User:Joe Quick/Sandbox

Article style

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The Citizendium community recognizes the special role that subject matter experts play in assuring that the site’s contents meet these standards. We recognize two important types of expertise: broad knowledge and deep knowledge. Experts with broad knowledge of one or more domains of knowledge help us ensure that the topics of our articles are presented in the scientific, philosophical, cultural and methodological contexts in which professionals discuss them. Experts with deep knowledge of specific topics help us make sure that we have all of the relevant facts and that we present them correctly. Many people have both types of knowledge. Official recognition of expertise shall be based on guidelines established by the Editorial Council.

Though expertise is valued, unnecessarily complicated writing is not. Citizendium material is intended to be accessible to the general public and should be composed so as to maximize accessibility. The basic content provided at the Citizendium is intended for an audience with completed secondary education. More specialized content is welcome but it should be written without unnecessary jargon or unnecessarily recondite language and it must be placed in context.

As far as possible, special needs of visually or otherwise impaired users and of machines will be taken into account.

Article development

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The collaborative environment in which we write our articles is an important part of the Citizendium community. Just like other user-generated websites, we rely on the contributions of many different people spread out around the world. Some of these contributions are very small and some are quite extensive, but all are important for the project. Cooperation is therefore very important and disruptive behavior is not tolerated.

Unlike many other user-generated sites, we defer to expertise when disputes about the content of an article arise.

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