View source for CZ:Policies/Proposed Citizendium Policy Article 7 Details

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This adjunct document includes a more extensive discussion of the Article 7 bullet items in the [[Policies/Proposed_Citizendium_Policy_Changes_2020]].

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== Article 7a: Allowing lead authors on an article, and allowing multiple articles on a given topic ==

=== Lead authors ===

A lead author is one who has a temporary license to determine an article’s structure, content, and style.  Leads can generally be identified implicitly via an article's History.  For example, an author who edits a lot on an article that has been otherwise mostly unchanged recently (within, say, 3 months) or is new, must be regarded informally to be a lead for that article.  Leads may also be declared intentionally. For inexperienced authors, something as simple as declaring one's desire to lead an article in the article's Talk page can be used, after checking History to make sure no one else is already active there. Experienced writers could use either of two existing templates ('''''[[:Template:Authors|Authors]]''''' or '''''[[:Template:Contribs|Contribs]]''''') to list lead authors (we ought to pick which template, though). Collaborators may (with permission from a lead) convert implicit leads to explicitly identified ones. No matter the mechanism, collaboration from others is always welcomed and encouraged, keeping in mind the special role of any lead(s) who are currently guiding the article.

=== Multiple articles about one topic ===

Multiple articles on one topic are already allowed in Citizendium, but only if done in certain ways.  We propose adding a third method as an option when the two common methods of collaboration-by-division may not be working well enough—but it would generally be considered a last resort after the other two methods are ruled out as not appropriate for the case at hand. The three methods are:
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==== Subpages ====

Subpages tend to work well in cases where a ''subordinate'' relationship exists between the main article and the subpages (shown as tabs to the right of the main article).   
Experienced authors have learned to break a large topic down into multiple pieces by using the ''subpages'' directive to create extra tabs on the article.<ref>The ''<nowiki>{{subpages}}</nowiki>'' directive is placed in the top of a main article for which "Metadata" has been created to display the standard subpages, entitled ''Related Articles'', ''Bibliography'', ''External Links'', and more, which were created when the Metadata form was filled out for that topic.</ref>
Manually created subpages are commonly used to segregate related long lists, catalogs or timelines, or perhaps to expand upon some aspect of the main article.<ref>To use a manually created subpage, create a link to a new a page hanging off your article, and then include the subpages directive in the top of that new page. It will show up to the right of all the standard tabs that got created along with the metadata.</ref>  Examples:
* [https://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Acting/Catalogs Acting/Catalogs], an alphabetized, segmented list of actors under [[Acting]]
* [https://en.citizendium.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States_of_America/Catalogs Catalog of U.S. Presidents.] under [[President of the United States of America]], a list of Presidents in sequential order.<ref>Because it's time-sequential and not alphabetized, the list of Presidents might better be called a ''Timeline'' rather than a ''Catalog''</ref>.
* See how, in the still developing [[Pali Canon]] article, the lead author is using a subpage called simply [https://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Pali_Canon/Addendum Addendum]<ref>The ''Addendum'' subpage to [[Pali Canon]] might use a more descriptive title, and at some point the lead author might want to rename it more appropriately.  It makes sense, initially, however, to get the information segregated from the already long main article.</ref>.

==== Divide by using variants in terminology ====

Randomly dividing a topic has also been done a lot, sometimes motivated by a desire to curtail length of a main topic, and sometimes to carve out writing turf for a different authors (which is, perhaps, less desirable in the long run in terms of presenting a topic in an optimal way).  Sometimes it works well, but arguably at other times it results in fractured, scattered information and serious duplication of effort. Authors of the different articles may not even be aware of each other's prior work.  Examples:
* [[Coal]] and [[Coal mining]] - This division was chosen, in part, to curtail length.
* [[Computers]] and [[History of computing]] - This division was chosen, in part, to curtail length. 
* [[Encryption]], [[Cryptography]], [[Cryptology]], [[Cryptanalysis]], [[Cryptographic key]], [[RSA algorithm]], [[Steganography]], [[Asymmetric key cryptography]], [[Cipher]], [[Square (cipher)]], [[Block cipher]], and many others—this very incomplete list of encryption-related articles might make sense if they were well coordinated with each other, but unfortunately, they were created organically by different authors at different times, contain substantial duplicated material that is not all that well organized, and even the naming conventions for the articles themselves are not consistent, resulting in what might be called a "hot mess".<ref>Some of the encryption-related articles are also ''Citable'', and thus are locked from further development, making the morass of disparate, oddly divided, and inconsistently named articles still more resistant to re-organization.  This is yet one more reason we propose to be able to revert Citable articles to normally editable ones, as per Article 7b of this Draft Policy.</ref>

==== Disambiguation for articles that overlap the same topic  ====

A disambiguation page was traditionally used only to clarify between multiple articles that would otherwise have identical names but refer to completely different things.  Citizendium now proposes an experimental ''possible'' use of the disambiguation page to point to parallel articles on the same main topic, as developed by different lead authors whose approach to presenting the topic are not reconcilable within one article.  Such a disambiguation page might say, “The Citizendium has multiple articles related to (the topic), including: (a list of the articles)”.  A naming convention for such parallel articles may be needed; or if the names chosen are very similar, a brief statement beside each article name could help readers differentiate them.  Creating parallel articles via disambiguation should be considered only if the first two approaches described above are not enough. Should a parallel version of an article be forked by copying an existing article and then modifying it (substantially), the lead author of the new version should explain the reasons briefly in the new article's Discussion page.  Authors of parallel articles, as probable enthusiasts for their topic, may (and are encouraged to) collaborate with one another, respecting each other’s lead role for the different articles.<ref>To our knowledge, no one has used Disambiguation for parallel articles yet.</ref>

== Article 7b: Suspending the creation of Citable articles; allowing reversions to regular collaboration mode==

An author may request that a Citable article be reverted to normal, collaborative article status.  For technical reasons, the reversion will have to be done by the management team, assuming that reasonable reasons for the reversion have been provided.   Citizendium will not create more Citable articles for the time being.

== Article 7c: Nomination of articles as “Ready for reading” ==

An author may nominate an article as “Ready for reading”.  Nominated articles might then be featured periodically on the wiki landing page or in advertisements about Citizendium, and will be available as a list on a special page.

== Article 7d: Endorsing the use of Citizendium as a staging platform for other websites ==

An author is allowed to port Citizendium content to another wiki or website such as Wikipedia, in hopes of the material becoming available to a wider audience and having a longer guaranteed lifetime.  Ported content is subject to appropriate attribution given to Citizendium at the target site (per the Citizendium [https://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:License site license]), and the copied content should be left intact on Citizendium, although it may continue to be edited and modified. It would be a useful courtesy to note such porting in an article’s Discussion page on Citizendium.

== Article 7e: Encouraging deletion of articles deemed not up to standard==

Any Citizen may suggest that the management team delete an article, giving pertinent reasons. For example, an article might be a target for deletion if it is a stub, is a copy of what was (or is) over in Wikipedia, and has not been improved by anyone for a long time.  Deletions are at the discretion of the management team and will depend on the validity of the reasons given by the author as well as the availability of a volunteer to handle the deletion.

== Footnotes ==