QUOTE(thekohser @ Sun 14th March 2010, 3:29pm)
QUOTE(DawnofMan @ Sat 13th March 2010, 8:53pm)
I don't like the citizendium model and am not prepared to give up my anonymity to work with a bunch of self-appointed "experts". One Willy Connelly is bad enough.
I'm still curious what the motivation is for someone to want anonymity while writing an encyclopedia. For hundreds of years, encyclopedias have had named authors and editors. What's so different about your objectives from theirs?
Hundreds of years of encyclopedia writing and the current methods of "writing an encyclopedia" using a wiki are pretty much completely incomparable. With the wiki model, there's no profit incentive, there's no real copyright protection, and every rough draft is accessible forever on the Internet.
I can see the motivation to want anonymity while writing an encyclopedia using a wiki. For hundreds of years, the building of an encyclopedia happened behind closed doors, and only the final product was distributed to the public. I'd say in many ways the wiki model itself (even ignoring the notion of "anyone can edit") is hostile to experts.
QUOTE(thekohser @ Sun 14th March 2010, 3:29pm)
Also, the "self-appointed" experts on Citizendium provide their biographical background, so that you may fairly weigh whether they are indeed an expert or not. Or, are you one of those "newfangled" types who doesn't "believe" in advanced degrees and the teaching experience and publication history?
Take a look at some of the bios on Citizendium some time, though. It's pretty hard to distinguish the geniuses from the nutcases solely from their bio. There are lots of nutcases with advanced degrees, teaching experience, and even publication history.
I like Citizendium's idea of approved articles. While the fact that an article is approved does not indicate that it is reliable, I like the fact that you at least have a short list of whom to blame for the flaws therein. But even that doesn't require all editors to be named individuals, only the ones that approve the articles.
Of course, the biggest problem with Citizendium isn't the structure. But that's all I'm going to say about that.