User talk:JDGonner

-- Wikinews Welcome (talk) 19:19, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Kent Hovind indicted on new charges
Hi. When you believe the article is publishable, you need to submit it for review.

On how Wikinews works, you may find WN:PILLARS helpful. --Pi zero (talk) 21:05, 4 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I'll submit it now. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by JDGonner (talk • contribs) 21:42, 4 November 2014‎


 * Hi again. I hit some snags early in the review; see my review comments.


 * The first article can be difficult, as you're trying to learn everything at once, quickly enough to get a story out while it's still fresh. It should be a serious learning experience, whatever the fate of the first article itself (we hope we can get it into shape in time to publish).  --Pi zero (talk) 23:20, 4 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Another review. Thanks for your detailed comments, which helped me to better understand both where the article is coming from and where you're coming from.  I tried to write detailed review comments customized to the situation.  --Pi zero (talk) 06:02, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

Kent Hovind indicted on new charges
It's a good-deal easier to learn from trying when the results are retained, and I can certainly appreciate your frustration in trying to get an article published. You did the smart thing, and actually took a good look inside an already-published article. The definitive clue to that being you started with the publish template present &mdash; an 'oops' if you're not aware.

I'm sorry I didn't spot the mention of Pacer, since I've also used it in the past. It almost merits its own, local, page for the link to land on from the source template's publisher parameter. It is just a glorified library, where you have to pay their 'photocopying fee' if you ask for over a certain number of pages. The irony is, if you get too curious it starts to cost you real money.

Anyway, rather than have something completely lost &mdash; as noted elsewhere, it can happen in-terms of hitting publish quickly enough &mdash; we often copy stuff over to a user's space on-wiki so something can be learned from it. In this case, where is the above Howdy template let us down? I've tweaked the template content slightly, which I'm leaving for another person with the review bit to confirm as an improvement.

Use of on English Wiknews obviously can catch people out, and cause some frustration with the review process. You clearly picked up a lot of the key points &mdash; such as there being a time-window for publication &mdash; so any input on better-emphasising, and constructive criticism on better summing-up, policy gotchas would be welcome.

That's assuming you didn't do what many (myself included) are guilty of doing, and went: "documentation is for wimps". ;-)--Brian McNeil / talk 10:36, 7 November 2014 (UTC)


 * And to add just a teeny bit: I've been where you are now ("Crap, I worked my but off on this and it got canned?!! WTH??") Best advice: back up, take a deep breath and try again. DO NOT FALL IN LOVE with your articles. They are submissions, clear and simple. Do you want to engage in reporting? Great!! Come here and do just that! We have standards, though and editors keeping their distance, reporters focusing on a specific event and freshness are BIGGIES here. Please don't run away!! Can I help in some way?? --Bddpaux (talk) 22:57, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

...and another thing.
Is crime a journalistic topic you're interested in? If so, there's LOADS of stuff to be submitted here! There's never a shortage of that to add to this wiki! I have 'pet' topics: Weather, Texas, Crime, Crime in Texas, Halloween, Movies/Theater, Magic (performance and history), Environment etc. etc. Having "favorite" topics just makes us human...no harm/no foul in that department! [We're strangers, so please don't get mad at this]: I've got a funny feeling, however, that this Hovind article was a teensy little "axe" you wanted to grind personally. Grinding axes here won't work out in the long run, trust me. Neutrality is where it's at in citizen journalism. "I hate Republicans." "That guy's a nut." "Feminists are lunatics." If a person starts working here, trying to slant any article (or even a 'clump of articles') toward some sort of agenda, I can assure you, it will get caught and zapped quickly here. So, presuming you've stepped back, and taken the prerequisite breath, get out there and grab something....somewhere, right now some crime (heck, embezzlement event) is taking place and SOME REPORTER (you, perhaps??) needs to report on it. --Bddpaux (talk) 23:10, 10 November 2014 (UTC)