CZ:We aren't Wikipedia

How is the Citizendium similar to Wikipedia? In quite a few ways. In enough ways that you might wonder why we've started another project. Consider:

1. We aim to create a giant free general encyclopedia.
2. We're managed by a nonprofit.
3. We use MediaWiki software.
4. We use wiki methods of strong collaboration. We don't sign articles, and we strongly encourage everybody to "be bold" and mix it up.
5. No credentials are needed to participate (as an author).
6. We still rely on "soft security" to a great extent. We mostly trust people and solve what few behavioral problems we've seen as they arise.
7. We are committed to a neutral, unbiased presentation of information.

Quite similar, it seems. But wait!

How do we differ? Let us count the ways.

1. We've got editors. They are experts in their fields. They work shoulder-to-shoulder with everybody else on the wiki, but have a few extra responsibilities that do not make the project any less of a "bazaar."
2. And we respect them for their expertise. We do not dismiss their expertise as the mere accumulation of meaningless "credentials." We do not dismiss ordinary notions of expertise as only so much "credentialism" or "elitism." In an encyclopedia project, respect for expertise is just good sense.
3. We have a method for approving articles. While Wikipedia has a "featured article" system, we have expert-approved articles. Our approval system actually depends on the judgment of actual experts--the very sort of people that Nature might consult to judge the accuracy of Wikipedia articles.
4. We use our own names and identities. Not only do we require people to sign in, we require them to use names that they attest are their own real names and to fill out a publicly-readable biography. We also go to some lengths (without making absolute guarantees) to verify identities--and greater lengths for editors.
5. We expect professional behavior and have very low tolerance for disruption. Our Constabulary has some pretty firm rules which require professionalism. This means that not only do we have rules against personal attacks, blatant violations of the neutrality policy, and so forth, we actually enforce them. We enforce our rules by warnings (in most cases) followed by permanent bans, which can be rescinded only through appeal or application for reinstatement. We do not have "24 hour bans" which do nothing but annoy and antagonize.
6. We have no vandalism. Excluding the short period in which we permitted self-registration, we have had zero vandalism--none.
7. We don't use "userboxes." User pages are biographies, not vanity pages.
8. Our Citizens are bound by a social contract. Wikipedia is open to people who make great sport of flouting its basic principles. By contrast, we are a community defined by shared principles: we require new recruits to agree to our Statement of Fundamental Policies.
9. Our constables are not high school students. They are required to have a bachelor's degree and to be at least 25 years old.
10. 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.
11. Unlike Wikipedia administrators, constables are held to a conflict of interest policy. If they have engaged in a dispute or are otherwise at work on an article, they may not exercise their constable authority with respect to that article.
12. Policy decisions are increasingly made by representatives, not "consensus." The notion of consensus as a way to settle policy became impractical even in Wikipedia's first year. The Citizendium community will settle policies by discussion and (where necessary) vote of the Editorial Council, the Constabulary, and many editor-led workgroups.
13. The Citizendium editor-in-chief is a limited-term position; he is not "dictator for life." Larry Sanger declared, when he first announced the Citizendium in September 2006, that he would leave his position as editor-in-chief within two to three years, in order to set a positive precedent.
14. We don't use zillions of acronyms. The Chief Constable has made this a bannable offense. We're not sure whether she's kidding or not. Using a lot of acronyms for every small point of policy creates a sort in-group cant that makes the community only more insular.
15. To be confirmed: Our license disallows unauthorized commercial use. We are using the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial (CC-by-nc) license for our original articles.
16. Contributors share their copyright with us. Contributors give to the Citizendium Foundation a nonexclusive right to relicense their work. This allows the Citizendium Foundation to be the sole entity that licenses the entire Citizendium corpus.
17. Our article policies differ.
    • We are aiming to create introductory narratives, not collections of data. We are encouraging our contributors to create coherent, readable, extended narratives that actually do the job of introducing a topic to people who need an introduction to the topic. We are actively discouraging articles that take the form of mere disconnected summaries of subtopics, or other "modular" collections of data that could easily be reshuffled and reorganized. Such "articles" are dull and not likely to be read all the way through.
    • 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. And we don't use "NPOV" and "POV"; we use the old-fashioned English words "neutral" and "biased." And we actually take the neutrality policy seriously; for many Wikipedia articles, the policy seems to be on hold.
    • Since we've got experts on board, we don't make a big deal of citing sources. The editors we have on board 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.
18. We don't have as many articles. Yet. Give us a little time.