International Wikinews Writing Contest

The 2005+ International Wikinews Writing Contest (IWWC) is intended to be the first Wikinews contest spanning multiple editions of the project. It will hopefully lead to a higher overall output of stories, and better cooperation across languages. It is inspired by the first writing contest on the English edition of Wikinews, with some modifications to increase the duration of the contest.

The basic idea is simple: Each contestant needs to write a story a day, or use a joker if available. When one fails to write a story within 24 hours, and runs out of jokers, one drops out of the contest. The last three persons to remain in the contest will be the winners.

Please translate the rules and instructions into other languages. The log and registration section should remain on this central page.

Translations: /Bg /De /Es /Fr /It /Ja /Nl /Pl /Pt /Ro /Sr /Sv /Uk

THE CONTEST IS OFFICIALLY OVER.
Congratulations to Wolf-Dieter, Ascánder, and Faager!

Detailed rules

1. Contestants can sign up until September 1, 2005 for early entry.
2. Every contestant has to write a minimum of one news article per day of at least 3 paragraphs of their own writing (including translations from other editions), covering the most important aspects of the story.
   • Articles that are copyright violations or deleted through community processes for other reasons are disqualified.
   • For this contest, "every day" means one article for each day of the week in your timezone (i.e. a submission on 00:01 on Thursday and 23:59 on Friday would still count).
3. Every contestant receives 3 initial "jokers". These can be used to skip a day.
4. Contestants can earn new jokers (see below).
5. When a contestant doesn't submit an article for a day, and has no jokers left, they drop out of the race.
6. The contest runs until only three contestants remain, at which point the prizes are distributed.

Jokers

Writing a story every single day can be hard work. Wikinewsies have families, lives, and accidents. Jokers can be used to "take a break" and not write a story for a single day. In order to use a joker, simply fill your spot in the log by saying "First joker - ~~~~", "Second joker", etc. If you do not submit an article on a given day, your joker will automatically be used. After you have run out of jokers, you have one last chance to submit an article by the end of the day (in your timezone) to stay in the contest. If you wish to drop out, please explicitly say so.

You start with three jokers and can earn new ones. There are two ways to earn additional jokers:

1. Submit more than one article on a given day. For every additional article you publish, you receive one joker. Of course, the same standards apply for these articles as for any other: three paragraphs of your own writing, no violation of community policies.
2. Submit an article which contains original reporting, such as a quote, an exclusive photograph, an interview, or the results of investigative research (this should be documented on the talk page of the article). For every such article you get one joker.

You can earn no more than 4 jokers on a single day. The total number of jokers you can hold is not limited.

Please note that in order to make sure that the contest actually ends, the judges may, in a majority decision, modify the rules for the handing out of jokers during the contest.

Late entry: article debt

It is possible to join the contest after September 1, but you will have accumulated an article debt for the days you have not participated. For example, if you join on September 15, you have an article debt of 14 articles.

You have to reduce your debt by at least one article per day to avoid dropping out. The only way to reduce your debt is to earn and spend jokers. Some example strategies to get out of debt:

• spend all the jokers you get at the beginning of the contest
• write at least one additional article per day until you are out of debt
• write only articles which include original reporting until you are out of debt.

Contestant Sign-up Sheet

Please note your time zone or location. Register and contribute by September 1 to avoid article debt!

Either use your account on Meta to sign, or link to your local user page, e.g. n:en:User:Eloquence.

1. Cspurrier |02:00, 18 August 2005| (EST/EDT)| en.WN
2. Dcabrilo | Central US (whatever it is... Chicago time zone)
3. Krisjohn 03:01, 18 August 2005 (UTC) | Perth (GMT+8) | en.WN
4. Borofkin 07:50, 18 August 2005 (UTC) | Sydney. I don't know timezones, but it's dark outside. | en.WN
5. ClareWhite en.WN | GMT
6. Marshaü | 12:13, 18 August 2005 (UTC) | GTM+2 (CEST) or +1 (CET) | Polish Wikinews
7. Lyellin EST... Provided I have stable net access at the start date
8. Ral315 (En:WP) 16:51, 18 August 2005 (UTC) (EST/EDT). Participation may vary based on schoolwork.
9. Datrio | 21:49, 19 August 2005 (UTC) | GTM+2 (CEST) or +1 (CET) | Polish Wikinews
10. NGerda 01:43, 20 August 2005 (UTC). PDT. Attending college all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll be relying on my jokers a lot!
11. Theshibboleth | PDT Shouldn't be too hard--famous last words. (Registered 19:35, 20 August 2005 (UTC))
12. Dan100
13. Awesomo4000
14. DardanAeneas 04:49, 26 August 2005 (UTC) | Knoxville, TN (EST/EDT/UTC-4) n:en, w:en
15. agostino 12:09, August 26 2005 (UTC + 2)
16. azertus | CEST | Dutch Wikinews & English Wikinews
17. Zanimum, Brampton, Ontario, Canada, EST. I'm all of a sudden starting to love Wikinews, despite despising it in its proposal stage!
18. srpnov, Katowice, Polska |11:40, 28 August 2005 | GTM+2 (CEST) or +1 (Central European Time) | Polish Wikinews Let me try!
19. RossKoepke , Michigan, USA |10:20, 28 August 2005 | EST | Going to be hard because I'm going backpacking for four days next friday to monday...
20. The bellman , Canberra (and sometimes Sydney), Australia | GMT+10
21. Ari S., Long Island, New York. I'm writing until you pry the keyboard out of my cold, dead hands. | Registed August 30, 9:05 AM. | GMT -5
22. Weijola, New York, USA | Registered Aug. 31, 01:55 UTC | GMT-5
23. da Pete | 21:51, 31 August 2005 (UTC) | CEST/CET | German Wikinews
24. Mathias Schindler -- 23:40, 31 August 2005 (UTC) | CEST/CET | German Wikinews
25. Klhernandez, Monrovia, Liberia | 13:25, 01 September 05 | GMT
26. Wolf-Dieter 16:33, 1 September 2005 (UTC) German Wikinews
27. TUFKAAP|GMT -5|
28. Ascánder 01:47, 2 September 2005 (UTC) | GMT-4 | Wikinoticias en castellano
29. Patrick Mannion 20:13, 1 September 2005 (UTC) | GMT -5 | English Wikinews
30. Dorian Gray 20:22, 3 September 2005 | GMT+10
31. tonyr1988 13:25, 3 September 2005 | GMT-6
32. josephs1 20:20, 3 September 2005 | GMT-4
33. Kju 10:12, 10 September 2005 (UTC) | CEST/CET | German Wikinews
34. Datrio 14:39, 10 September 2005 (UTC) |CEST/CET | Polish Wikinews
35. Faager 15:41, 12 September 2005 (UTC) (GMT +1 (+1 summer time)) - 11 articles debt...
36. MusicalAngel 8.00am 12 Oct 2005 (PST I think) Vancouver, Canada time 42 articles debt...

Remaining Contestants

From Contest Log - Listed in order of sign-up

Joker Leaders

User	Jokers
Wolf-Dieter	33+
Ascánder	19
Faager	12

All Remaining Contestants

User	Jokers	T.Z.	Links
Wolf-Dieter	33+	UTC +2	German Wikinews
Ascánder	19	UTC -4	Wikinoticias
Faager	12	UTC +2	French Wikinews
3 Remaining Contestants

Log

Edit the page below and link to the articles you have written in the form [[n:language code:Article title]].

→ International Wikinews Writing Contest/log (with final results)

Judges

Any Wikinewsie who is not a contestant can register here to be a judge. If you object to a particular registration, please note so in the appropriate section. Judges mediate in case of disputes, hand out jokers (by commenting below the submission in the log), cross out contestants, and decide which article submissions should be rejected.

There must be at least one judge speaking a language before members of that language edition can participate.

French

• Alvaro 18:51, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
• Eskimo ☼ 16:52, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Dutch

• Puckly 16:25, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
• Zendex 05:02, 1 december 2005 (CET)

English

• Soundstruck 15:51, 18 August 2005 (UTC) Resigned 15:25, 15 September 2005 (PST). Good luck everyone! .:ss
• Chiacomo 23:32, 18 August 2005 (UTC)
• MrMiscellanious 02:49, 18 August 2005 (UTC)
• Cllewr 19:37, 31 August 2005 (UTC) -- My time zone is EDT. I am concerned that I may not be able to dedicate much time to this (my personal workload will be increasing over the next few months), but for now, count me in.
• StuRat 19:49, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
• Zanimum September 13, 12:19 PM EST

German

We have our own site for the contest at n:de:Wikinews:Internationaler Schreibwettbewerb. The site includes german contestants, and their number of jokers. There I give commentaries in german, too.

• Cyper 21:42, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

Polish

• tsca ✉ 18:04, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

Romanian

• Romihaitza 16:07, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

Spanish

• Edub 14:00, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
• --Julián Ortega 17:44, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Prizes

Feel free to submit prizes here. These will be shared by the three remaining contestants (if they can reach no consensus on how the prizes should be distributed, they can continue the contest until only one contestant remains).

• 3 gmail invites. --Ezra Wax 20:32, 18 August 2005 (UTC)
• I will chip in US$300 cash to the pot for the winners. We are also offering scholarships for college student bloggers at ProgressiveU.org. --Art Morgan
• 50 Gmail invites :p Dan100
• A full distro of SuSE Linux 9.3 on a DVD, to be mailed anywhere in the world Awesomo4000
• A free wiki (using MediaWiki) hosted by myoo.de.--Eloquence 04:48, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
• 3 basic web site designs. This includes HTML only. Specifically, up to 10 pages with pictures you provide (digital or analog pictures I will scan), text, hyperlinks, internal links & email links, and counters. It does not include PERL, JAVA, or hosting (renting space on the Internet computer where the web site is stored). Since many of you may be able to create your own web pages, this prize is transferable to other people or organizations, say to your grandparents or local Humane Society branch, who may not be as web-savvy. Note that most ISPs also provide web hosting services, often free to their customers, and note that web site name availability may depend on the company which does the hosting. StuRat 20:43, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
• An Opera 8 registration code ($40 value) for either Windows, Linux (x86/PPC), Linux Sparc, FreeBSD, Solaris, or Mac OS X. Ari S. August 31, 2005. UPDATE: Since Opera has gone free, this registration code will no longer be of use. I withdraw my prize. -Ari S. September 20, 2005
• I will donate US$5 from Paypal to each winner. Notice, I only plan to pay out $10 in the end ;) - DardanAeneas 14:03, 1 September 2005 (UTC)
• If I win, I will donate any monetary prizes I receive to Wikimedia Deutschland, the German Wikimedia chapter (or ask for them to be donated to the Wikimedia Foundation if sending the money to Germany is too complicated). Otherwise I will donate 1 Euro for each day the contest continues after I drop out, up to one month. —da Pete 18:47, 1 September 2005 (UTC)
• Either 3 gmail invites or 3 requests for adminship on their wiks (if not an admin) if they're an admin.... uhhh de-adminship? Acutally, maybe I'll buy them music CDS. --Patrick Mannion 20:21, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Summary of Valuable Prizes

Three persevering champions will receive these prizes!:

Prizes each winner will receive

• US$100 cash

Prize received. Thanks a lot! --Ascánder 23:05, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

• A basic HTML web design (10 pages) that the winner can claim or transfer to anyone
• US$5 Paypal credit

How to claim the prizes (i'm asking for Faager who is in holidays now) ? Eskimo ☼ 19:31, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Contact the person offering each prize you wish to claim, and make arrangements with them. If they don't hear from you, they will assume you don't want that prize. StuRat 16:52, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Prizes to be divvied up among the winners

• A free wiki (using MediaWiki) hosted by myoo.de
• A full distro of SuSE Linux 9.3 on a DVD, mailed anywhere in the world
• An Opera 8 Registration code UPDATE: Since Opera has gone free, this registration code will no longer be of use. I withdraw my prize. -Ari S. September 20, 2005