Signpost adapts as news consumption changes

Signpost adapts as news consumption changes

Over the past three decades, newspapers have undergone several radical changes. Possibly the most significant change is the print-based model's decline and unclear future, as a much greater proportion of users access these stories through the internet.

Yet the internet as we know it is itself undergoing a rapid reconstruction. Over the past several years, the number of personal and laptop computer users has been dropping in favor of those whose online experience is dominated by tablets and smartphones. And in another significant dilution of the power of traditional journalism, the internet has allowed the formerly captive readers of hard-copy newspapers to escape to the wider world of blogs and free news aggregators.

Fortunately (for us), the Signpost has been spared the majority of the problems plaguing the traditional model for news production and consumption, but only because of the unique niche we hold and the medium in which we serve and publish. Still, we also need to keep up with new trends in what has become a very unstable environment. Thanks to the initiative of Yuvi Panda and Notnarayan, the Signpost now has an Android app, free for download on Google Play. A screenshot of the app is available to the right, with more on Wikimedia Commons; more information on the app itself is in this week's Technology report.

We have a question for readers, though: is there sufficient interest from you for Yuvi and Notnarayan to develop a Signpost iOS port, used in Apple devices? Please leave your thoughts on the talk page and vote in this week's poll: Would you be interested in downloading a similar Signpost app onto your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)?

In unrelated notes: "In the news" has been renamed to "In the media", and the "Arbitration report" will be discontinued as a separate page until we have enough content to warrant more than a few sentences. The report will now appear in "News and notes" under the 'In brief' section each week.

—The ed17, Signpost editor-in-chief

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10 September 2012 (all comments)

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Please add comments regarding an iOS Signpost app here! Please also note that a significant hurdle to this port is money, as registering an iOS app costs upward of a hundred U.S. dollars. Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 04:23, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Even here in developing Southeat Asia, the number of iPad and iPhçne sales is phenominal. The global Apple computer user community has been shunned by Wiki developers for long enough - let the porting to IOS be a step in the right direction. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 05:28, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Apologies, I revised my comment above after you posted this, Kudpung. Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 05:52, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the shoutout! I should also point to mw:User:Notnarayan, who designed the entire app and made it look slick. The source for the app is available on GitHub and is GPL'd, so contributions/bug reports welcome! YuviPanda (talk) 07:29, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, and I added his name. Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 13:11, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Where is the Signpost's RSS feed? I can't find any since wikipediasignpost.com died. The solution at http://webapps.stackexchange.com/q/30520 is not a good RSS feed (links to history page instead of content). I think a good RSS feed is more important than a dedicated app. RSS feeds can be used on any platform. Nicolas1981 (talk) 08:43, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm working on this. Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 13:11, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It would be trivial for me to setup a full text RSS/Atom feed for the Signpost. I can take a shot at it later tonight YuviPanda (talk) 14:02, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

And done! Atom feed of posts from last three issues up at signpost.yuvi.in/feed. Please file issues on GitHub (or poke my talk). Thanks! YuviPanda (talk) 16:18, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Reading this on my iPad. I'm logged in, but that's not unusual amount editors. I doubt I would see signposts in an app as being logged in I prompted by it's notification on my talk page. Wikipedia has a dire mobile interface on the iPad, instead it should just stick to the standard desktop as the iPad has a good screen resolution and shouldn't be treated like a 1990s mobile device. Regards, Sun Creator^(talk) 09:19, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think we should have apps for iOS as well as Android. I do appreciate WMF focusing on the free(er) Android market first, and if releasing free iOS apps means giving $ to Apple, I suggest that the required funds be gathered on Kickstarter or such. Let those who choose the overpriced, freedom-limiting technology (i.e. bought an Apple product) pay for it themselves; I don't think that we should use our regular donation income to fund stuff for them. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 15:14, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'll note that this entire app was done with me and Notnarayan as volunteers - no WMF money was involved :) YuviPanda (talk) 15:23, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]