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 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. Except for a short period in which we permitted self-registration, we have had no vandalism.
2. We have editors who are experts in their fields. They work shoulder-to-shoulder with everybody else on the wiki, but have some extra responsibilities.
3. We have a method for approving articles, and it depends on the judgment of experts.
4. Our article policies differ. Our aim is to craft compelling introductory narratives, not mere collections of data, and we use a different neutrality policy. We take a more sensible approach to citing sources. The editors 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 We do not cite sources to settle internal disputes, or to "prove" a point to contributors.
5. Attached to every article is a set of "subpages" of supplementary information. These will include not only lists of related articles, bibliographies, and external articles, but also galleries, tables, timelines, tutorials, and signed introductory articles by experts.
6. Our community and contributors are different. (we encourage you to get a contributor account.
7. We use our own names and identities. We require people to sign in, to use their 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. Our user pages are biographies, not vanity pages. We don't use "userboxes".
8. We are a community defined by shared principles expressed in our CZ:Charter. We expect professional behavior and have low tolerance for disruption. Our Constabulary has some firm rules that require professionalism. We have rules against personal attacks, and blatant violations of the neutrality policy. We enforce them by warnings (in most cases) followed by bans, which can be rescinded only through appeal or application for reinstatement.
9. 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.
10. 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. Constables oversee behavior and adherence to basic policies; editors oversee content. 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.
11. Policy decisions are made by representatives and plebiscites. The Citizendium community settles policies by discussion and (where necessary) vote of the Editorial Council. The Managing Editor is a limited-term position, not a "dictator for life."
12. Works on Citizendium use the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC-by-sa) license.
13. We take defamation seriously. This is why we have a Policy on Topic Informants and a Topic Informant Workgroup.
14. We talk about maintainability (or feasibility), not notability. We have a Maintainability policy.
15. We don't use categories, and we don't overuse templates.
16. We will never have nearly as many articles about porn stars and sexual fetishes. We aim to be family-friendly.
17. 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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