Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2018-03-29/Op-ed

Op-ed
Despite the brave efforts of many past and present editorial staff, The Signpost, our English Wikipedia 'newspaper' which began when the project was started by, who continues to contribute to Wikipedia, is beginning to show signs of tiredness. This may be due  to  a perceived downward trend in  many  meta aspects of the encyclopedia. The first issue was released on 10 January 2005. Originally begun as a weekly publication, in July 2016 the official schedule was changed to every two  weeks, but by November the issues were already  running  late with  the next issue appearing  on  26 November and the following  Signpost  not  being  published until 22 December three weeks later.

Signpost appeared on 17 January 2017 with a lead article from (then) editor-in-chief,, entitled Next steps for the Signpost. Forsyth's article, which explained some of the concerns surrounding the newspaper, received a significant number of comments from  readers including one from  who  suggested that  a grant  may be worth  considering:  "If there were a rotating internship program at The Signpost for journalism students then from one perspective it seems controversial to pay for content, but from another perspective for years the international wiki community has major projects with major investment which are almost unknown for lack of journalism. … This is wiki's own newspaper of record and if it has problems then I wish we could explore options to support volunteers in maintaining it." suggested that Signpost could be made a blog, or even a journal, with , known for  his work on the Medicine project, responding  with '' 'Sort of like the Wiki Journal of Medicine? It is a fair bit of work. But could be good.'  Stating  that other related projects are  '...experiencing parallel attenuation (...) Better to have fewer issues with excellent content than to fake along for the sake of hitting a weekly deadline' '',  makes a poignant reflection.

From August 2017 that weekly deadline became monthly; now in its  thirteenth year, the previous issue was published on 20 February with a note that the next one would be due out on  27 February  (a week later?). At the time of writing, this next Signpost is 20 days overdue. For many years, the newspaper has been a pivotal point of information for regular contributors, both  to  article content  and maintenance areas and while a new trend has developed towards issuing  newsletters, these are sent  to  selected groups on dedicated messaging lists which  don't  necessarily reach  everyone and which  do  not  have the wealth  of the Signpost's mailing list.

The newspaper is a vital line in Wikipedia's train  of communication. A final abandonment of the fine Signpost pointing to important issues – and even occasional humour – would be a great loss to  the community; indeed, some Requests for Comment have received complaints  from users that they were not adequately informed. It is naturally understandable that  not  all users possess the editing  skills to  compile and publish the periodical, but out there are certainly  some with  a flair for  prose and reporting. There are ways of creating  more awareness of the newspaper, such  as watchlist  notices or even incorporating it in welcome templates, but  there are also  many  possible other suggestions for  solutions. They just need to  be made.

''Kudpung has been a Wikipedia contributor since 2006 and an administrator since 2011. His focus is on policy changes concerning deletions/notability, RfA, and the improvement of the new page patrolling and AfC processes. The views expressed in this article are his alone and do not reflect any official opinions of this publication.''