CZ:About
Citizendium is a wiki for providing free knowledge where contributors use their real names. We write the kinds of encyclopedia-style articles that Wikipedia can't write, regarding information as a public good and welcoming anyone who wants to share their knowledge on virtually any subject. Our online community prides itself on being congenial and supportive.
Citizendium's contributors help create online encyclopedia articles that are different from what Wikipedia now offers, though not necessarily either better or worse. Please understand that we love Wikipedia; most of us consult it several times per day. But we also recognize its limitations, and that's why we support The Citizendium as, sometimes, a better alternative. We acknowledge and honor Wikipedia's successes in seeking to be a complete compendium of everything; it would be futile to duplicate that effort.
The Citizendium provides a different kind of collaborative environment than Wikipedia now offers: we use real names, so you always know whom you are dealing with, and we have a modest number of active authors so that it becomes possible to know each other well. We strive for objectivity and quality--and civility. Please see We aren't Wikipedia for more details about how the two platforms differ.
It is also okay to use The Citizendium as a staging area for an article to be copied elsewhere later (such as to Wikipedia, where it will likely be seen by more eyes), as long as the article meets our stylistic and content guidelines. Copying our articles to another platform is legal, with the following caveats: the article remains behind on The Citizendium (may not simply be deleted), and at its new home, attribution is given to The Citizendium as per our site license. In fact, we find these cases interesting to watch over time, to see how the two parallel articles evolve in their different hosts.
We are a growing community, and we'd like to invite you to join us in building Citizendium! Please use our application form (Google Account required). It typically takes a few days to get a response for an application, so please be patient.