[Foundation-l] Formal request: Wikinews project

[Erik Moeller]

Delirium-
> Given that on en: at least, Current Events is fairly mediocre in
> quality, is there a need for an entirely separate site?  Why not work to
> make [[en:Current Events]] a truly good summary of current news, and
> once that happens, expand to original reporting?

The purpose of [[current events]] is to collect one paragraph summaries  
and aggregate them in unsorted, unreadable bullet point lists. The purpose  
of Wikinews is to publish in-depth reports about current issues including  
original reporting, which will be frozen and archived after a certain  
amount of time. As the proposal describes, [[current events]] may be able  
to eventually transclude summaries from Wikinews. But the two are very  
different in focus and always will be.

Wikinews will already be useful even with spotty participation. For  
example, even if only Linux fans participate in writing Wikinews articles  
initially, we can still create the best Linux news source on the web using  
wiki collaboration. However, I believe that Wikinews will soon acquire  
editors and reporters from all relevant fields, although our coverage of  
events outside Internet-connected countries will always be mixed (as is  
that of the mainstream media).

After we've created a nice Main Page and some basic policies, I'd like to  
write a press release specifically about the launch of Wikinews.

Regards,

Erik