CZ:Import

The Citizendium is its own project, and we have a set of goals and an ethos which set us apart from our rivals. Among these is that Citizendium is striving to create the best, most reliable free encyclopedia on the internet.

However, Citizens are also pragmatic, and we realize that there are cases where it makes sense to use other open (free or public domain) resources to make Citizendium better. Biographical information, for example, will tend to be fairly similar in general reference works. This page is designed to give you some brief guidelines about whether you are really helping the Citizendium out by importing that article; and to give contributors a place to temporarily upload articles.

The Procedure:

1. Notice an article you think might be a good fit for Citizendium.
2. Upload the article to this page, so that the URL reads CZ:Import/NEW IMPORT (or whatever). See example at CZ:Import/Gesenius. Add a link to the article, and, at the first asterisk, explain briefly why you think it makes sense to import it. Sign it with ~~~~.
3. Wait a week for feedback from other contributors. In many cases, it will be preferable to actively solicit opinions (with email, on User talk: pages, etc.) than to wait passively for feedback. While you are waiting, it is always a good idea to do your own research. Does the article seem to be consistent with scholarly research on the subject? Are there recent developments the article ignores? And so on.
4. If you receive feedback, try to work with the other contributor to fix whatever problems the external article might have. If other contributors feel strongly that this article will be more trouble than it's worth, you should strongly consider not importing it.
5. If you have waited a week and received no feedback, you have a choice. If, having mulled it over for a week, you still feel that the external article will be a valuable addition to Citizendium, do it. (It's not as though Citizendium articles are carved in stone or anything.) However, if you're still not sure, it never hurts to wait, and articles can stay on the Import page indefinitely.

It's important to emphasize that this is a optional, voluntary method to allow contributors to solicit feedback on external articles. Contributors are free to import articles from Wikipedia so long as they follow our guidelines on the matter.

Other helpful resources

• CZ:How to convert Wikipedia articles to Citizendium articles

This is our actual policy on external articles. It's worth emphasizing that few articles from open sources are up to Citizendium standards. Also note that your external article may be deleted if you do not expand or substantially modify it.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:1911_Encyclopaedia_Britannica

Wikipedia's guidelines for importing 1911 Britannica articles. Helpful, particularly as concerns the many biases and factual problems of the 1911 Britannica.

Nominated External Articles: Add your article down here

CZ:Import/Gesenius

• As far as I can tell, this is a pretty solid article from the 1911 Britannica on an important early Semitic linguist. Brian P. Long 01:14, 11 August 2008 (CDT)

• An article about another important early orientalist. Brian P. Long 02:19, 11 August 2008 (CDT)

• Yet another orientalist... Brian P. Long 02:19, 11 August 2008 (CDT)

• A Scottish philosopher (1842-1892). I think that for well-known philosophers we should probably craft them ourselves, but for minor figures pulling them from 1911 Britannica is fine. --Tom Morris 06:54, 11 August 2008 (CDT)
  • I suppose it is fine, but only because the potential damage is minimized by the fact that hardly anybody knows enough about the topic to be able to detect even obvious errors. Never heard of George Croom Robertson, and I thought I knew a thing or two about Scottish philosophy. --Larry Sanger 09:45, 11 August 2008 (CDT)
  • Hey Tom and Larry-- I've been poking around, and it does seem like there has been almost no recent substantive scholarship on Croom Robertson. I have turned up a couple of assessments of his career, though: one in the 85th (Jan 1976) issue of Mind (as well as one in the 35th (Oct 1926)); the 2004 entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; and one in a series called "Portraits of pioneers in psychology" (which I don't have access to). The entry in the DNB and the articles in Mind should help us balance out whatever biases the Britannica might have-- I'm looking forward to reading it when you put it up here. Have you thought about doing the same for Alexander Bain, Croom Robertson's mentor? Brian P. Long 10:02, 11 August 2008 (CDT)