User talk:Drew R. Smith
Welcome!
Welcome to the Citizendium! We hope you will contribute boldly and well. Here are pointers for a quick start. You'll probably want to know how to get started as an author. Just look at CZ:Getting Started for other helpful "startup" links, and CZ:Home for the top menu of community pages. Be sure to stay abreast of events via the Citizendium-L (broadcast) mailing list (do join!) and the blog. Please also join the workgroup mailing list(s) that concern your particular interests. You can test out editing in the sandbox if you'd like. If you need help to get going, the forums is one option. That's also where we discuss policy and proposals. You can ask any constable for help, too. Me, for instance! Just put a note on their "talk" page. Again, welcome and have fun! Roger Lohmann 12:01, 3 June 2009 (UTC)
Specialist editors
Drew, you are touching on a category that has been called "specialist editor". User: Aleta Curry is one for dogs; you might want to consult with her. As you point out, there aren't any articles now, so the author role is more critical than the editor. Editors start coming into their own when there are multiple authors to be guided. I don't remember if there are any Dog articles approved; I don't think my cats want me to know (they have excellent canine friends, but it's clear who is boss).
I happen to do a good deal of work in commercial fishing, or, more specifically, the electronics associated with it. That quite conveniently falls under Engineering, sometimes Computers, and even Military when the systems derive from warfare. Nevertheless, the articles need to be produced first. I could probably use Editor involvement on something like Vessel Monitoring System if I were to take it to Approval.
In writing about actual fisheries and species, however, even if I were a Food Sciences or Biology Editor, I couldn't approve my own articles, such as the early one on quahog. Perhaps if there are more than one author writing about sea creatures, we indeed need an Editor, which could be from one of the workgroups I just named. I'm not uninterested in the problem you cite, but from a very different viewpoint. Living here on Cape Cod, what editor would approve an article on Cod? Howard C. Berkowitz 05:40, 4 June 2009 (UTC)