[Foundation-l] Wikinews - not so much a state of the wiki

[Erik Moeller]

On 12/4/07, Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org> wrote:
> My first thought on this was that a private wiki is required,
> embargoed.wikinews.org or similar. Yet, the story up on Slashdot at the
> moment, and accusations of a Cabal-esque secret mailing list would not be
> mitigated by opening another private channel for communication and
> cooperation. I cannot think of alternatives that would meet the needs of
> these situations unfortunately.

I don't see any issue with this, and I support a private wiki for the
Wikinews community.  :-) I've worked on sensitive materials for
Wikinews myself, and found it awkward to have to put all information
in public. The only question would be the rules governing access -
perhaps that could be tied to accreditation?

> Moving on from that, and on to a related item; one that has probably been
> asked by 1 in 5 of every new Wikinewsies that sticks around. "Why aren't we
> listed on Google News?" The simple answer is we have no editorial control.
> With an "anyone can edit" approach we fail some of the criteria Google
> applies when approving or declining potential sources.

That's what they told me when I met them two years ago. I tried to
re-establish contact, but their staff has changed, and the new person
hasn't gotten back to me yet. The reasons for exclusion that they gave
to me then may no longer apply.

In any case, I do support Wikinews being among the first wikis trying
out FlaggedRevs; it makes obvious sense.

The other thing I think we need for Wikinews is much better RSS
support. I started a small project proposal at MicroPledge for this:

http://micropledge.com/projects/namespacenews-extension-for-mediawiki

Perhaps the Wikinews community can do some dedicated fundraising work
for tech improvements like this?


-- 
Toward Peace, Love & Progress:
Erik

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