[WikiEN-l] Citizendium vs. Wikipedia

[Sage Ross]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 9:58 AM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/4/22 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>:

>> I think competition is fantastic and fully encourage people to start
>> competitors to Wikipedia, but in my view Citizendium has failed. It
>> wasn't sufficiently better than Wikipedia to attract enough writers
>> and readers to kick off exponential growth, which is required to reach
>> a useful size.
>
>
> Citizendium's not dead yet!
>
> But it'll get good in direct proportion to how much it forms its own
> positive identity, rather than one based on comparing itself to
> Wikipedia.
>

I'd say Citizendium's best chance for success (if not the same kind of
success Sanger and other Citizens have been envisioning) will be as
part of the broader Wikipedia ecosystem.

After the license change, CZ content can be imported to Wikipedia.
One possible evolution of the WP-CZ relationship will be a level of
coordination, in which CZ writers are really writing with Wikipedia in
mind, just in a little less of a free-for-all community environment.
Already, there are probably several hundred Citizendium articles that
are outright better than the Wikipedia counterparts, and many of them
don't even have corresponding Wikipedia articles.

We've recognized for a long time that, while Wikipedia's advantages
are strong enough to attract many knowledgeable experts, there are
some who try it out and find the editing environment unbearable.
Citizendium could become a project that is actively supported by the
Wikipedia community, where we encourage some editors to go so that
they can work in relative peace and eventually have the chance to
re-integrate their work in Wikipedia.

For a while, it seemed that what ultimately tied together the CZ
community was opposition (for a wide, sometimes incompatible range of
reasons) to Wikipedia.  But I don't think that's the case anymore, and
just the fact that participation levels are remaining stable suggests
that they've forged something of a self-sustaining community, even if
the hoped-for critical mass never comes.

-Sage (User:Ragesoss)