Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/Archive/6

Stewards election
Hello,

The stewards election has started on Stewards/elections 2005. Anyone can vote provided that he has a valid account on meta with a link to at least one user page, on a project where the editor is a participant, with at least 3 months participation to the project. Stewards can give sysop right on projects where there are no local bureaucrate. Please vote ! Yann 14:40, 18 May 2005 (UTC)


 * Many Wikinewsies are not really aware of the larger organization of which Wikinews is a part. Wikimedia Foundation supports many projects, including Wikipedia of course, but also Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikiquotes, Wikicommons, Wikispecies, and Meta, in all the various languages. Each language in each project develops administrators and bureaucrats to meet their needs as the community grows.
 * Before they get to a stage with the necessary admins, however, they are often vulnerable to issues such as vandalism, or may need help establishing policy, and the all-important appointing of admins. This kind of clean-up work, and more, is handled by stewards. Stewards are entrusted by the larger Wikimedia community with the responsibility of being able to work on all the projects.
 * Because of the responsibility, and their impact on all the Wikimedia projects, we should all be over there voting! - /undefined 06:18, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

new user directory based on categories and dpls
I created a User directory. details are on the page if anyone's interested. i noticed wikinewsies, but this is less work for the user - they dont have to search cats to be in and join them one by one - and for display page - it can be changed/customized however, simply by moving/changing dpls. and they're easy to get to and see who's in them. one could even put links to the user groups wherever they like, such as putting a "sports editors" link on the sports news page, that links to the "interest in sports" category. In sum, i think this easier and more versatile. people are welcome to join, or ignore it if they like. cheers. Kevin Baastalk 05:05, 2005 Jun 4 (UTC)
 * I must say I love this Idea, its great; can I make sub cats to each region - eg. live in Ireland? → CGorman (Talk)  16:50, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Sure, whatever. I'm not the boss. Kevin Baastalk 18:15, 2005 Jun 4 (UTC)
 * I just don't like interfering in peoples pet projects. I'll add country sections when I get the chance. → CGorman (Talk)  19:46, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Why not just add DPL to the already-existing Wikinewsies directory? Seems like duplication to me. -- Davodd | Talk 09:32, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Transwiki to Wikinews from Wikipedia
At w:Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Melissa Drexler, some Wikipedians are suggesting the transwiki of a Wikipedia article to Wikinews. Please read the discussion and the Wikipedia article being discussed. Uncle G 12:47, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Administrators meetings on IRC
I just noticed where one admin was suggesting an english admins meeting on IRC to discuss some issue related to some contributor. I completely accept the right of individuals or groups to gather for any reason and anywhere, however, I hope that its not necessary for meetings that relate to Wikinews issues to be convened anywhere other than on Wikinews itself. Maybe we need a Wikinews chat room? Paulrevere2005 12:08, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * IRC is the Wikinews chat room. Just click here and you can access it directly from your web browser.--Eloquence 16:27, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I never use IRC, and I don't believe discussions regarding the site should take place anywhere but here, where anyone can read them/join in, and discussions are permanently recorded. Dan100 (Talk) 16:37, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * I mean, people will always discuss stuff on IRC - naturally - but policy and proposal discussions must also happen here on the Water cooler. Dan100 (Talk) 16:39, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * The issue that was the idea for an admin meeting was about a vandal who left a note on my talk page trying to get us to believe he was a well known user. It has since been determined that this was nonsense. An admin meeting was suggested so we could determine what we should do, since we would not want to publicly accuse a user of being a vandal until we were sure it was true or not. I personally think a private admin meeting is a very bad idea, however a public meeting with the other admins might be fun. --Cspurrier 16:49, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * The point of my suggestion is for the admins on wikinews to get tohether and discuss what is currently goin-on on the wiki, these recent allogations is an example or what we talk about, I think it would be a good idea so all of us admins are on the same page.--Ryan524 16:56, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Deletion
Can you please look at the deletion vote for the article about the Aruban kidnapping? I believe that the voters are ignoring my criterion for deletion. Therefore, it concerns me that they may win the vote. Can other people please add their say? Superm401 21:26, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Wikinews in Google news
Hello. I have asked |Google news to add Wikinews to there source list. . I think it would be usefull if some people do it for other languages. Is there a page that lists all websites that have weblinks to Wikinews ? --Youssefsan 12:13, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * I know that Google news has been in contact with WN (I think through Amgine or Eloquence?), about adding us to their news site. Part of the problem seems ot be that they want a "published" product, which is what the published category tag was working towawrds. Someone else will know more as to how far this went. Lyellin 13:55, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * Wikinews is still in the beta stage. Does it want Google notice yet? -Edbrown05 14:01, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Oh, I now see the beta tag has been lifted. :-} -Edbrown05 14:06, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Actually we are in beta - see the foot of the page. Anyway, it hardly matters - as Jimbo pointed out, Google News is still beta too! Anywa, I've sent in a request, but I faked my e-mail address (dunno why, must've been feeling paranoid!) Dan100 (Talk) 21:47, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * Update: "Thank you again for your submission. We have reviewed the site http://en.wikinews.org and will be including it in Google News in the near future." Huzah! ClareWhite 7 July 2005 07:53 (UTC)

Fanstastic! Dan100 (Talk) 11:20, 10 July 2005 (UTC)


 * !citizen reporting being sought out in the news (of course!) -Edbrown05 13:51, 10 July 2005 (UTC)

Categories
I've just noticed that we have two problematic categories: Category:Politics and Category:Politics and conflicts. This is a problem because obviosuly Politics would fall under Politics and conflicts as well. So, e.g. I labeled Serbian Parliament members accuse NGOs of anti-Serbian campaign only as Politics, and it does not appear on Europe (which includes &conflicts only).

Is it possible to merge these two? I am sure there are other examples of this "dual-categoring" as well. --Dcabrilo 11:39, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * That's a tough one Dcabrilo. I remember myself advocating for a category that was for 'Politics' only because it didn't seem appropriate to have purely political happenings mixed with occurances of violence. I think the category 'Politics' is correct only if a category of 'Conflicts' can stand on its own. But Conflicts' are so intertwined with 'Politics' that maybe it is best to eliminate the 'Politics' category.  From a reader interest standpoint, probably anybody interested in the category of 'Politics' would also be interested in 'Conflicts'. The first notion is often the best. I'd vote to eliminate the stand-alone 'Politics' category and stick with the combined 'Politics and conflicts'. -Edbrown05 26 June 2005 15:03 (UTC)
 * Yeah, we are a bit screwed right now :) I think that Politics AND conflicts is clear enough (as in politics and political conflicts) for us to eliminate cat Politics. I imagine the only way to do it would be to recat every article in Politics though? --Dcabrilo 27 June 2005 00:29 (UTC)
 * Merging them would be a step backward. I believe politics should have its own category. I never understood why politics and conflicts was made into a single category. The mayoral election of Tokyo or Los Angeles and a recent car bomb in Uganda or Isreal have very little in common and probably do not have the same readership. But under Politics and Conflict - they are lumped together. Many of our other categories also led to strange bedfellows in the past. Like the covereage of the new pope and the new Dr. Who shared the same cat --> Arts and Culture. That is, until Religion budded off into its own category. -- Davodd | Talk June 27, 2005 04:29 (UTC)
 * I think as per my original Categories and topic pages write-up, Politics should be a sub-cat of Politics and conflicts. -- IlyaHaykinson 27 June 2005 05:27 (UTC)
 * I did that (added Politics as a sub-cat of Politics and conflicts - I think I did the right way), but it still does not resolve problem of a page such as Europe - it does not include stuff only added to Politics to Politics & conflicts section. Any ideas how to resolve it? --Dcabrilo 27 June 2005 05:32 (UTC)
 * I looked into it, and we can just add code to list Politics articles under Politics and conflicts, but there must be a better way to solve it. --Dcabrilo 27 June 2005 05:34 (UTC)

Please help the lost Wikinewsies who are wandering the encyclopaedia

 * See w:Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire 26 June 2005.

There are some very lost Wikinewsies wandering around the encyclopaedia in search of a newspaper to write their (apparently original reporting!) sports match reports in. Please help them to find the newspaper. Uncle G June 29, 2005 21:33 (UTC)

"the New York Times reported the site appeared "blocked"
US helicopter with 17 on board believed to have been shot down in Afghanistan Re; the nytimes reference to the blocking of a website; does anyone know how and who "blocks" websites, and whether its legal to do so? e.g. if I wanted to "block" a pro-Blair website; is it legal for me to do it?
 * Sites are generally blocks by 'Denial of Service' attacks in which a hacker overloads a webserver with page requests.--Mitrebox

If it's a government entity that blocks websites, is that a problem for the citizens and if so what can we do about it?
 * Goverment blocking of websites is done at the ISP level and can generally only be done in nations that have goverment run telecomunications. This is not the same as a DOS attack and causes no dammage or to the websites' server. Users from other nations can still view the site.--Mitrebox

If the U.S. government is blocking the websites of its adversaries(e.g. Cuba) is that legal and/or acceptable?
 * Their currently is no international law on the goverment censorship of sites. While indivduals of different nations have launched DOS attack against one another it is not known that state run agencies have ever actually launched attacks at one another.--Mitrebox

I am really wondering about this reference to a "blocked website" in this article; especially because it is just mentioned in a kind of "ho-hum", "more of the same" way.

Are we collectively becoming too accepting about blatant and epidemic government censorship???? Where are the champions of freedom of the press???? Paulrevere2005 30 June 2005 12:54 (UTC)

As I just wrote on the page you deleted :
The default text is really crappy, but I do not think the publication system is so bad. But default text is real bad. This is hardly a wiki anymore. No new editor can feel confident in front of that whole stuff. You make a big error here.

The wiki was made to be simple. You are just forgetting this. -[by user Hushie]

Requests for de-adminship
Well, I think this is our first, but User:NGerda has been put on requests for de-adminship. I figured it would be good to get wide community input on this, as it is kind of a "biggy". --Dcabrilo 6 July 2005 00:32 (UTC)

Remove "WNN"
There are some serious problems with the attempted WNN "subproject"


 * The project is being conducted in quite a nonwiki way. Some of the people attempting to run it originally elected themselves "executive producer", etc. An email address at gmail was at one time used as the "contact address" by which one could "contact WNN". Who WNN is and how it could be contacted would be a bit tricky if WNN is to be taken as a Wiki project. How would a wiki project respond to email sent to it? Who controls the email address of a wiki project?


 * The server is hosted and controlled by a private entity. This gives serious problems, as the owner of the server becomes the sole dictator and improper control and authority is given to this entity. This is not appropriate for a wiki project, and is inconsistent with (non-)authority systems traditionally used by wikimedia projects. Additionally, the "WNN" site contained some errors, including script errors and something weird going on with the logo, which I think reflects badly on the real WikiNews.


 * A live audio broadcast is not a wiki, and has nothing to do with a wiki. A live audio broadcast has absolutely nothing in common with a wiki, and is in no way a wiki.

Placing links to this private, personal, non-wiki project on the front page and portraying it as an official WikiNews endeavor is not appropriate. Obviously, the whole point of wikinews is that derivative works can be created. However, these derivative works are not automatically official wikimedia subprojects. Placing links to personal derivative works that in no way are conducted in a wiki fashion, are not hosted on wikimedia servers, were not created by wikimedia consensus processes, andhave nothing to do with a wiki, should not be something the community tolerates. This, and most likely other multimedia-based derivative works of wikinews, should instead be portrayed as they are: personal projects at doing something with wikinews content. They are most likely useful, certainly interesting, but are certainly not within the scope of WikiNews itself. Samrolken 9 July 2005 12:26 (UTC)

I agree with all of this, but most of you probably already know that. WNN really is a blot on our otherwise excellent copybook, and the sooner it dies a quiet death, the better. Dan100 (Talk) 15:57, 18 July 2005 (UTC)


 * Talks are underway for creating a prerecorded wiki-broadcasting network, and development is already being done on a wiki that hopefully will be approved as an integration with Wikinews. I am working very hard on this project, and I completely agree that The WNN link should not go on the main page, at least until the network is operational and approved by the community, but until then, it doesn't belong on the main page.  -- NGerda July 9, 2005 17:27 (UTC)


 * I disagree with both of you. The link should be on the main page and anyone who wishes to get involved should do so. I met an Ojibway native yesterday who told me that "wiki" is one of their words...going back thousands of years..for a lean-to.. and also is the name of a branch of their band [] so I don't think we need to get propriatory about the term or controlling about its use. I'm just glad some folks are putting out the effort on WNN. Paulrevere2005 03:47, 10 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree that a link deserves to be on the main page- just not under Latest Wikinews Media. -- NGerda 09:32, July 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * The term "wiki" already is an abandoned trademark from a former U.S. yogurt-drink company which gained brief fame in the early 1990s when kids would collect the caps and play a collectible game called "Wiki" which was a sort of cross between Tiddlywinks and Pokemon. -- Davodd | Talk 09:28, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Wow
Can I just say, since the last time I wrote for Wikinews (around early May) there have been some great changes here. It is now so much easier to write articles, my praise goes out to everyone who made a difference.
 * :) -- NGerda July 9, 2005 17:24 (UTC)

Permission to use the Wikinews logo in a Barnstar?
Hi there. A Current Events Barnstar has been proposed over at the English Wikipedia in the aftermath of the London bombings, and we'd like to have the Wikinews logo on it. Who would we need to ask about getting permission for this? -- Kizor 11:31, 11 July 2005 (UTC)


 * Erik Möller, our founder and visionary guide! → CGorman (Talk) 11:52, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
 * That's not really true. Erik has no power over granting permission to using Wikimedia trademarks, he is just a regular user in that respect. ;-) -- Davodd | Talk 09:36, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Why thank you. --Kizor


 * What's a Barnstar? I thought Eloquence had made it quite clear he was *not* our guide, visionary though he may be :) ClareWhite 15:07, 11 July 2005 (UTC)


 * He's just too humble! → CGorman (Talk) 17:56, 11 July 2005 (UTC)


 * No. Actually, people think he has more power/ is more important than he really is - which tends to get him in hot water with the real bosses of Wikimedia - especially when folk say "well, Eloquence (Erik) said I could..." in justifying questionable behavior. But we like him even more knowing that he is just like us. -- Davodd | Talk 09:36, 12 July 2005 (UTC)


 * Kizor, the Wikinews logo may be used on Wikipedia. See your Template:Current event for more details. -- NGerda 17:26, July 11, 2005 (UTC)

Davodd is right. Requests for permissions to use our trademarks and logos should go directly to the Board, though in case of Wikimedia-internal use, declaring the derivative work to be copyrighted by Wikimedia should generally be fine.--Eloquence 18:31, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

Breaking news
I've started an outline of what do do in the event of a Breaking news story- based on Clare White's interest in more explanations for Breaking news. Enjoy! -- NGerda 17:30, July 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * I like! There are lots of additions to be made, I think it will become a useful page for advice in the event of another Major Event. Although IRC is possibly the last place I'd go to to organise, does the chatter actually make any sense in a situation like that? ClareWhite 08:14, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I would think it does, it's the quickest way to communicate. -- NGerda 08:15, July 12, 2005 (UTC)
 * Quick but not necessarily coherent. I don't know, perhaps we need a Disaster drill :) ClareWhite 08:49, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I do not support the mandatory use of IRC for coordination as is implied in the proposed policy. IRC chats, discussions and agreements are not wiki - therefore are not always recorded to allow reference by others. This, in the past, has led to an "us vs. them" attitude and resulted discrimination agianst or dismissal of opinions of those who didn't or couldn't attend the chat for various reasons. -- Davodd | Talk 09:13, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

The list is more of a guideline than a strictly-followed policy. Perhaps I should be clearer about that in the text of the guideline. -- NGerda 09:15, July 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * Yeh, I saw it more as a tipsheet than mandatory guidelines. ClareWhite 13:04, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Maybe you should have left the "proposed policies" tag on it - which makes it very clear that this is an evolving guideline and open to input from others. I replaced it for you. ;-) -- Davodd | Talk 07:08, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Project close to passing 2 new milestones
Within the next 24 hours, Wikinews should hit 2 more miles stones: 2,500 story mark and the 100,000 page edits mark. See: Special:Statistics. -- Davodd | Talk 18:27, 12 July 2005 (UTC)


 * Yeah i've been watching this the last few days, and as of now we have passed both milestones! Congrats everyone! → CGorman (Talk) 11:08, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Call for nominations: news excellence awards for WIKIMANIA 2005
CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE NEWS ARTICLES

In less than a month, the first WIKIMANIA wiki convention will be held. During the convention, they will award "best of" prizes for the diffeerent projects. News has 2 categories: Best Original and Best Summary reporting. Be sure to click the above link to nominate news articles you thing are worthy of consideration. Deadline is Aug 1, 2005 (Aug 6 for then-breaking news) -- Davodd | Talk 06:31, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

WOW!!! Wikinews Blasts off. Congrats to all
I noticed the dramatic increase in articles and went to [] to see our site traffic. July is what chart technicians would call a "breakout move".

I personally think it's at least partially a result of lots fewer dispute tags, which held back a lot of exciting stories before...but whatever the reason, wikinews is really busting out of its seams. Paulrevere2005 12:22, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I personally think it's at least partially a result of the image change we did on the dispute tags (changed the stop hand to a caution symbol), which no longer garners a harsh response from many who see it. -- NGerda 15:41, July 15, 2005 (UTC)
 * More likely - people stopped fighting and started writing. -- Davodd | Talk 17:40, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
 * People stopped fighting, London did a lot of wonders for us, even with it's tradegy... we've done things on the site here too, but nothing that really trumps those two reasons. Lyellin 03:39, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Work Experience?
Any body else had Wiki News as a task for their work experience?

California meetup
I'll be over in California for a few days. This might be my last chance to meet US Wikinewsies for a while (I'm from Germany), so if you're from California, and you're interested in a little get-together, please add yourself at Meetup/California ASAP -- Tuesday evening would be perfect.--Eloquence 00:36, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
 * This sounds great Elo, but unfortunately I live over 400 miles away from the proposed meetup. Be sure to tell us how it went, and if any Wikinewsies travel to Southern California, be sure to let me know! Best of luck to you, NGerda 03:45, July 18, 2005 (UTC)

More breaking news
Just wanted to say very well done to everyone for the reporting of events in London over the last couple of days. Very quick, slick, responsible (acknowledging Sky scaremongering but not reporting it as fact) and good to see lots of different names involved. I've been keeping out of it - there's only so much breaking news the nerves can take - but I would be interested to know if any of the conclusions we came up with after 7/7 have been useful in handling it? ClareWhite 15:43, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Monthly Wiki growth rates - WN has fastest-growing user base
Once, again Wikinews is the fastest-growing Wikimedia Project based upon registered user growth rates. And despite the recent purges of abandoned stories from the archives, we appear to be fast-growing in content, too. -- Davodd | Talk 09:26, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Favicom
Is there any reason Wikinews has no specific favicom? It would be nice and useful to have a specific one distinct from Wikipedia one, specially in case we need to browse both sites at the same time. --Aphaia 18:57, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't think Wikinews had a logo when the favicons for Commons, Wikiquote and Meta where installed. But I am all i favor of a favicon for Wikinews. The logo might be a little too complex to shrimp to 16 pixels, though: [[Image:Wikinews-logo.png|16px]]. May I propose something like [[Image:Wikinews waves Left.png|12px|]] as a favicon? Väsk 19:17, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

I made one in January, for this very reason, but Elo never used it :-(. However we do need something. I'll ask around and see if I can get Vask's used. Dan100 (Talk) 07:46, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Babel
Hello! Two months before, I uploaded so called "Babel templates". ( I took them from the German Wikinews, whereto they came from the French edition.) Originally, I thought, they were under the Public Domain, but now, I noticed, they came from Meta, where they are GFDL. I had a discussion in the German Wikinews on that, and they said, the templates were under the Public Domain, anyway, because theu were worthy of protection by copyright. That may be, but I still have a bad feeling about it. That is, why I would very happy, if the templates which I uploaded would be deleted by someone. I know, that lots of people are not in my opinion, but someone of these people could upload them again to solve the problem.

Hopeful regards, Mg22 18:14, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Wikinews World Report
I would like to invite everyone to help contribute to this week's Wikinews World Report at this page. -- NGerda 21:01, July 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * How does one sign up to host? --Chiacomo (talk) 21:03, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Just leave a message on the talk page, and we can work this out. To host, one needs broadcasting software to connect to the server, and has to be able to broadcast both the Skype stream and his/her own voice to the server.  It would work out best for people to be co-hosts, or even host the show themselves by being part of the Skype conference broadcasted to the server, because it took me quite a while to figure out how to get the whole system working, and I pay extra to be able to route telephone calls.  So Chiacomo and others who want to host, you should decide if you want to co-host with me or host it yourself via a Skype conference to my account, and I can be the audio connector and switcher.  -- NGerda 21:18, July 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * Where does one get the broadcasting software, free, I hope...? What about the WNN skype account? Will you supply that information when we get ready to host? --Chiacomo (talk) 21:20, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

I use Nicecast for Mac, but I believe that there is a free Windows streamer plugin for Winamp. Skype's software can't handle two users connected to the same account at the same time, but what I meant Chiacomo was that if you call me normally with Skype from your account, you can talk and host the show at near-CD quality audio, and I can manage all of the audio connections with Wikinewsies from around the world (both telephone connections and Skype connections). -- NGerda 21:26, July 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * Here ya go: OddCast for Winamp. -- NGerda 21:32, July 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * So essentially, all WWR broadcasts will have to go through your box? --Chiacomo (talk) 21:29, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * If we want to have telephone connections (which I paid extra for and have no problem with that) and so far I've been the only one to figure out how to stream both a microphone and Skype's audio to the server while at the same time recording it. If you can figure it out, then it doesn't have to be routed through my account. -- NGerda 21:32, July 25, 2005 (UTC)


 * I Assume it's possible to explain how to do it Nick. I can pretty much be sure that until it can be done in a more wiki way, a lot of the common objections to WNN and AWN are gonna stand :(. Lyellin 21:37, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * It took me days to figure it out for Mac, and I have no clue how the Windows software works. What I am saying is that it is completely open to anyone who wants to try to route Skype and mic audio to WNN, but I have figured it out for Mac, and I am more than willing to let someone else host the segment in very easy fashion of just calling my account. -- NGerda 21:41, July 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * Well, they would be able to explain it for the Mac, correct? We cannot have a segment, no matter how wonderful, completely dependent on one person, entirely. At least, not in my view. Lyellin 21:44, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * The instructions below are very nice (but perhaps misplaced) -- but I don't have a Mac (though I've thought about buying one)... Anybody got any clues for Windows (free software)? --Chiacomo (talk) 21:55, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Looks like you missed my comment above. No biggie. :) Check out OddCast for Winamp. -- NGerda 22:00, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Here's the process for hosting WWR:

Running Wikinews World Report With Nicecast
Nicecast is great for all sorts of broadcasts. Many people have expressed interest in using Nicecast for talk shows with Skype or iChat, so we've compiled a set of instructions for doing just that. The following should help you get started hosting a talk show or mixing in "callers" with your normal music stream.

Initial Pre-configuration
In order to set up Wikinews World Report, you'll need a few extra components besides just Nicecast. You'll need the following to get going:


 * Soundflower from Cycling '74
 * SoundSource from Rogue Amoeba
 * Skype from Skype Technologies
 * A hardware microphone. Current Apple laptops come equipped with built-in microphones
 * A pair of headphones for monitoring

Set Up
For our example. we'll be using Skype and iTunes. To set things up for each use:


 * 1) Launch Nicecast, Skype, and iTunes.
 * a) For best results close other applications.


 * 1) In Skype's Audio Preferences, be sure that the Audio Output is set to Soundflower (2ch) and the Audio Input is set to the microphone.
 * 2) Plug the microphone and headphones in.
 * 3) Using the SoundSource menu, select your microphone for audio input, and the headphones for the audio output.
 * 4) In Nicecast, open the Effects window, and insert the VoiceOver effect.
 * 5) In the Source drawer of Nicecast's Broadcast window, set the first pop-up to Audio Device and select Soundflower (2ch).
 * 6) Hit Start Broadcast.

You're now broadcasting out, and you're ready to go with the actual show. Read on for broadcasting instructions.

Broadcasting
Once you're set up as instructed above, you're ready to go.


 * 1) Again using SoundSource, switch the audio output to "Soundflower (2ch)"
 * 2) Play any desired audio in iTunes.
 * 3) When you're ready to take a call, open the VoiceOver editor window. Make sure the Crossfade slider is set to Program, then click Start.
 * 4) Fade out the iTunes music by adjusting the VoiceOver Crossfade slider from Program to Voice.
 * 5) Speak using the microphone, and accept calls through Skype.
 * 6) When you're done, move the VoiceOver Crossfade slider back over to Program, and play more audio in iTunes.

That's all there is to it. Once you've run through this a few times, it will become second nature. After your first broadcast, you can begin from the Set Up portion of the above instructions. Enjoy! -- NGerda 21:54, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Images in Wikinews
Often you load your pictures only in the englisch Wikinews. Because of that, the other wikinews can't use them. Can you load your picture in the WikiCommons please?--cyper 13:01, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Only "free" images are allowed on the Commons - the text you see when you click on "Upload fair use media" explains all. Dan100 (Talk) 13:12, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

We upload all images than are allowed on Commons to Commons. -- NGerda 17:45, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

Potential sources for World News
Does anyone else have thoughts on potential sources for "off the beaten track" world news? For African news there's always allafrica.com: http://allafrica.com/, though they're sometimes a bit slow off the mark.

Also of interest is Reuters Alertnet: http://www.alertnet.org/, and Zimbabwe's "Mail and Guardian": http://www.mg.co.za/articleList.aspx?area=/insight/insight__africa/.

For Asia, the Bangkok Post is often quite good: http://www.bangkokpost.net

There's also the Asia Times: http://www.atimes.com/

I sometimes also look at the newswires from Amnesty: http://news.amnesty.org, and Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/.

Can anyone recommend good sources for news on India and South America? Rcameronw 16:02, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Feel free to add them to the appropriate spots on Reference desk -- Davodd | Talk 08:19, 30 July 2005 (UTC)