Questions for Wikinewsians

== About You ==

# How long have you been involved with Wikinews, and in what roles?
Since January 2005. I have made over 9,000 edits and written more than 130 stories - both more than anyone else. Admin (which allows me to delete and protect articles, and block users) since April.

# To the extent that you're willing to divulge that information: how would you describe yourself? What is your background (e.g. field of employment, level of education, key interests)? Where are you located?

I'm not prepared to.

== The Story So Far ==

# What do you feel were the greatest successes for Wikinews so far; where did it fail most significantly?

Being extremely fast - we often have the biggest news on the net first. Biggest problems are poor writing, people "updating" articles with old information, and people not following the neutral point of view policy.

# Other than a gradual growth in contributors, what have been the major changes or developments in Wikinews in the last year?

New software - the "DynamicPageList" extension - and the RSS feed, maintained manually by me for eight months, now replaced with an automatic PERL script.

# Compared to other collaborative news Websites (e.g. Slashdot, Kuro5hin) or news-related blogs, there seems to be relatively little discussion about the news on Wikinews. Instead, the discussion pages attached to each article cover mainly editorial issues. Is this a deliberate choice (to conform more to the format for the Websites of traditional news organisations), or can it be explained through other factors?

It's deliberate - opinion or commentary is banned. There are enough blogs already.

# In your view, would it be desirable to have more discussion of the news (rather than of the editorial aspects of articles) on Wikinews?

No. What would be the point? There are already thousands of sites and millions of blogs doing just that.

# What's the level of vandalism or deliberate misinformation on the site? Are older articles normally protected from editing after some time (this looks to have happened with the 'Coordinated terrorist attack hits London' article, for example)?

I protected that article - both to prevent spamming, and to prevent people altering it after the event. Generally, articles shouldn't be changed more than 24 hours after they're published - if there's developments to a story, start a new article.

== Wikinews and the Wikipedia ==

# To what extent does 'competition' from the Wikipedia itself slow down the development of Wikinews?

A lot.

# Do users tend to update Wikipedia pages on topics and people in the news (recently e.g. New Orleans, the Pope) rather than submit or edit Wikinews reports?

Yes - although we often start articles before Wikipedia does, and of course our news articles are much easier to find.

# Is the Wikipedia's 'current events' page a kind of Wikinews in itself, distracting potential contributors away from Wikinews?

Yes. But Wikipedia attracts stubborn people - few are willing to leave Current Events. CE also tends to be just single lines, rather than articles - less effort involved.

== Defining the News ==

# Many successful collaborative online news sites (e.g. Slashdot, Indymedia) are focussed around a specific topic, or have a specific political background. Wikinews is both a generalist news site, and follows the Wikipedia NPOV principle. Does this hinder its growth, as it could be seen to limit the commitment of topic enthusiasts or political activists?

No. We're not into telling people how they should think - we present the facts, and let them make their own minds up.

# An overly U.S.-specific or local focus is discouraged, in favour of topics that are of interest to a more general, international English-speaking audience. Is this a problem, and/or would it make sense to develop separate Wikinews sites for specific English-speaking countries, or even individual (U.S.) states?

Local news is not discouraged - any news from anywhere can be reported, as long as sources can be cited. There's no need for US-centric sites - we already have portals for individual countries.

# Have there been significant changes to what is regarded as a good Wikinews report during the last year?

Not really.

# Has there been a noticeable trend towards more first-hand, original reporting (rather than reporting based on content drawn from other news sources) and/or exclusive news reports?

No.

# Has Wikinews experimented with doing interviews, commentary pieces, or other news-related content beyond standard news reports?

Yes, with little success. One article was horribly speculative and inaccurate and had to be withdrawn; other articles written from interviews often are long, badly-written rambling text dumps. Writing news articles is a skill! Commentary/opinion doesn't work in a wiki environment, and is now banned.

== Further Developments ==

# What are current developments in Wikinews technology and ancillary technologies? Are there further plans to increase the availability of audio news stories (and perhaps use podcasting or streaming media in their delivery), or to further utilise RSS and other tools?

We now have an automatic RSS feed listing all new articles. Podcasting has been experimented with but not enough audio articles are being recorded to make it worthwhile (remember everyone who contributes is a volunteer).

# Any other comments?

If you want to get in touch, leave a message on my talk page: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/User_talk:Dan100