Wikinews:Water cooler/proposals/archives/2016/December

Weekly live chat meetings/workshops
I would like to experiment with weekly live chat sessions at #wikinews-en or #wikinews (which is better?), announced on-site and on social media, where we can get together and collaborate on This is a hard question because of timezones. Which day of week and what time would you be available at in UTC? What do you think of the idea?
 * possibly helping newcomers (if there are any attending) to write, or
 * try to get the review and draft queues killed (if no newcomers are attending, or if there's enough contributors attending to handle both tasks).

I would be willing to do note-taking for each such meeting, if I am attending and people are interested in notes (people ABC attending, so-and-so X article written, article Y corrected, article Z reviewed, etc). Thanks. --Gryllida 00:45, 24 October 2016 (UTC)


 * 18:00-20:00 (easier) or 10:00-11:00 (harder) any day of week. --Gryllida 00:45, 24 October 2016 (UTC)
 * That is the UTC time? (It would be difficult for the south east Asian citizens as that would be college/ working/ school time.) Agastya Chandrakant   ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰  08:09, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

Disaster template
Can we remove the tornado image from the template?

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154319397873049&id=48245858048

Every story in the category takes the image as it's lead on Facebook, even if there's an actual image in the article. -- Zanimum (talk) 01:44, 6 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Is this a recent development? For some time we made sure the main image on the article was at least 260px, because brianmc had reported a problem with facebook if the image was smaller than that, but now that you've jogged my memory I realized I forgot and stopped doing that a while ago (not sure exactly when, off hand).  --Pi zero (talk) 02:56, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
 * So select a different image, or remove it. In any event, we will not and can not reduce our site to suit somebody else's. If it is no longer possible to choose another image or deselect, that's Facebook's problem. BRS  (Talk)   (Contribs) 11:18, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I tried to remove it a week ago, but it appeared to be a template in the template. I don't see how removing a generic image would be a reduction. In other templates, the generic images are genetically relevant, like the Ukraine flag and map for Ukrainian articles.
 * Yes,, on desktop you can substitute images, but ultimately we need to make things as easy as possible for readers to share Wikinews content, to ensure we're supporting the maintenance of an active readership base, how ever they choose to find the content.
 * Not sure how long term the issue has been, . I've been the one updating Facebook for the last few months, it's possible that I've just forgotten. --  Zanimum (talk) 11:33, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Replacing the image with something preferable, that's an acceptable solution. I'm more than happy for that kind of action to aid with fb. Simply removing the image altogether, and leaving a bland text-only infobox? That's something I'm not up for. Especially if the problem's roots aren't even with Facebook themselves but rather an insistence on doing things via mobile. Mobile browsers are improving all the time but they still aren't fit for purpose, in much the way mobile phone cameras only became serviceable in the last few years. BRS  (Talk)   (Contribs) 11:51, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I've heard you were updating facebook, which is deeply appreciated. Customizing the infoboxen is designed to be easy; at Disasters and accidents, it says "Customize this infobox here" with a link to a table containing customizing parameters.  In this case they're likely self-explanatory, though there's a link to where documentation on the fields can be found.  I agree with BRS, a different image would be fine; I've been thinking for years the Disasters and accidents infobox image is often less topical than the images on other infoboxen.  As I mentioned, making the main image a little bit bigger might fix the problem, which I don't mind trying although there's a bit of a problem with remembering to do it consistently.  --Pi zero (talk) 12:32, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

Been chewing this over. How do people feel about using a closeup of a blue emergency vehicle light for the infobox? Preferably on a red vehicle, implying a fire and rescue service (don't want the subconscious association to be police). BRS (Talk)   (Contribs) 00:52, 17 December 2016 (UTC)
 * That sounds like a good concept, to me. --Pi zero (talk) 00:55, 17 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Commons seems remarkably sparse; I did find File:Red Lights and Sirens.jpg which feels a bit busy for an infobox. One option is to dig through loads of fire engine images and crop one in HD that already focuses on, say, the cab. BRS  (Talk)   (Contribs) 00:59, 17 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Have replaced with File:Blue lightbar (fire and rescue).jpg, uploaded for the purpose after finding Commons rather sparse and trawling through Flickr for a while. Hopefully this should work better as a fallback disasters and accidents generic pic. BRS  (Talk)   (Contribs) 02:57, 17 December 2016 (UTC)
 * That is a good choice. I would say a military helicopter might also be suitable since military personnel are involved in either helping out causing the disasters and accidents. Agastya Chandrakant   ⚽️ 🏆 🎾 🎬 🎤 📰  03:22, 17 December 2016 (UTC)