Thank you for letting us know, Itzik; I am so sorry to hear this news. Deror and I worked on many Wikimanias together, as planners and as members of the steering committee, but we spent perhaps the most time together on the program for Wikimania 2017. For that conference, Deror put the hundreds of submissions we got into wikitables by hand, reviewing and scoring them all. We had gotten a lot more submissions than we expected, and so we spent a lot of time talking about how many of the talks we could accept. Why not just hire more rooms at the venue? Deror would say. He always wanted to take as many as we could.
In this way and in so many other ways, Deror was a maximalist. He wanted to know all he could, see everything he could, and share everything he possibly could with others. When he took me on a tour of Haifa and Jerusalem, I came away sharing some of the profound wonder and love he had for these places. When we met up elsewhere in the world for Wikimania, going on other people's tours was always at the top of the list for Deror -- he wanted to learn about the home turf of other Wikipedians as much as he wanted to share his own. He also shared his photos, his belief in editing Wikipedia, and his profound desire to bring people together at events and trainings. A Wikipedian with many, many thousands of edits, he always said he was bad at computers. But this never seemed to discourage him much. Funny, enthusiastic, argumentative, joyous Deror: your curiosity and desire to learn things knew no bounds. I'm lucky to have known you, Wikimedia was lucky to have you, and you will be very missed. Condolences to his family, and to his many friends. We will remember you with love and the hope of carrying on your commitment to open knowledge and spirit of adventure in the world. -- Phoebe On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 6:59 AM itzik Edri <it...@wikimedia.org.il> wrote: > Dear friends, > > I'm sorry to update that our friend and colleague Deror Lin > (user:Deror_Avi) passed away this morning. > > Deror was a truly Wikimedian in blood who poured his heart and soul into > the movement in many ways, even in his final days. He joined Wikipedia in > 2004 and was one of the founders of Wikimedia Israel. For over 16 years, he > served as an active board member. > > He was the driving force behind Wikimania 2011 in Haifa and a key member > of the Wikimania committee ever since. He led countless programs and > projects, both locally and internationally, including conferences, WLM > competitions, educational programs, photo and editing contests, and many > others. > > More than that, he wrote over 8,600 articles on HEWP (comprising more than > 2% of it!), making him the number one article writer in HEWP, alongside > more than 37,000 contributions to Commons. > > For his huge contribution and love for the movement, he was honored last > year as the Wikipedia Laureate of 2022. > > Deror, you were not just a colleague but a true friend. We worked together > on many projects, events, and initiatives over the years. No matter the > situation, you always had a smile and shining eyes with your love for > Wikipedia. > > *On behalf of Wikimedia Israel, I extend our deepest condolences to > Deror's family and friends. You will always be remembered, Deror.* > *ברוך דיין האמת. Baruch dayan ha-emet* > > > Itzik. > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/WUMCWUVMGMHWYPA7KZQEG6F7QBBWIMNH/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org -- * I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers <at> gmail.com *
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