CZ:Proposals/Involving authors in approvals

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For now, the proposal record can be found in the new proposals queue.

Complete explanation

1) Anyone should be able to nominate any article for approval (even their own article).

2) To approve articles requires the support of relevant editors. But authors should also be able (and indeed be encouraged) to express their support or otherwise for approval.

Reasoning

1) I see every reason why all contributors to Citizendium should feel encouraged to read articles with potential approval in mind.

2) As Citizendium values fluency and style, then the opinions of (non-expert) readers are very important in an Approval process that properly matches the ambitions of Citizendium.

Citizendium rightly values expert knowledge and understanding. But these things alone do not a great article make. Style, presentation and readability are at least as important, and on these things the opinions of technical experts are no more relevant and often less useful than those of non-experts. We want people to read our articles for goodness sake so let us hear and value those opinions. Obviously how much weight they carry will vary by article - a highly technical article on a specialised topic needs to be clear concise and accurate, not accessible. Other articles are the reverse - they need to be engaging, accurate and interesting but need not be exhaustive and academic.

Discussion

This needs some implementation details, but I think it is rather a good idea, especially given the paucity of active editors in some workgroups. Right now, someone may create really good articles about engineering, but unless the (other) editors are paying attention, or are notified by the authors, they may languish. If the author notifies a few of the editors listed in the workgroup, but chooses only inactive editors, the article will still languish, unchecked, and unapproved.

I see two things which may need technical implementation. First, I think that there should be some way to distinguish non-editor nominations and self-nominations by editors from outside nominations by editors (which currently lead to semi-automatic approval). Second, in the case of author nominations and self-nominations by editors, it might be nice to notify all the editors in the appropriate workgroups of the nomination, so they can weigh in on it. Anthony Argyriou 14:58, 14 February 2008 (CST)

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