CZ:Election July-August 2013/Referenda/7

Only the proposer of the referendum and Election Committee members may modify this page. Substantive modifications by the proposer after the referendum has been formally proposed here will invalidate the signatures of any current supporters, and require them to sign again. Comments should be placed on the Talk page.

• This is a Citizen-Initiated referendum that does not modify the Charter.
  • It will pass with a majority vote in favor.
• It requires one supporter to be eligible to place it on the ballot.
  • To support this referendum, add your name here.

Editable 'Main Articles' and Approved-Locked 'Citable Articles'

• Proposed by: Anthony.Sebastian 21:03, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Preliminary remarks

This Citizen-initiated non-Charter-modifying referendum calls for all articles to open as editable Main Articles. An approved-locked ‘Citable Version’ subpage will be available for currently approved articles, to accompany its editable Main Article. The ‘Citable Version’ subpage also be available for Developed articles reaching a citable stage as determined and approved by a simple procedure, described below.

The referendum does not modify the Charter, as it accords with Charter Article 22 (“Articles formally judged to be of high quality by editors shall be designated "approved", protected and kept permanently available.”).

Text of referendum

• All articles in Main namespace will open as editable Main Articles.
• For currently approved articles, an approved-locked ‘Citable Version’ subpage will be available, accompanying its editable Main Article.
• A ‘Citable Version’ subpage also will be available for Developed articles that have reached a citable stage as determined and approval process described below.
• Developed articles not yet approved will carry a header banner, or an ‘About this article’ footnote, that reads:

This well-developed Main Article remains open for editing for the purpose of further improvement and updates as necessary. Major or substantial edits to it should be drafted on the article's Talk page, in order to give all the major contributors of the article an opportunity to assess the value of the proposed edit or edits before they are incorporated into the article. This Main article is not intended to be cited. When approval has been achieved, it will be available on an accompanying 'Citable Version' subpage, locked and versioned.

• For the 165 currently approved Main Articles, which will have been moved to approved-locked ‘Citable Version’ subpages, its Draft subpage contents will be substituted in place of the Main Article, at the discretion of the appropriate governing Council.
  • If the substitution is deemed acceptable, the Draft subpage will be eliminated, and the Main Article will be unlocked for potential editing.
  • If the substitution is decided against, the Draft subpage will be eliminated and the Main Article will be unlocked for potential editing.
  • In either case, the editable Main Article will be accompanied by an approved locked ‘Citable Version’ subpage.

• Thus, all articles will open to the Main Article, which will remain unlocked, and no Draft subpage will be available. An approved and locked ‘Citable Version’ subpage will be available for use as described above. In effect, approved articles are renamed ‘Citable Version’, i.e., citable versions of its editable Main Article.

• Citable Versions will contain suggested formats for how to cite them.

• The approval procedure for deciding when a Developed article can be accompanied by a locked ‘Citable Version’ will be carried out according to Editorial Council regulation EC:R-2011-027/ Approval process.

• For non-developed articles (Developing articles and Stubs), the banner under the navigation bar, or the “About this article” footnote, will be standardized to describe the status of the article.

Discussion by proposer

This referendum establishes an approved article as a Citable Version on a subpage with that label.

The referendum calls for all articles to open as editable Main Articles. An optional locked ‘Citable Version’ subpage will be available for currently approved articles to accompany its editable Main Article. The Citable Version subpage will also be available for Developed articles reaching a citable stage as determined by an approval procedure.

It is expected that opening all Main Articles as editable will encourage readers to edit, or to join Citizendium in order to be able to edit.

Readers interested citing the article will see the accompanying Citable Version subpage, with suggested citation formats.

Citable Versions, so named, give Approved Articles explicit functionality, viz., citability, only previously implied.