User:Adam Carr: Difference between revisions

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I no longer edit at Wikipedia. I can be contacted via at my website or at Psephos: Adam Carr's Electoral Archive.

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+I no longer edit at Wikipedia. I can be contacted via at [http://www.adam-carr.net my website] or at [http://psephos.adam-carr.net Psephos: Adam Carr's Electoral Archive].
-[[Image:PICT2085.JPG|thumb|250px|"So long, and thanks for all the fish."]]
-__NOTOC__
-I have been active on Wikipedia since September 2003, mostly in the areas of history and politics, although I have other interests and have edited on a wide range of subjects. My full biography and a variety of other things can be seen at [http://www.adam-carr.net my website]. If you share my interest in election statistics, you can visit my online archive, [http://psephos.adam-carr.net Psephos: Adam Carr's Electoral Archive].
-==Wikipedia and Citizendium==
-One of the founders of Wikipedia, [[Larry Sanger]], is starting a new project called [[Citizendium]]. This is a "fork" of the complete contents of Wikipedia, which will eventually be launched as a new online encyclopaedia (or "compendium" as Larry calls it).
-There will be three essential differences between Wikipedia and Citizendium:
-*People will be only be able to edit under their real names, which must be verified.
-*There will be a hierarchy of "editors" and "authors."
-*There will be a process for declaring articles to be "approved" when they meet an agreed standard of completeness and accuracy.
-These changes match quite well with [[User:Adam Carr/proposal|my suggestions for fixing Wikipedia]], which I put forward not long after I joined Wikipedia in 2003. I have said many times that if someone started "Wikipedia-with-standards", I would join it. So I have now become a Citizendium "author", and will gradually be transferring my better articles from Wikipedia to Citizendium.
-I am not leaving Wikipedia, at least not yet, since it obviously has a far greater public profile than Citizendium, and it is important that the standard of Wikipedia articles be defended, so far as that is possible under the present structure. I will continue to monitor my Watchlist and Talk page, to make edits on existing articles, and to have arguments and discussions here.
-But I will not be contributing any more original articles or photos to Wikipedia. When I write new articles at Citizendium, I will post a notice here, so that anyone can copy them across to Wikipedia if they wish.
-Naturally I have some regrets about this. I have had a lot of fun at Wikipedia and met some interesting and admirable people. But it has always been my view that Wikipedia's objective (writing an encyclopaedia) and its structure (anonymous editing, no quality control, no completed articles) are not compatible. Now that someone has taken the initiative and started a new project, with a structure that prevents anonymous editing and allows articles to be brought to completion, I feel obliged to help it succeed.
-I have no ill-will towards Wikipedia, although I do think Jimmy Wales's stubborn defence of his anonymous-editing policy will ultimately lead to the failure of the project. My hope is that Citizendium will, in time, demonstrate the superiority of a "wiki-with-standards" model, and that the two projects can at some time re-merge into one glorious all-conquering repository of knowledge.
-Wikipedians who share my views should have a look at Citizendium as an alternative outlet for their energies. I am not urging anyone to "defect": it is perfectly possible to edit at both projects, and I know some people who are doing so.
-'''Adam Carr'''
-==About Citizendium==
-* [http://www.citizendium.org/ Citizendium.org]
-* [http://www.citizendium.org/essay.html "Larry Sanger's essay: Toward a New Compendium of Knowledge" (longer version)]
-* [http://wizards-of-os.org/index.php?id=2952 "Larry Sanger abstract"], Wizards of OS 4.
-* [https://lists.purdue.edu/pipermail/citizendium-l/2006-October/000506.html "Wikipedia rival calls in the experts"], ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' [[October 5]], [[2006]], via Citizendium-l mailing list
-* [http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6126469.html "Wikipedia co-founder plans 'expert' spinoff"], [[ZDNet|ZDNet News]], [[October 16]], [[2006]]
-* [http://www.citizendium.org/release_001.html "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Co-Founder to Launch Edited Version of Wikipedia, Pilot Project for the Citizendium to Launch This Week. October 17, 2006]