[WikiEN-l] Citizendium on quality

[Guettarda]

On Dec 18, 2007 8:30 PM, <joshua.zelinsky at yale.edu> wrote:

>
> Well Citizendium for reasons I don't fully understand decided to delete
> all of
> their from-Wikipedia content that hadn't been already highly modified. So
> they
> seem to be determined to succeed without the free re-use which seems to me
> at
> least to be needlessly shooting oneself in the foot. I want my content to
> be
> reused. I'd likely not contribute if it had to be under a more restrictive
> license. But yes, if the best we do is to make a roadmap for someone to
> do even
> better than we have done we should be happy.
>

I suspect that goes back to the idea of needing to create a distinct "brand"
presence.  If Citizendium just has improved versions of Wikipedia articles,
it also inherits Wikipedia's reputation for unreliability, and makes it
harder for them to develop their own brand identity.

Imagine Conservapedia importing 100,000 Wikipedia articles and making only
basic fixes (like changing all BE spelling to AE and inserting the word
"theory of" wherever "evolution" and "big bang" occur.  No one would go over
there for laughs any more, because it would be too hard to find the genuine
kool aid.