-----Original Message----- From: Thomas Larsen larsen.thomas.h@gmail.com To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 6:38 pm Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Citizendium
It is my understanding that Citizendium requires users to submit a brief biography (a) to help other authors and editors know with whom they are working and (b) ensure accountability (a biography in addition to a real name can be used to almost perfectly identify a person).
I don't see that at all. In my biography I write : "I was first a world-known plastic surgeon, but then I decided to go into soft porn. After that I wrote 12 books on nematodes."
How does that identify me? You can write anything you want. Wikipedia also has a biographical area (your user page), but they don't compel you to fill it out.
I wonder if anyone can name any other website at all, that requires you to fill out a biography before they will allow you to log in? I don't mean check boxes and short fields (like city, birthdate, etc), I mean a free-form field.
This is the first time I've ever encountered a site, that requires you to fill in a free-form field, then has a human read that field, and decide on the basis of that, whether or not they will grant you access.
Will Johnson
Linkedin has procedures like that. If you say you are with a company they will insist on an email message from some account at the company.
You chose to play an ass on Citizendium and were treated like one.
Fred