[WikiEN-l] Citizendium vs. Wikipedia

[doc]

George Herbert wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 7:27 AM, doc <doc.wikipedia at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> 
>> I'd say that "the reader question" is less pertinent for any start up
>> than the "writer question". Readers will not be interested until you
>> have enough writers to produce the goods, and do so in a reliable way.
>> So you really need to find a motivation to make qualified people want to
>> contribute (or Wikipedia's best to switch). Ultimately, having a lot of
>> readers will do that, but any start up needs initially to offer
>> something else to the writer.
> 
> 
> 
> I think that's a nice theory, but a number of new projects have in some
> sense (either people-wise or concept-wise) spun out of Wikipedia to try and
> do that, and in practice have not had readership follow them or build up on
> their own.
> 
> There are a number of possible explanations...  Wikipedia just has grabbed
> public mindshare and others don't have a wedge to get in right now.
> Wikipedia's readers to editors curve being so easy may in fact be a key
> innovation and enabler to get and keep reader mindshare.  The other
> encyclopedias may just not get "reader friendly" well enough and thus be
> ultimately doomed walled gardens.  Or perhaps we're being too harsh, time
> and content will bring critical masses of readership.
> 
> If any of these projects really don't value readership, then they're truly
> doomed.
> 
> 

As I've said, the other projects basically fail for being too like 
wikipedia. Why write for something which you might consider "a little 
better than wikipedia in area x" when you can write for Wikipedia, which 
is read far more.

You need to offer a writer something very different, if you are to 
motivate him to write in the early stages when readership will be low. 
Or indeed, you have to attract the type of writer who would be wholly 
disinterested in writing for wikipedia.

Readership WILL eventually be the incentive for writing. But any startup 
begins with zero readers, and can't possibly attract any readers unless 
it has content, for which is needs writers motivated to write only in 
the expectation of future readers.

Your first task is to find a model people want to write for.