User talk:Fetchcomms/Archive 1

Welcome
Tempodivalse [talk]  22:35, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

General notes
Hi there! Nice work here; it's always good to see another Wikipedian at Wikinews. Just a quick note, categories are a lot more important at Wikinews then at Wikipedia; it's the only way to find articles once they've been archived, so please try to add those before posting an article for review. Also, it's customary to add an infobox to the article; although this is much more open to the user's discretion. There's one for each of the main categories, like Economy and business or Politics and conflicts, etc. Other than that, good work, and welcome again. Cheers, C628 (talk) 00:37, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Hey, thanks for the heads-up. I'll try to keep that in mind as I work on this one now!  — fetch ·  comms   00:42, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Violence in Bangkok prompts closure of US embassy in Thailand WN:SG compliance
Please note the following important points from the Style guide:


 * 1) All numbers of 20 or less must be spelt out in full
 * 2) All dates must be of the format Monthname daynumber, year.

When reviewing or writing articles please make sure you comply with these rules to ensure professional consistency in articles. -- Brian McNeil (alt. account) /alt-talk &bull; main talk' 16:08, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * OK, no problem. Still trying to figure out the BrE/AmE/etc.  — fetch · comms  20:31, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * On a related note, why are the dates in the infoboxes DD MMMM YYYY instead?  — fetch · comms  20:45, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * That's the date format that Dynamic Page List (DPL) comes with; unfortunately there is no way to change that. Tempodivalse [talk]  21:09, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah, OK. Thanks,  — fetch · comms  21:11, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Reviewer Promotion
I have promoted you to the Reviewer class, as I feel you can be trusted to mark revisions of articles as sighted (review). Please take a moment to read: If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask for help on my talk page, and thank you for contributing to Wikinews! Tempodivalse [talk]  21:17, 4 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Flagged revisions
 * Reviewing articles
 * Peer review
 * Review
 * Reviewed article version
 * Flagged Revisions extension information, on MediaWiki

Help
Can you help me write good news articles? Regards--Sainsf :) 16:23, 12 June 2010 (UTC)
 * How do you mean? I'm not sure I can really help all that much--half of it is following the style guide, half keeping it neutral and everything else making sure the material follows reliable sources. If you aren't sure about how to write a good story, try reading something from a good source (like the BBC, al-Jazeera, the NYT, etc.) and seeing how they write.  — fetch · comms  17:05, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Ok, but please suggest me some tips on Style Guide.--Sainsf :) 06:12, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Please review this article of mine: 'Polish authorities arrest Israeli agent'. Regards.--Sainsf :) 10:41, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Hello there Fetchcomms! Please can you explain me how I can use userboxes on my User page? Regards --Sainsf :) 11:03, 14 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not available much for a few weeks, but
 * Read the style guide because there's too much to explain.
 * If you add the review template, someone will review it.
 * Userboxen are stupid.
 * Link to your user page, user talk page, or both in your signature.
 *  — fetch · comms  17:45, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Election judging
Het Fetchcomms! Just wanted to let you know that we'll be judging the ArbCom election once you get back. You can see the judging page here. Benny the mascot (talk) 00:52, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Favicon
I've been meaning to ask... why are we using the Facebook favicon, rather than (say) this (Quaqe9's cc-nd version) or this (der-x-ide, unknown licensure) or any of the other knock-offs which are readily identifiable? -  Amgine | t 23:10, 31 July 2010 (UTC)
 * See our image's talk page. I've decided not to bother with reviving old arguments any more... if you want to propose it, go ahead.  — fetch · comms  23:20, 31 July 2010 (UTC)
 * &lt;nod&gt; Yep, that's about what I expected. Thanks for the information! -  Amgine | t 23:24, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

Help for speeding article review process
Hi,

I don't know if this is available?

I am new here, it's my first article, and it took more than 24 hours, and you asked on the page-history page if it is old.

Now what? What should I do if the review process took too much and an editor like you marked it as old?

What will happen, and who should I contact?

Will it go unpublished because review was not possible to be on time?

I am sorry but I don't understand :(

Thanks Research2006 (talk) 23:08, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * As long as it is published within 72 hours (3 days) of the event happening, it's fine. I said "old?" because of the change I made—using the term "an old person" isn't very professional-sounding. No worries, but I would read the style guide for future reference.  — fetch · comms  23:30, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Great. alright.

But what about speeding or bringing to attention? in other words: how wikinews keep quality and time in balance? what if I need to speed it a little bit? contact someone? use a tool?

Thanks again for helping me out :)

Research2006 (talk)
 * To speed up writing, write faster :) To speed up the review, there's nothing really but to be patient. Generally, try to write newer stories, and not late ones, lest the review take too long and it turn to stale news.  — fetch · comms  00:47, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

Workflow
No thanks to wrecking the /boot directory a couple of times this weekend, I've been preeocupied.

Managed to jot some notes related to workflow for articles.

I need some time to unwind now, and finish another attempt at writing a custom USB boot disk. But, there's various points where I think it should be possible to push really short submissions straight into some form of shorts/briefs; and, within an up-to-36hrs timeframe pull them back to full-blown articles if suitably expanded.

Previously I've had a go at hacking the Wikipedia article creation tool/templates into a usable state for here (somewhere on the enwn.net wiki IIRC). That would be particularly useful, and your redesign brought that to mind. A substantially different article layout would mean reworking the review gadget. In all honesty, I think the review gadget should be pushed back mostly server-side; that with some thought to, and an eye on, how FlaggedRevs may end up used on enWP. -- Brian McNeil (alt. account) /alt-talk &bull; main talk 21:59, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No problems, your notes are great (and I've been working to port all sorts of stuff over to a new computer and fix up the old one, too). I presume you mean the article wizard on enwp? I think that would indeed be a good idea for new users, though it would probably be shorter (and less tl;dr) here as we accept almost all "news". Personally, I don't think flaggedrevs will ever catch on much for enwp, as there is even significant opposition to its being used only for articles about living persons and so on, so I'm not sure how lucky we'll get with a more integrated system over here (although if it is simple enough, a dev could probably make it work after much community pushing). Just some thoughts; I'll post some more comments on your workflow section.  — fetch · comms  03:27, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Responded to some. And, yes, the article wizard would be a great tool to snarf. -- Brian McNeil (alt. account) /alt-talk &bull; main talk 05:12, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
 * RE: art. Wizard... Ideal beta/starting place for that - prepped Obits. Constrain people coming over from enWP to our layout & style where they're not going to hit time pressures more normally associated with this project. -- Brian McNeil (alt. account) /alt-talk &bull; main talk 05:19, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Former US Senator Ted Stevens and former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe aboard downed airplane
I've just unsighted this; I take it you sighted it by accident? Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 17:06, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Crap, yeah. The autosight gadget is still confusing me. Sorry!  — fetch · comms  17:09, 10 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Also, let's remember when retitling that there were other people besides Stevens on that plane. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 18:53, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, but he's the central focus right now, and I think a title reflecting his newly confirmed death will be more clear on what we've got right now against other slower sources.  — fetch · comms  18:54, 10 August 2010 (UTC)


 * You can do that in the title and still mention the the others. *Person* amongst . Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 18:56, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I still wasn't sure if there were 8 or 9 aboard; I'm leaning toward 9 but a few sources still saying 8 or 9.  — fetch · comms  18:57, 10 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Probably 8 as sources are saying 3 airlifte injured, 5 bodies. But the current title sounds like an obit for Mr Stevens. The news event is the plane crash, not Stevens's death. -  Amgine | t 19:00, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
 * How about "Former US Senator Ted Stevens among five killed in Alaska plane crash"?  — fetch · comms  19:13, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I like that; though I haven't checked the figures myself, the title works well. Go for it. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 19:15, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Stevens
You sure that's a better choice of photo? That one seems almost too informal. Aido2002 (talk) 19:43, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
 * You wanted natural, I think that showing his full face is more important. Why not just put it back to the formal image instead?  — fetch · comms  19:54, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

I have a source
The second source of the article (the zeenews one) says all that I have updated. Actually, after the article was published, the source got updated. So I updated the article too. -- Srin  ivas  17:22, 11 August 2010 (UTC)
 * OK—it must have been slow updating where I am, because I didn't see the quote the first time. All good now, though.  — fetch · comms  18:55, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks
Thank you for bringing the date formatting guideline to my attention. Tyrol5 (talk) 23:27, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

Deleted image?
Please follow up your request at Talk:US denies arrest of al-Masri, al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, as I am not sure what your wishes are here. --InfantGorilla (talk) 15:49, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

The "beta" article template
I am inclined to say I like where this is going, and per your comment, it's one step along a "roadmap" that nobody really has the time to put down in electrons.

For me, the next really important step is an "article wizard" that works with it. Then, it is how the review gadget handles it.

I may well be at severely reduced (even compared to now) involvement over the next few weeks. I'm doing additional research into a very large story I've been looking at for six+ months; I may be reduced to mobile access only; as, and when, I can get my phone charged up.

Yes, I'm completely ignoring the "do not put yourself in harm's way" advice; at the very least, I may be back in a month's time with some really interesting interview material. Lights go out on my fixed-line connection Monday evening. --Brian McNeil / talk 23:06, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Article wizard, I can probably get a beta of that set up in an hour or less right now. Review is up to Bawolff (who is also gone for a bit), and I'm not sure where Earwig is on his copyvio bot.  — fetch · comms  00:37, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

Duplicates
We appear to be working on duplicate articles&mdash;here's mine, here's yours. Shall we merge mine to yours or yours to mine? Regards,  WackyWace talk 18:18, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Er, mine was published before I saw this, so I guess merge yours in.  — fetch · comms  21:19, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Gunman shoots doctor, then kills mother and self at Maryland hospital
When you make [ significant changes] to an article after publication, do not sight your own edits; leave them to be peer-reviewed by an uninvolved reviewer. Sighting them yourself is self-publication. --Pi zero (talk) 23:28, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Ugh, I thought I didn't. The auto-sight gadget is really annoying, I swear I clicked it off... Maybe I'll just turn that off.  — fetch · comms  12:36, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

quote punctuation
The original quote ended at a period/full stop, while the sentence in the article excerpts the quote in-line. Therefore I *think*, though I'm not certain on this (Chicago MoS just altered its stance on this, and I haven't cross-compared with other guides), the comma should be outside the quotes. -  Amgine | t 01:19, 2 October 2010 (UTC)
 * See, I never understand which to use. I've been told to use what the quote uses inside, everything inside, and everything outside. I have no clue which is right.  — fetch · comms  03:48, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

State Fair article
I try exceedingly hard to not get my knickers in a twist when an article gets rejected.....and I'm trying hard right now. I've edited the article for style, NPOV........please, honestly.......it's human interest for cripe's sake.....it's not whether or not the United Nations should be sold to Microsoft.................can you give a few inches here? Most of the guides here encourage writers to break the rules at times. I want to contribute in a meaningful way and I don't "own" anything here......but again, I'm not doing a re-write on The Taming of the Shrew......it's an article about the biggest fair in North America and the ridiculously-good food there.....that's it.Bddpaux (talk) 04:31, 10 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah... see Brian McNeil's comments on the article talk page.  — fetch · comms  18:59, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

unreadable
not sure what you've done, but your user talk page comes up mostly black with no visible text on my mobile. --Brian McNeil / talk 21:25, 10 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I think it has to do with the header. I'm not sure specifically what's wrong, though (my "mobile" is on iOS), other than you should probably not be editing off your phone :P  — fetch · comms  02:31, 11 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Got to edit with what I, currently, have access to - a Nokia handset. I do use the secure interface though - just have to click the blue-on-black [edit] links to see what's there. ;-) --Brian McNeil / talk 02:32, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Brian, Is there a desktop validator or emulator for your browser that we can use to see through your eyes? --InfantGorilla (talk) 11:00, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

Style Guide
OK.....read your bit about my need to read/adhere to the style guide.....I'm trying very hard to conform and am really learning that Wikinews is extremely NEWS-focused......that's cool......I want to contribute. Re: that article I just submittted about the Texas Commissioner of Agriculture.........were you referring to that? Can you give me some concrete specifics.....I know that doing so would be kind of time-consuming, but it would be well-received on my part. Honestly, I don't like dumping a chunk of time into an article that's going to get flushed. I tried hard to develop an inverted-pyramid model.....did I accomplish that? How about my tone, grammar, style? My refs could've maybe used a touch up here and there, admittedly.Bddpaux (talk) 13:22, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
 * OK, where do I start? Don't bold anything in the article. Also, be sure to use the source template to format sources. Dates should always be "M, D, Y"-format (October 11–15, not "11th" and please use an endash, not a hyphen). When using ellipses, please use three, with a non-breaking space before the first period and a regular space after the last, with three total periods (stuff&amp;nbsp;... more stuff). Using some links to Wikipedia articles ( article name ) is helpful for certain terms (Tyler), but always link to Wikinews pages (Texas, Barack Obama, etc.) when there are such pages here. Also, remember that Wikinews is not US-centered, so when talking about someone for the first time, use the full name ("US President Barack Obama"). Otherwise, watch out for regular grammar stuff: "... health of children in Texas, "Current ..." needs a colon there, not a comma. Other useful stuff: use an infobox (in this case, Template:Texas) and a relevant picture if available (the last bit is not overly important). Hope this helps,  — fetch · comms  03:05, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
 * it does...thank you.Bddpaux (talk) 13:32, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Apple Macbook & others
Hey, I was making the "skeleton" of the article. The numbers will be there too, when the article gets bigger, just not all in the same place. Feel free to add more factual details. Thanks, Ricmacas Ricmacas (talk) 19:52, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

TB
 ℳ ono   04:05, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

MBA review
''"The Air lost momentum relatively soon after it was introduced," Ezra Gottheil, analyst for Technology Business Research, told InformationWeek. "Later, when the (13-inch) MacBook came out, it was left with a lot less distinction."'' Frome source #1. -  Amgine | t 04:15, 21 October 2010 (UTC)


 * And no, that's quite all right. Any of my edits you reverted can stay reverted. Have a good sleep. -  Amgine | t 04:16, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah, I left that out in the merge as it was old.  — fetch · comms  04:17, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
 * It's also the source for the 'rumors' statement. -  Amgine | t 04:20, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Query:
Why are font tags evil? -  Amgine | t 22:43, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
 * They're deprecated and see this and these hits. And they've finally been removed. (See what WP thinks). Anyway, it's not a big deal.  — fetch · comms  23:36, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

newsonnews.net
Please take no notice of newsonnews.net - it is a portal that reprints stories from other sources. It does not follow Wikinews internal rules on fact-checking, copyright or attribution. --InfantGorilla (talk) 20:25, 27 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Got it, thanks for the note.  — fetch · comms  01:44, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
 * That'd be grounds to add it to the spam blacklist - just in case someone is foolish enough to try and use it as a source. --Brian McNeil / talk 14:37, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

Done Continue thread at Water cooler/policy if necessary. --InfantGorilla (talk) 15:17, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

University of Missouri Hospital in lockdown after 'violent individual' attempts to gain access to building
I sighted this for you (as EPR had failed to). --Pi zero (talk) 01:29, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
 * So it isn't just my problem then. If just Bawolff could check EasyPeerReview's code... Diego Grez return fire 01:39, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
 * It's been three different reviewers, and 5 of the last 8 articles published (that I know of). I did mention it to Bawolff.  --Pi zero (talk) 01:51, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Ugh... I edit conflicted myself during the reiew and copyediting, and fixed the publish tag and stuff, but forgot to check if it was sighted. Stupid gadgets :P  — fetch · comms  03:22, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

Chilean miner Edison Peña completes New York Marathon
Yet another anomaly. I found the last unpublished revision sighted, and the first published one unsighted. --Pi zero (talk) 02:30, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Sigh. Time to slap bawolff.  — fetch · comms  03:22, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Review please....
New mining accident in Copiapó, Chile kills two. Thanks! --Diego Grez return fire 17:44, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks again Fetch! Diego Grez return fire 17:57, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
 * No problem. Sorry to hear of another accident so soon.  — fetch · comms  18:55, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Bad form

 * I don't really care about WN any more, but you could have just left it on IRC or at least not templated me.  — fetch · comms  03:40, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Bah! The 'vandalism' appeals to me ;-) I'm already sick of the fundraiser, with some beardie with a scary stare and suspect smile. There were dozens of enWN-specific slogans proposed for this fundraiser, none even tried; hitting a vandal with a 'sarcastic' variation is just amusing. --Brian McNeil / talk 10:41, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!
Thanks for the Christmas wishes, Merry Christmas to you too! Bobby122  Contact Me   (C)  23:11, 19 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your Christmas wishes, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Nascar <font color="Red">1996   23:12, 19 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the Christmas card. I also hope you have a great Christmas and a happy New Year :) DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 00:56, 20 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Merry Christmas to you too. — Mike moral  ♪♫  01:13, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Merry Christmas
Same to you mate --RockerballAustralia c 23:18, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Merry Christmas
Thank you for the computer Christmas card. I would like to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. -- Rayboy8 ( my talk ) ( my contributions ) 00:01, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year. --Pi zero (talk) 00:25, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Happy Xmas
Different section heading purely for the sake of it. Have a good one. :) Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 01:11, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

I'll save you from a cluttered talk page by not creating a new section. Thanks very much for the holiday wishes, I wish you and your family all the best this holiday season! Tyrol5 (talk) 17:33, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks
...for reviewing my article/news entry. And, howd I do for my first entry here. T ofutwitch11 ''' <font color="Orange">(T ALK ) 01:10, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Not bad, although I would suggest using more comprehensive sources like, , , etc. Personally, I prefer taking a bit more time to write a fleshed out article, but yours is good. The issue is, policy is not to significantly change the content of articles (i.e., no new updates) a day or so after they're published, but WN isn't staffed like WP, so writing update articles a few days after something happens and getting them reviewed takes extra time. I can only suggest familiarizing yourself with the style guide, getting acquainted to the review process and other policies that differ from WP, and then decide if you really want to stay. The environment is different from that of WP, the active community is much smaller, and sometimes you have to rush or work extra hard to churn out stories, just because there are not that many active users. It's fun, it gets boring sometimes, and it's ... meh. It's just different.  — fetch · comms  01:27, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Right, and I understand. WP is always there, but WN seems like something interesting, at least there is not so much drama like on WP....it doesn't stop there. T ofutwitch11 ''' <font color="Orange">(T ALK ) 02:05, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * WN is less interesting at times, as less goes on, but it's more fun because writing is the central aspect. However, you'll realize that there is still drama, and it's even worse than WP at times—there was a ... rather big blowup some months ago ... meh. The drama is just less constant.  — fetch · comms  02:08, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Would you mind linking me to the blowup? I'd like to see how the drama compares.. T ofutwitch11 ''' <font color="Orange">(T ALK ) 02:16, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't think that would be a good idea. Let's move forward with the news :)  — fetch · comms  01:06, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. T ofutwitch11 ''' <font color="Orange">(T ALK ) 15:03, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Regarding edit conflicts
Sorry Fetchcomms, I didn't realise that you were still working on it. (It looked like some other spam articles that I've been encountering recently [and I didn't realise that you were the author]). Sorry again, ~YTT T 03:41, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
 * And that's why we always check page histories :)  — fetch · comms  03:53, 31 December 2010 (UTC)