CZ:We aren't Wikipedia

How is the Citizendium similar to Wikipedia?

1. We aim to create a giant free general encyclopedia.
2. We're managed by a nonprofit (the Citizendium Foundation, a project of the Tides Center).
3. We use MediaWiki software.
4. We use wiki methods of strong collaboration. We don't sign articles or even have lead authors; we encourage everybody to "be bold".
5. No credentials are needed to participate (as an author).
6. We rely on "soft security" to a great extent. We mostly trust people and solve what few behavioral problems arise.
7. We are committed to a neutral, unbiased presentation of information.
8. We have similar naming conventions, and some other style guidelines in common.
9. Some our articles originally came from Wikipedia.
10. The community and project has been organized by one of the persons who originally organized Wikipedia, Larry Sanger.

How do we differ?

1. We have editors. They are experts in their fields. They work shoulder-to-shoulder with everybody else on the wiki, but have a few extra responsibilities.
2. We respect them for their expertise. In an encyclopedia project, respect for expertise is just good sense.
3. We have a method for approving articles. Our approval system depends on the judgment of experts.
4. Our community and contributors are different. (If you haven't yet discovered this for yourself, we encourage you to get a contributor account.
   • We have no vandalism. Excluding accounts created during the short period in which we permitted self-registration, we have had zero vandalism—none.
   • We use our own names and identities. We require people to sign in, to use their own real names and to fill out a publicly readable biography. We also go to some lengths to verify identities—and to greater lengths for editors.
   • We expect professional behavior and have very low tolerance for disruption. Our Constabulary has some pretty firm rules that require professionalism. This means that not only do we have rules against personal attacks, blatant violations of the neutrality policy. We enforce our rules by warnings (in most cases) followed by permanent bans, which can be rescinded only through appeal or application for reinstatement.
   • Our Citizens are bound by a social contract. We are a community defined by shared principles expressed in our CZ:Charter.
   • Our user pages are biographies, not vanity pages. We don't use "userboxes".
   • We don't use excessive acronyms. Using a lot of acronyms for every small point of policy creates a sort of in-group that makes the community insular and unintelligible.
5. Our community managers (called "constables" not "administrators") are different.
   • Our constables must have a bachelor's degree and be at least 25 years old.
   • Unlike Wikipedia administrators, constables do not make editorial decisions. We have a "separation of powers." Constables oversee behavior and adherence to basic policies; editors oversee content.
   • Unlike Wikipedia administrators, constables are held to a strict conflict of interest policy. If they have engaged in a dispute or are otherwise at work on an article, they may not exercise constable authority with respect to that article.
6. We are more than just an encyclopedia project. Attached to every article is a set of "subpages," or pages of supplementary reference information. These will include not only lists of related articles, bibliographies, and external articles, but also galleries, tables, timelines, tutorials, and even signed introductory articles by experts.
7. Policy decisions are made by representatives and plebiscites." The Citizendium community will settle policies by discussion and (where necessary) vote of the Editorial Council, the Constabulary, and many editor-led workgroups.
8. The Citizendium editor-in-chief is a limited-term position; he is not "dictator for life."
9. Our license for our own work differs. Works that originate on Citizendium use the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC-by-sa) license.
10. Our article policies differ.
    • Our aim is to craft compelling introductory narratives, not mere collections of data. #*We use an older version of the neutrality policy. Wikipedia has added all sorts of bells and whistles to its original neutrality policy. We've gone back to one of the original versions.
    • We take defamation seriously. This is why we have a Policy on Topic Informants and a Topic Informant Workgroup.
    • We take a more sensible approach to citing sources. The editors we have on board actually create the sort of sources that Wikipedia cites. We do cite sources, of course, but we have a sensible approach to doing so. We cite sources because doing so helps the reader. We do not cite sources in order to settle internal disputes, or to "prove" a point to contributors.
    • We talk about maintainability (or feasibility), not notability. We have a Maintainability policy.
    • We aren't going to use categories.
    • We don't overuse templates.
    • We will never have nearly as many articles about porn stars and sexual fetishes. We aim to be family-friendly.
11. We don't have as many articles. Yet.

See also

• Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians
• How to convert Wikipedia articles to Citizendium articles
• Citizendium Blog post (Feb. 28, 2008): Who's more command-and-control, Wikipedia or CZ?

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