, known as maras (ants). The two slain women are only the latest in a series of politically motivated violence. A number of people have been discovered cut into pieces with messages against Pepe Lobo, and against the nationalist government of Ricardo Maduro. On the evening of December 23rd, 28 people were killed on a bus near San Pedro Sula.

The government has responded to the recent violence by establishing a strong military presence in San Pedro Sula and the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.


text:
Wikinews:Tutorial-Examples

Wikinews examples:

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/DirecTV_tunes_out_Trio%2C_network_in_limbo

External examples:

http://www.economist.com/

title: Wikinews:Tutorial-Examples


text:
User:Tim Starling

See w:User:Tim Starling.

title: User:Tim Starling


text:
User talk:Tim Starling

Thanks!
I wanted to leave a note of thanks for the RC bot!

But where can I ask about adding a feature to the bot? 1.4b3 has the patrolled feature, and it would be great if the bot linked to the patrol dif. - Amgine 03:45, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

HELP Mr. Starling
In the article Alternative Parsers, it was mentioned that you created a script to dump wiki contents to a static site. Can you help me how to use your script?

title: User talk:Tim Starling


text:
Wikinews:Water cooler/Site features

Database Corruption?
Is anyone else seeing Francisco Melendez as the last editor in this page history?

I tried two small edits (removing a space) and he still appears as the most recent editor, leading one to the mistaken impression that he is removing other folks comments, yet editing the document or purging and refreshing the page shows that is not the case.

I am starting to save the contents of all the articles I work on in separate text files locally on my machine, because if the database is getting corrupted, we could lose all of our content if the backups are corrupted as well.

Please let me know if you see this problem cropping up in this case or elsewhere.

— DV 01:34, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * I am seeing it too. I am not sure what's going on — you might want to file a bug at http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org -- IlyaHaykinson 01:58, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The "patrolled" feature
Has anyone else noticed the exclamation points marking "unpatrolled" edits?

I read the discussion on this feature over on the Village pump and it appears that if anyone is interested in using this feature, they can only mark "diffs" as patrolled. There is no way to mark new articles as patrolled, because there is no diff.

It appears that no one is using this feature on Wikinews, so for now, it's simply a visual annoyance that is cluttering up the recent changes log.

Does anyone plan to use this feature?

— DV 03:25, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * I think I need a computer science degree to figure out either how to use it - or how to turn it off. :-) -- Davodd | Talk 05:51, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * I would like to use this feature, and am trying to get a live RC channel set up at #enrc.wikinews right now. - Amgine 06:41, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

title: Wikinews:Water cooler/Site features


text:
User talk:Lemi4~enwikinews

Welcome
Hi! Great to see you adding articles!

I see you're fairly new to editing here, so I thought you might want to know about the style guide, and some other helpful guidelines and policies which can be fount at the Wikinews help and welcome pages.

And of course there is the water cooler, where lots and lots of questions and topics are brought up.

Thanks again for joining in!

- Amgine/talk

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Lemi4. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Lemi4~enwikinews that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:20, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:33, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Lemi4~enwikinews


text:
Wikinews talk:Water cooler

ARE YOU TRYING TO ASK A QUESTION ON THE WATER COOLER? IF SO THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT PLACE, AND NEITHER IS THE PROTECTED WIKINEWS:WATER COOLER Instead, please edit one of the following:
 * Water cooler/policy
 * Water cooler/technical
 * Water cooler/proposals
 * Water cooler/assistance
 * Water cooler/miscellaneous

2 things
1. I moved the (subpages) to /subpages to allow the automated wiki link back to watercooler - a relatively minor tweak that could make the page easier to use for some newbies. 2. Speaking of newbies.. It looks like a non-wiki-savvy person didn't understand how to edit a section - and instead edited the page - and inserted a bit of prose at the end of Amgine's otherwise clean code. -- Davodd | Talk 09:53, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Why is the page broken up into subpages?
Why is the page broken up into subpages that are pulled in? This leads to synchronisation problems when people edit the page... Is there a good reason? - Simeon 09:08, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Can you explain how it leads to synchronization problems? I've responded to the why on the main page, but the goals was to make it easier for the pages to be organized, and archived, and discussions implemented. - Amgine/talk 22:35, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Please Spell-check Water Cooler pages
The old grammar school adage: "there's a rat in separate" applies. You keep spelling it seperate.

Updated interlanguage links
I´ve updated the interwiki language links on the german watercooler page, and wanted to implement it here (but its protected). I rekoned it would be a good idea if it was up to date here, cause thats where most people take there interwiki links from (english is the hub). regards User:Sean Heron 84.164.91.88 16:06, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
 * It is only IP/new user protection, just register an account. --Brian McNeil / talk 18:51, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

oh :) I didn´t realize, thank you. I already have an account registered :D . Sean Heron 21:45, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Can I comment??
 * Yes you can.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 12:00, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Am I sentenced to the kids' table?
I would have started a conversation on the project page about the Wikinews Importer Bot, but all I can do is "view source." Does someone else want to say something about it there? RichardF 04:22, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Nevermind! >;-o) I figured it out. ;-) RichardF 04:26, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

013042
→ 13042 · "« E-mail me when my user talk page is changed » feature at English Wikinews"

Dear friends; I opned this request because of Wikinews talk:Water cooler|oldid=510473#Enable email for user talk page changes. Good luck and best regards

·לערי ריינהארט·T·m:Th·T·email me· 06:23, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Please add cs iw
Editprotected Please add cs iw: cs:Wikizprávy:V redakci --Sevela.p (talk) 18:41, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ Anonymous101  18:50, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

search feature added
I've decided to be bold and add a search feature to the water cooler using the inputbox tag. Please feel free to yell at me if this breaks anything. --Ixfd64 (talk) 05:34, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

Interwiki

 * The page pt:Wikinotícias:Esplanada was renamed :pt:Wikinotícias:Redação. Richard Melo da Silva (talk) 22:17, 18 May 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅ Tempodivalse [talk]  00:00, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Hellow?
Add the 위키뉴스 interwiki, please.(New make.) Thank you. --Idh0854 (talk) 13:17, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

 * From what I can tell, there is no page 위키뉴스. Would ko:위키뉴스:사랑방 be appropriate?  --Pi zero (talk) 15:51, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * My bot added hu:, ko:, ru:, sr:, tr:, uk: and modified he: Diego Grez return fire 03:08, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

fawikinews
Hi, Somebody Please add fa interwiki to watercooler : fa:ویکی‌خبر:تالار گفتگو, Thank you in Advance Mjbmr   12:36, 23 October 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅ --Diego Grez return fire 14:22, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

unprotect please
Please unprotect this page. It prevents section edit links from showing up, and makes it quite confusing for anyone who wants to follow up with a thread they've read. It is also quite unclear how to post new questions in each section -- an explicit button or link at the top of each section would make that more obvious. sj (talk) 03:46, 22 November 2011 (UTC)
 * ✅, but would you be able to suggest the appropriate changes to hide the "Add topic" and "Edit" (for the entire page) links? Otherwise, we'll be left perpetually cleaning up for people who don't read the first two sentences on the page. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:18, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

improved warning sign?
The "STOP!" icon at the top of this page is discouraging. Perhaps there is a friendlier way to guide visitors... it's not the worst thing in the world if someone mistakenly leaves a comment here. sj (talk)
 * I think we'll leave that for now; unprotecting the Water Cooler won't cause the instant decline of Western Civilisation; but, if people are put off by the STOP sign, then dog-only-knows what they'll make of a failing review on an article. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:20, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Interwiki update
Hello. Please, change ar:ويكي الأخبار:غرفة الاجتماعات to ar:ويكي الأخبار:الميدان. Regards.--Avocato (talk) 16:58, 28 November 2012 (UTC)
 * ✅ --Pi zero (talk) 17:10, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Discussion about the forum's activity
I started a discussion at this page: Water cooler/proposals. --George Ho (talk) 06:31, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Stop 🤚
Seems intrusive.... BigKrow (talk) 18:16, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

 * ??? @BigKrow Me Da Wikipedian (talk) 09:41, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Wikinews talk:Water cooler


text: Template:Watercoolerpages

title: Template:Watercoolerpages


text:
User:218.214.18.27

I replied to your comments on the Main Page talk page.

Thanks for stopping by Wikinews.

— DV 05:48, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

title: User:218.214.18.27


text:
Wikinews:Code of Ethics

Wikinews hasn't yet adopted or developed a particular Code of Ethics, but several exist already, and there is even (at least) one being developed for adoption by Bloggers. For the time being, Wikinews writers may want to refer to these documents.

 * Journalism ethics and standards (on Wikipedia)
 * Code of Ethics,
 * Code of Ethics,, Australia
 * Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists, (IFJ)
 * Toolkits and Basic ethics for bloggers, (IJNet)
 * Editors' Code of Practice, (IPSO)
 * Editorial Guidelines, BBC
 * Journalistic Standards and Practices, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
 * Code of Ethics, Al Jazeera, Qatar
 * Code of Journalists of the Republic of Slovenia on accountablejournalism.org
 * Code of Ethics, (RTNDA)
 * Standars and Ethics, New York Times
 * Policies and Standards, Washington Post

Wikinews Journalists' Code of Ethics
Please note: this is only a draft. Contributions to this code are welcome.

As journalists and reporters, we have the power of the interpretation and delivery of truth. We have duties to both our readers and our sources.

To our readers, we have the duty to be:
 * Independent
 * Neutral
 * Truthful
 * Accountable

To our sources and subjects we have the duty to:
 * Minimise harm
 * Not misrepresent
 * Get all sides of a story
 * Respect copyrights
 * Respect anonymity

Ethical responsibility to our readers
To our readers, we have the duty to be:

Independent
Wikinews is not owned by a corporate entity. It is a project that is under the banner of the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization. As such, we shall strive not to turn stories about the Foundation into a press release and any stories that do not portray the Foundation in a good light shall also be reported, no matter how negative it is.

As a project of the Foundation, some special consideration has to be given to reporting on other projects of the WMF, or the WMF itself. WMF Reports is intended to cover this.

Neutral
English Wikinews has a policy of Neutral point of view. We have a responsibility to our readers to provide news that contains no bias. Neutrality is a requirement for publication. Articles are not permitted to advocate a particular point of view.

Truthful
Wikinews wants to be truthful. We want to bring the real information. We work hard to do that. We make sure what is being reported is truthful. We remove and re-edit stories that contain unverified sources and thus may be untruthful.

Accountable
In relation to being truthful, Wikinews wants to be accountable also. We make sure that what we are reporting to the public can be accounted for. We make sure sources are conforming to NPOV. We take blame for stories that contain untruthful information.

Minimise harm
It is essential that all risks of being inflammatory, misleading, or inconsiderate to subjects and sources be minimised. This is especially relevant to those engaging in original reporting. To minimise possible harm, we encourage our writers to do the following:

 * Ensure facts are correct by getting verification from multiple sources.
 * Try to contact the subject of the article whenever possible.
 * Not publish an article based solely on speculation, hunches or wild guesses.
 * Before publishing, make a mental list of all parties involved in the article and think about how each will feel about the article.

Avoid misrepresentation
Do not publish any sort of interview story without ensuring that the interviewee is absolutely happy with the article's final text, even if this means giving up the interview. Wikinews will only lose out if it offends interviewees — remember to respect that they have taken the time to talk to us!

Cover all sides of a story
Ensure sources and quotes from all relevant sides of an argument are included in articles to avoid being biased. Ideally, all opinions expressed in an article should be direct quotes. Wikinews has no official opinion on anything; however, sources often do.

Respect anonymity
Any source that requests to remain anonymous is fully entitled to this. You are not obliged to bring up the possibility of anonymity, but you are obliged to honor requests for it. It is important not to apply undue pressure to the source if they do not wish to be named. At the same time, anonymous sources can make stories less credible, so it is important to make some effort to persuade reluctant sources to volunteer to go on the record. Explaining to a source why you would prefer them to go on the record is a gentle and often effective way of persuading them to do so. In any case, the decision rests with the source. Where you suspect that a source who wishes to remain anonymous may not be entirely truthful, consider explaining that anonymity is maintained in all cases where bona fide truthful evidence is supplied.

Inform interviewee
You should disclose to the person you are interviewing that the interview may be published on Wikinews.

Case Study 1: unverified interview
In May 2005, an excited Wikinewsie saw what appeared to be a perfect chance to make a major scoop. There was widespread speculation at the time in the general media about the identity of a man who had turned up in England, but had refused to talk. The press dubbed him Piano Man because he was an excellent pianist.

Some weeks after the arrival of the man in England, an American Wikipedian contacted the Wikinewsie saying that he was quite sure that he knew who the man was: a British actor. On this single source, the Wikinewsie proceeded to publish an entire article about the speculative claims, backed up only by the one source. The source eventually turned out to be quite wrong, and there was considerable upset about the false claims. Although the author did make it clear at the top of the article that the article only had one unverified source, he did make the following significant mistakes:

 * He did not attempt to contact the actor.
 * He allowed a reference to a business partner in the final text of the article without making any attempt to contact the said business partner.
 * He relied on a single source.
 * He failed to consider the consequences if the article turned out to be incorrect.
 * He failed to discuss the article extensively with other Wikinewsies - missing the opportunity to have it properly proofread and warned that it was unverified.

The author subsequently apologised – but by that time many readers had been misled, the subject of the article had been unfairly treated and misrepresented, the credibility of Wikinews had been damaged – and indeed the author's own credibility had been damaged.

title: Wikinews:Code of Ethics


text:
Wikinews talk:Code of Ethics

Thanks!
I've been wanting to do some research on this topic for a week or so, Simeon. Thanks for doing the legwork so I can get started! - Amgine 18:01, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Starting WNCoE
We need to start working on our own Code of Ethics, right now all it consists of is a bunch of links; if we end up being crucially audited by some government or something, we should have a solid CoE to stand on. We should work on a draft at Code of Ethics\Draft; because it's still an 'in beta' draft. KirbyMeister 03:36, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

On the case study
Hi,

while I welcome the openness and honesty with which CG has documented the Piano Man story, I would prefer this page to list fictional examples rather than real ones. It's not fair to the individual Wikinewsies involved, especially CG, to have this story stick out like a sore thumb for a long time to come. Unless there are strong objections, I'll try to come up with a fictional case story which illustrates the same point.--Eloquence 05:43, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

 * Yeah, obviously I don't want to be associated with that mistake forever! But it is a valuable lesson that must be thaught to all wikinewsies. I've tried not to name myself in the case study - but anyone could find out who it refers to just by looking at the talk page of the piano man article. I would love if you could come up with a fictatious one to replace it. → CGorman (Talk)  09:07, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

a thought
I was reading this essay on wikipedia, and although wikipedia and wikinews do have differences they do have some similarity so the essay got me thinking. Anyways my thought was more or less: We should Be ethical:
 * To readers
 * npov, don't misrepresent the truth, don't lie
 * To editors (Each other)
 * WN:E. make wikinews a nice environment.
 * Do not let vandals run around disrupting proper working of wikinews (WN:BP)
 * To the subjects of our articles
 * ties into our responsibilities to our readers as well
 * Should not libel the subject of our articles
 * Npov
 * Good sources - don't publish stuff based on unsubstantiated rumor
 * Minimize potential harm

Now as i look at that list, it look to me as if many (if not all) ethical issues are already handled by core policy (WN:NPOV WN:E Cite sources). Therefor perhaps this page should be less of a policy in it self, and more of a summary of those policies as they apply to ethical situations. Just a thought. Bawolff ☺☻ 15:14, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

broken link
The link for Al Jazeera's COE is outdated. The current link is
 * Fixed. Thanks for the heads-up on that! --Brian McNeil / talk 12:58, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

New section
I was thinking that, perhaps, we should also include telling the person you are interviewing that you are planning on posting it online. Please comment. Qwerty number1 (talk) 21:03, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

I think I will add it now, but if anyone then mentions how they dislike the change, I will revert edit(s) and then discuss with them.Qwerty number1 (talk) 21:08, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

 * Interview ethics are, as I recall, discussed on another page. --Pi zero (talk) 21:59, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

Ok! Can you give me a link to it please? Thanks, Qwerty number1 (talk) 10:47, 22 December 2018 (UTC).

 * Keeping in mind that our documentation tends to be scattered all hither and yon, and is often sparse (I've been told that's usually true of small news orgs: people at such orgs are too busy doing to spend a lot of time writing about how they do it, the major news style guides being at really big operations, like AP or BBC News); another way of looking at the same effect being, that we're comparatively "fast" on article production at the price of being comparatively slow on infrastructure development. The first place I'd look for interview ethics would be WN:OR. --Pi zero (talk) 14:05, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

Ok!Qwerty number1 (talk) 15:28, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

title: Wikinews talk:Code of Ethics


text:
IMF Offers Special Loan for Tsunami-Hit Countries

January 5, 2005

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Rodrigo Rato offered special relief funds for the countries victim of the tsunami disaster. The money is, however, in the form of a loan. The IMF has been present in the area on various occasions.

The IMF offered a one billion U.S. dollar loan. The money would be given as Emergency Natural Disaster Assistance facility, and would be repaid in full and with interests within 3¼ to 5 years.

The money could help the area tremendously, but since it is a loan as opposed to an outright donation, it may not be as helpful. The loan, some fear, may not lead to economic stability in the long run. Despite the possible long term effects, the governments of the tsunami torn nations may simply have no choice but to accept the offer.


text:
User talk:Stravinsky~enwikinews

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome!
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * And of course, stories need writing!

- Amgine 22:39, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Stravinsky. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Stravinsky~enwikinews that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:33, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:37, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Stravinsky~enwikinews


text: Template:THredirect

title: Template:THredirect


text:
Talk:Billionaire Mark Cuban asks President Bush to cancel inauguration parties

Added some information and did general copyediting. AdaMada 23:07, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

"It’s up to President Bush to set an example," Cuban said (http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000260025530/) in this web blog.
 * Is it this web blog or his web blog? Is it right? -- Carlosar 09:32, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * I fixed that - should be "his." -- Davodd | Talk 09:37, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Two women strangled in further political violence in Honduras

This article has now been removed from Security PostNews who did not have permission to use the piece except as part of the open copyright to which wikis are subject. This piece is an original wiki that was copied by Security PostNews. When they realised their mistake, it appears, they removed the piece. [I informed them they had published the piece from wikinews).Squeakfox 23:04, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC) Please see Security ProNews use of Wikinews articles creates deletion chaos

 * Squeakfox, anyone may copy any content at all from Wikinews for any reason whatsoever: it is in the public domain and not subject to any restrictions. -- IlyaHaykinson 01:19, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Please add some reference so we can check the story easily. Does some person confirm the story? -- Carlosar

copyrighted material
this is almost word-for-word from the site listed. should it be deleted?

It should be. - Amgine 05:07, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, I was trying to find more info on the article and found the orig article; wasn't sure how to proceed so I put the link in the text. Understand process now, will note for future editing. - Samatheson

This article was written by me for wikinews and then taken and put on another website. There is no copyright infringement and therefore the article has been restored. As to whether the other site is breaking copyleft I do not know? Please note this article was never put in as a deletion request, which having taken the article out of the page does taste of something not right. Also to be aware the other security pronews article was not dated, whereas the wikinews article came out within hours of the original source material, La Prensa, becoming available. This deletion was jumping to conclusions without even writing to me to check. I live in Honduras. So how am I going to be getting material from this other site that has no Honduran connections, rather than from the newspaper. This deletion was overhasty and stupidly done. Not a good start for a freesource newspaper. Plus this issue will keep arising.--Squeakfox 15:39, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC) I have now added two specific sources in Spanish for the story--Squeakfox 17:02, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Copyright issues
You're correct that the article should have been listed at Deletion requests.

We have never had a link, that I know of, to the original source material at La Prensa. I am looking for that source material now.

The proper approach to a possible copyright violation is to remove the article first, then examine the possibility of a violation. This may seem unfair, but it is least likely to harm the owner of the original material. - Amgine 22:25, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Temp page
Hi, would someone look into the temp page? Two women strangled in further political violence in Honduras/Temp I suppose it has to do with the fact that this article was once requested for a deletion, but do we need to merge the two, or simply delete it? Tomos 09:57, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Two women strangled in further political violence in Honduras
REASON -- Article consists primarily of text from, with minor excisions. - Amgine 05:33, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. -- Davodd | Talk 23:40, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Revise -- The security pronews article consisted of material copied *from* Wikinews, not *to* Wikinews. However, the article has almost no verifiable sourcing. (Translation of primary source via Google)


text:
Australia to deport asylum seekers to Tsunami Zone

The Australian Government has said in response to the recent tsunami tragedy that it may take Sri Lankans as humanitarian refugees. Sri Lankans already in the Australian community, however, are being overlooked, according to Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition. The government issued hundreds of Sri Lankans their deportation orders on Christmas Eve, and similar conditions affect people from Aceh in Indonesia, near the epicenter of the quake.

The Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) said it has had a special hotline running since December 30 in response to the tsunami disaster.

"People who usually live in an area that has been directly affected by the tsunamis and may wish to temporarily extend their stay in Australia should contact the Department on the hotline on 1300 735 683," a Department spokesperson said.


text:
User talk:218.214.18.27

Davodd? that you?

title: User talk:218.214.18.27


text:
Template:Welcome

Please do not subst: this message.

See Template:Welcome-anon for a welcome message for anons.

See Welcommittee/greetings for other welcomes.

ca:Plantilla:Benvinguda de:Vorlage:Willkommen es:Plantilla:Bienvenido usuario fa:الگو:Welcome fr:Modèle:Bienvenue it:Template:Benvenuto he:תבנית:ברוך בואך ko:틀:환영 no:Mal:Reg-velkommen pt:Predefinição:Bv ro:Format:Bunvenit uk:Шаблон:ЛаскавоПросимо

title: Template:Welcome


text:
Pinochet arrested after Supreme Court ruling

January 6, 2005

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was officially placed under house arrest a day after the country's Supreme Court upheld his indictment of one count of murder and nine counts of kidnapping.

Court officials say the arrest order was delivered to Gen. Pinochet's home near the capital, Santiago, Wednesday. The 89-year-old retired general has been at his home recovering from a stroke he suffered in late December.

A government commission, the Rettig Commission, listed 2,095 deaths and 1,102 disappearances during his 17-year rule. In 2004 the Valech Report that was issued after interviewing an estimated 35,000 people who claimed to have been abused by the regime; 28,000 were regarded legitimate.

The crimes were allegedly committed as part of Operation Condor, a campaign of assassination and terrorization meant to suppress left-wing opposition to Pinochet's regime. The Chilean-led program soon spread to other military regimes throughout Latin America, and may have had at least tacit complicity by then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The Pinochet dictatorship ruled Chile from 1973 until 1990, gaining power after a military coup overthrew the democratically-elected socialist President Salvador Allende.


text:
Wikinews:English spelling poll

This is the poll to set Wikinews policy of the form of English spelling which will be used. Only vote is you support the system. Vote editing the section you support and typing  to register your vote. =Voting ended January 21, 2005 at 00:01 UTC.=

Option 1: Use American-style English spelling
Examples: U.S., U.K., labor, check stub Support:

Option 2: Use British-style English spelling
Examples: US, UK, labour, cheque stub Support:
 * -- 80.58.23.42 17:23, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Option 3: Use first writer theory
Whoever starts the article first, that style will continue in the story in future revisions. Support:
 * -- IlyaHaykinson 21:41, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- 69.3.238.93 Fri Jan  7 22:43:19 PST 2005
 * -- MarkS 08:08, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- Knapjack 19:40, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- OverlordP 09:50, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- Simeon 14:11, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- AliceCrypto  (Talk|Contributions) 08:33, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- Tobyliman2 05:54, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC) am new but I think it's too much to ask writers to think English English or American English, both are acceptable

Option 4: Use the respect for locality approach
''Refer to someone or something in the way that they (or it) use self-references. Examples: use "U.S." and "UK" since that is the most-common way each refers to itself. In addition, the dateline indicates spellings proper to that locale should be used: "labor unions" in U.S.-datelined stories and as "labour unions" in UK-datelined stories.'' Support:
 * -- Davodd | Talk 21:27, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- Alan Liefting 07:28, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- GlennW 17:58, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- Mac Davis 13:54, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- User:Bo Register--146.145.195.74 17:51, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- DV 12:28, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- AquaDoctorBob 01:44, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- Dan100 (Talk) 11:56, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * -- The bellman 00:23, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC) i might add that there are other regioanl spelling variations OTHER than US and UK.
 * -- cafzal
 * -- [[User:MacGyverMagic|MacGyverMagic| (talk)]] 12:27, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC). It avoid any specific country bias.
 * -- TOR 12:53, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC) Feel free to ignore my vote - haven't been very active around here.
 * -- PeterR 13:10, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC) I had difficulty choosing between options 3 and 4.  I think 4 should be the ideal, but 3 is OK.  In other words - let originators use their own spelling, but no grounds for complaint if someone updates the language to relate to the country the news is about.
 * --RossKoepke 21:40, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * -- Paulrevere2005 00:39, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
 * -- user:zanimum

title: Wikinews:English spelling poll


text:
Wikinews:Weekly Topics/January 3, 2005

This page serves as a point of coordination between article writers. It lists the most important topics of the week so that these topics will receive some attention. As you see patterns in news events unfolding, please feel free to add to this list if you think that Wikinews should definitely be covering this topic.

This list should get re-evaluated on a weekly basis, keeping topics that are still relevant and dropping ones that are unlikely to be of primary interest.

Topics to Follow
For the week of January 3, 2005 through January 9, 2004, these are the topics that we should be covering.

Palestinian Elections
When:  Sunday, Jan. 9 Where: Palestinean Terrotory

The first elections in Palestinian Territory happening this weekend. Many hope for the peace process to be restarted after likely win of candidate Abbas.

What to write about:
 * Before the election: Different candidates and their platforms
 * During the election: how it is going
 * After the election: who won, who lost, and why

For reference: Category:Elections, Category:Palestine

Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami Effects
When: ongoing, since Dec. 26 Where: Indonesia, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, other countries affected

What to write about:
 * New aftershocks
 * Ongoing relief effort
 * Who's delivering aid? How is that effort going?
 * Who is pledging monetary aid? How much? Is it enough?
 * Countries outside the region whose citizens are missing: how are they affected?

Iraqi Violence
When: ongoing Where: throughout Iraq

Stability in the country is hard to foresee given the multitude of attacks on Iraqi government and U.S. forces on a nearly-daily basis.

What to write about:
 * the attacks

Iraqi Elections
When: before end of January Where: throughout Iraq

The country is still unstable, but the government (and the United States) are pushing for elections to be held no matter what by the end of the month of January.

What to write about:
 * speculation of postponing the elections
 * participation (or non-participation) by various political parties
 * as the elections get closer: the candidates for various positions

Ongoing Topics of Interest
For the week of January 3, 2005 through January 9, 2004, these are the topics that should be covered if they generate specific news.

Science

 * Mars rovers exploring the planet, new findings every so often

title: Wikinews:Weekly Topics/January 3, 2005


text:
Wikinews:Weekly Topics

Current Coordination Effort
Weekly topics for the week starting on January 3, 2005

title: Wikinews:Weekly Topics