Wikinews:Water cooler/policy/archives/2012/February

webcitation - not as primary link
The question has come up of whether and how to use webcitation at Wikinews. On more careful consideration of the nature of news, my conclusion is, no. At least, not as the primary link. Maybe not even as a secondary link, but that does require some thought.

News articles get corrected, and by using webcitation as the primary link, the reviewer wouldn't know they'd been corrected. Sometimes they may even be taken down entirely due to some major problem (like libel), and by using webcitation one might not know.

There might be a use for webcitation to secondarily preserve the form of an article that the author used when writing; one might have an additional parameter on the source template for this &mdash; but even that would have to be used carefully by reviewers, and considering who brought the idea here I'm inclined to examine this wooden horse very closely before taking it inside our gates. --Pi zero (talk) 14:29, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Credential verification
If you take a look at the WN:CV page, you'll see I've gone through it somewhat ruthlessly. A lot of people are now listed as inactive.

The prompting to carry out this action is Wikimedia UK, in principle, agreeing to contribute towards, and manage some aspects of the, funding for Reporter ID cards.

I've written a short piece on the Editors´ blog regarding the requirement laid out by Mike Peel for a code of conduct. I believe most of that is dotted around various policies, and can be brought together in a Principles of Wikinewsies that people need to sign up to prior to receiving ID.

[Aside: I used the Editors´ blog for the announcement as something I think should be legitimate to post to our FB feed, but outwith the actual wiki itself. Open to further discussion on that.] --Brian McNeil / talk 17:32, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Where do I to the Principles of Wikinewsies? --RockerballAustralia c 06:51, 19 February 2012 (UTC)
 * It'll come mainly from WN:COE, I want to read a few conduct codes as well, check for any glaring omissions from the COE. --Brian McNeil / talk 12:54, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

COI disclosure
I'm just wondering where to place a COI disclosure notice in an article. The two most recent articles with such discloures are;
 * Scottish prosecutors keeping quiet about Lanarkshire surgical deaths which puts it at the top just under the date; and
 * Writs issued for 2012 Queensland election which puts it at the bottom at the bottom under the publish tag.

--RockerballAustralia c 08:45, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Of primary import in declaring a COI, is that you declare it to the community and the article's reviewer is aware of it. Looking at the two examples you cite, my choice would be to reverse the positioning of the COI declarations; on BRS' article, his declaration, to me, serves more as explaining where some background knowledge useful in producing the report comes from; in Patrick's, that he is a member of one of the political parties reported-on is rather more salient to readers.
 * It's a matter of degrees when it comes to COI. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:37, 28 February 2012 (UTC)