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 <itzik(a)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.
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