Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-01-21/From the editor

Dear readers,

About a month ago, I declared my intention to step down as editor-in-chief of the Signpost upon finding two successors. After combing through several applications, I am delighted to say that this search is at an end: and  will be stepping into my role, while  will continue as the publication and newsroom manager. All three are experienced Wikipedians with significant prior or current involvement with the Signpost. I will continue to serve as the newspaper's editor emeritus, where I am looking forward to stepping back while assisting the new editors in any way I can. Details on these positions will come in this column next week.

Please join me in welcoming Gamaliel and Go Phightins, and we would appreciate if you would bear with us as we work through this transition period.

Looking back at my time as the editor of the Signpost, we attempted to continue expanding the newspaper's scope to include both the English Wikipedia and Wikimedia movement. While our coverage has been patchy at times, especially with regards to breaks between arb report writers and technological initiatives, I believe that we accomplished our goals. As this week's ten-year Signpost anniversary article shows, many of the Signpost's biggest stories came in the last few years. For "News and notes" and general Wikimedia news—the sections I put much of my personal effort into—these ranged all over the world, from Wikivoyage to Gibraltar to the Russian Wikipedia and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Still, the stories that will stick with me are the memorials, particularly the life and death of Ihor Kostenko, a Ukrainian Wikipedian. While I never personally met Ihor, writing about his death made me feel like we had lost a kindred spirit. A fan of sports, geography, history, and warships, Ihor and I shared many interests; we were even near each other's ages. What more could he have done with a lengthier life?

We will unfortunately never have the answer to that question, but we do know what he did with his life, and it will live on through every person that encounters the work he did online. The legacy we make today will be left for the world of tomorrow. Will we leave a fractured, contentious, and cantankerous community beset by an unwillingness to adapt to a new generation? Or will we leave them with something worthy of the fifth-highest ranking on the Internet?

Here's to the coming years.

—, outgoing Signpost editor-in-chief