On Wed, 2010-03-17 at 11:24 +0000, Peter Coombe wrote:
On 17 March 2010 04:06, Brian McNeil
<brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org> wrote:
It was at short notice we were seeking
competition sponsorship - with
the hope this would bring in a lot of competitors. It did not go as well
as I would have liked, and several reasonably established contributors
somewhat gamed the system by writing just-qualifying articles in
preference to the in-depth work I hoped to solicit.
...
So, to return to the writing competition, I think it has - to some
extent - be written off as a failure...
Brian, I don't think this is a fair assessment either for the compo
entrants or for you organising the competition. One of the most common
complaints about Wikinews seems to be that we simply don't cover
*enough* stories to be a real news source, worth checking regularly.
In-depth pieces are great, but we also need the shorter stories - and
writing them ought to be rewarded too. Besides, some people just find
it easier and more fun to do. Maybe tweaking the points system a
little would make for a more interesting race, but there was no way to
know until we tried it, and now we have a better idea about next time.
You're probably right that I'm being unduly hard, but you know I'm
somewhat of a perfectionist.
As it is, the compo has produced quite a few new articles, and more
importantly new contributors. Personally, I know I'm not doing
brilliantly, but it has encouraged me to add the extra little bit to
my stories. Plus it stopped me bringing in articles from Voice of
America, which I'm sure you're pleased about :-)
I'm certainly happy to see quite a few more people such as yourself
start contributing articles. Yes, a lot are going to be fairly short
pieces - that's always somewhat of an issue with new contributors;
master the three-paragraph form, and then move on to more in-depth
pieces.
I do want to see if I can keep lines of communication open with Fabrice
and others at NewsTrust. There's really very little competition entries
I'd say qualify for the in-depth stuff they're really interested it, but
it is a valuable connection to maintain. I just don't know how we can
involve them in some sort of post-mortem of the competition and, perhaps
for future attempts, round up some Knight Foundation funding for real
citizen-journalism oriented prizes. [I'm thinking Lexis-Nexis
subscriptions, digital voice recorders, and low-mid-range camera kit.]
--
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org>
Wikinewsie.org