Wikinews:Water cooler/assistance/Archive/8

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)

Article preparation in advance
I'm in the middle of trying to prepare for a story that is likly to happen at the end of the month, and I would like some assitance in trying to obtain some media for the story when it happens.

The story I'm working on is SpaceX launches Falcon I rocket, which if everything works out will be a very intersting story, and if it doesn't happen it will likely generate some interesting headlines as well, or worse yet if the rocket fails on the launch pad. Regardless, it will be a news story, and rarely do we get to cover something like this in advance besides election coverage.

What I'm needing assistance on is trying to obtain permission for media from the SpaceX company. As I don't currently have "credentials" from Wikinews, I don't feel completely free to suggest that I represent Wikinews to obtain media permission for images from the company.

They have a media relations officer with contact information on the following page: http://www.spacex.com/gallery.php

The name of the Marketing Manager is Dianne Molina, and her e-mail address is: mailto:dianne at spacex dot com (despamified).

The above web page also has some of the media files that we can use, presumably with permission of the company if we simply ask for it. I also don't want to duplicate efforts of any other editors here, and if permission is granted to use the media I want to see that fact recorded somewhere within Wikinews. Any assistance on this issue would be appreciated. --Robert Horning 02:02, 11 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I have some suggestions:


 * Go ahead and tell them you are a reporter from "WikiNews, an online news organization". You can provide info on number of registered users, and call them "subscribers" (it's a free subscription, but they don't need to know that).  You can also say "I've been a reporter for WikiNews since (the date you registered)". You don't have to tell them you are a volunteer or that we all are, unles they ask.  If they want someone to vouch for you, I, and probably many others, will do so. If they want some other form of proof we will deal with that when it comes up, just tell them "I'll have to get back with you on that", for the time being.  The worst they can do is refuse, and then you're no worse off than now.


 * I would keep the article in your own namespace for now, so nobody else starts modifying it, etc.


 * I suggest you write two stories, the first on the planned event, and the second on the actual event (whether it goes off or not).


 * There really isn't a way we can tell everybody else they aren't allowed to write on that topic. I would say the best way to do that is to beat them to the punch.  If your articles are ready to go, you can publish them before others start on their version.  And even if others do beat you, if you have better reporting and pics, then your story may "supercede" theirs.


 * StuRat 02:26, 11 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm not really interested in who gets credit for the story, but I see what you are getting at in terms of user space. If I feel inspired, I may move it.  As for now, this is something that I'm simply announcing to the Wikinews community in general as a future story to look into, with some background material to use to help develop the story when the time comes.  I'm more interested in beating CNN to the punch with Wikinews than to beat a particular editor to the punch :) BTW, I did find permissions of sorts that have been used with some of these images.  See commons:Image talk:SpaceX falcon Washington DC.jpg for some details about permission obtained.  I'm going to see if I can get some permission perhaps for some more images other than these.  Like I said, I need to coordinate this effort as well, but it is cool that some permission has already been granted (although the text of the e-mail message granting permission has not been posted on Commons).  --Robert Horning 04:05, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Iowa State Legislature testing
The Iowa State Legislatures site is blocking people via password prompts. I'm trying to find out why, since a sampling of friends (Not from here) indicates no rhyme or reason.

To test:


 * 1) Go here: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/ and or http://www.legis.state.ia.us/Constitution.html
 * 2) Note whether or not the page loads or you get a password prompt
 * 3) Get your IP address a browser+version, and post it here

Thanx (PS. I tried to contact the webmaster, but it didn't work, since I can Email everyone else normally, I'm thinking it's their end again.) (PPS. I'm considering this mildly newsworthy since the offical State Constitution is there, amongst other things, we also did an article on FEMA blocking Ffx users). 69.142.2.68 22:40, 11 September 2005 (UTC) (PPPS. The Executive and Judical sites don't seem to do this, for reference: http://www.judicial.state.ia.us/, and http://www.governor.state.ia.us/ )


 * How is this related to Wikinews? --Chiacomo (talk) 01:22, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

It is not related to Wikinews and is probably just a bug in their server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET. Note that the Executive and Judicial sites use: Microsoft-IIS/5.0.


 * I think the word "blocking" is misused here. To me, it means an intentional block, not an accidental one, such as this appears to be. StuRat 11:49, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

south Thailand troubles
Can someone help me out with a better map than the stock Wikipedia one I've used on Insurgents kill monk and burn temple in south Thailand. I really like the one the BBC has on. What's wrong with that (or how a WN map could be better) is to label Malaysia. I've no idea where I'd get software and map data to draw that, if someone can point me to that (for Windows) I'll have a stab at it myself. Then I'd like to put together a "South Thailand unrest" infobox using the map.

Does this seem like a good idea? Brianmc 08:03, 16 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I've contacted a map-person with Wikipedia. - Amgine / talk 20:27, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I did too, I found a South Thailand insurgency article as well. I was pointed to some mapping software, but the hard disk died yesterday on the machine I installed that on. Brianmc 08:38, 19 October 2005 (UTC)