User talk:Bestofmed

Hia. I see that you recently attempted to create several articles about Tunisia. I presume that this is either where you live, or an area that is of interest to you. I also see that we don't seem to have anyone writing articles about, well, anywhere in that region;). We desire our representation to be as broad as possible, so I hope you stay and continue to try and get articles published.

However, that said, your recent article attempts did not quite meet Wikinews' standard of publication. I've posted our welcome template above, and the three tabs contain some useful material for beginners. I don't expect you to read all of the material it links to right now (of course), but if you chose to stay on Wikinews those pages will prove a valuable resource that you can refer to over time.

For now, I'll just note a few key points:

1) News has to be new, by definition. We generally don't publish rewritten articles that are more than 3 days old (articles based on the work of other news agencies). Exceptions are made for Original Reporting, where you go out and do what might be referred to as "street journalism". IE, conducting interviews, writing stories about the events of your area, etc.

2) Every article that is a rewritten article must have *at least* 2 sources, at least one of which as to be newer than 3 days old. Original Reporting doesn't need sources, since YOU are the source, but you do have to post your notes on the article's talk page.

3) No editorials. Wikinews does not publish opinion pieces, only unvarnished facts. Editorials are for blogs.

4) The Style guide is of great help, and so is the "Article layout in a nutshell" page that is linked to in the welcome template posted above. If you have to read one thing, read that Article layout in a nutshell. That's the basic starting guide to article writing.

Once again, thanks for contributing to Wikinews! Gopher65talk 03:01, 10 February 2009 (UTC)