Template talk:Wikinews

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Template:Wikinews is permanently protected from editing, as it is a heavily used or visible template.

Substantial changes should be proposed here, and made by administrators if the proposal is uncontroversial, or has been discussed and is supported by consensus. Use {{editprotected}} to attract the attention of an administrator in such cases.
Any contributor may edit the template's documentation to add usage notes, categories or interwiki links.

Contents

[edit] Suggested change

  • Could we change this so it could be tagged to a wider variety of topics.

For example it could say: "To view news related to this article from our sister project, WikiNews, please see: [insert name of topic here]"

I think this would put the template to much better use.


instead of {{Wikinews|Canada}} -- 82.159.136.235

I agree. And there are a lot of other examples that wrongly uses {{Wikinews|parameter}} instead of simply {{wikinews}} --WikiRider 5 July 2005 06:08 (UTC)
{{Wikinews|parameter}} is the correct way to use this. Stop trying to confuse things and stop trying to change the way this is implemented. -- Netoholic @ 5 July 2005 08:01 (UTC)

[edit] re:Colored, non-standardized version of Template:Wikinews

Quit the revert war without discussion. I'll ask that this template be protected if the revert war doesn't stop.

As my subject line suggests, I don't like the colored version, and am reverting it. If you want to explain why the colored version is better, do that on the talk page and try to reach a consensus between editors. BlankVerse ∅ 22:20, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

I propose this design:
Wikinews
Wikinews stories:
[[Wikinews:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]]

It's not mine, someone created it on Live 8, but I like it. It's more colouful and eye-catching. Seeing as it's designed to drive traffic to Wikinews, eye-catching is good. Dan100 (Talk) 22:36, July 13, 2005 (UTC)

I do not like having a Sister Project template that is formatted differently from the other Sister Project templates. With that said, it might be an idea to create a new template (template:CurrentNews?) that could be placed on a Wikipedia article any time there is some current event reported at WikiNews that related to the article. If such a template was created, I would suggest that it only be placed on a Wikipedia article for a limited period of time (four to five days?). BlankVerse ∅ 05:36, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
I do not support creation of an extra template. Use Current and Wikinews in pairing and leave it be. -- Netoholic @ 06:10, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

Good idea, Blankverse, thank you. Dan100 (Talk) 06:35, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

BTW though, re looking different to other sister project templates - is Wikimedia a beauty contest, or a series of projects aiming to provide people with information? I wonder sometimes... Dan100 (Talk) 06:36, July 14, 2005 (UTC)
re:Beauty contest: Among other things, usability involves good design. Having a consistent, easily recognizable, easily usable set of similar templates for the different Sister Projects helps facilitate their usefulness. Imagine if each one of the eight Sister Projects had a template that was a different shape, and different color, and used different positioning for the graphics, and used very different wording for each template. Compare that to the current set of Sister Templates. I don't wonder at all.... BlankVerse ∅ 08:24, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

usability involves good design - oh absolutely. However I just don't think you right in this particular instance. If each project had a different-looking template I don't think that would harm their usability at all. From my point of view, the project templates are intended to drive traffic to the various other Wikimedia projects - and having different individual templates would help that. Dan100 (Talk) 14:34, July 19, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New template suggestion

This template is currently used in a number of places to link to specific Wikinews articles rather than categories or general articles. The wording of the current template is not really conducive to this, as it implies that the Wikinews article is "related" to the Wikipedia article rather than about a specific point in the Wikipedia article, and, most importantly, does not name the date of the Wikinews story which I think is rather essential when linking to old articles.

I propose to create a new template, something like "Wikinews article", which takes two parameters, the article title and the article date, and to help migrate template usage in this area. Are there any objections? --Fastfission 23:01, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

  • I don't really think its necessary, but if you feel like it I've got no objections. Bawolff 21:44, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
  • I think that it is unnecessary, too. This template should include the date. Indeed, for convenience and consistency this template should take the same parameters, with the same names, as n:Template:Wikinews on Wikinews does. Uncle G 22:53, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] strange behavior in lists

If put in an un-ordered list it acts strangly.

Wikinews has related news:

Bawolff 04:13, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposing yet another version of this template

Hi,

When trying to use this template, I noted that the search function of WikiNews is totally out of date. As such, this template is completely useless: e.g. if I wanted to insert {{wikinews}} into article Pluto, the link would return nothing (or old articles with the word Pluto). Instead, {{wikinews|article tilte}} is used much more, because of course that DOES work, but if future news is published on Pluto, articles had to be listed again and again in the template on article Pluto.

I propose a radical solution: we use Google instead of our own search function. It's up to date and this is the most important thing for news. This can be undone if our searchtool is up to date again.

I'm proposing Template:WNGoogle. I don't have the skills to make it work both for keywords and specific titles, I suggest it to be used only for keywords.

Please comment. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 14:25, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, when was the last time this was actually used for searching? I personnally think that this template should only be used for actual articles. (Search is okay as a last measure if this gets left behind and the article deleted, but I don't think it should be planned on using). Bawolff 19:33, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
Ok, that last sentence might not have made sense. To clarify: I don't think this template should be used unless its linking to an actual Wikinews article. Search is okay, in case the article name is misspelled or something, but I don't think it should be used unless linking to a specific article. Bawolff 04:04, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
Then why does it say: "Wikinews has news related to"? That should change then, to something like "Wikinews has a news article related to {{PAGENAME}}: TITLE OF ARTICLE". Even then, for some subjects that are often discussed or have many news articles, it might be more interesting to use the search function (e.g. JonBenet Ramsey). Also, in the long run WN might develop multiple articles on uncommon topics, another argument in favour of a "Search"-type template (on top of it's obvious advantages in articles on common topics like George Bush, politics,...).
I think there are two options:
  • Two separate templates: a frequently used one linking to a specific article, and a less frequently used one like WNGoogle.
  • But even better (IMO), something along the lines of "Wikinews has [[Link used for searching via Google|news related to {{PAGENAME}}]]: [[n:articletitle|ARTICLE TITLE]]" (if you get what I'm trying to say here). This would combine both functions (searching and referring to a specific recent article) in the current template.
Bawolff, do you think this template should not often be used in general? Because I can imagine that it could be added to tons of articles on wikipedia if it doesn't refer to a specific current event, and that you would be uncomfortable with that idea?
--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 13:53, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
I personally don't like the search thing. I geuss if we have over 4 articles its okay, but otherwise I think we should just list them. Also template:wikinewscat/template:wikinewsportal would be idea in my opinion on articles with lots of one subject. Also to make your life easier in designing these things, are you aware of the google: prefix. normal link google:foo, much easier to type. Bawolff 10:57, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
Don't know if this was discussed, but two word names don't work. -- Zanimum 19:05, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I've tried to use WNGoogle on an article, and realised that it was just not a good idea: Google lists talk pages, user pages, and isn't up-to-date by the minute either. So I've proposed WNGoogle for deletion. What I will do is change Template:Wikinews to use the {{PAGENAME}} magic word, because now the intro just doesn't make sense.

However, the problems remain: it would be nice to have a link to all on some key topics, like Mahmoud Amhedinajad, Iran, Bush, obesity, ... WNGoogle wasn't the right solution, I think there needs to be a solution on the WikiNews side. Maybe we could create more specific categories? Or use more infoboxes.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 11:30, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Mmm,... I'm stuck. Article Iran says: "Wikinews has news related to Iran", and that's good. However, Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad#Election_and_profile says "Wikinews has news related to: Hardliner wins Iran presidential runoff". That's not right, I think. That needs fixing by a template wizz, I guess.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 11:39, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] SVG Image

I think the image should be changed to SVG. Cristan 12:45, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree, so I've added {{editprotected}}. The picture that I think the template should switch to is Image:WikiNews-Logo.svg. Picaroon 20:16, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
Done. --Ligulem 23:54, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spacing

{{editprotected}}

Please make a minor change to this template to allow for more flexible spacing. The lines:

</div>
<noinclude>{{clear}}

should be combined to form:

</div><noinclude>{{clear}}

This will remove the automatically added line break, fixing spacing issues on pages such as Emergency contraception. —Remember the dot (talk) 04:15, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

done. CMummert · talk 04:57, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
Thanks! —Remember the dot (talk) 17:32, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Logo

{{editprotected}} Please use Image:Wikinews-logo.svg instead of Image:WikiNews-Logo.svg. – rotemliss – Talk 17:30, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

done. CMummert · talk 01:30, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wording

The current template says

Wikinews has news related to:

Headline_of_the_news

That's a weird wording. What's on the headline is the news, not related to the news. Rather, shouldn't it be as follows?

Wikinews has news related to Article_name_in_pedia at:

Headline_of_the_news

--朝彦 (Asahiko) 08:27, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

I had exactly the same thought and indeed fixed it before coming here and seeing your comment! Dan100 (Talk) 10:44, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
I wasn't able to pull my self to actual editing since I'm not a native english speaker. Your "Wikinews has related news" is better than what I was trying to do. Thanks for fixing! Cheers. --朝彦 (Asahiko) 11:04, 17 July 2007 (UTC)