CZ:We aren't Wikipedia

How is Citizendium similar to Wikipedia?

1. Citizendium and Wikipedia both aim to create a giant free general encyclopedia.
2. Citizendium and Wikipedia both use MediaWiki software.
3. Citizendium and Wikipedia both use wiki methods of collaboration and encourage everybody to work on articles in their area of interest and expertise.
4. On both wikis, no particular qualifications are needed to contribute.
5. Both wikis work on the basis of trust and rely on "soft security" to a great extent.
6. Both wikis have similar naming conventions and other style guidelines in common. See CZ:Manual of Style for the differences.
7. Both wikis are committed to an objective, unbiased presentation of information (although there are some differences as described in the following section).

How is Citizendium different from Wikipedia?

1. Citizendium defines objectivity differently than Wikipedia. The "neutrality policy" of Wikipedia, as applied nowadays by its leading editors, is that Wikipedia is based solely on "reliable" sources. If there's a consensus of those, then Wikipedia asserts that as unquestioned fact in its own voice, and other points of view, no matter how widely held, may not even be mentioned. This differs rather widely from Citizendium's concept, which is that if there are important points of view that "the scientific community" or some such rejects, one just says so. Unlike Wikipedia, Citizendium discourages the loaded language which dismisses certain people and ideas in the first sentence of an article by use of labeling them immediately as "pseudo-scientific" or "fads". As an example, look at Citizendium's treatment of Graham Hancock, as compared with Wikipedia's article on him with it's multiple uses of the label "pseudo-". Citizendium also uses sources differently from Wikipedia. Citizendium regards sources are something to help the reader rather than as a way to "prove" every single assertion made within an article.
2. Citizendium contributors use their real names and identities. This wiki requires people to sign in, to use their real names and to fill out a publicly readable biography. This policy prevents vandalism and promotes civil discussion of article content. Citizendium goes to some lengths to verify contributor identities. Its user pages are for brief, helpful biographies and are not intended as vanity pages. Contributors are not allowed to promote their own resumes or business endeavors via this wiki, and they are not allowed to blank their user pages or fail to show some useful information about themselves there.
3. Citizendium is a community whose shared principles are expressed in its policies. Citizendium managers have a low tolerance for disruption. Its management team has some firm rules that require professionalism. There are rules against personal attacks, self promotion, and blatant violations of the objectify guidelines, usually enforced first by warnings delivered privately if possible. The Citizendium community settles policies by discussion and (where necessary) voting by the community. The management team is supported, behind the scenes, by a private advisory group with long-term experience in wiki use and management.
4. Citizendium has its own unique content policy that differs from Wikipedia's idea of notability. Citizendium management would like to see articles that are compelling introductory narratives, not mere collections of data. Works on Citizendium use the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC-by-sa) license.
5. Attached to every article is a set of subpages of supplementary information. These may include the standard tabs for related articles, bibliographies, and external articles, but also can be customized to include galleries, tables, timelines, tutorials, and signed introductory articles by experts.
6. Citizendium takes avoidance of defamation seriously. This is why it has a Policy on Topic Informants and a Topic Informant Workgroup.
7. Citizendium classifies articles broadly into different Workgroups. Citizendium normally does not use categories on articles themselves.
8. Citizendium discourages the use of excessive acronyms on grounds that they can render a topic unintelligible to non-experts.
9. At Citizendium, all contributors are equal. A few of Citizendium's experienced Authors tend to help arbitrate editorial decisions via discussions on Talk pages or in the Forum.

See also

• Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians
• How to convert Wikipedia articles to Citizendium articles
• Citizendium Blog post (Feb. 28, 2008): Who's more command-and-control, Wikipedia or CZ?

Notes

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