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Submission desk
Please propose Signpost stories you want to write (or have already begun writing). Submitted stories are published subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, JPxG. We value the involvement of Wikipedians, and appreciate your submissions. If you have ideas or questions that don't fit neatly into this framework, don't hesitate to address us on our user talk pages, by email, or as a last resort, on the general Signpost talk page.
The Signpost's content guidelines may be useful to aspiring writers. We encourage you to contact us early in the process of developing a story. Different writers have varying levels of interest in editorial input, and we pride ourselves on finding the right balance with each writer; but in most cases, a brief discussion early on can help all parties shape our expectations, and can help produce a strong finished piece. We aim to support Wikimedians wishing to share news with their peers, and look forward to working with you.
On the perils of believing everything you read online. This is partially inspired by the Stephen ColbertWikiality bit and also a short story by B. J. Novak. Written with quite a bit of assistance from ChatGPT.
Humour is hard! This is a much better first try than the large majority that I've seen. Different people have different senses of humour than others, so I'll encourage others to join in and give their opinions, but I'll suggest that it should be rejected and you should be encouraged to try again. Some aspects of my opinion. Wikiality is a 20 year old concept - I doubt that even Colbert thinks it is relevant now. Also using the real name Jimmy Wales is problematic, using a different name - even if everybody will recognize it as J.W. avoids most of these problems. The problems? Jimmy would never do and think what you have him doing and thinking. He might rightly be offended. Colbert wouldn't have as many problems - he's an entertainer and people realize that what he does on the screen isn't the real him. But he should actually say something funny! Also using ChatGBT, IMHO, should be avoided. But that's just quibbling - pick a different topic and send us your next try. Sincerely, Smallbones(smalltalk)20:52, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
Discussion: This piece is about the Wednesday Index, which has used PAC’s Wikidata tool to measure the gender diversity in the biographies linked from a set of 26 English Misplaced Pages pages — from ‘Reality’ to ‘Universe’, ‘Science’ to ‘Justice’ —for the past two years to get a sense for both the extent of citation bias on Misplaced Pages and how quickly it changes. In addition to data visualizations and discussion, the piece links to related research and the two previous posts about the Index. After I published this piece on Medium, I was referred to the Signpost, as it has a large audience in the Misplaced Pages community. I read the submission guidelines and understand that you prefer to work with writers earlier in the writing process, but I wanted to touch base to see if there was a place for the work in your publication. OpenSexism (talk) 21:41, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
Discussion: I'm, uh not an WP Signpost writer nor editor, but I'm interested to make an Misplaced Pages crossword, which will have relevant information from the articles I have come across. This will also have Misplaced Pages terms, obviously, and words that are related to intresting information.Spongebob796 (talk) 02:03, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
Discussion: I'm playing with the idea of putting together a WikiProject report with a slight spin on the usual format. Instead of interviewing participants from a single project, I'd like to get a representative each from some of the most successful WikiProjects (I'm thinking WP:WOMRED, WP:MILHIST, WP:MED – suggestions welcome) to discuss how you grow and maintain activity in a project over the long term.
I've nothing concrete yet. Before starting anything, I wanted to check whether that format deviation would be okay, and make sure I'm not stepping on any toes – I'm not sure if there's a designated subeditor for the WikiProject reports column? – Joe (talk) 09:26, 6 July 2024 (UTC)
@Joe Roe: Go for it! While we tend to follow precedent here, we also follow WP:Bold a bit more that other areas in Misplaced Pages. One Signpost article isn't going to break anything. Smallbones(smalltalk)18:25, 6 July 2024 (UTC)
Among all of these, d:Wikidata:WikiProject Video games is the only one to have major participation and organization in Wikidata. Medicine, LGBT+, and math get a lot of data administrative questions without major content creation, and for military and women in red it is the reverse with a lot of Wikidata content creation but less administrative development. Bluerasberry (talk)16:01, 17 July 2024 (UTC)
Highlights from the fiscal year 2023-2024 Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Endowment audit reports
Discussion: This piece will present comprehensive highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Endowment audit reports for fiscal year 2023-2024 to give insight into how funds were raised and used during this timeframe. ELappen (WMF) (talk) 17:27, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
It looks like this is basically identical to this recent Diff post, something that should be disclosed both as part of a submission and in the version published here. Basically every publication that solicits submissions will want to know whether they are getting original content or a syndication of something previously published elsewhere. I would think that most communications professionals know this, but perhaps it is worth clarifying it in this page's header (which currently already strongly hints that republication of finished pieces from elsewhere is not the norm, e.g. We encourage you to contact us early in the process of developing a story etc).
I'm still curious how the "News from the WMF" slot transformed from something for which the Signpost's editorial team would independently select a post from the WMF's Diff blog for republication to something that the WMF apparently sees as their prerogative to fill proactively. Having said that, the current submission does cover an important topic, and given that the Signpost's independent coverage of these audit reports by User:Jayen466 has often been highly negative, I totally understand the desire to get ahead of it this time.
Thank you for the ping, HaeB. I don't think I have any concerns at the moment: we finally have public, audited accounts for the Endowment, and all the fundraising banners I have read this year seemed on the right side of the red line. (The emails are still a bit pushy, but then that is a slightly different audience.) So as things stand right now, I don't see a reason for writing a critical piece. The 990 forms next May might be more deserving of a standalone piece by the Signpost team. Regards, AndreasJN46618:12, 17 November 2024 (UTC)
Are Misplaced Pages articles representative of Western or world knowledge?
Discussion: An essay on how to measure imbalances between mentions of people from Europe and North America and people from the rest of the world in Misplaced Pages articles. PAC2 (talk) 04:30, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
Discussion: This is my first opinion here on The SignPost, I wrote this to express my feelings how they are recognizable now, this includes on being number 1 most popular Misplaced Pages article in Filipino musicians in 2024. I added who they are, how they formed, the rising of girl group, controversy and my final thoughts or my "real" commentary. RoyiswariiiTalk!05:24, 27 December 2024 (UTC)
Note from editor(s)-in-chief
Next edition: March 13, 2017
@PeteForsyth: Just wanted to quickly check as usual whether this is still the current best estimate - for RR, we (i.e. Masssly) are going to send invitations for RR to potential contributors soon, and it would be useful to be able to include the current ETA. Thanks! Regards, Tbayer (WMF) (talk) 18:34, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
No response here or elsewhere - it appears that Peteforsyth has been incommunicado for several weeks now. Pete, in case you're reading this, I hope you're well! If a real-life situation is preventing you from publishing this issue for the foreseeable future (which can of course happen - we know it's volunteer work!), it would be highly useful to at least let people know here. Regards, Tbayer (WMF) (talk) 03:14, 2 April 2017 (UTC)
I understand Pete is well but extremely busy with non-wikipedia projects at the moment, I'll see if I can get a message to him for an update.--Milowent • 13:40, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
Armbrust, it looks like no one is volunteering. Is anyone even around that knows how to publish the signpost? It all seems far too complex to the average observer (including me), whereas in 2005 it was a much simpler product.--Milowent • 13:16, 18 April 2017 (UTC)
@Milowent: I'm sure someone could figure it out by following Pete's contribs from the sending of the last newsletter, but is there an issue that's actually written and assembled ready to go? Sam Walton (talk) 13:17, 18 April 2017 (UTC)
@Milowent, Sam Walton, and The Herald: I would be happy to talk anyone through how to publish it. (It's a bit time-consuming, so note that I literally mean talking, as in Skype or Google Hangouts, because it would take far less time than (say) typing on IRC.) Ed02:50, 19 April 2017 (UTC) (Updated to reflect the realities of limited free time. 04:56, 22 April 2017 (UTC))
Misplaced Pages is not dying! Is it possible the Signpost is dying? Yes, though I suspect it or some successor will continue in some form. What was needed for editors in 2005 or 2010 may not be what is needed or wanted in 2017. I really don't have the interest or time to take on a role beyond my niche roles. If someone wants to step up, they just need to take the bull by the horns, that has always been a refreshing thing about Misplaced Pages!--Milowent • 14:12, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
We over-organized it to death, I think... ;-) We can resurrect it, but we have gone through how many EICs in the last 12 months? Are there old staffers still active on WP who could be convinced to come back? Montanabw22:51, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
Hello. The paper has been down since February. I am not aware of anyone having plans to do anything in response to this. I would call this a crisis. The Wikimedia community needs news now both because of the general news backlog and this week to get out a notice to vote in the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees election. I cannot be an editor for The Signpost, but editor is a fun job and perhaps others would step up to do that. A tedious aside to being editor is "publisher", or the performance of the technical process of making the issue go live.
Very soon, maybe tomorrow, I am going to give a go at grabbing whatever content has been submitted recently and publishing it. This will be publication without an editor. I do not want things this way and I know many others do not also, but as of now this is a crisis situation and to go forward we have to try anything plausible.
Please excuse me for asking for your attention, when I have no idea what I am doing and might not be able to even go through with publishing. I am giving this a go.
Please support me in trying to put an issue out in this unorthodox way, as a publisher without an editor. We need ideas and experiments and this is what I have to offer at this time.
Please help me minimize controversy. Because we do not have an editor, we are not in a position to defend from criticism, so as a short term goal please do whatever you can to keep the paper stable and the newsroom positive for anyone who comes here.
If anyone wants to play editor, provide links to text content which is ready for publication. I have no capacity to edit anything, and plan to only grab and publish whatever seems ready to go.
As usual, we are preparing this month's survey on recent academic research about Misplaced Pages, doubling as the Wikimedia Research Newsletter (now in its seventh volume). Help is welcome to review and/or summarize the many interesting items listed here, as are suggestions of other new research papers that haven't been covered yet. Regards, Tbayer (WMF) (talk) 18:30, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
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