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The Signpost

Front page of The Signpost, 24 February 2016

The Signpost is the online newsletter of the English Wikipedia. It is written by Wikipedia editors and covers news about the English Wikipedia. It includes news about important discussions, new featured articles and pictures, Wikipedia technology, and what other newspapers and journals have written about Wikipedia. It also publishes opinion articles by Wikipedia editors and sometimes news about the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedias in other languages.[1]

History

 
Michael Snow, the founder of The Signpost, in 2009
 
Joke picture of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales from The Signpost on April Fool's Day 2015[2]

The Signpost was started in January 2005 by Michael Snow.[3] In its first edition he wrote:

I hope this will be a worthwhile source of news for people interested in what is happening around the Wikipedia community.[4]

Snow was The Signpost's main editor (editor-in-chief) until August 2005. Ryan Lomonaco became the new editor-in-chief, but Snow still wrote articles for the newsletter until February 2008. He stopped when he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation. In July 2008 he was elected Chairman of the Board. He was the Chairman for two years.[5]

When it started, the newsletter's title was The Wikipedia Signpost. In 2011, the title became simply The Signpost.[6] From 2005 to March 2016, The Signpost came out every week. Then it changed to coming out every two weeks because it did not have enough editors.[7] In March, April and May of 2016 it did not come out at all. As of 2019, it comes out once a month.

On April Fool's Day, The Signpost sometimes publishes joke articles and pictures. Examples of joke articles from April Fool's Day 2015 are "Special Report: Pictures of the Year 2015" (with joke pictures)[2] and "Featured Content: Stop Press. Marie Celeste Mystery Solved". Crew Found Hiding In Wardrobe".[8]

In other newspapers and magazines

Journalists from other newspapers and magazines have used articles in The Signpost to help write their own articles.

  • In 2013 "Wiki-PR's extensive network of clandestine paid advocacy exposed", a story about people secretly paying companies to write Wikipedia articles about them,[9] was used by the International Business Times.[10]
  • In 2015 "Three weeks to save freedom of panorama in Europe", a story about changes to European copyright rules for photographs,[11] was used by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the British magazine Amateur Photographer.[12][13]
  • In 2016 "New internal documents raise questions about the origins of the Knowledge Engine", a story about the Wikimedia Foundation accepting money to develop a new search engine,[14] was used by the German magazine Heise and the American journal Nonprofit Quarterly.[15][16]

The Signpost Media

References

  1. ↑ Dee, Jonathan (July 1, 2007). "All the News That's Fit to Print Out". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/magazine/01WIKIPEDIA-t.html. Retrieved February 29, 2016. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gamaliel (1 April 2015). "Special Report: Pictures of the Year 2015". The Signpost. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  3. ↑ Phoebe Ayers; Charles Matthews; Ben Yates (2008). How Wikipedia Works: And how You Can be a Part of it. No Starch Press. p. 345. ISBN 978-1-59327-176-3.
  4. ↑ Snow, Michael (10 January 2005). "From the editor: Welcome to the Signpost!". Wikipedia SignpostRetrieved 24 July 2019.
  5. ↑ Wikimedia Foundation (2019). "History of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees". Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  6. ↑ The Signpost (2019). "About". Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  7. ↑ Tony1; Andreas Kolbe (July 4, 2016). Brief notes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2016-07-04/News_and_notes#Brief_notes. . Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  8. ↑ Adam Cuerden, Xanthomelanoussprog, WPPilot, and Gamaliel (1 April 2015). "Featured Content: Stop Press. Marie Celeste Mystery Solved". The Signpost. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  9. ↑ The ed17 (9 October 2013). "Wiki-PR's extensive network of clandestine paid advocacy exposed". The Signpost. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  10. ↑ Halleck, Thomas (November 8, 2013). "Wikipedia And Paid Edits: Companies Pay Top Dollar To Firms Willing To 'Fix' Their Entries". International Business Times. http://www.ibtimes.com/wikipedia-paid-edits-companies-pay-top-dollar-firms-willing-fix-their-entries-1449172. Retrieved March 3, 2016. 
  11. ↑ Heald, J. (17 June 2015). "Three weeks to save freedom of panorama in Europe". The Signpost. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  12. ↑ Cheesman, Chris (June 23, 2015). "Photography of public buildings under threat after European rule change, MEP warns". Amateur Photographer. http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/latest/photo-news/photography-of-public-buildings-under-threat-after-european-rule-change-mep-warns-54506. Retrieved March 5, 2016. 
  13. ↑ Diener, Andrea (June 27, 2015). "Geben Sie Panoramafreiheit, Sire!" (in de). FAZ – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/panoramafreiheit-in-gefahr-das-betrifft-jeden-13668160.html. Retrieved March 5, 2016. 
  14. ↑ Gamaliel (10 February 2016). "New internal documents raise questions about the origins of the Knowledge Engine". The Signpost. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  15. ↑ Kleinz, Torsten (February 27, 2016). "Kommentar: Wie geht es weiter mit der Wikimedia Foundation?" (in de). Heise Online. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Kommentar-Wie-geht-es-weiter-mit-der-Wikimedia-Foundation-3119568.html. Retrieved March 1, 2016. 
  16. ↑ McCambridge, Ruth (February 16, 2016). "Knight Foundation Grant Request Tears at Wikipedia's Community". Nonprofit Quarterly. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/02/16/knight-foundation-grant-request-tears-at-wikipedias-community/. Retrieved March 1, 2016. 

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