Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/archives/2009/May

"Eurovision special" almost over! Call for translations
The Eurovision special, which we started in February, is almost over. We have published five interviews so far, two more are currently in the pipeline, and the final interview will consist of a series of vignettes, in which I ask many well-known performers from around Europe what they're doing this year, what their experiences were while at Eurovision, and who they think will win the Contest. The in-depth interviews, we are still taking on a language-by-language basis; if you want to translate, that's fine; if not, that's fine too. Two of the interviews have been translated into German, and one each has been translated into French, Russian, and Ukrainian, making the cross-collaboration a bit of a success.

The final vignettes interview set, I do want to have translated into as many European languages as possible. Would anyone like to volunteer to translate into a language that has a Wikinews? Mike Halterman (talk) 08:39, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I've sent out many requests and so far Charlotte Perrelli and Ani Lorak's representatives have confirmed their participation, so Swedish and Ukrainian would be needed at the very least. Mike Halterman (talk) 08:40, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I assume you're making this request on the other language Wikinews sites too. --Brian McNeil / talk 08:59, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm doing it as we speak. Mike Halterman (talk) 09:08, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Hanna Pakarinen's label has confirmed her participation. Tajči's husband said she would like to participate too. Mike Halterman (talk) 11:10, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I will try to translate into Russian, if somebody will make RSS service for Russian Wikinews (service «toolserver.org/~cspurrier/rss/rss.php» does not support Cyrillic) =)) --  TarzanASG +1  12:22, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Jessica Garlick, Kalomoira and Marie N are in as well. Mike Halterman (talk) 21:18, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Is there a place for people to go to if they are interested? Like a link, perchance. --SVTCobra 21:51, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * What, if they're interested in translating? Commenting here. Mike Halterman (talk) 00:37, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Mike, I had a hard time finding a link to the articles to be translated too. I suppose the articles are listed at User:Mike Halterman/Eurovision 2009 interviews, right?. HenkvD (talk) 18:13, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the late response. I will do the Ukrainian translation. Just drop me a line at Wikinews or Wikipedia page. --99.241.144.3 04:57, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I can do this, in portuguese. Alex Pereira 11:12, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I also have translators in Spanish, Polish and Swedish. Mike Halterman (talk) 11:26, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

For translators:

You can translate any interview you wish, but the one I need translators for most urgently is the one we will be publishing on Monday. Since it's such a large interview, I'm moving pieces over right now so people can start now in a draft and go at their own pace instead of having to do a HUGE block on Monday. The link is Story preparation/Past Eurovision contestants give advice to this year's performers, speculate on who will win. So anyone who is interested can start a draft now. Mike Halterman (talk) 13:47, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I can also translate something (into German), although some help would - of course - be welcome. ;-) Regards, --Angela H. (talk) 14:37, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Seven of the nine have participated. I have not copyedited Tajci's transcript yet or moved it over. If Charlotte or Kalomoira do not respond by afternoon tomorrow, we will be going ahead with just the seven. Mike Halterman (talk) 18:26, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Charlotte's answers have been received. I may have to cut Kalomoira out of the interview plans for good because I've only heard from her publicist, who said she would be contacting me directly (and never did). Mike Halterman (talk) 22:05, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Kalomoira has not responded and at this point, she will not be participating. As soon as I get the go-ahead from Tajci regarding the phone tanscript, I will move her statements over and Charlotte's as well, then I will write the intro and everything will be set for a full translation for everyone. Mike Halterman (talk) 13:55, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

EVERYTHING IS NOW INCLUDED IN THE ENGLISH ARTICLE. For the translators who were waiting until everything was placed, you can start your work now. Thank you for all your help. :) Mike Halterman (talk) 00:58, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * List of translators for each language. These people either volunteered on this page or other pages, or we discussed translating in IRC and they have started:


 * Dutch: Groucho_NL ✅
 * French: Otourly, Dereckson ✅
 * German: Aholtman, Eptalon, Prince Kassad, Matthiasb ✅
 * Hebrew: Shimrit
 * Norwegian: noorse, h3st, brik, christel, bjelleklang ✅
 * Polish: odder ✅
 * Portuguese: Alexanderps
 * Russian: enhydra ✅
 * Spanish: SkEmO ✅
 * Swedish: HannesP ✅
 * Ukrainian: Hillock65 ✅

I think that's good enough, at least in terms of how many languages there are. If anyone would like to help the translators, sign up and I will let them know. The interviews ended up being LONG so it's a big task for someone to take on alone. :) Mike Halterman (talk) 09:24, 10 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Small Update:
 * German:, also supported by Matthiasb.
 * --Angela H. (talk) 11:31, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Updated. Mike Halterman (talk) 13:03, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Cred
New template, for use on WN:CV. I have put it on Sherujic to test it out. Anyone want to kick about ideas for improving it? I'm thinking we could add a |photo= option.

I know some people might not be totally comfortable with this, but to be realistic if Skenmy's idea for more professional ID goes through I think it should have pictures. There is also the thing that accredited reporters should at least have a chance of recognising each other even if they have never met before. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:30, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Tell me more!
I run a village website and I find it incredibly difficult to get local groups to tell me any news and it occurred to me that one way to improve on the local news, the kind that never makes it into the papers, would be to have a "wikinews". So I was very interested to spot this website as this is heading in the same direction.

But what worries me is that I'm talking about the problems of getting local news for a small village of 10,000, whereas from what I can see, this site is having problems getting news for the whole world of 6,000,000,000. Which leads me to think, that even if the idea sounds great, is it really practical even for world news let alone a small village?

Can someone help me understand the project. Is it right that because there are no articles listed under May 5th (and it is 15:30 GMT) that this means that there is currently no news from the 5th? 79.79.220.104 15:29, 5 May 2009 (UTC)


 * We are a small community - we have only five or six users who are frequent contributors to this site, and a further twenty or so who contribute occasionally. As such, our output is limited, and our coverage of world events is very patchy, as you have already noticed. You are correct in observing that we have no published articles for May 5, although we have several stories that are either in development or awaiting a peer review for publishing in the newsroom. I think this project has great potential, but we are severely hampered by having very few active content writers. You are certainly very much welcome to help us grow, and any contributions you could make will be greatly appreciated. tempo divalse  17:44, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Parents prosecuted after homeopathic treatment leads to daughter's death
I provided four background sources from scientific journals on homeopathy, but was told they wouldn't be necessary. Then someone went in and simply removed the mainstream medical view fromt he first paragraph.

It wasn't like I said it as fact, I simply said it was "widely considered as quackery" - which it is: to work, it would have to violate basic scientific laws, as explained in the last paragraph. But nonetheless, it would appear that Wikinews is unable to maintain decent scientific standards, nor is willing to let facts stand in articles.

I'm really, really steamed about this. I decided to start editing Wikinews because I thought that science and such were accepted here, and this was an incredibly nasty surprise. Adam Cuerden (talk) 20:20, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Comments
 * 1) How is homeopathy described in other mainstream media secondary sources reporting on this news event? We could model after/take our cues from those.
 * 2) If the source(s) is being used for information in the body text of the article, it should not have been removed and should be restored. If it is "background" source, not used to support anything in the article's body text, no reason to have it as a source in the Sources section. Cirt (talk) 20:32, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * They discuss how it doesn't work, is ineffective, etc, a lot. However, I was summarising much longer reports. Adam Cuerden (talk) 20:54, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I am not sure why these sources were removed as they are clearly from highly reliable sources that were being used in the article. I have added them back . Cirt (talk) 21:01, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Adam, please read Avoid weasel words about using phrases like "widely considered as quackery". Though clearly it shouldn't have been just removed. Cheers,--SVTCobra 13:38, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Specific attribution is generally a good thing. :) Cirt (talk) 13:41, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Notice - Discussion at Meta on Global policy
Please see Water_cooler/policy. Cirt (talk) 21:42, 20 May 2009 (UTC)