CZ:The Author Role: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 03:49, 8 March 2024

The information on the page below is OBSOLETE

This information applied to an older way of operating
The wiki's policies and rules are now linked to the main page at Welcome_to_Citizendium.

The following information is likely no longer applicable. The rules or articles on this page have had the status of guidance only since 15th November 2016, when the Citizendium project's current binding policies came into effect. Contributors may otherwise still follow previous rules by default. New practice may be established through discussion.

As an author, you collaboratively write encyclopedia articles and help supplement them with things like bibliographies and image galleries (see CZ:Subpages for the full list of supplements). You also benefit from the "gentle expert oversight" of Citizendium editors-- experts in their field--who can certify articles you help write as meeting certain approval standards befitting of quality and accurate encyclopedia articles. If you join us, you will become part of a vibrant online community where you discuss with others the best way to craft article content, debate project policies and development, and sometimes even joke around. What is more, you can do all this with a mission in mind: to help create a quality encyclopedia that is free to the world (see Why Citizendium?).

How do I get started?

Begin articles!: Do you know a topic enough to start an encyclopedia article about it? Then start a new article! No one assigns work to authors. It is your own interests that should guide your authoring. Still, if you'd like some ideas, you can look over the lists of topics at our Core Articles Initiative (click along the gray tabs atop the blue box up top) or our User-Requested Articles.

Add to articles: You can join in where others have already been at work. on Citizendium we collaborate globally and produce better articles that way.

I think I'm ready to get started. Is there anything else I should know first?

You can get involved with workgroups: See Workgroups in the left-hand column, under "project pages"? (You might have to scroll up.) Click on that. You can add yourself as an author to any workgroup, and join the group's mailing list. Then you can look at the recent changes, look over the offerings so far, and--maybe most importantly--expand our content about basic topics.

Monitor project-wide recent changes: From any page at all, look to the left, under "project pages," for the "Recent changes" link. Click that and explore the links you see. That will give you an idea of what has been going on on the wiki lately. Note that you can opt to view up to 500 changes at a time. You can help others out and talk about what you're doing, either on the article's talk page or on the person's "user talk" page. (Go to the person's user page and then hit the "discussion" tab.)

Look into our latest initiatives: We often have some community-wide initiatives going on, that you can join.

How does collaboration work?

A robust wiki is strongly collaborative. Articles are unsigned, so new contributors don't feel they're stepping on the toes of the previous author(s). (You can still see who has worked on an article, however, in the page history: click the "history" tab.) Authors take pride in their work, but all articles are owned and managed by the whole community. We all take responsibility, and mostly we negotiate (on talk pages) to a mutually acceptable compromise.

This content is free forever--so, if it's good enough, people will be inspired to improve it indefinitely. This is an opportunity to create vast amounts of content that represents the full spectrum of human understanding, in a way both credible and neutral. And free!

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Getting Started}}
 __NOTOC__
-== What, exactly, do ''Citizendium'' authors ''do''? ==
+__NOINDEX__
-As an author, you write [[CZ:Article Mechanics|articles]], and [[CZ:Subpages|other content]], of course.  So authors are the lifeblood of the project.  But this is not the usual sort of authorship.  You neither ask for assignments from editors, nor do editors give out assignments.  You just work on whatever you want to, whenever you want to--no deadlines, just expository bliss.  This can be an [[:Category:CZ Live|existing article]] or a [[CZ:How to start a new article|brand new one]].
+{{NoLongerApplies}}
+{{Guidance}}
+As an author, you collaboratively write [[CZ:Article mechanics|encyclopedia articles]] and help supplement them with things like bibliographies and image galleries (see [[CZ:Subpages]] for the full list of supplements).  You also benefit from the "gentle expert oversight" of [[CZ:The Editor Role|Citizendium editors]]-- ''experts'' in their field--who can certify articles you help write as meeting certain [[CZ:Approval Standards|approval standards]] befitting of quality and accurate encyclopedia articles.  If you join us, you will become part of a vibrant online [[CZ:organization|community]] where you discuss with others the best way to craft article content, debate project policies and development, and sometimes even [[Archive:Humor|joke around]].  What is more, you can do all this with a mission in mind: to help create a quality encyclopedia that is ''free'' to the world (see [[CZ:Why Citizendium?|Why Citizendium?]]).
-Also, our active authors--usually--are more than just writers.  As members of a dynamic, living community, you discuss articles, debate policy, and joke around.  (Don't worry; in case you are all business, joking around is not mandatory.)  You become a citizen of a real online [[CZ:organization|community]].
+== How do I get started?==
+;Begin articles!
+:Do you know a topic enough to start an encyclopedia article about it?  Then '''[[CZ:How to start a new article|start a new article]]!'''  No one ''assigns'' work to authors.  It is your own interests that should guide your authoring.  Still, if you'd like some ideas, you can look over the lists of topics at our [[CZ:Core Articles|Core Articles Initiative]] (click along the gray tabs atop the blue box up top) or our [[CZ:Requested Articles|User-Requested Articles]].
-Still, authors mostly just write.
+;Add to articles
+:You can join in where others have already been at work.  on ''Citizendium'' we ''collaborate'' globally and produce better articles that way.
+== I think I'm ready to get started.  Is there anything else I should know first?==
+;You can get involved with workgroups
+:See [[CZ:Workgroups|Workgroups]] in the left-hand column, under "project pages"?  (You might have to scroll up.)  Click on that.  You can add yourself as an author to any workgroup, and join the group's mailing list.  Then you can look at the recent changes, look over the offerings so far, and--maybe most importantly--expand our content about [[CZ:Core Articles|basic topics]].
+;Monitor project-wide recent changes
+:From any page at all, look to the left, under "project pages," for the "[[Special:Recentchanges|Recent changes]]" link.  Click that and explore the links you see.  That will give you an idea of what has been going on on the wiki lately.  Note that you can opt to view up to 500 changes at a time.  You can help others out and talk about what you're doing, either on the article's [[CZ:Talk Pages|talk page]] or on the person's "user talk" page.  (Go to the person's user page and then hit the "discussion" tab.)
+;Look into our latest initiatives
+:We often have some community-wide [[CZ:Initiatives|initiatives]] going on, that you can join.
 == How does collaboration work? ==
-A robust wiki is not just collaborative, it's ''strongly'' collaborative.  Articles are unsigned, so new contributors don't feel they're stepping on the toes of the previous author(s).  (You can still see who has worked on an article, however, in the page history: click the "history" tab.)  Authors can and do take pride in their own work, but individual articles are unowned--or they are owned and managed by the whole community.  Neither an author who has contributed the bulk of an article's content, nor an editor who has responsibility for content decisions, can claim that an article is exclusively ''his'' or ''hers.''  Instead, we all take responsibility, and mostly we negotiate (on [[CZ:Talk Pages|talk pages]]) to a mutually acceptable compromise.
+A robust wiki is  ''strongly'' collaborative.  Articles are unsigned, so new contributors don't feel they're stepping on the toes of the previous author(s).  (You can still see who has worked on an article, however, in the page history: click the "history" tab.)  Authors take pride in their work, but all articles are owned and managed by the whole community.  We all take responsibility, and mostly we negotiate (on [[CZ:Talk Pages|talk pages]]) to a mutually acceptable compromise.
+This content is free forever--so, if it's good enough, people will be inspired to improve it indefinitely.  This is an opportunity to create vast amounts of content that represents the full spectrum of human understanding, in a way both credible and [[CZ:Neutrality Policy|neutral]].  And free!
+== See also ==
+;[[CZ:Home|Home, The jumping-off place for all community pages]]
+;[[CZ:Getting Started|Everything you need to get started]]
+;[[CZ:Article mechanics|A guide to mechanics and style]]
-This system is, on reflection, astonishing.  Recently, for the first time in history, global groups of people, working in "real time," have been creating content without any single person being solely responsible for it.  Moreover, this content is free forever--so, if it's good enough, people will be inspired to improve it indefinitely.  This is an opportunity to create vast amounts of content that represents the full spectrum of human understanding, in a way both credible and [[CZ:Neutrality Policy|neutral]].  And free!
+;[[CZ:Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians|Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians]]
-== Why not just write for Wikipedia? ==
-As a prospective author, you may have questions that we can address effectively.
-One question is simple: why not write for Wikipedia instead?  We don't wish to be disrespectful to "that other community," but there are some very good reasons.
+;[[CZ:We aren't Wikipedia]]. We do things differently here.
-* We have virtually no vandalism, and very few of the "difficult" sorts who are constantly pushing their own idiosyncratic points of view.  Several people, independently, have said that we're "Wikipedia for grown-ups."  That's because we require real names, at least a brief (and accurate) bio, and the contributor's agreement to follow our [[CZ:Fundamentals|Statement of Fundamental Policies]].
-* We have a healthy, reasonable respect for expert knowledge.  We make mistakes, of course--they're easy to find in early drafts, which many of our articles are--but you will find relatively few attempts to pass off guesswork and idiosyncratic opinion as expert knowledge.
-* A lesser-known reason is that the ''Citizendium'' stands for [[CZ:Article Mechanics|readability and narrative coherence]].  If you're interested in writing articles that people want to read all the way through, this is the place to do it.
-But, you ask, what are our prospects?  They are fairly good.  In our wiki's first nine months, we created about as many words as Wikipedia did in its first nine, and our wiki is about as active as Wikipedia was after that amount of time (as ''Citizendium'' Editor-in-Chief and Wikipedia co-founder, [[User:Larry Sanger|Larry Sanger]], recalls).  We have added nearly 3,000 articles and some five million words after about ten months (the first five being a private pilot project).  And we're [[CZ:Subpages|expanding]] into other kinds of reference content in ways Wikipedia has not tried.
-In short, we have the better model, and arguably, we are on track to replicate Wikipedia-style growth.  As in Wikipedia's case, it will no doubt take some years before our metrics are very impressive.  But we're on our way.  And we're in it for the long haul!
+;[[CZ:How to edit an article|How to edit an article]] (Technical help; how to use MediaWiki)
-== But why help create a free reference work at all? ==
-On this question, see [[CZ:Why Citizendium?|Why Citizendium?]]
-== What to do ==
+;[[CZ:How to use talk pages|How to use talk pages]] (where we explain edits and come to agreements)
-So, what should you ''do'' as an author?
-;Write!
-:Got an article idea?  '''[[CZ:How to start a new article|Go to work]]!'''  Or look for requested articles in [[CZ:Requested Articles|Requested Articles]].
-;Join a workgroup.
-:See [[CZ:Workgroups|Workgroups]] in the left-hand column, under "project pages"?  (You might have to scroll up.)  Click on that.  You can add yourself as an author to any workgroup.  If you do, please join the group's mailing list.  Then you can look at the recent changes, look over the offerings so far, and--maybe most importantly--expand our content about basic topics, i.e., the most famous people, the most important events, the most fundamental concepts, etc.
-;Monitor project-wide recent changes.
+;[[:Category:CZ Authors|A list of ''Citizendium'' authors]]
-:From any page at all, look to the left, under "project pages," for the "[[Special:Recentchanges|Recent changes]]" link.  You might need to scroll up to see it.  Click that and explore the links you see.  That will give you an idea of what has been going on on the wiki lately.  Note that you can opt to view up to 500 changes at a time.  This can be great fun: you can help others out and talk about what you're doing, either on the article's [[CZ:Talk Pages|talk page]] or on the person's "user talk" page.  (Go to the person's user page and then hit the "discussion" tab.)
-;Look into our latest initiatives.
-:We often have some community-wide [[CZ:Initiatives|initiatives]] going on, that you can join.  Please do!
-== See also ==
-;[[CZ:Home|Home]]
-:The jumping-off place for all community pages.  Plus, a bulletin board.
-;[[CZ:Getting Started|Getting Started]]
-:Everything you need to get started.
-;[[CZ:Article Mechanics|Article Mechanics]]
-:A guide to mechanics and style.  Must-read for frequent writers.
-;[[CZ:Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians|Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians]]
-:We do things differently here, but not that differently.
-;[[CZ:How to edit an article|How to edit an article]]
-:Technical help; how to use MediaWiki.
-;[[CZ:How to use talk pages|How to use talk pages]]
-:One of the crucial tools of a wiki, where we explain edits and come to agreements.
-;[[:Category:CZ Authors|CZ Authors]]
-:A list of ''Citizendium'' authors.
 ;[[CZ:The Editor Role|The Editor Role]]
-:So, what do those editors do, anyway?
+{{Getting Started}} [[Category:Getting Started]]

CZ:The Author Role: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 03:49, 8 March 2024

How do I get started?

I think I'm ready to get started. Is there anything else I should know first?

How does collaboration work?

See also

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