-----Original Message----- From: Anthony wikimail@inbox.org To: wjhonson@aol.com; wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 8:11 pm Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Citizendium
Neither did my application to volunteer for the fire department. That doesn't mean I used the space to bitch, or that I would have been surprised had I used the space to bitch and still been approved.>>
And here's the difference. When you apply for a job, you write something on paper, a human reads it. We all know this, we've all done it.
When you sign up for a website, *in general* no human ever needs to read what you put down. A computer sends you an email to click to verify yourself or whatever. The *typical* way to sign up for sites is completely automatic, you can do it at three in the morning.
There isn't anything on Citizendium's sign up page to make you think that they are going to act different from that. In fact it isn't really clear that once you get a login id you can even start editing.
"Fill the out and we'll get back to you" is of course what you see all the time when you sign up for anything online. A typical person is not going to assume that they mean that literally, after dozens of other sites sign you up with automated scripts.
When I signed up for a YouTube account I wrote something pretty nasty in my "bio", but it's an automated verification procedure, just like=2 0 you find all over the net, so it made no difference.
Since Citizendium is acting in a non-normal fashion compared to other sites, they should make sure that it is double-clear exactly what is happening. In my opinion, they are failing to do that. And my case highlights it. You can say, "Well you're just an ass and an idiot" but that doesn't serve any point. If it annoys me, then it probably annoys at least one other person (maybe on Mars or something). And it gains Citizendium no advantage for them to be obtuse.
Will Johnson