687:. We are approaching 6 million articles. The vast majority of things that people like and find fun already have articles. Articles that don't exist tend to be on topics that are obscure or "boring" or very scholarly subjects. The low hanging delicious fruit is gone! The work in improving existing articles tend to be grind work like adding references or copy editing; these activities are more demanding exercises requiring more Knowledge (XXG) experience than casual site visitors have. No matter what we would have done, a decline would have occurred eventually. We just should have planned for it better. And this decline was foreseeable: unending sustained growth is impossible. Yet, as with so many businesses and now Knowledge (XXG), we made the critical error of assuming growth will occur forever. This was dumb. We should have planned for an eventual steady equilibrium that maintains what we have while slowing improving the overall encyclopedia. Just too bad it's hard to raise money with such a prosaic yet practical and realistic pitch.
697:. The deletionism that accompanied that alienated many editors and they never returned because they felt like they had wasted their time. Further the new tools that helped revert edits ended up making the experience for first time editors less friendly and gave them bad first impressions. This, in turn, gave rise to a myth that editing Knowledge (XXG) is a waste of time because "elite" editors will just revert your changes. For the most part, I think we did the right thing in 2006 and it helped build a better encyclopedia. Regardless, whether the change was good/bad, it was done in good faith with the hopes of improving the encyclopedia. Nobody is to blame for this.
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707:. Knowledge (XXG) does have gender imbalances but I believe that the Wikimedia Foundation's former executive director Sue Gardner handled this very poorly and her approach was detrimental to the project and we are still feeling the repercussions. She tried to solve this problem very publicly by issuing WMF statements and talking about it in various conferences or in the media. Similar to the Streisand effect, there's the so-called
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More of a missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle than a bung for a hole in the sinking ship that the periodical once was, we are now looking for a permanent Editor-in-Chief to fill a vacant slot in the editorial team. Start 31 August or sooner. Candidates should expect to work in excess of their contracted
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dwindled from being weekly, then fortnightly, then monthly, to nothing at all until we somehow roped it together again. There is a lack of motivation in every corner of
Knowledge (XXG) right now (and that's enough for an article itself), and people have left the editorial team for many reasons – some
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There's an ongoing – and forgive me for using the word – narrative of
Knowledge (XXG) going through a slow but steady decline (just see the WikiProject Report in the last issue, where this general decline is taken for granted). This would be a longer thing, maybe even a series, but that's probably
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Not 'our' but the WMF, but try convincing them. With vast surpluses of funds, they appear to spend their development time on helpful but non essential convenience gadgets rather than a proper welcome/splash page that we have been begging for, and a far more modern skin to the
Knowledge (XXG). One
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critical of what we all work for (there are plenty of
Knowledge (XXG) hate sites doing that, and sadly authored by some of our regular editors), it is an opportunity to make a broader audience, including the world's established media, aware of the things that Knowledge (XXG)
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because we are not going to experience a sudden surge of new interest that brings back the glory days of
Knowledge (XXG). Our strategy should be to provide the best tools to editors to build the encyclopedia and provide support that causes self-motivation to edit.
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berths in home port, a re-sysoping warns admins to think again before handing in their tools, and some older advice from a well-known admin warns editors to think again before launching a RfC. A reprint of an essay from another well-known admin and former
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A good monthly beats a bad weekly which beats a bad "allegedly weekly but actually produced irregularly." There might also be a case to be made for semi-monthly frequency. Thanks for all the work on this issue everyone who was involved, looks good.
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Three months ago, I never saw myself in the shoes of E-in-C. I just missed the paper very much, and if anyone had suggested it to me, it would have been the last thing I would have thought of doing. I just jumped into the breach. However, it
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going to be fatter. It will have accumulated everything that would previously have been dished out as hotter weekly news, and it must have an interest level beyond simply being a (fairly) dry report on what's going on. But it needs writers.
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time-consuming and it also comes with a certain level of responsibility (not to be confused with 'competence') which not everyone would be entirely happy about having to shoulder. Notwithstanding, having been a teacher of
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While nevertheless avoiding being too critical of what we all work for... it is an opportunity to make a broader audience, including the world's established media, aware of the things that
Knowledge (XXG) is not
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Who are these corporate owners? Knowledge (XXG) is operated by the WMF, which is a non-profit organization. Does
Knowledge (XXG) have corporate owners? If not, please explain a bit about what is meant instead.--
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Surely there must be journalistic courses requiring intern placements - maybe nobody knows about the signpost out of the dwellers of the WP underground? thank you again to all signpost contributors/curators!
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Um, ps. Do we use bullet points to start each comment? Lee, I fixed it so that your paragraphs are now on the same level, and then bumped mine up a notch to match. Thanks! —
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frees us – and the
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is still very much in a kind of limbo with at least two 'new' editorial staff retired already. There have recently been a lot of very good suggestions for
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until I found my way to
Disabled Student Services through this method! It only took me three groups at my college before I went there, and wow! They
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Sorry for the long comment. This are each big issues and would require much more to fully elaborate my ideas. The most important point I make is
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I always check the signpost for a flavour of what is going on as a first stop on my visit to WP, everyone has done a amazing job over the years!
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Our strategy should be to provide the best tools to editors to build the encyclopedia and provide support that causes self-motivation to edit.
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With this therefore being our third issue with me (kind of) at the helm, if only temporarily, I believe we need to understand the reasons why
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for the first time after having seen the recently implemented watchlist notice. Many more silent readers were probably drawn by it as well.
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not here to help me with X, but could you tell me somewhere I can get closer to finding someone who can?" Hey, I didn't even know I was
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There is however a self-inflicted wound on our site that I do feel is deserves some finger pointing. This involves
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And use my favorite, me-created method of finding the help I need when all seems lost and so do I: "I know
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There were several suggestions that it should take the shape of a monthly news magazine. A monthly issue
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30 hours per month for no additional remuneration. Salary $ 00.00 commensurate with age and experience.
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Keep The
Signpost, even with reduced frequency as a monthly or, if necessary, quarterly publication.--
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something we should do anyway, now that we've pivoted to a magazine instead of a weekly newspaper.
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639:, so I hope something I said was helpful. I'll be thinking about you guys! Go Team US GUYS! —
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I just peeked at your userboxen, and maybe half tongue in cheek: 10,000 hours editing
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suggests quite bluntly that if you don't like it at Knowledge (XXG), please leave.
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Will there be another crew willing to sweep the deck (note supervisor at right)?
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Come on people! It is a lot of fun and we will help you! Not Editor-in-chief,
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As always, if only we had more ideas and submissions from our readers at our
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and what is required from its corporate owners to do something about it.
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If only if: Ships and shoes – and if you don't like it here, just go away!
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and what is required from its corporate owners to do something about it.
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There are several important aspects to the "decline" in Knowledge (XXG).
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the U.S. work year is 2,087 hours so five years is about 10,000 hours
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That said, there were several events that harmed the site. One was
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the tightening of policy and enforcement of content in 2006/2007
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Ships and shoes – and if you don't like it here, just go away!
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Buuut this is probably all the help I can give due to my
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Any requirements you have for being editor in chief? --
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which generally repeat Pete's pleas for involvement.
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our handling of gender imbalances on Knowledge (XXG)
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220:legitimate, some simply from disinterest.
885:Knowledge (XXG) Signpost archives 2018-07
829:Make sure we cover what matters to you –
808:in a dictionary, then you'll understand.
18:Knowledge (XXG):Knowledge (XXG) Signpost
515:English! We'd love to see newcomers in
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