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This is an official policy on English Wikinews. It has wide acceptance and is considered a standard for all users to follow. Changes to this page must reflect consensus. If in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
Conventions are widely accepted tools by which we produce more consistent and usable articles:
Some features of the software which could potentially be misused, such as deleting pages and protecting pages from editing, are restricted to Administrators, who are experienced and trusted members of the community. Policies particularly relevant to administrators include:
Convention: Wikipedia articles are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License; content cannot be copied verbatim from Wikipedia as its license is incompatible with CC-BY.
Most Wikinews policies are developed through consensus. Consensus might be developed through discussion and polls, but more often it develops through established practice. In most cases the policy is not even written formally, but is simply the community norms which have developed over time.
Discussions are good to find out available options, and their merits and demerits. They also have the merit of giving an incentive for people to look for a reasonable compromise. Polls are good to decide on issues when it is largely a matter of taste or belief.
Both decisions are binding, in the sense they result in consensus. You should respect the community consensus.
Policy issues may be addressed in the Wikinews namespace, especially through the Water cooler, and on Talk pages. Issues may also be discussed in IRC and the mailing list, but official policy can only be made on Wikinews itself. If a policy might be controversial, it should be discussed and consensus reached before being written and linked here. Consider the guidelines at Wikipedia:How to create policy.
Policies change. When you present good reason to change a policy, and others agree, the change will happen.
Please don't bring up previously discussed policy changes until a new situation (technical environment, project's reputation, etc.) suggests revisiting old questions. Another justification for re-opening a discussion may be a significant change in the project's participants; some changing their mind, new people coming in or old ones leaving.
All participants are equal. If you are a good faith participant to Wikinews, your opinion counts as much as others.
For practical reasons, people participating without an account will be excluded from polls, but usually not from discussions. A similar strong guideline is applied to those very recently registered as it is assumed they are unlikely to have fully digested the local policies and how they may differ from other Wikimedia projects.
You are a member of our community, and are empowered to edit articles and enforce Wikinews policies. You will follow policies and guidelines in correcting problems in content and format, improving them where you can.
But please do not bite newbies, and always show respect and kindness.
If you see what you feel is a serious breach of policy, report the matter at WN:ALERT.
Wikinews:Policies and guidelines are fundamentally based on the Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines.