Wiki143:Wikipedia Signpost/About
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About The Signpost
The Signpost is a community-written and -edited online newspaper covering the English Wikipedia, its sister projects, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Wikimedia movement at large, currently published twice a month. Since its launch in 2005, there have been Template:Signpost/Number of issues Signpost issues published, comprising Template:Signpost/Number of articles articles, and Template:Signpost/Number of pages pages total (Template:Signpost/Number of talk pages talk and Template:Signpost/Number of nontalk pages non-talk).
The Signpost is produced by volunteers, and is independent of the Wikimedia Foundation and other Wikimedia organizations. The original name of the newspaper was The Wikipedia Signpost; it was shortened to the The Signpost in August 2010 as a symbol of an expansion in scope beyond the English Wikipedia. Our statement of purpose guides our efforts. Editorial decisions are made by the editorial board, composed of Wikimedia volunteers, and ultimately by the Editor in Chief.
Unlike most Wikipedia pages, each Signpost article carries a byline to indicate its author, and is edited by at least one other team member. We welcome post-publication edits such as grammatical and spelling corrections to articles, subject to review by the Signpost team; we value our readers' efforts to correct simple mistakes and provide needed clarifications. Anyone may submit articles; suggestions and news tips are welcomed on our suggestions page. Aspiring contributors may wish to consult our Quick start page and our newsroom.
Our readers have several options for subscription or notification of new issues, outlined on our subscription page.
Statement of purpose
The magazine focuses on three things, broadly speaking:
- Inform: The primary purpose of The Signpost has always been to inform the community about events that affect and are affected by the Wikimedia movement. Though it was originally created topically an English Wikipedia–only publication, it has long since expanded its scope to cover the Wikimedia movement at large, a transformation symbolically completed by the 2011 renaming of The Wikipedia Signpost to just The Signpost. The Signpost does not Template:Em maintain a commitment to neutrality in the same way that Wikipedia articles do, but the magazine is nonetheless known, and aims to serve, as a balanced and impartial news source—a recurring problem is the difficulty of representing consensus viewpoints in a critical lens. Its editors and contributors are expected to exercise good judgment at all times, and generally speaking reports usually include at least some mention of all major positions adopted by Wikimedians on the issues at stake.
- Entertain: A wish to entertain provides the incentive behind some of the publication's lighter-hearted features. The Signpost aims to be a quality online magazine, after all, and is not an encyclopedia itself, and so allows many things—editorializing, narrative, original research—that would be unacceptable in Wikipedia article space. It is worth emphasising, however, that unless there is good reason (and this is highlighted to the reader as a preface to a piece), writers always strive "to maintain [a level of] objectivity as would be appropriate for an independent media organization elsewhere" (in the words of The Signpost founder Michael Snow).
- Script error: No such module "anchor".Publish: The Signpost is the best space available to present ideas, publish community research, and draw attention to a cause before both the English Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia movement more broadly. We are a community organized and executed publication reaching thousands of readers every month, attaining a readership—and an impact—for our publications that far exceeds any of the other, more disparate publication channels and newsletters maintained among the projects. The Wikimedia Foundation Blog is supposedly the most impactful channel of communication available to the movement—yet in our 2015 readership survey we found that a significant number of our readers did not know of the blog's existence, and that those that did usually found The SignpostTemplate:'s content more appealing. The Signpost as a platform is available for Template:Em, our readers, to use. Have a project that you'd like to highlight? An issue that you'd like to bring to light? An essay you'd like to publish? Bring it to us and let us help you to make it known. The Signpost solicits articles, op-eds, and special reports from the community, and publishes them subject to the approval of the editor(s)-in-chief. See How to contribute for more details.
The Signpost team
- File:WikipediaSignpostIcon.svg For more on The SignpostTemplate:'s administration and the responsibilities of being a regular contributor, see our coordination guidelines.
| EDITORIAL BOARD | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Editor-in-chief | Template:U | Editor-in-chief emeritus | Template:U, Template:U, Template:U, Template:U, Template:U |
| Editors | Template:U, Template:U, Template:U, Template:U, Template:U, Template:U, Template:U |
Copyeditors | Template:U, Template:U, Template:U, Template:U |
| Publication manager | Template:U | Outreach manager | Template:U (Twitter/Facebook announcements), Template:U (Wikimedia-l, Hacker News) |
| WRITERS | |||
| Arbitration report | Template:U, Template:U | Humour | Various |
| Discussion report | In the media | Various | |
| Featured content | Template:U | News and notes | Various |
| From the archives | Template:U | On the bright side | Help wanted! |
| Gallery | Various | Serendipity | Template:U |
| Recent research | Template:U (with Template:U) | Technology report | Help wanted! |
| Tips and tricks | Template:U | Traffic report | The Top 25 Report team |
| WikiProject report | Template:U | Features | Template:U |
Editors in chief
<timeline> Dateformat = dd/mm/yyyy # European date format
Period = from:01/01/2005 till:31/05/2025 ImageSize = width:800 height:600 # barincrement:10 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:50 # e.g. extra space to the left and below the plot area for axis labels and legend TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
ScaleMajor= unit:year increment:1 start:2005
PlotData =
color:orange fontsize:S # set defaults bar:Michael Snow from:10/01/2005 till:01/08/2005 text:Michael Snow bar:Ral315 from:01/08/2005 till:16/02/2009 text:Ral315 bar:Ragesoss from:16/02/2009 till:03/06/2010 text:Ragesoss bar:HaeB from:03/06/2010 till:08/07/2011 text:HaeB bar:Jarry1250 from:08/07/2011 till:16/09/2011 text:Jarry1250 bar:SMasters from:16/09/2011 till:21/05/2012 text:SMasters bar:Skomorokh from:16/09/2011 till:21/05/2012 text:Skomorokh bar:The ed17 from:21/05/2012 till:21/01/2015 text:The ed17 bar:Gamaliel from:21/01/2015 till:01/05/2016 text:Gamaliel bar:Go Phightins! from:21/01/2015 till:04/08/2016 text:Go Phightins! bar:Jayen466 from:01/05/2016 till:04/11/2016 text:Jayen466 bar:Pete Forsyth from:04/08/2016 till:09/06/2017 text:Pete Forsyth bar:Evad37 from:09/06/2017 till:29/03/2018 text:Evad37 bar:Bri from:29/03/2018 till:24/04/2018 text:Bri bar:Kudpung from:25/04/2018 till:29/08/2018 text:Kudpung bar:Bri from:30/09/2018 till:07/03/2019 bar:Kudpung from:07/12/2018 till:02/03/2019 bar:Smallbones from:16/03/2019 till:30/04/2022 text:Smallbones bar:JPxG from:05/05/2022 till:end text:JPxG bar:EpicPupper from:05/05/2022 till:05/10/2022 text:EpicPupper
</timeline>
Technical information
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Userboxes
| Template:User wikipedia/SignpostReader | Script error: No such module "userbox".Template:Template other | Template:User wikipedia/Signpost |
| Template:Tl | Template:Tl | Template:Tl |
Barnstar
The Signpost has its own barnstar; feel free to award it to someone you think has done a significant amount of work in the project!
Just copy the following and add your own message.
{{subst:The Signpost Barnstar|1=Put your message here. ~~~~}}
| File:Signpost Barnstar Hires.png | The Signpost Barnstar | |
| This user deserves recognition for their work on The Signpost! | ||
| Template:Tl |
Social media
The Signpost has an actively maintained presence on
See also
{{Wikipedia:Signpost/Template:Signpost-footer}}