CZ:Getting Started

If this is your very first visit to this wiki, welcome! And please read this. It'll get you started, and it has some "do's and don'ts" you should know about.

If you've never used a wiki before, finish reading this page first for an orientation, then make the help page your next stop.

What do you want to do here? You should do precisely what you want to do. Since this is a bottom-up project, there is no one telling you what to work on, when. But here are some ideas:

• Look at the pages that others have been working on, and help out.
• Spruce up the discipline gateway articles found on the front page.
• Some people have been working on a list of high priority articles for the pilot project. Please have a look.
• Have you seen a Wikipedia article that you always wanted to improve, but couldn't? Well, have at it; the article's here, and the Wikipedians you fought with probably aren't.
• A lot of people work outside of their areas of expertise on Wikipedia. You might actually be more comfortable working within your area in the Citizendium project.

Enlivening Wikipedia articles: do's and don'ts. The articles on this wiki are taken from Wikipedia. Some (a very few) we've edited; most we haven't. The ones that we have worked on are called "live." The articles that we haven't worked on are called "refreshable" because we might be refreshing them from time to time with the latest from Wikipedia.

• Do look at the bottom of an article for the "[[Category:CZ Live]]" tag to see if it is "live." You can double-check in the page history.
• Do help out with "live" articles! This helps other people at work on the Citizendium and helps build our essential, all-important community.
• Don't make changes to a refreshable (non-live) article unless they're significant changes. Don't make an article "live" by making minor edits. Make minor edits only to articles that are already live. (The reason for this is that we want to help ourselves to the latest major edits that Wikipedia might have made to an article.)
• If you change an article,
  • Do add "[[Category:CZ Live]]" to the bottom of the article. That makes it show up on the list of articles we've changed. That way we keep track of what we've done. (Later, that list will be constructed automatically.)
  • Do add a "[[Category:<discipline> Workgroup]]" tag to the bottom of the article: see the list of workgroups. This will help people in that workgroup follow changes made to articles in their area.

Make your user page. We think it's only polite to let other people know who they're dealing with. So, when you get a chance, edit your user page (a link to it will be up at the top of the page) and say a little about yourself. But user pages should be limited to only the following sorts of information:

• Biographical information (your education, interests, etc.).
• Articles you have started or are watching.
• "To do" lists.
• Other helpful notes directly of personal use to you in your work on the Citizendium.
• Editors require further information--a link to CV-type information and a list of your areas of expertise. See User:Gareth Leng for an example (sorry to put on the spot there Dr. Leng :-) ).
• Wikipedians: please don't use "user boxes." CZ discourages standardizing group membership in this way.

Here are a few general hints.

• To learn the technical means of editing a page on Citizendium's wiki, see how to Edit Citizendium.
• Everybody wants to know what's going on on the wiki. For that, use the recent changes page (link on the left, not to be confused with "Random page" and "Related changes") is a source of endless fascination. It allows you to explore what other people are up to, help them, and "keep them honest."
• This is an "alpha" pilot project, which means that things might break occasionally. Don't let that freak you out. Just ask questions if you're curious.
• Be bold in updating pages! Don't be shy!
• But be kind and collegial. Among other things, this means that if you edit someone else's work on the Citizendium, you should explain why you made the edits you did on the "discussion" page. But here we don't mean the original Wikipedia article--feel free to be the first person to completely change it without explanation. Consider that your reward for whipping it into shape.
• Want to discuss general policy, get help, etc.? Don't do that here on the wiki except about particular articles (use the "discussion" tab). Instead, join Citizendium-L and, if you're an editor, Citizendium-Editors (you should already be subscribed, actually, if you accepted our invitation). Also, there's a lot of good stuff in the Citizendium Forums.

Where are the rules? This is a wiki. That means that smart people working in good faith usually don't need rules. But we do have some rules that are under active development. See our Policy Outline.

"I'm an editor, where do I go to learn about my editor duties?" Again, see our Policy Outline. We won't be approving any articles anytime in the next few weeks; we haven't established the process yet. But you can start making decisions about articles in your specific areas of expertise. Simply begin a section titled "Editors' Instructions" at the top of the article's discussion page. If you have some question as to whether you are in fact an editor of a particular article, consult the policy outline, first, and if you have questions still, then contact Larry Sanger.

Why Citizendium at all? Because we love knowledge and love formulating it beautifully. Because the world needs a better free encyclopedia than Wikipedia. Because it's merely productive to respect expertise.

Next stop? If you've never used a wiki before, then make the help page your next stop. But if you have, what are you waiting for? Dive right in!