CZ Talk:The Author Role: Difference between revisions

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{{Getting Started}}


Here is an introduction to the ''Citizendium'' author role, written for people who are relatively unfamiliar with wikis and how they work.  But it may be useful for wiki masters, because it also covers the ''Citizendium''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s special take on authorship.
== What, exactly, do ''Citizendium'' authors ''do''? ==
Authors write articles, and other content, of course.  So they are the lifeblood of the project.  But this is not the usual sort of authorship.  They neither ask for assignments from editors, nor do editors give out assignments.  They just work on whatever they want to, whenever they want to--no deadlines, just expository bliss.  This can be an [[:Category:CZ Live|existing article]] or a [[CZ:How to start a new article|brand new one]].
Also, our active authors--usually--are more than just writers.  They act as members of a dynamic, living community, discussing articles, debating policy, and joking around.  (Don't worry; in case you are all business, joking around is not actually mandatory.)  They really are citizens of a real online [[CZ:organization|community]].
Still, authors mostly just write.
== How does collaboration work? ==
A robust wiki is not just collaborative, it's ''strongly'' collaborative.  Articles are unsigned, so new people don't feel they're stepping on the toes of "the author(s)."  (You can still see who has worked on an article, however, in the page history: click the "history" tab.)  Authors can and do take pride in their own work, but individual articles are unowned--or, perhaps, they are owned and managed by the whole community.  Neither an author who has contributed the bulk of an article's content, nor an editor who has responsibility for content decisions, can claim that an article is exclusively ''his'' or ''hers.''  Instead, we all take responsibility, and mostly we negotiate (on [[CZ:Talk Pages|talk pages]]) to a mutually acceptable compromise.
This is astonishing.  Recently, for the first time in history, global groups of people, working in "real time," have been creating content without any single person being solely responsible for it.  Moreover, this content is free forever--so, if it's good enough, people will be inspired to improve it indefinitely.  This is an opportunity to create vast amounts of content that represents the full spectrum of human understanding, in a way both credible and [[CZ:Neutrality Policy|neutral]].  And free!
== Why not just write for Wikipedia? ==
Prospective authors may have reservations that we can address effectively.
One is simple: why not write for Wikipedia instead?  We don't wish to be disrespectful to "that other community," but there are some very good reasons. 
* We have virtually no vandalism, and very few of the "difficult" sorts who are constantly pushing their own idiosyncratic points of view.  Several people, independently, have said that we're "Wikipedia for grown-ups."  That's because we require real names, at least a brief (and accurate) bio, and the contributor's agreement to follow our [[CZ:Fundamentals|Statement of Fundamental Policies]].
* We have a healthy, reasonable respect for expert knowledge.  We make mistakes, of course--they're easy to find in early drafts, which many of our articles are--but you will find relatively few attempts to pass off guesswork and idiosyncratic opinion as expert knowledge.
* A lesser-known reason is that the ''Citizendium'' stands for [[CZ:Article Mechanics|readability and narrative coherence]].  If you're interested in writing articles that people want to read all the way through, this is the place to do it.
But, you ask, what are our prospects?  They are fairly good.  In our wiki's first nine months, we created as many as words as Wikipedia did in its first nine, and our wiki is about as active as Wikipedia was after that amount of time (as ''Citizendium'' Editor-in-Chief and Wikipedia co-founder, [[User:Larry Sanger|Larry Sanger]], recalls).  We have added nearly 3,000 articles and some five million words after about ten months (the first five being a private pilot project).  And we're [[CZ:Subpages|expanding]] into other kinds of reference content in ways Wikipedia has not tried.
In short, we have the better model, and arguably, we are on track to replicate Wikipedia-style growth.  As in Wikipedia's case, this will no doubt take some years.  But we're on our way.
== But why help create a free reference work at all? ==
On this question, see [[CZ:Why Citizendium?|Why Citizendium?]]
== What to do ==
So, what should you ''do'' as an author?
;Write!
:Got an article idea?  '''[[CZ:How to start a new article|Go to work]]!'''  Or look for requested articles in [[CZ:Requested Articles|Requested Articles]].
;Join a workgroup.
:See [[CZ:Workgroups|Workgroups]] in the left-hand column, under "project pages"?  (You might have to scroll up.)  Click on that.  You can add yourself as an author to any workgroup.  If you do, please join the group's mailing list.  Then you can look at the recent changes, look over the offerings so far, and--maybe most importantly--expand our content about basic topics, i.e., the most famous people, the most important events, the most fundamental concepts, etc.
;Monitor project-wide recent changes.
:From any page at all, look to the left, under "project pages," for the "Recent changes" link.  You might need to scroll up to see it.  Click that and explore the links you see.  That will give you an idea of what has been going on on the wiki lately.  Note that you can opt to view up to 500 changes at a time.  This can be great fun: you can help others out and talk about what you're doing, either on the article's [[CZ:Talk Pages|talk page]] or on the person's "user talk" page.  (Go to the person's user page and then hit the "discussion" tab.)
;Look into our latest initiatives.
:We often have some community-wide [[CZ:Initiatives|initiatives]] going on, that you can join.  Please do!
== See also ==
;[[CZ:Home|Home]]
:The jumping-off place for all community pages.  Plus, a bulletin board.
;[[CZ:Getting Started|Getting Started]]
:Everything you need to get started.
;[[CZ:Article Mechanics|Article Mechanics]]
:A guide to mechanics and style.  Must-read for frequent writers.
;[[CZ:Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians|Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians]]
:We do things differently here, but not that differently.
;[[CZ:How to edit an article|How to edit an article]]
:Technical help; how to use MediaWiki.
;[[CZ:How to use talk pages|How to use talk pages]]
:One of the crucial tools of a wiki, where we explain edits and come to agreements.
;[[CZ:The Editor Role|The Editor Role]]
:So, what do those editors do, anyway?

Revision as of 12:02, 13 September 2007

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