CZ:Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians

Welcome Wikipedians and ex-Wikipedians!

Most Citizens were once (and some still are) at work on Wikipedia, and have joined Citizendium to try a different model of content development. We want to welcome you here. We think the world could use a free alternative to Wikipedia, and you can help us create it.

Before you start boldly contributing, please read this document. There are some important "do's and dont's" that Wikipedians may have to bear in mind. Many of Wikipedia's policies either do not apply here or have been modified.

Citizendium is not a mirror

Citizendium is not a mirror of Wikipedia. Do not copy content from Wikipedia to Citizendium unless you largely wrote it yourself. If you wish to import such material from Wikipedia, see Article Mechanics and How to convert Wikipedia articles to Citizendium articles for directions.

Differences in style, approach and tone

You're probably used to well-developed Wikipedia articles being divided into many short sections, full of bulleted lists. Some are written in dense prose that shows off erudition more than really introducing a topic.

We don't like to speak "encyclopedese." Rather, we want Citizendium articles to be lucid, highly readable introductions written in compelling, narrative prose. This doesn't mean our articles will have less information or be more lightweight. It means we simplify the difficult, engage our readers, and allow a narrative voice to come through.

For further information, see Article Mechanics. You might also want to have look at Sage advice on writing CZ articles, and examples of our approved articles.

New practices

• The use of Subpages to expand article content. See our list of subpage types. Note how we have replaced "List of" articles with catalogs.

• The "Content is from Wikipedia?" tick-box. If any content of an article at Citizendium came from Wikipedia and you aren't the sole author of that content, check the tick-box, above the "Save page" button. If you are the sole author, please make it clear on the relevant talk page and post a link to the Wikipedia article history giving evidence of such. The {{WPauthor}} template has been created for this purpose.

• Workgroups, Workgroup Category Tags, and Workgroup Recent Changes. Anybody can edit any article but we want every article to have its editorial team assigned.

See We aren't Wikipedia for other new practices.

Acting professionally

Our professionalism policy is our cornerstone behavior policy and is about our intent to create — and enforce — a respectful, pleasant, and productive working environment.

• Part of behaving professionally is signing with your real name on the wiki. You need not worry about your real name showing up all over the Net from CZ pages, since we use robots.txt to prevent that.

• Handling content disputes without "edit warring"; See Dispute Resolution

At Wikipedia, everyone has the same role when it comes to making judgments about article content. Here, participants play three different but complementary roles.

Editors

You already know we make a special role for experts. But this does not at all mean you cannot professionally argue your case with them; you most definitely should. To edit, editors must work shoulder-to-shoulder with authors and other editors. See CZ:The Editor Role.

Authors

Editors are authors too, but what can authors do? Almost everything. Authors can start articles, edit existing articles, talk things over on the talk page, and much else. Both authors and editors are represented on the Editorial Council. See CZ:The Author Role.

Constables

Our constables are Citizendium's "community managers" or "Sysops". They oversee adherence to basic policies, and settle behavioral problems whereas editors settle content disputes. Constables also review applications and create new accounts. See CZ:Constabulary.

Images

Any type of open content licensed images are allowable and preferred, although images from Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Commons and other image banks must pass a two-pronged test before you upload them to Citizendium. Fully copyrighted images are allowable in Citizendium if you place proof of permission in a Permission subpage of the image's talk page.

All images lacking clear copyright data are subject to speedy deletion by constables acting on their own recognizance. Citizendium editors will not nominate articles for approval if the status of their images is unclear.

See Images Help on Copyrights.

Not categories and projects but workgroups

Wikipedians self-organize into Projects whose foci are articles in certain categories. Citizendium organizes authors and editors into discipline workgroups. Editors are assigned their workgroups, while authors add themselves to whichever workgroups they choose. You can take a workgroups tour to find out more.

Article deletion policy

The general rule is that articles should be deleted if their continued existence would create more frustration, in the long run, for either contributors or users, than deleting them. This is our Maintainability policy, and is different from Wikipedia's notability policy. Constables may delete articles that are not maintainable. Editor permission is required for deletion of other articles (See CZ:Article Deletion Policy). We may also place articles into what we call Cold Storage rather than delete them.

Don't spill alphabet soup!

We wish to avoid having an insular, unintelligible community. Accordingly, we don't use neologisms like "NPOV" and "POV", "RS", "FWIW", and "OR". Just use plain English on top of wikilinks or post them in full. In our informal discussions, however, CZ and WP are permissible.

Family-friendly

Citizendium aspires to be an encyclopedia with international acceptance, usage, and credibility. All general usage traditionally print encyclopedias who enjoy such a status have a "family-friendly" policy, and so does Citizendium. All articles about sexual topics will be scholarly and tactful, and none will contain gratuitously graphic photos. See our Family-Friendly Policy.

And from Citizendium to Wikipedia

Since Wikipedia changed its license to CC-BY-SA 3.0, it can use material from Citizendium. A workgroup has been formed there, WikiProject Citizendium Porting, to coordinate this.

Further reading

• The Citizendium Charter
• We aren't Wikipedia
• How to convert Wikipedia articles to Citizendium articles
• A Dozen Essentials
• Article Mechanics