User:Anthony.Sebastian/r01


 * Modification of Citizendium's Article Approval Process.


 * Proposed by Anthony.Sebastian 21:30, 17 July 2013 (UTC)

Preliminary remarks
This Citizen-initiated non-Charter-modifying referendum calls for all articles to open as editable Main Articles. A locked ‘Citable Version’ subpage will be available for currently approved articles to accompany its editable Main Article. The ‘Citable Version’ subpage will be available also for Developed articles reaching a citable stage as determined and approved by a simple procedure, described below. Details:

The referendum does not modify the Charter, as it accords with Charter Article 22 (“Articles formally judged to be of high quality by editors shall be designated "approved", protected and kept permanently available.”), but does override the Editorial Council’s currently applicable motions relating to the Approval Process.

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Citizendium's current approval process will be eliminated. Instead, developed articles that would otherwise have been considered for approval will carry a header banner, or an ‘About this article’ footnote, that reads:

For the 165 currently approved Main Articles, which will have been moved to ‘Citable Version’ subpages, its Draft subpage contents will be substituted in place of the Main Article, at the discretion of the appropriate governing Council. If the substitution is deemed acceptable, the Draft subpage will be eliminated, and the Main Article will be unlocked for potential editing. If the substitution is decided against, the Draft subpage will be eliminated and the Main Article will be unlocked for potential editing. In either case, the editable Main Article will be accompanied by an approved locked ‘Citable Version’ subpage.

Thus, all articles will open to the Main Article, which will remain unlocked, and no Draft subpage will be available. An approved and locked ‘Citable Version’ subpage will be available for use as described above. In effect, approved articles are renamed ‘Citable Version’, i.e., citable versions of its editable Main Article.

The approval procedure for deciding when a Developed article can be accompanied by a locked ‘Citable Version’ will consist of a decision by the article’s major contributors, after approval by the Approval Manager, who will seek comments from the Citizenry and any experts and Editors who may be available and willing to comment. The Approval Manager will make the final decision, though approval may be overridden by the appropriate governing Council or by the Managing Editor. For non-developed articles (Developing articles and Stubs), the banner under the navigation bar, or the “About this article” footnote, will be standardized to describe the status of the article.

See discussion by proposer below:

Discussion by proposer
This referendum eliminates Citizendium's current Article Approval Process and replaces it with a different method establishing article approval as a Citable Version on a subpage with that label.

Currently, Article approval requires a judgment call on the part of the Article Approval Manager. That judgment call requires assessment of comments made by users and editors regarding the merits of the article for approval status, and assessment whether the authors of the article respond satisfactorily, by revisions or argument.

Currently (July 2013), and for a long time (months to years), few or no comments have been offered on articles requesting consideration for approval, owing to the fact that Citizendium's active user base, including active Editors, has fallen to very low levels, to approximately two dozen.

Moreover, Citizendium recognizes that approved articles may be erroneous in part, and that the article is subject to improvement. This is evident by the statement at the top of the page under the navigation bar:

"While we have done conscientious work, we cannot guarantee that this article is wholly free of mistakes. Help improve this article further on the draft page!"

Thus, Citizendium is constrained in approving articles because of its small user base, and when it does approve articles it recognizes that they could be further improved.

The referendum calls for all articles to open as editable Main Articles. An optional locked ‘Citable Version’ subpage will be available for currently approved articles to accompany its editable Main Article. The Citable Version subpage will also be available for Developed articles reaching a citable stage as determined by a simple approval procedure. Anthony.Sebastian 21:30, 17 July 2013 (UTC)