CZ:Priorities

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This page is meant to help us define what to concentrate on. Please edit as you see fit. For comments, please use this Forum thread.

Financial

  • paying the monthly bills of USD 319.90
  • finding stable source of revenue
  • thinking of ways to reduce costs

Legal

  • getting registered as a non-profit organization, e.g. as per 501(c)(3)

Community

  • Facilitate registration
This could include experiments with short periods of self-registration (perhaps with some kind of "Verified account", e.g. as at Twitter, or an endorsement system similar to the one in use at arXiv) or even provisions for some forms of anonymous editing, provided that the tools to fight spam are beefed up (e.g. by using Flagged Revisions or by giving most regulars sysop powers) and real-name requirements remain in place at least for Editors.
  • Facilitate newcomer integration
  • Reconsider community events like CZ:Write-a-thon and how participation could be increased
As inaugural and long-time Write-a-Thon (WaT) MC, Aleta Curry offered some observations:
  1. People forget. They must be reminded frequently with:
    a) e-mail from the Chief (currently DM)
    b) a banner on the front page AND the floating banner (I don't know what else to call it) that appeared on every single CZ page a person went to edit during the period of the WaT
    c) personal invitations from the WaT MC. Visit the talk pages of all active authors, then subsequently, all WaT participants from the last 2 or 3 WaTs, dropping them a friendly line and reminding them that it's in progress. (Yes, of course it takes a lot of time. Y'all sound like my husband. He, too, thinks everything gets done by magic....)
  2. The WaT page must be as active as possible. WaTs worked best when people were constantly commenting, joking, piggy-backing on other people's ideas, etc. Citizens must get in the habit of visiting the WaT page, even if it's just to say 'sorry, I can't participate this time round.'
  3. Topics and themes are useful, but they must be as general and open as possible. People hate being told what they have to do.
  • Reconsider communication channels (especially forums, email)

Content

  • Request external peer review of developed articles
  • Establish content partnerships, e.g. by way of CZ:Eduzendium
  • Ban pseudoscience topics at least temporarily, to avoid them serving as time sinks
  • Get rid of articles listed in Category:External Articles

Technical

Outreach

  • Allow some easy feedback
  • Develop outreach strategy
  • Explore outreach channels, including social media and offline

Bureaucracy

  • Link all policy from relevant passages in the Charter

Behaviour

  • Diversify the range of possible Constabulary actions - not just permanent bans

Other

  • Fix linguistic errors in Charter