CZ:Proposals/Driverless

Initial proposal records that lost, or never gained, an active driver will be moved here.

Every active proposal must have a driver, somebody who drives it along. Proposals without drivers end up here. These proposals can at any time be resurrected if somebody volunteers to adopt it and become its driver. Simply put your name in the driver field of the proposal record, review the rules for drivers, and you're ready to go.

Disambiguation mechanics

Summary: This proposal argues that all disambiguation pages should be at titles of the form "foo (disambiguation)", with a redirect at all basic names which are being disambiguated; this will allow us to easily find articles which have been linked (erroneously) to the wrong meaning of "{foo}". Original proposer: J. Noel Chiappa 09:33, 15 May 2008 (CDT) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step Notes: A thread on the forums wandered into discussion of this topic here.

Complete proposal

Removal of educational requirements for the Constabulary

Summary: This proposal argues that the educational minimum requirement (A College degree) should be dropped for those being considered for the constabulary. The rationale is two-fold; First, an attempt of increasing our pool of potential constables (Something which will become more important as we grow) and second, on moral grounds there is little distinction maturity wise (Which essentially is all it takes to make a good constable) between those who have underwent a college degree and those who haven't. Original proposer: Denis Cavanagh 15:57, 7 May 2008 (CDT) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

Should we allow article specific subpages?

Summary: The proposal recommends that citizendium adds three new fields to the metadata template (tab1, tab2 and tab3) that can be used to specify a subpage that is not defined in the generic list of subpages. An example of this can be seen at Iron/Isotopes. The Isotopes subpage will only be used by a small fraction of clusters (typically elements). This information could live on the /Catlogs subpage but citizendium readers will find it far more intuitive if the tab actually says Isotopes rather than Catalogs. Original proposer: Chris Day 23:25, 1 May 2008 (CDT) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Chris Day To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

Simplify Core Articles Initiative

Summary: The Core Articles initiative has not exactly been a screaming success; it is not achieving its primary aim of getting articles started about the most important 4,000 topics in our ~40 workgroup areas. Therefore, I propose that it be greatly simplified--even "stripped down"--in a way designed to motivate people to contribute to the effort. Original proposer: Larry Sanger 20:54, 21 March 2008 (CDT) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

Unified Feature-Rich Workgroup page design template

Summary: Many workgroups are highly developed; some are marginally developed, and others are not developed. It could be beneficial to have a single flexible template that would be easy to implement for all workgroup home pages. Original proposer: --Robert W King 12:21, 1 April 2008 (CDT) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

Self-Correction Policy

Summary: The Citizendium should adopt a policy that requires that we list all factual errors in previous versions of our articles--including unapproved articles--at the bottom of an article. This is the same standard that newspapers and other legitimate periodicals use. We are clearly obligated to adopt the same policy. Doing so will earn us good will from the public and increase our credibility considerably. Original proposer: Larry Sanger 08:57, 28 March 2008 (CDT) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

Citing CZ article by authors

Summary: An author X, who wants to cite a Citizendium article he contributed to, should do so in a form like "Authors and X (2008) Life ..." (summary written by Proposals Manager) Original proposer: Lee R. Berger 01:44, 5 March 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

A new subpage for translations of approved articles

Summary: Adopt and encourage translations of approved English CZ articles to other languages. This could be done with a new article subpage called "Other languages". The pagename would be Biology/Translations/German for instance. Original proposer: Jens Mildner 03:01, 23 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step Notes: I see this as the perfect preparation for the international CZ.

Complete proposal

Non-comprehensive fair use policy

Summary: This is a proposal to allow six categories of media to be used under U.S. fair use on Citizendium. The six categories of materials encompass the most commonly used materials under fair use and are widely considered fair use without controversy. Allowing these now will free contributors in a needed way related to current articles. This is not a comprehensive fair use policy, which can be accomplished later. Original proposer: Stephen Ewen 23:34, 17 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

Internationalisation sandbox

Summary: There have been many requests for CZ pilots to begin in other languages, but so far nothing has gotten off the ground. Inasmuch as 1) we are losing competent authors whose first language is not English but 2) we do not have the time, personnel or expertise to begin complete CZs in other languages, I propose a sandbox type setup in which those who will can go ahead and begin articles in other languages, but these will be hidden from public view until a bona fide project can be set up in that language. Note that unlike the "sandbox" we have now, these drafts would not be discarded when the user signs off. Original proposer: Aleta Curry 21:10, 13 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step Notes: All internationalisation discussions have been directed to the project page.

Complete proposal

Naming Conventions for Biographies

Summary: to adopt conventions for the naming of articles about people, living and dead. The basic principle proposed is: In general, an article about a person ought to live at the name at which the person is best-known to educated English-speaking people, with redirects from all common alternates. Significant levels of detail are offered. Original proposer: Anthony Argyriou 14:31, 14 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step Notes: originally proposed at CZ Talk:Naming Conventions#Names of articles about people, with no response.

Complete proposal

Involving authors in approvals

Summary: There are two aspects: 1) I see no reason why anyone should not feel able to nominate an article for approval (even their own article). Indeed I see every reason why all contributors to Citizendium should feel encouraged to read articles with potential approval in mind. 2) To approve articles requires the support of relevant editors. But I see no reason why authors should not also be able (and indeed be encouraged) to express their support or otherwise for approval, and indeed as Citizendium values fluency and style then the opinions of non-expert readers are very important too. Original proposer: Gareth Leng 07:57, 14 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Decision from Approvals and Feedback Group? Driver: Gareth Leng 04:01, 15 February 2008 (CST) To be done by: March 10th? Notes: Feedback so far seems positive (March 5th); awaits endorsement by Approvals group? Then implement?

Complete proposal

Change to reversion policy

Summary: CZ:Professionalism#Reversion and deletion as unprofessional behaviors says deletion of others' work without explanation is clearly unprofessional, and deletion of more than 50 words can result in a warning, followed by a ban., and similary discourages reverting of edits without explanation. The proposal is to rewrite the section to emphasize that it is the lack of explanation which is the offence, not the mere act of reverting or deleting others' work. Original proposer: Anthony Argyriou 14:14, 13 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step Notes: This stems from a discussion about the growth of Citizendium.

Complete proposal

Enable external feedback

Summary: Each article should have a link for non-citizens to submit feedback. Feedback can be read and acted upon by any Citizen. Feedback can be read both in an additional tab for each cluster, as well as in a global queue similar to "recent changes". Original proposer: Warren Schudy 13:34, 9 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

Pilot to allow Citizens to take credit for pages

Summary: By popular demand, we would, to a limited extent, allow Citizens to take authorship credit of articles. This would (for now) take the form of a template placed at the bottom of the page, which would, in small and unobtrusive print, list the contributors to an article in alphabetical order. Contributors would add themselves. To avoid issues about what counts as an "important" edit, a person could take co-authorship credit for adding at least two sentences, and five people who have to be on the list before any names were displayed. We would try this out in just four workgroups (the template would be removed from articles in any other workgroup). Original proposer: Larry Sanger 22:08, 12 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

Article task and notification list

Summary: I propose that we start a standardized list of tasks and notifications, which can be part of the metadata template. The list would be by default unexpanded, but would be expandable from within the subpage template. The article and each subpage might have its own task list, but at least we can begin with article lists. Tasks would include items like "Add more wikilinks," and "Expand generally," and notifications would include items like "Article needs to be edited for neutrality" and "Article is controversial, please see talk page." These notices would be generated by standard codes, and all the codes would be easily/instantly available in another collapsible/expandable list. This would serve a similar purpose to WP's various top-of-page notices. Of course, anyone would be able to edit the list--not just what notices are listed with which article, but also what notices are "standard." There should also be support for some "ad hoc" notices as well. Original proposer: Larry Sanger 08:52, 21 June 2008 (CDT) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step Notes: I hope someone will take this on--it seems like a great idea to me. --Larry

To the proposer: please read the proposals system policy page if you want to fill out a complete proposal, not just this summary. If you don't, please ask around for someone (a "driver") to take over your proposal! Start complete proposal

Subpages for watchknow videos

Summary: I propose that the editorial council welcomes the new watchknow project. In addition we will create a new subpage for videos that explain the concepts behind an article. On default videos that get awarded the price money in watchknow should appear on that subpage of an appropriate article about the topic. Original proposer: Christian Kleineidam 16:59, 17 June 2008 (CDT) Next step: Discussion Driver: Christian Kleineidam To be done by: 01.08.2008

To the proposer: please read the proposals system policy page if you want to fill out a complete proposal, not just this summary. If you don't, please ask around for someone (a "driver") to take over your proposal! Start complete proposal

Need a Subpage for Topic Informants

Summary: Topic Informants have been discussed off and on for months but nothing ever seems to be done about it. At Larry's suggestion, I once wrote a long TI about my relations with Robert A. Heinlein. Nothing has ever been done with it, even though I have brought up the topic from time to time, and the information is buried deep within my own user page at [1]. Why shouldn't there be an optional tab called Top. Inform. at the top of the Heinlein page, so that anyone who visits that page can review the info contained therein and then, if it is deemed qualified, put some of it into the article itself? If not, then why bother to have TI pages in the first place? Original proposer: Hayford Peirce 14:01, 21 May 2008 (CDT) Next step: Driver: To be done by: 21 June 2008 Notes: I don't have a clue about how to be the Driver, but I would sure appreciate someone else taking up this thankless task!

To the proposer: please read the proposals system policy page if you want to fill out a complete proposal, not just this summary. If you don't, please ask around for someone (a "driver") to take over your proposal! Start complete proposal

Create a page for all notable genes in the human genome

Summary: We are interested in creating one page for all notable genes in the human genome. Each stub would be seeded using content which is harvested from publicly available sources. The resulting "Gene Wiki" would be a relatively unique resource compared to popular gene portals used by researchers and students. Given the expected number of created pages (5000-10000), an automated bot would be created/modified to perform the stub creation. Original proposer: Andrew Su 14:43, 16 April 2008 (CDT) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step Notes: The proposal was originally discussed on the forum ([2]), so additional details and context can be found there. The initial driver withdrew this proposal.

Complete proposal

Article Content Request help

Summary: Article Content Request should exist in order for authors to request article assistance on particular topics within a subject. This is not intended to be a request for editorial review, rather, it is a system devised to empower citizens to help out on subjects that they might know about. It is meant to spur activity and input from those who might have knowledge in a discipline. Original proposer: --Robert W King 14:09, 11 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Community Discussion Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: 14 March 2008 Notes: Theoretical page located at CZ:ACR using template:request.

Complete proposal

Standard naming of biomedical (and other) articles

Summary: Encourage and facilitate usage of the National Library of Medicine's MeSH browser (browser search plugins are available) in order to select canonical terms to be used as titles (when such terms are available). The benefits of this are: 1) reduce the chance of two authors independently writing two articles in parallel on the same content (but with different titles), 2) offer standardized definitions of terms that can be used at the beginning of articles, 3) anticipate common alternative terms that can be set up as redirects when the article is written, 4) facilitate the linking to CZ from other biomedical databases when web 2 arrives. As an example, we have an article titled Concussion of the brain which according to MeSH, might be better titled 'Brain concussion' with a separate page called 'Cerebral concussion' that redirects to this page. Original proposer: Robert Badgett 00:23, 14 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Vet this proposal to see if worth carrying forward. Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: 3/1/2008 Notes: The previous driver (Robert Badgett) decided to make this proposal part of the style guide for the Health Science workgroup. The creation of such style guides is proposed in CZ:Proposals/Create workgroup style guides.

Complete proposal

Redirection creation bot

Summary: I propose to create a bot that creates some redirects automatically to save users time that they could better use to create new articles instead of creating redirects and to increase the amount of redirects to make it easier for users to find the article they are looking for. Original proposer: Christian Kleineidam 10:51, 1 March 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

Complete proposal

Citizendium Mobile

Summary: Provide Citizendium pages automatically reformatted for mobile devices. Original proposer: Graham Proud 12:05, 23 February 2008 Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step Notes: Perhaps this is a MediaWiki question, and not for Citizendium? An example of how this could work may be seen in Microsoft's SharePoint Server, where the identical content is provided automatically in a layout more suited to small screens.

Complete proposal

Teaming with Young Authors

Summary: Two of the lesser-used Subpage options appear to be the Student Level and Tutorial pages, both seemingly directed at younger readers. The proposal would be to pair subject-matter author/editors with younger (under 18) authors in areas of joint interest for the specific purpose of creating Student Level and Tutorial pages. Original proposer: Roger Lohmann 21:26, 19 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Community input Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Mar 1 Notes: I don't have time to pursue this right now, but may pick it up later. If someone else is interested in developing a full proposal, have at it. From AC: Oh, Roger, this is a great idea, but I can't take on one more thing just at the moment.

To the proposer: please read the proposals system policy page if you want to fill out a complete proposal, not just this summary. If you don't, please ask around for someone (a "driver") to take over your proposal! Start complete proposal

Should history articles be named with general terms first?

Summary: Should general article names be written as France, history as preferred to History of France or French History? The central points of contention is whether general articles (e.g France, history) should be called History of France or even French history. The idea is that the keyword should be first in an article such as this, with people searching for France in a general search will see a list of articles, e.g: France France, history France, politics France, literature etc. Original proposer: Denis Cavanagh 11:29, 8 February 2008 (CST) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step Notes: This has been discussed before but deserves a fuller debate. I don't really have an opinion on the issue despite the history workgroup handily being my most active one.Denis Cavanagh 11:29, 8 February 2008 (CST)

Complete proposal

Proposals System Navigation (advanced users only)

Help/policy New proposals List of all proposals Driverless proposals: proposals that lack a champion Discarded proposals: poorly formed proposals Templates: {{Proposal}} | {{Proposal assignment}} | {{Proposals navigation}}

Proposal lists (some planned pages are still blank): Editorial Council: Active | Finished | Declined Approval and Feedback: Active | Finished | Declined Eduzendium: Active | Finished | Declined Recruitment: Active | Finished | Declined Constabulary: Active | Finished | Declined Executive: Active | Finished | Declined Technical: Active | Finished | Declined PR: Active | Finished | Declined Ad hoc management: Active | Finished | Declined