CZ:About

Citizendium used to describe itself as a "citizens' compendium of everything", an open wiki project dedicated to creating a free, comprehensive, and reliable repository of structured knowledge. The community was to be built on the principles of trust and respect; contributors, or "citizens", would work under their own real names, and all were expected to behave professionally and responsibly. Additionally, experts were invited to play a gentle role in overseeing the structuring of knowledge. The Citizendium ratified a Charter in 2010 as an attempt at governance. It is no longer in effect.

As of 2020, there is a wide consensus that the wiki was unsuccessful in achieving its original goals (see https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-Wikipedia-and-Citizendium). A dedicated few writers have continued working in the wiki, improving articles that they believe are useful, and which for various reasons probably could not be written in Wikipedia. On or about Sept. 30, 2020, we plan to end Citizendium as a public "open" project, yet (possibly) keep the wiki running and editable by a combination of donations and subscriptions. How this might occur is still being examined.