Ragesoss (Sage Ross), our current editor-in-chief, has announced his resignation. Citing a new job that "isn't compatible with much Signpost involvement", Ragesoss's resignation triggered a stream of response from Signpost contributors. The Signpost team is sad to say goodbye to Ragesoss after his excellent work as Signpost editor since February 2009, and wishes him the best of luck in his new job. HaeB will be acting editor while discussion continues.
It has been a great pleasure for me to work with so many fine Wikimedians during my tenure as Signpost editor-in-chief. I'm stepping down after nearly a year-and-a-half, but I'm confident that experienced editors and new hands will pick up the slack, and then some. We are, right now, discussing a slew of proposals for improving the Signpost, so if you have ideas on how to make the Signpost better, please share your thoughts.
As the global Wikimedia community grows, and grows more diverse, our community journalism must adapt to serve this wider community. Knitting together Wikimedia communities across wikis (much less across languages) has always been a great challenge, but the Signpost and/or other community organs may be able to make some headway. As a symbol of our commitment to Wikimedia-wide coverage, we've been considering changing names from The Wikipedia Signpost to simply the Signpost. But that commitment cannot stop at symbolism, whether it involves expanding the scope of the Signpost or collaborating with other community news venues.
As the Wikimedia Foundation and the financial dimensions of the Wikimedia projects grow, the need for a strong Signpost is greater than ever. Holding the powerful to account is a core purpose of the broadsheets we've tried to emulate. I've always viewed the Signpost 's independence from, and constructively critical stance toward, the Foundation as a key part of the Signpost 's identity—if at times an underdeveloped one.
I look forward to seeing where the Signpost goes from here.
Artist's rendition of Signpost Book Bot deploying book versions of the Signpost.
The Signpost is now available in Wikipedia book format, thanks to the work of Headbomb and FinalRapture (who coded Signpost Book Bot). Each issue in our archive has been converted into a book that can be downloaded as a PDF, printed out, or ordered as a volume. A full list is at Book:Wikipedia Signpost; we hope you will enjoy reading the Signpost offline.
To centralize discussion, please report rendering problems or make any suggestions for improvements at Book talk:Wikipedia Signpost rather than on individual issues' talk pages.
Ideas for improving the Signpost
This week, Tony1 has sparked a discussion on the next direction for The Wikipedia Signpost. What do you think would improve the Signpost? Ideas being floated at the talk page include:
A more modern layout and format
Full coverage of Sister Projects
Exploiting the potential for closer ties with foreign-language Wikimedia projects
Renaming The Wikipedia Signpost to The Signpost
Fortnightly publication
Combining "News and notes" with "In the news"
Moving the The Signpost to Meta or Wikinews
Using more images in articles
Enhancing interaction, possibly through reader comments or contests
The Signpost exists to serve its readers, so if you have an opinion on any of these proposals or anything else you'd like to see, please share your thoughts in the comments section below or on the Signpost talk page.
Call for writers
Do you have what it takes to be a reporter your fellow Wikimedians rely on to keep them in the picture?
As writers move on or shift focus, we need enthusiastic new writers to deliver the rich and diverse weekly articles the community has come to expect. With changes coming, the Signpost is looking for new contributors to help us improve and expand. We're looking for dedicated and talented regulars to write the regular Signpost features and to start innovative new ones. There are opportunities for special reports, and balanced opinion pieces, book reviews and interviews are always very welcome. Existing features requiring contributors are:
Discussion report(example) – drama, discussions, deletions and RfCs
Technology report(example) – software updates, resolved bugs and bot approvals
Dispatches(example) – our series of special reports on a wide variety of topics
Sister projects(example) – coverage of sister project news and milestones
And, as always, your help is invaluable compiling "News and notes" and "In the news", long the cornerstones of The Signpost. Be sure to alert us to newsworthy items throughout Wikimedia projects and in the external media!
Discuss this story
For he's a jolly good fellow..., come on folks, join in with me here, one more time with feeling! – ukexpat (talk) 18:13, 9 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
A new role
Thanks again for the warm goodbye I've received. I really, really appreciate it. I couldn't say more until the official announcement, but I will be working as online facilitator for the Foundation's Public Policy Initiative, helping coordinate the wave of university assignments that we have coming up. So it's a chance to get even more involved in aspects of Wikipedia that I care a lot about. It would be too much of a conflict of interest to keep editing the Signpost, but I think it's in good hands, as this week issue attests.--ragesoss (talk) 18:33, 9 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Have fun. The signpost will certainly be a different place without you. —fetch·comms 19:15, 10 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Shame to see you step down, good sir! Best of luck. Akirn (talk) 01:32, 12 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]