Talk:Welcome to Citizendium

Archives

Archive 1, 5-30-09: User_talk:Welcome_to_Citizendium/Archive1 by Caesar Schinas

Archive 2, 8-14-13: User_talk:Welcome_to_Citizendium/Archive2 by Pat Palmer

technical things needing attention

Starting a brief tracking list here, to be moved elsewhere soon, I hope:Pat Palmer (talk) 03:13, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

• HTTPS not working
• need a design (responsive or adaptive) that can be read on mobile devices
• need to get registration process working
• need to make the server run faster, possibly by adding RAM

process things going on

Starting to keep track of things needing process attention in the list below:Pat Palmer (talk) 03:13, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

• formal shutdown/closeout of old CZ project
• planning for the next phase of wiki operation
  • formation of an advisory panel
    • getting an email list working to send notices to advisory panel
• getting an email list working to send notices to all users active since some date tbd
  • how to pull user names/emails?
• getting an email list working to send notices to all technical leads
  • John S. and Pat P. are working on this

status as of June 2020

Since discussion is ongoing at Forum_Talk:Technical_Issues#Any_further_thoughts.3F about possible wiki shutdown, I have chosen to proceed as though there is a consensus to end Citizendium as a public project, but possibly continue running the servers for people who still want to write in the wiki, using both a subscription and donation financial approach, and having a small core of managers act as benevolent dictators to keep the server running. Hence, I have started revising the front page to reflect this.Pat Palmer (talk)

• Archiving the following from the landing page's list of stuff on the right-hand side:
  • For a brief guide on what Citizendium is and is not, see Myths and Facts; for more details, see the frequently-asked questions page.

Links we may need after June 2020

• articles nominated for approval (talk)

Put Approved articles on front page

It seems to me that there are enough approved articles to have a link on the front page to them. The links on the left most column on the front page are to "live" or working articles, but shouldn't there be a link there to approved articles? There is a link on the front page to approved articles, but it isn't obvious, or not as obvious as the stuff in the left most column. That's where the approved article link should be. Gene Shackman 02:28, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I agree and can do that. John Stephenson 10:29, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. Looks great. Gene Shackman 22:58, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Cleaning up front page a bit

Well, here's my plan. Trying to take steps to make it easier for people to come to the project:Pat Palmer 13:53, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

• I'm moving registration higher up, removing some duplication, and removing this: "See also WatchKnowLearn, a free, non-profit, K-12 educational video website which Citizendium founder Larry Sanger also helped to start." because it feels like clutter, and that site is not linking back to Citizendium reciprocally.
• I wish to simplify the registration page itself, but I do not currently have permission. Working on that issue.
• Other than the above, I don't plan to remove any information, only change the order in which it is presented.
• I also intend to archive the older parts of this page when I get time.

Good stuff, but maybe it should mention the special role for Editors more prominently, rather than using the word "credentials", which makes it sound like it might be an experts-only wiki. John Stephenson 12:56, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, I just removed "and credentials". It did sound odd! I hesitate to talk about Editors on the front page, because personally, I feel that more is needed to be an Editor than just formal credentials (but that's the only criterion currently in the charter)--I think there ought, also, to be a proven ability to work well with others and influence people with a gentle approach. If you feel something ought to be on the front page about Editors at this time, go ahead and edit it in, and see if anyone objects. My goal is just to make it easier for new participants to decide to try CZ. Pat

How about:

Welcome to Citizendium, a wiki for providing free knowledge where authors use their real, verified names. We welcome anyone who wants to share their knowledge by writing and improving articles on virtually any subject. Expert authors can be recognized with a special role, but membership is open to all.

John Stephenson 11:32, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Does this add anything that you think would attract people to sign up? They are invited just below to read the Charter, which would explain editorship to them. You and I are equals here, so if you think it ought to be there, put it there. Not a big deal.Pat Palmer 13:41, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Site Design

Not really sure if this is the best place to address this. Have you considered changing the site design though? It's hard to see material from an encyclopedic standpoint with the site zoomed in like it is, first of all. Kind of dizzying I think to try reading when everything is zoomed in. The gray background looks pretty bad also. --Joshua Zambrano 18:54, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Zoomed in? You mean everything is in close-up? You can change that, and the grey background too. I'll see if I can remember how... Ro Thorpe 19:13, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

You can click on 'my preferences' at the top of the page and experiment. Ro Thorpe 19:16, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

The default skin is Pinkwich5, which has a greyish background and enlarged font. The skin I prefer using is Monobook. I'm not a fan of Pinkwich5. The previous arguments in the forum of being seen to be different from everyone else and unique has not worked in attracting new users. Let's call a spade a spade - Pinkwich5 is garish and detracts from the overall aesthetic of the website. Meg Ireland 03:56, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Speaking of site design, what would it take to make Citizendium resize on mobile devices? Richard Nevell (talk) 22:39, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Richard, I very much agree that making the site mobile friendly is important. I suspect that our best bet of doing that is for our technical gurus to manage to upgrade the Mediawiki software. This is a daunting challenge, however, since at this point, each layer of software from the OS to the web server to the database to the Mediawiki software is now many versions out of date, beside which there are many customizations which have been made, in the past, specifically for Citizendium. They are working on it, and may indeed accomplish it, but such an upgrade will inevitably include some kind of rough waters. So--as of late August 2020, I would say there is hope it will get done, but I cannot say what the timeframe will be, since everyone is an unpaid volunteer and the matters are so tricky. Do know, however, that the software upgrades are in the works which should get Citizendium to be more mobile friendly.Pat Palmer (talk) 10:48, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Removing link to article about Citizendium until/unless it can get updated

This was in the bullet list in the lower right:

• See our article on ourselves.

It needs to be revamped and updated. New contributors could be seriously confused by reading it. So, I'm now about to remove it from the landing page pending its revision. Then, we can hopefully return it.Pat Palmer (talk) 23:29, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

Added "We strive for objectivity"

Since The Citizendium no longer enforces what formerly was called Neutrality, I've added "We strive for objectivity.", a short personal essay of my own, to the lower right on the landing page. I hope it won't displease you.Pat Palmer (talk) 22:41, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

Stashing removed bullet item here (from lower left)

Archiving this here after removing it from main page because the information appears in upper right in a different format

• We have 16,469 articles at different stages of development, of which 146 have expert-approved citable versions.

Staching the Monthly Donation Day link here (no longer helpful)

Archiving this link here after removing it from the landing page because it is so old and not being maintained, nor likely to be.

• Monthly Donation Day  |

Physics Forums link on landing page

I have added a link to Physics Forums on the landing page (at the bottom of the bullet list). This is due to a deal with the Physics Forum owner, Greg Bernhardt. He doesn't normally allow his site to be used for any kind of solicitation, but in this case, if we link to him, I'll be allowed to solicit for physics experts over there to check out writing in Citizendium. This mutual linking is a new thing; if you know other social/technical forums where we might be able to work out a similar understanding, let's try it!Pat Palmer (talk) 23:45, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

Worth giving a go! Richard Nevell (talk) 22:13, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

Why Citizendium? needs updating; anybody?

• See also Why Citizendium?
  • I've archived the above link from the landing page until someone updates it. It's still got all the stuff about Editors which is not being done in practice now (and may never return). Anyone want to revise it to fit current times? (Being nice, of course; we are not in competition with Wikipedia).Pat Palmer (talk) 23:49, 29 August 2020 (UTC)