User:Oltrepier/New Signpost column

Hello! It's me, Oltrepier. This page is meant to describe and start a discussion about a hypothetical new Signpost column (or series, depending on which format would be the most suitable) dedicated to Gen Z Wikipedians/Wikimedians around the world, their view on Wikimedia projects and their constant efforts to make them survive and thrive.

I'm going to start a few threads on the talk page, so you can leave your feedback or constructive criticism on this idea, as well as its potential structure and schedule. At the bottom of this page, there's also a section where you can suggest notable users who could (also hypothetically) feature in the project. Thanks in advance to everybody who will join in and throw in their suggestions!

Inspiration and major goals

So, I've first come up with this idea after reading Stephen Harrison's recent article for The Guardian - which we would then cover on the Signpost itself - where he stated that Gen Z might just be able to save Wikipedia from its "existential crisis", which involves the emergence of AI applications and large language models, as well as various "tired old practices" that have prevented more young users to get invested in the platform and other Wikimedia projects.

Not that Wikipedia is No Country for Young People, quite the opposite in fact: as pointed out by Harrison, a 2022 survey reported that about 20% of Wikipedia editors were between the ages of 18 and 24. What's more, Nadzik has recently shared that over half of all participants at Wikimania 2024 were under the age of 35: among them, there was also our beloved Wikimedian of this Year, and a Zoomer herself, Clovermoss. Interviewed by Harrison, she said that, while she and other peers already prioritize chat platforms over talk pages when it comes to general conversation, creating more spaces for social interaction on-wiki would help young editors feel more like a part of the community and know that their efforts are seen and appreciated.

Now, given these inputs and the example already provided by projects such as Clovermoss' Editor reflections, I think the Signpost could play a significant role in shifting the perspective further, by dedicating a regular column (or series, depending on which format would be the most suitable) to interviews with notable young members of the international community, so they can have an additional platform to introduce themselves and share the reasons why they decided to get involved in the first place, as well as their hopes for the future of Wikimedia projects. This might also be a good opportunity for our newspaper to shift its main focus away from the English Wikipedia a little more, and make people from different parts of the world come together, in the spirit of Wikimania itself.

Key questions and feedback

Obviously, it would take a lot of work and planning to turn this very basic idea into something way better structured. Therefore, I'd hugely appreciate your feedback on several key aspects; feel free to address anything else that needs to be discussed!

Brand new column or "embedded" series?

Indeed, this is not an easy decision to make: I'm well aware of the existence of the Interview column, which has been used quite sporadically as of late, and so might be an useful container for regular installments of this series, at least in the first phases. However, I'm afraid we might take space and, as a result, attention away from other similarly interesting conversations that might happen in the next future (although the WikiProject report column has partially solved this problem). For this reason, I'm open to create a whole new column to host the series, even if it might just be temporary.

How often do we want to publish it?

Let's make a premise: since next year would mark the Signpost's tenth anniversary, it would make sense to start this series in January, so we have enough time to make sure everything's ready.

That being said, I think we could go with one interview per month: it looks like a fine compromise to me, since this kind of meet-ups can be pretty hard to even arrange...

Who will conduct the interviews?

As much as I'd love to take care of the interviews, I definitely don't have enough energy, nor enough expertise to do that on my own. Maybe, we could have rotating hosts, or different hosts for each interview, although the latter idea might seem a utopia...

How should we contact interviewees?

Realistically, we can approach interviewees by sending an e-mail first (should we manage to find the right address), and then conduct the interview via more mails, or even on a video-call, depending on the will and time to do that by both sides.

What would we like to know from interviewees?

First things first: asking the interviewee to introduce themselves, while describing why they've joined Wikimedia projects in the first place and what they do on the platform, could never be wrong.

Then, they could elaborate on their biggest accomplishments on Wikipedia or other projects, and finally, express one last thought on the strengths of this platform and how its future looks like to them.

This would make for a pretty short and sweet interview, but feel free to suggest more interesting questions we should include!

Feedback

That's all for now! Obviously, this is quite a rough and under-developed idea at the moment, but I'll create a couple of threads for general discussion and specific questions in the Talk page, so you can chip in with your suggestions and criticism.

You can also "nominate" users you would like to see feature on this series in the section down below. I hope you enjoy this!

P.S. I can't think about a single good title for the series, but if you have one (or more), I'd highly appreciate it!