[WikiEN-l] Citizendium

[wjhonson at aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Larsen <larsen.thomas.h at gmail.com>
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at 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).

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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