<<-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Larsen <larsen.thomas.h(a)gmail.com>
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 7:00 pm
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Citizendium
Will—in terms of identification, that biography would not match that
of any other Will Johnson in the world, and it thus identifies you. It
also gives other authors some idea of your interests and biases.
Perhaps Citizendium has too high a barrier to entry, but I wouldn't
say it's /unreasonable/ per se.
Cheers,
—Thomas Larsen>>
What is unreasonable is that nowhere on the page does it state anything
like what they actually do with the information you enter.
It does not say, "Write a biography because we are going to have a
person review it and decide whether to accept you or not based on what
you write."
It does not say, "Write a biography because we are going to use it to
verify who you are."
It does not say, "Write a biography because we are going to use that to
determine what areas of expertise you have."
Nothing. There are many sites with a biographical box. They don't
compel you to fill it in, and they don't use it for anything except for
you to *self* identify. They do not use it for their own purposes.
That is why Citizendium fails my test for reasonableness. They collect
information, and explain neither why they are, nor what they are going
to do with that. It
's not the point whether someone else knows that.
The point is that the initial user should be told right up-front on
that page.
Will Johnson