This from Mike Peel (email address removed) of WMUK.
> I've just posted a few sentences on your talk page; I think that this
> is a great idea, and was actually something I was thinking about
> proposing last night. It's a really suitable place for such a link,
> and I really can't see any downside to doing this...
>
> Has it been discussed before, and if so, where?
>
> The barriers that seem to lie between the different Wikimedia
> projects really need to be broken down. We're all trying to do the
> same thing (spread knowledge freely), just in different ways; we
> shouldn't be standing in each other's way whilst doing so...
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
Mike can probably comment on the UK's media cover of newspaper websites
vanishing behind paywalls. I think my good friend "Dirty Digger" Rupert
Murdoch has an awful lot to do with this.
--
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org>
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Brian_McNeil
Content of this message in no way represents the opinions or official
position of the Wikimedia Foundation or any of its projects.
On Tue, 2009-12-01 at 09:28 -0500, Jimmy Wales wrote:
> Brian,
>
> Just let me know where I can help. I understand that some in the
> wikinews community were dismayed at something I said in an interview
> recently about Wikinews having "struggled" for a long time - but I want
> to emphasize that I didn't mean to disparage Wikinews... part of the
> problem is that people go to Wikipedia to write things that they should
> be doing at Wikinews... and one solution is to use the massive traffic
> power of Wikipedia to drive traffic to Wikinews.
>
> I'd also like to have a private discussion (i.e. not on a public list,
> because because I wouldn't like to see random ideas I might throw out in
> a brainstorming session reported on as "news" about Wikinews in other
> press) with leaders (admins + active editors) of Wikinews about "the
> future of Wikinews".
I'm sure we could arrange a private list, or schedule an ad-hoc IRC
chat. And, I do know that some within the MSM will take the worst
possible fragment out of any sentence that they can - it does not seem
unreasonable that they might gleefully do so to jab at a potential
competitor like Wikinews.
The below link is - to me - the best hope we have. It offers a "fresh
field" for contributors (re: the Ortega research and chicken-little
media reaction), it covers Mike Peel's musing about WMUK issuing a press
release mentioning Wikinews as "The paper that's not paper, and won't
vanish behind a paywall".
I deliberately copied you on this because of a few things Mike Halterman
said, I thought the below proposed changes on Wikipedia fitted best with
how he characterised your opinions on Wikinews and its promotion.
> Lots isn't up to me, but I'm eager to see Wikinews flourish, and would
> love to throw around some ideas.
From the Wikinews perspective, we kept banging away at getting WP:ITN to
more prominently feature our project. That would be a good area to
revisit; I know some Wikinewsies would like this a full list of the
project's articles, but I appreciate it is on an encyclopedia and
playing a longer game of getting people to wrie articles on Wikinews.
> Brian McNeil wrote:
> > I've decided that now is a *very* appropriate time to, once again, try
> > and restart discussion on Wikipedia paying more than lipservice to
> > Wikinews as the appropriate venue for news coverage.
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Brian_McNeil#.22Recent.22_templates
> >
> > These appear to be most of the enWP templates which caution that a
> > section of the encyclopedia relates to *news*. You can see the additions
> > I've made to highlight Wikinews coverage where it exists, and if not,
> > urge people to contribute on Wikinews.
> >
> > This went down quite badly last time. I'll bite my tongue and just
> > describe the reaction to such a link on Ted Kennedy's death as
> > "hostile". Realistically, this needs to come as a significant push from
> > someone like Jimmy.
> >
> > Anyway, any thoughts on fine-tuning this? Please note, I've put tooltips
> > on all the given links. There are cases where a long Wikinews title
> > would mess the template on Wikipedia, so I hide the title in the
> > tooltip.
--
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org>
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Brian_McNeil
Content of this message in no way represents the opinions or official
position of the Wikimedia Foundation or any of its projects.