Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 22:50, 22 February 2005

Contributors welcome

If you're interested in writing about community news for The Misplaced Pages Signpost, please contact me (on my talk page or via email, however you prefer) so we can coordinate our efforts. As editor, I would at the very least need to have an idea of what topic(s) you're covering. If you use the wiki to write drafts of a news story, please do this in your user space. --Michael Snow 09:29, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)

What about Goings-on?

Will this duplicate what Misplaced Pages:Goings-on is supposed to do? Is there a need to have both? Angela. 19:40, Jan 10, 2005 (UTC)

It probably does occupy much the same arena, but it's rather a different approach, particularly in providing prose instead of just links. Goings-on has increasingly deteriorated from the initial efforts, which were decently useful. Nowadays I think the people who still follow it must be disappointed with how little is there when they check. Anyway, I felt the concept needed to be reinvented rather than repaired.

I don't think both are needed, but I wasn't going to try to absorb Goings-on without establishing that this format is useful to people. If nobody objects, I suppose it can be redirected here instead after a little while. --Michael Snow 20:45, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I agree, but the advantage of goings-on is that it is just one page. Will people still be able to get a sense of what is going on from just reading the headlines here? Perhaps that needs to be kept in mind when choosing the headlines so people who don't want to click the links can still remain reasonably informed. Angela. 03:35, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

If I have more time, in future issues I might try to put brief summaries below the headlines to improve that. I think the objective is to give enough information for people to figure out whether they want to know more, not to give so much information that there's nothing to be gained by following the link. Getting everything on one page is a hopeless proposition here. --Michael Snow 04:14, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Goings on has been slowing down a bit. Once the signpost is established, most of the content of goings-on could be made into a column, a sort of police blotter with the new admins and such. If that was to be done, there would have to be a formal spot for ongoing contributions, not individual's user spaces as you mention above. —Ben Brockert (42) 01:05, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

For smaller bits of information, rather than people working on drafts of articles, it would probably make sense to set up a place where people just leave a note about some particular news item, like new admins. Then the reporters can work it into articles for publication. How about Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/pending? --Michael Snow 03:03, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Ironically, I only found out about the Signpost from the Goings-on article :) --Lucky13pjn 04:03, Jan 15, 2005 (UTC)

As did I. Perhaps goings-on would be best refactored as a summary of the Signpost, with or without the blotter. —Ben Brockert (42) 05:22, Jan 15, 2005 (UTC)

I don't think this reflects that Goings-on provides any significant usefulness that can't be handled between the Signpost and the Announcements page. And of course people found out about the Signpost there, because they can hardly have developed a habit of going to the Signpost for news when it didn't exist yet. I think the response suggests habits will change pretty quickly, but I'm not necessarily trying to kill Goings-on, I just think it makes sense to let it die. --Michael Snow 19:18, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations

Congratulations. A great idea implemented well. Misplaced Pages has got to big to keep up with, without wasting too much time looking. I'd be interested in writing the occasional article. :ChrisG 20:13, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations from me as well. I expect to be an avid reader.-gadfium 21:23, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)

My congratulations too -- I really enjoy this, and look forward to seeing it develop. I'll keep my eyes open for things I can contribute. Catherine\ 07:37, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations from me too. I look forward to contributing sometimes. Are we to go all the way with a gossip column, small ads and a letters page??? Apwoolrich 08:33, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Want to make Misplaced Pages wealthy? Start this: Wikipersonals, and charge $4.99 to be listed. Blair P. Houghton 21:15, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Let me add to the chorus; I enjoyed reading this, and it was very well done. Jayjg | (Talk) 21:45, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

This is cool :) Dan100 00:12, Jan 12, 2005 (UTC)

Yes very useful, well done. Paul August ☎ 19:26, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

Images

I think the images would look better in an antialiased form, rather than one bit representations they are now. —Ben Brockert (42) 01:05, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

They're just thrown together on short notice with Paint and the best font I could come up with that had the suitable Gothic-typeface newspaper-masthead feel to it. I would be grateful to anyone who has the capability to improve them. --Michael Snow 03:03, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Blankfaze made a new one, which looks good to me. Now, if he'll do Image:Signpost_vertical.gif... —Ben Brockert (42) 22:26, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

Done, Image:Signpost vertical.png, There's also Image:Signpost-vertical.png as transparent, but it looks weird with the Monobook skin because of the way section title lines are rendered :/ iMeowbot~Mw 00:19, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Good job! BLANKFAZE | (что??) 05:47, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Remarks

Hello. I think such a newspaper on Misplaced Pages is very usefull (mostly for those who don't stick everyday on it but want to stay in touch with the project). I don't know how you will handle archives but it could be interesting to keep old articles somewhere. I would say that, for each link on articles in the main page, one should be able to know a little more on the article : when was it written and what it the real topic. Don't forget that wp is read by a worldwide audience and your English must be "simple" (I know, "simple" prose is harder to write, takes more time, but it worth the effort : it is often the way to write beautiful prose, here I don't criticise those clear and precise article bodies, but their headers, cause I had to follow links to ensure I understood the topic). One more : I often use the "status bar" to check what is linking to what, so I would like the articles' filenames not to be obscure acronyms. I guess a date of publication plus a keyword or two could be better. Anyway, nice idea and nice work. I'm often completely lost in what is "going-on" in wp, what are the major changes and events. Here, I will find this info. gbog 05:15, 2005 Jan 11 (UTC)

Excellent work, Michael

When I saw the announcement of this project I was slightly sceptical that there was a niche for it. The depth and quality of your writing proved me completely wrong. I really like it (and not just because you chose to quote me in one of the articles :). Minor suggestions only-

When coming up with ideas of how best to integrate (if at all) goings-on and the signpost, please also consider the future of Misplaced Pages:Announcements which itself has died off since goings-on got started.

For maintenance purposes consider using a subpage of form SignPost/Issue Number X/Article title rather than the current SignPost/Article title.

Pcb21| Pete 12:21, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I've thought about what role the Announcements page might have as well. Brockert above mentioned the issue of ongoing things like new admins, which currently is hosted at Goings-on. I'm wondering if that kind of material (i.e. terse administrative announcements that don't really have a news story behind them) might be moved back to Announcements, while the Signpost takes over the news-report functionality from Goings-on, which could then be retired from service.

A proper scheme for organizing and naming the subpages has yet to be determined, but I do anticipate archiving by each issue, possibly in a manner similar to your suggestion. --Michael Snow 20:06, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Agree totally with Pcb21. I also was sceptical at first, but now I think it is great! Well Done! -- Chris 73 Talk 04:29, Jan 25, 2005 (UTC)

"News update" approach

Hi, thank you for initiating this valuable project.

Regarding the formt, I think it might be easier to maintain the page if you

• date all the headlines,
• list them chronologically, and
• give each item some key words or categories - "technical," "dispute resolution," "policies and guidelines," etc.

That would way, you do not have to think hard about which story to keep/remove, etc. ja:Misplaced Pages:大使館(now retired) and ja:Misplaced Pages:ウィキメディアニュース are basically organized in that way (though not using any subpage because reports are shorter).

Tomos 08:15, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

In terms of the date, it's on the page itself below the logo, in the right-hand margin. The same date applies to all headlines, and the stories themselves are dated in the bylines, so chronology is less of an issue. Granted, the news items themselves happen at different times, but some happen over the course of days, so I'm not going to try and organize by which came first. Stories will be rotated by moving all of the current stories to an archive when a new issue is published. --Michael Snow 17:05, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Interlingual matters

I have been reporting news from meta, mailinglists, other projects, and IRC for Japanese Misplaced Pages for a long time. I might bring some of the news stories to here when it is also relevant to English Misplaced Pages community.

I would also perhaps report what's reported here to Japanese Misplaced Pages, because I certainly see some are of interests of Japanese Wikipedians.

I also recall that German Misplaced Pages has its own community paper with some humor bent.

Tomos 08:15, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

archive of older issues

It would be nice to have a direct link to older issues on the article-page. It is possible to use the history of course, but that's not very comfortable. --Adornix 12:57, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I've now organized the last issue into an archive at Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/Archives and linked it on the page. Sorry about the delay, my immediate priority was getting the new issue up, and the technical problems haven't been making this project terribly easy. --Michael Snow 20:08, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Comments

Do you want article-specific comments on their respective talk pages, on an issue-specific talk page, or here? —Ben Brockert (42) 04:07, Jan 25, 2005 (UTC)

On their talk pages is great, I do watch the articles for the week until they get archived. This page can be for discussion about the newspaper in general. --Michael Snow 07:11, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Signpost Found

I stumbled onto Signpost today (I must have missed the memo) and how very nice it is. For the casual user (vs Wikiholic) it provides concise info about goings-on that "Goings-On" lacked. I feel more like an "insider" without having to expend my energy/time for example on arbitration pages. I like your NPOV editorial style - it reads very much like a newspaper. Well done and thank you. hydnjo talk 23:41, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks also from me. After being away for a few weeks, it was the easiest way to catch up on WikiHappenings, and it's very well written. Cheers! — Matt Crypto 14:17, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

What they said. Thanks. –Hajor 14:39, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Volumes?

So far, we are at volume I issue V. How large will the volumes be, out of curiosity (OK yes, I am really bored ATM) - Lucky13pjn 04:24, Feb 13, 2005 (UTC)

• Presumably the volume will change with the year. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 04:38, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

wow

Michael I just want to say that your neutral writing is excellent. --Alterego 17:40, Feb 14, 2005 (UTC)

Productivity

I imagine productivity will go up with the Signpost now in service. People won't be wasting time catching up on Misplaced Pages events which are scattered and uncoordinated... the signpost is quite the apt title since it directs people to current WP events. - RoyBoy 22:48, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

If it helps people spend more time working on the encyclopedia, that's great. I know that already people find it useful as a way to catch up on things quickly when coming back from a holiday, and people who have reduced their activity, but remain interested in the project, use it as a way to follow community events from outside. --Michael Snow 23:06, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

WP:WSP ?

I think the Signpost is eminently important. Can it get a Shortcut? I think WP:WSP or WP:WPSP or even WP:WISP (I prefer the first one) would be appropriate, since WP:SP is already taken. Is there a special rule/procedere for shortcuts or can I just make one? Anyone opposing? --_wnr 21:03, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

How about WP:SIGN? nine thirty-five 22:50, 22 Feb 2005 (UTC)