CZ:Contributor Lists

This is part of a proposal that is currently pending. Please do not use!

What are contributor lists?

Contributor lists are alphabetical lists of people who have contributed at least a couple of sentences to the article. Names appear only if there have been at least five contributors.

How does someone get added to the list?

People add themselves, once they have added "two substantive sentences," or an equivalent amount of content such as an image or notes, to the article.

Why a contributor lists at all?

It is a small honor that might motivate some people to contribute.

Isn't the list meaningless if one can be added to it for adding just a couple of sentences to the article?

It is not meaningless, but we grant that it is a small honor--one that, again, will motivate some people to do work on the wiki and take pride in their work, even if very small.

Why not make the honor more meaningful? Why not restrict credit to "major authors," defined somehow?

Because, in short, to do that would be to recognize people as major authors. This would change the robustly collaborative culture of our project. Probably, this would make people less likely to contribute to articles that they aren't honored for writing. Other projects, such as the Encyclopedia of Earth and Scholarpedia, do recognize major authors, but they do not enjoy nearly the sort of robust collaboration that the Citizendium does. It is best that we not play fast and loose with the very engine--collaboration--that runs the wiki process.

I created a list, or added myself to a list, but I don't see my name. Why not?

Probably because there are fewer than five names on the list.