Citizendium

{{gold}}[[File:Czlogo 1.jpg|165px|thumb|right|The Citizendium logo as of March 2020, even worse than their [[:File:CZ_logo.gif|beta logo]].]]{{internet}}
'''Citizendium''' ("CZ") is a free Internet-based encyclopedia project that began as a pretender to the throne of [[Wikipedia]].<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Citizendium Welcome to Citizendium] ''Citizendium''.</ref> Wikipedia co-founder{{efn|Wikipedia says so, this week. The question is more than a little contentious, however.}} [[Larry Sanger]] started Citizendium in 2006 to remedy what he viewed as problems with Wikipedia. It was essentially a reincarnation of the Wikipedia predecessor {{wpl|Nupedia||,}} and just like its previous incarnation, it was a massive failure.

Citizendium aimed to boost its reliability by having articles vetted by experts and requiring contributors to use their real names.<ref group=note>Going so far as forbidding its editors from uploading free-to-use images and photographs from elsewhere if the artist works under a pseudonym and can't be convinced to reveal their real name: [http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AMGA73&action=historysubmit&diff=42395499&oldid=42392618 User talk:MGA73], Wikimedia Commons. (Note that they asked the wrong person, no less: The file in question is [[:w:File:Russian_Blue_001.gif]].)</ref> Articles were managed by workgroups, which for several years included "healing arts," Citizendium's term for [[alternative medicine]]<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Healing_Arts_Workgroup Healing Arts Workgroup] ''Citizendium''.</ref> &mdash; distinct from the workgroup on "health sciences", [[medicine|medical treatment]] that actually works. This led to the first public sign that something had gone seriously wrong when a ludicrous puff piece on [[homeopathy]] was featured on the main page in January 2009.<ref>[http://archive.ph/2O5zq Difference between revisions of "Archive:Article of the Week"] ''Citizendium'' (archived from 7 Jul 2013 13:06:36 UTC).</ref> While [[pseudoscience]] advocates were protected by site policies, many recruited academic experts quickly left, driven away by Sanger and the site administrators.<ref name="the2009" /> 

The project began with lofty ambitions and heavy media coverage. Participation grew through early 2008 before entering a steady decline. By June 2011, Citizendium was moribund, with fewer participants<ref>[[:File:Alleditors-Citizendium-monthly.png|Chart: Editors at Citizendium per month]]</ref> and edits<ref>[[:File:Alledits-Citizendium-monthly.png|Chart: Edits made at Citizendium per month]]</ref> than any full month in its history and well over half the month's edits made by just three users.<ref>The exact figure is 56.5%; see [[:File:Pie-Citizendium-2011-6.png|this chart]].</ref> It only got worse from then on.<ref><capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Statistics Citizendium statistics]</capture></ref> By early 2014, only 10 people made even 10 edits per month. An election held in June 2015 to fill a council seat attracted 13 voters.<ref>{{cite web|title=Citizendium Council election|url=http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/User:ElectionJune2015|accessdate=23 June 2015}}</ref> 2020 began with a discussion among a handful of people about shutting down the project.<ref>{{cite web|title=Let's deliberately shut down|url=http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Forum_Talk:Technical_Issues#Let.27s_deliberately_shut_down|accessdate=22 March 2020}}</ref> Only three people contributed to articles in the first 80 days of 2020.

The project continued essentially as a hobby site for a few individuals who enjoy bureaucracy, Wikipedia-bashing, or believing, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Citizendium is significant (although even these activities underwent a decline) – harmless enough in itself, though unfortunate in its wasted potential. The rise and fall of Citizendium, with issues such as micromanagement, top-heavy organization, and [[credentialism]] used to give cranks undue influence, serves as a useful warning to other projects. As of February 2020, the site is currently hovering around the 595,000 mark on Alexa ratings.{{efn|For context, [[RationalWiki]] was at around 23,000, [[Conservapedia]] was around 127,000, and SpaceJam.com, the official website for the titular 1996 live-action Looney Tunes movie featuring former NBA all-star Michael Jordan, ranked at 228,000.}}

In 2020, after years of moribund activity, it was decided that Citizendium in its editable wiki form would close on September 30, 2020, with the possibility of the project living on in another form.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Forum_Talk:Technical_Issues/Archive_2#Any_further_thoughts? Forum Talk:Technical Issues/Archive 2: Any further thoughts?] ''Citizendium''.</ref> However, this did not come to pass, and in 2021 new Citizendium owner Pat Palmer wrote an article redefining the site as a supplement to, and not an alternative to, the vastly more successful Wikipedia.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210413180647/https://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Who_we_are_in_2021 CZ:Who we are in 2021] ''Citizendium'' (archived from April 13, 2021).</ref>

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== History ==
===Founding and public launch===
The project was founded in 2006 to create a "new compendium of knowledge" based on the contributions of "intellectuals," defined as "educated, thinking people who read about science or ideas regularly."<ref name=sanger-essay>[http://citizendium.org/essay.html Toward a New Compendium of Knowledge (longer version)] (Larry Sanger, 2006-09-15)</ref> The ambition was to "unseat Wikipedia as the go-to destination for general information online."<ref name="Sangerpr">Larry Sanger. [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Citizendium_Press_Releases/Oct172006 "Co-Founder to Launch Edited Version of Wikipedia: Pilot Project for the Citizendium to Launch This Week"], Citizendium.org, October 17, 2006.</ref> It was launched with great fanfare and wide coverage in both the blogosphere and the international prestige press.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Press_Coverage CZ:Press Coverage] (archived)</ref>

Citizendium began its pilot phase in October 2006 and went public on March 27, 2007.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Citizendium_Press_Releases/Mar272007 Citizendium Press Releases > Mar272007]</ref> It began as a fork of the English Wikipedia under the terms of the [[GNU Free Documentation License]], but by the time of the public launch, Sanger had decided that starting from a clean slate was the best way to motivate writers. He, therefore, deleted all Wikipedia-sourced articles that had not been worked on locally.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070129014348/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,431.0.html Citizendium forum thread, "Would you contribute more if the wiki were blank?"] by Larry Sanger (January 17, 2007, 12:50:59 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from January 29, 2007).</ref> This was a ''huge'' gamble, betting that Citizendium's writers would fill gaping holes in content.

=== Growth and decline===
{|style="float:right"
|<gallery perrow=2 widths=120px heights=120px>
File:Alleditors-Citizendium-monthly.png|Number of participants per month, Oct 2006-Aug 2012. Find the "explosion of growth." 
File:Alledits-Citizendium-monthly.png|Edits per month, Oct 2006-Aug 2012.
File:Pie-Citizendium-2012-8-cropped.png|In August 2012 almost half of all edits were made by just two users and about 85% were made by the top 10 users.
File:Cz-prognosis.png|Sanger's prognosis compared to reality
</gallery>
|}

Sanger stated in October 2007 that he foresaw "an explosion of growth...in the not-too-distant future"<ref name="prophecy">[http://www.citizendium.org/oneyearandthriving.html#explosion Larry Sanger: The Citizendium one year on: a strong start and an amazing future]</ref> and expected the project to triple, or at least double, in size annually.

Participation grew during Citizendium's first year, peaking in early 2008 before settling into a long-term decline. The number of words added per day has plummeted from 17,100 in the second quarter of 2008 to just 600 in January 2014. Article creation rate increased from around 14 per day in late 2007 to 18-20 per day in 2010, falling to less than one per day by 2013. At the start of 2014, there were about 15.1 million words in 24,891 mainspace articles (a mean of 605 words/article).<ref group=note>The mean being much larger than the median suggests the distribution is strongly ''positively skewed'': many very short articles and a much smaller number of long ones.</ref><ref group=note>By the way, the mean article length is comparable to Wikipedia's, which was [http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 580 words in January 2010].</ref>

In early 2014 about 21 individuals made at least one edit per month at Citizendium, down from around 200 at the time of Sanger's "explosion of growth" prediction.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Statistics#Number_of_authors CZ:Statistics], graph [http://en.citizendium.org/images/8/86/Editing_users.png Editing users.png]</ref> It is dwarfed by Wikipedia, which had 117,763 active editors at the start of 2014.<ref>Thirty-day running totals at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics.</ref> But it's also far behind even narrow, hobbyist wikis such as Muppet Wiki and Wookieepedia (the Star Wars wiki), which had 178<ref>[http://muppet.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:WikiStats&action=main Wikia Statistics - MuppetWiki]</ref> and 545<ref>[http://starwars.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:WikiStats&action=main Wikia Statistics - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki]</ref> contributors, respectively, in January 2014. Or even [[RationalWiki]], where about 300 people make at least one edit per month.<ref>[[:File:Api-active-editors-compl-RationalWiki.png| Active Editors at RationalWiki]]</ref> The project is now dominated by a small core of regulars with almost no new blood, as, in fact, joining at all is still impossible (see below).

==Community management==

===Authors and editors===
Citizendium called its contributors "Citizens." They were divided into authors (hoi polloi) and editors (the experts) &mdash; analogous to print publications. The class distinction was clear and came from the top: if you were a mere author, your opinions were worthless.<ref name="daveydweeb">[http://web.archive.org/web/20110929203742/daveydweeb.com/2007/02/07/citizendium-isnt-interested-in-your-opinion/ Citizendium isn’t interested in your opinion] (February 7, 2007) ''Daveydweeb.blog'' (archived from September 29, 2011).</ref> As may be expected, this left Citizendium a wiki of editors with few authors to supervise.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100731091738/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3299.msg31250.html Re: Additions to the Constabulary page by Matt] (July 27, 2010, 10:48:39 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from July 31, 2010).</ref> This contrasted with Wikipedia, where everyone is an "editor." The difference in terminology sometimes led to confusion when discussing Citizendium.

Editors were supposed to provide "gentle expert guidance" to authors. They could referee disputes over article content and could also enforce style guidelines. But their real power lay in their ability to "approve" articles. After an article was approved, it became the version displayed to the public (before August 2013)<ref>http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Category:Approved_Articles</ref> and was locked from further editing. Any changes had to be made to a separate draft version which could eventually be approved to replace the current public-facing version. The process was cumbersome enough that reapprovals were rare, so even obvious and uncontroversial errors could remain in articles for years.{{efn|"My personal observation of the articles I have been involved with is that their quality varies enormously… This includes some of the population elevated to 'approved' articles, an ossification process that simply makes any revision of their infelicities impossibly bureaucratic."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121006193126/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,4086.msg44316.html Re: The future of the project] by Matt Innis (August 10, 2011, 11:21:25 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from October 6, 2012).</ref>}} [[#Crank magnetism | As we shall see later]], this also had some interesting implications for the project's coverage of fringe and pseudoscience. This process was changed in August 2013 so that the main version displayed to the public was the editable version, bringing Citizendium closer in style to Wikipedia, as with many changes Citizendium made out of practicality due to declining editorship.

===Signing up to contribute===
Citizendium has often been criticized for its cumbersome and intrusive signup process. Each member is required to use their real name, and for the project's first seven years, they could not even use common nicknames (such as "Dicky Smith" for "Richard Smith"). In addition to their real names, all contributors must provide a statement of personal interests and education. Not just a sentence or two, but a ''minimum'' of 50 words and "preferably a few hundred words." If the statement through the account request form was less than fifty words, the request was automatically blocked from being reviewed by Constables. And if the real name policy and requirement for a biography aren't intrusive enough, the project also suggests you provide "rough clues as to age and location" — a cyberstalker's dream. If you want to be an "editor", you also have to submit a curriculum vitae along with links to web materials supporting what you claim in your CV.

They actually think it isn't a complicated process to join, even with the information provided ''and'' the number of options and applications that must be selected. The account request page looks like a legal document for adding a constitutional amendment.

The Citizens often expressed puzzlement as to why they had so much trouble getting people to join.

After the server change in late 2014, the request account form stopped working. You could still fill the form in, it just wouldn't be sent anywhere, and no one would see it. A note was placed at the top of the form asking people to put all the required information into an email and send it to "citizendium-l-owner 'at' lists.purdue.edu". Yep, they even make you fill out the email address manually. To this day (March 2020), the request account form still doesn't work. Evidently, allowing people to join has always remained a low priority.

=== Sanger's role ===
[[File:L Sanger.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Larry Sanger]]
Sanger was Editor-In-Chief of Nupedia and Wikipedia until resigning in March 2002,<ref>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/My_resignation--Larry_Sanger My resignation--Larry Sanger] (March 1, 2002) ''Wikimedia''.</ref> the money having run out a month earlier. He resigned from the volunteer position because he did not have the authority from the community to deal with users he felt were simply being disruptive.<ref>[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/09/the-hive/5118/4/ The Hive: The Cunctator] (Marshall Poe, ''The Atlantic'', September 2006)</ref> 

Despite his early claims that Citizendium would operate on an open "bazaar" model rather than a closed "cathedral" one,<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=CZ:FAQ&oldid=100742835#How_similar_is_this_project_to_open_source_hacker_culture.2C_and_how_similar_to_the_culture_of_academia.3F] "How similar is this project to open source hacker culture, and how similar to the culture of academia?" Citizendium FAQ, as of 23 December 2010</ref><ref name=sanger-essay /> Sanger had worked out in detail how he wanted to run Citizendium early on<ref name=slashdot-history>Sanger, L. 2005-04-19. [http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/19/1746205 "The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia, Part II."] ''Slashdot.'' This article sets out the basic ideas that he attempted eventually to put into practice as Citizendium.</ref> and kept it under firm control from the start. He surprised prospective contributors who were used to having room for differing opinions<ref name="daveydweeb" /> and serendipity with such actions as shutting down the project mailing list, thus killing the main venue for community enthusiasm at the time because he felt it had too much traffic.<ref>[http://weblog.terrellrussell.com/2006/10/citizendium-a-study-in-momentum-killing/ Citizendium &mdash; A study in momentum killing] (Terrell Russell, blog post, 2006-10-13)</ref> He was not interested in the ideas of others and tended to react to them as if they were attacks<ref>"I won't point out the various examples of spuriousness but instead keep it to one observation: someone that inclined to perceive hostility where it isn't evident is not going to be a good community manager." [http://many.corante.com/archives/2006/09/20/larry_sanger_on_me_on_citizendium.php#141031 (Response to a Larry Sanger blog post)]</ref> on his detailed plan.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Citizendium&diff=360275671&oldid=356675795] "I can tell you in two words why it failed: Larry Sanger. I found I had moved from anarchy to absolute monarchy. After two or three encounters with Larry's autocratic rudeness, I departed."</ref>

When establishing Citizendium, Sanger announced that he would be resigning as Editor-in-Chief after two or three years.<ref>[http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/02/citizendium.ars/3 Citizendium: building a better Wikipedia: Ars Technica takes a look at Citizendium, Larry Sanger's effort to build a …] by Nate Anderson - 2/25/2007, 5:20 PM) ''Ars Technica''. "No dictator for life"</ref><ref>[http://news.softpedia.com/news/Wikipedia-Co-Founder-Ready-to-Launch-New-Project-120175.shtml Wikipedia Co-Founder Ready to Launch New Project: Wikipedia and Citizendium co-founder finds new toy to play with] by Catalin Cimpanu (Aug 26, 2009 13:59 GMT) ''Softpedia News''.</ref> In July 2009, he stepped down from active involvement<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110720034117/https://lists.purdue.edu/pipermail/citizendium-l/2009-July/001418.html My recent absence] by Larry Sanger (Jul 30 11:35:39 EDT 2009) ''Citizendium-l'' (archived from July 20, 2011).</ref> to pursue paid work on the WatchKnow educational video initiative. When he tried to report Wikipedia to the FBI over "child pornography" (line art drawings of lolicon) in April 2010,<ref>[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/09/sanger_reports_wikimedia_to_the_fbi/ Wikifounder reports Wikiparent to FBI over 'child porn': No real people pictured] by Cade Metz (9 Apr 2010 at 21:20) ''The Register''.</ref> he used the official Citizendium blog<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20100615072731/http://blog.citizendium.org/?p=575 Reply to Slashdot about my report to the FBI] (Larry Sanger, ''Citizendium Blog'', 11 April 2010)</ref> to link to his reply to Slashdot commenters,<ref>[http://www.larrysanger.org/ReplyToSlashdot.html Reply to Slashdot about my report to the FBI] by Larry Sanger (April 14, 2010).</ref> suggesting that he still considered Citizendium his personal site, and bashing Wikipedia as part of the mission. He stepped down as Editor-in-Chief after the Charter was ratified in September 2010<ref name=sangerfarewell>[https://lists.purdue.edu/pipermail/citizendium-l/2010-September/001510.html The Charter Ratification Vote is Over] (Larry Sanger, citizendium-l, 23 September 2010)</ref> but, after a brief absence, was elected to the site's Management Council in 2011.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Citizendium_Ballot_for_the_Management_Council Citizendium Ballot for the Management Council], June 2011.</ref>

Sanger believed that any lack of participation in or readership for Citizendium was not due to his policies or the behavior of himself or his "constables" (the wiki administrators)<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Constable CZ:Constable] ''Citizendium''.</ref> but due to [[Persecution complex|"thuggish--cretinish" Wikipedians who were "trying to beat down the underdog with lies and intimidation."]]<ref name="the2010" />

Sanger offers consulting services as an expert in policy formation for online communities.<ref><capture>[http://larrysanger.org/consulting.html#20100904 Consulting]</capture> (larrysanger.org)</ref> Everipedia is a Wikipedia competitor Sanger became involved with well after he left Citizendium, another one of a [[Larry Sanger#Projects|series]] of failed projects. His other interests include promoting [[2019-20 COVID-19 outbreak#Chloroquine|hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment]]<ref><capture>[https://twitter.com/lsanger/status/1278917272497774594 Hydroxychloroquine vindicated in new peer-reviewed study...]</capture> (twitter.com)</ref> and the work of [[Computing Forever]].<ref><capture>[https://twitter.com/lsanger/status/1288665302373457921 Another fantastic video by Computing Forever/Dave Cullen. Check it out.]</capture> (twitter.com)</ref>

==Operational management==

===Financial misadventures===

In November 2010, an accidentally-revealed forum thread<ref>[[:File:Capture 3f056022d53b9bb9d884b2fbd298db94f84e9e5c.png | Screen cap of forum post]]</ref> detailed the dire financial straits in which Sanger had left Citizendium. Sanger had told the Citizens in vague terms that more funding was needed, but they were blindsided by the immediacy of the financial crisis. Available funds were down to $1800, they were shelling out $700 a month in hosting charges to [http://steadfast.net/ Steadfast], and within a few weeks, they had a payment of $1500 owed to the Tides Center, their parent organization.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101118041804/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3600.msg36877.html Message to the Citizendium Community] by 
Russell D. Jones (November 12, 2010, 10:29:43 PM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from November 18, 2010).</ref> According to their new Managing Editor, they faced the prospect of insolvency by the end of the year.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101110081349/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3557.msg36395.html New hosting solution] by Daniel Mietchen (November 05, 2010, 05:01:50 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from November 10, 2010).</ref>

This revelation brought up important questions about the project's financial management. Piecing together Citizendium's incomplete records,<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=CZ:Donor_List&oldid=100711452 Citizendium Donor List] ([[:File:Capture_596dc278e7cdd442fc327c107b83e36c4dc07b0c.png | screencap]])</ref> the project had received around $60,000-$65,000 in contributions; Sanger has put the amount at "$60,000 and change."<ref>[http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=31401&st=20&p=259041&mode=linear#entry259041] Comment by Larry Sanger posted to Wikipedia Review. Interestingly, Sanger's most forthcoming discussion of Citizendium finances appears on a site outside Citizendium.</ref> In March 2007, Citizendium expanded to multiple servers (five!) with Steadfast; two were donated, and the other three were presumably paid for out of pocket.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Citizendium_Press_Releases/Mar272007 Citizendium press release]</ref> This put the accumulated infrastructure and hosting costs at an estimated $32,200 by the time of the forum post, leaving about $30,000 to account for. It eventually came to light that Citizendium had been paying the Tides Foundation at least $2000 per year for handling the project's finances plus $1000 per year for liability insurance.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101118041804/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3600.msg36877.html Message to the Citizendium Community] by Russell D. Jones (November 12, 2010, 10:29:43 PM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from November 18, 2010).</ref> Assuming these expenses were paid for 2007, 2008, 2009, and the first half of 2010, the total paid to the Tides Center would be at least $10,500, leaving around $20,000. By Citizendium's own records, only Larry Sanger, initial technical director Jason Potkanski, and an unnamed programmer have received any compensation for their work on the project.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Personnel Citizendium Personnel]</ref> The total paid to these individuals has not been revealed. We could make conjectures about other expenses — for example, if Sanger had to travel extensively for fundraising or promotion, this could have eaten up $10,000 fairly quickly. But we just don't know.

$700 a month for hosting was absurdly high. A site of Citizendium's size and traffic (comparable to RationalWiki as of 2010) could easily be supported by commercial hosting for around $50-$150 a month. That’s about $28,000 wasted on over-the-top network and server infrastructure. Put another way, enough money was blown to support Citizendium for an estimated ''23 years''. At the end of 2010, the project took steps that reduced their hosting costs to $320 per month, trimming their costs from "insane" to merely "excessive." It was also revealed then that major donors to Citizendium had lost interest in supporting the project.<ref>[http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3762.msg38963.html#msg38963 A major reorganization of our server farm] by Dan Nessett (January 04, 2011, 02:22:43 PM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from January 8, 2011).</ref> Later on, for an entire year in 2013 and 2014, their hosting costs were brought down to around $100 (with one person paying over $3800 out of pocket to support the change.) Citizendium now relies entirely on individual donors; for most months in 2019, it received a single $5 monthly donation against $100 hosting costs.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Financial_report Citizendium's financial report]</ref>

===Relationship with the Tides Center===
The Tides Center is a major non-profit described as an "incubator" for other non-profits. Apparently, Larry Sanger entered into an agreement with them right before he started accepting large donations, with the Tides Center managing donations and providing status as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization under U.S. law. This status is required for contributions to be tax deductible; Sanger had said that lack of such status was a "sticking point" for many prospective donors. As noted previously, this arrangement costs Citizendium ''at least'' $3000 per year. Citizendium was promised operational independence, and Sanger promised in 2007 that Citizendium would be "independent" within six months. Three years later and $60,000 poorer, Citizendium was still a Tides Center project. 

Although no official announcement was made, Citizendium is no longer affiliated with the Tides Center. By May 2011, there was no longer an entry for Citizendium under the Tides Center project directory,<ref>[http://www.tides.org/community/project-directory Project Directory at the Tides Center web site]</ref> and Citizendium staff had quietly deleted most references to Tides from their internal pages.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=CZ%3AFAQ&action=historysubmit&diff=100769822&oldid=100742835 Edit to CZ:FAQ] by the project's Managing Editor, describing material on Tides Center partnership as "outdated."</ref><ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=CZ%3AWe_aren%27t_Wikipedia&action=historysubmit&diff=100769824&oldid=100733017 Edit to CZ:We aren't Wikipedia] by the project's Managing Editor, removing reference to Tides Center</ref>

===Technical implementation===
Citizendium defined itself so completely as the anti-Wikipedia that even technical decisions were made largely based on being different from Wikimedia (such as using PostgreSQL rather than MySQL for the database and incompatible changes to their MediaWiki installation).<ref>[http://www.networkperformancedaily.com/2007/06/a_look_at_citizendiums_backend.html A look at Citizendium's Backend] (''Network Performance Daily'', 2007-06-11) &mdash; "First, to be different from Wikipedia." (Link down, [http://dom.as/2007/06/12/citizendium-revisited/ quoted here] by Domas Mituzas of Wikimedia.)</ref> It was later realized that forking when one doesn't have the technical resources is not such a good idea; sysadmin Dan Nessett did try to bring the software back towards upstream<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140731043335/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3185.msg29758.html Upgrading the MW extensions on the live wiki] by Dan Nessett (May 20, 2010, 17:04:08) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from July 31, 2014).</ref> and actively contributed to MediaWiki until he left Citizendium. In March 2022, Citizendium's server was upgraded to use a vanilla MediaWiki instance and finally replaced PostgreSQL with upstream-recommended MariaDB bringing massive performance boosts. As a result, all existing accounts had to have their passwords replaced.

===Copyright violations===
{{cquote|1=Note: as it stands, this image is a copyvio because the owners of the separate images need to be credited here. Also, the montage ought to be deleted and re-uploaded to purge the system of an image which is a copyvio. Finally, the images of the tiger and the butterfly violate CZ's 'real name' policy.|4=Comment on <capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Image:Montage2.jpg#20110313 the description page of the lead image of one of their approved articles]</capture>, as of 5 February 2011. Fixing it would evidently be too much work. Incredibly, it was still there as late as January 2013; as of August 2013, it appears to have finally been taken down.}}

In mid-January 2011, RationalWiki contributors noted extensive and long-standing copyright violations on Citizendium related to their use of images.<ref>[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RationalWiki_talk:What_is_going_on_at_Citizendium%3F/Archive4#One_last_thing First RationalWiki report] and [http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=RationalWiki_talk:What_is_going_on_at_Citizendium%3F&oldid=726820#Review:_Citizendium_and_copyright second RationalWiki report of said violations.]</ref> Citizendium, however, was too busy infighting<ref>[http://ec.citizendium.org/wiki/EC:DR-2011-001 Citizendium's Editorial Council engages in its second thinly-veiled attack on the same one of its members.]</ref> and working out complicated numbering systems for their bureaucratic discussions<ref>[http://ec.citizendium.org/wiki/EC:I-2011-004/_Motion_mechanics ''...the text of passed motions is available under a link of the form EC:I-2011-004 consisting of the namespace "EC:" followed by "R-", "Rec-", "D-", or "I-" (for Regulation, Recommendation, Decision, internal decision), the year "2011" and the number of the ruling "-004"''…] etc ad nauseam.</ref> to bother with minor matters like breaking the law, so the report was met with a collective shrug.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110122091911/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3792.0.html Question raised on image copyrights] by Howard C. Berkowitz (January 16, 2011, 04:56:40 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from January 22, 2011).</ref> Eventually, most (though by no means all) of the ''reported'' images were dealt with to some extent, but no effort has been made to deal with others, of which massive numbers remain.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Special%3ASearch&ns6=1&search=unknown&fulltext=Advanced+search Search for images with "unknown" attribution or copyright status.]</ref>

In November 2013, an article plagiarised from Wikipedia, <capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Subjective-objective_dichotomy Subjective-objective dichotomy,]</capture> was featured on Citizendium's main page.<ref group=note>Wikipedia uses a Creative Commons license, which requires giving credit if you don't want to violate copyright. If appropriate credit had been given, Citizendium ''would have'' been fine. ''Wikipedia article:'' [[w:Subject–object problem|Subject–object problem]] ''Comparison of text:'' [https://tools.wmflabs.org/dupdet/compare.php?url1=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fw%2Fapi.php%3Faction%3Dquery%26prop%3Drevisions%26titles%3DSubject%25E2%2580%2593object_problem%26rvlimit%3D1%26rvprop%3Dcontent%26rvstart%3D20131109074316&url2=http%3A%2F%2Fen.citizendium.org%2Fwiki%2FSubjective-objective_dichotomy&minwords=2&minchars=13&removequotations=&removenumbers=]</ref>

== The concept of expertise in Citizendium ==
There's much to like in the idea of creating an environment welcoming to people who know what they're talking about. But it didn't work out too well at Citizendium.

There's expertise, and then there's certification as an expert, a social construct made of pieces of paper and (hopefully) accredited standards. Sometimes the two don't quite overlap. In the quest for expertise &mdash; "This article is good, and I can explain why" &mdash; Citizendium went for credentialism &mdash; "This article is good because I have the authority to say so."<ref>[http://many.corante.com/archives/2006/09/18/larry_sanger_citizendium_and_the_problem_of_expertise.php Larry Sanger, Citizendium, and the Problem of Expertise] (Clay Shirky, Sep 2006)</ref>{{efn|Or as one Citizendium Editor put it, "When I politely inform you that what you have written is unbalanced and does not represent mainstream academic views, kindly do not ask me for citations.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110527162149/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3895.msg40948.html Re: Openness & the public record] by Martin Baldwin-Edwards (March 13, 2011, 02:01:53 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from May 27, 2011).</ref>}} But the most damaging part of the Citizendium approach was that the required credentials were inconsistent. Someone wishing to be a general editor in an academic field had to show they had a Ph.D. or were a tenure-track professor; if they couldn't show that, they might have been able to get an editorship in a small subfield — if they had an M.A. or M.Sc, and at least three published peer-reviewed articles.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Editor_Policy#Categories_of_Editorship Citizendium Editor Policy]</ref> But if they wanted the authority to take over articles in alternative medicine, they only had to prove that they were licensed to practice their branch of alternative medicine.<ref>[http://ec.citizendium.org/wiki/EC:PR-2010-017/Healing_Arts_workgroup Citizendium Editorial Council decision PR-2010-017]</ref>

Like many things on Citizendium, the concept of editors was largely abandoned in practice due to the catastrophic fall in the number of contributors.

===Attracting and repelling academia===
{{cquote|1=My experience of CZ has not impressed me in terms of its chances of its reaching its laudable goals. People discuss and debate, but no matter what we say, Larry comes in and makes some executive decision without really consulting anyone outside of his inner circle.|4=An early (18 January 2007) expression of frustration by a Citizendium academic.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121007165039/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,431.msg3589.html Re: Would you contribute more if the wiki were blank?] by Russell Potter (January 18, 2007, 11:13:37 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from October 7, 2012).</ref>}}

Wikipedia has plenty of academics and experts editing — you can hardly edit without bumping into someone who knows much more than you about a topic. It fails utterly, however, in keeping idiots out of the experts' faces.<ref group=note>And everyone's faces, really. Summary of the summary: People remain a problem.</ref>

So Citizendium promised they'd remedy this and attracted many established experts, such as university professors, in the site's early days. But almost all left within months — and it turned out that the people getting in the academics' faces were Sanger and his constables. Heavy-handedness, meddling in article content, censoring user comments, bullying, and harassment of academic users were commonplace and extensively documented in the wider world.<ref name="the2009">[http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=405097&sectioncode=26 Wikipedia founder's scholarly web venture plays host to a war of words] (Times Higher Education, 2009-01-22)</ref><ref name="the2010">[http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/university-may-be-given-the-keys-to-citizendium/412616.article University may be given the keys to Citizendium (comments)] &mdash; quite vicious analysis in the story comments from academics burnt by Citizendium, with frankly bizarre responses from Larry Sanger and senior Citizendium constables.</ref> Others grew exasperated over Sanger's penchant for micromanagement<ref name="daveydweebProfRAP">[http://web.archive.org/web/20110929203742/daveydweeb.com/2007/02/07/citizendium-isnt-interested-in-your-opinion/#comment-1939 ProfRAP (Russell Potter), blog comment]</ref> and [[Dunning-Kruger effect|inability to acknowledge areas of academia he was not competent in]],<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070214071513/http://www.kalital.com/archives/2006/11/racism_and_sexism_at_citizendi.html Racism and Sexism at Citizendium] by Kali Tal (November 28, 2006; archived from February 14, 2007).</ref> often overruling or pushing out the very specialists he had recruited.<ref>[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Talk%3ACitizendium&diff=627280&oldid=627218 Difference between revisions of "Talk:Citizendium"] ''RationalWiki''.</ref> 

Sanger's guidance was also responsible for driving out established fields of study while encouraging a proliferation of pseudoscience. For instance, in 2006, Women's Studies and Ethnic Studies professors began joining Citizendium. Sanger refused to recognize these as genuine fields of endeavor, saying, "I do not want to make CZ 'politically correct,' i.e., appealing especially to one (largely American/Western/Left) ideology," and refused to give them any place in Citizendium's structure.<ref>[http://cryptome.info/citizendium.htm A first hand account by Kali Tal of her experience on Citizendium].</ref> In contrast, he personally recruited "celebrity" homeopath [[Dana Ullman]] and gave alternative medicine practitioners their own workgroup with full control over all articles on alternative medicine.<ref>[http://www.otherhealth.com/homeopathy-list-discussion/10239-new-good-alternative-wikipedia-especially-homeopathy.html A NEW and GOOD Alternative to Wikipedia,especially on homeopathy!] (Dana Ullman, otherhealth.com forum post)</ref><ref><capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Talk:Homeopathy/Draft&curid=100000201&diff=100711607&oldid=100711593 Talk:Homeopathy > Draft]</capture> (revision as of 22:26, 14 September 2010)</ref> He told members who preferred scientific evidence over other parts of the "whole dialectical landscape" that they were "not welcome" at Citizendium<ref name=SangerIsAnIdiot>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090426214915/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,1029.0.html Guardian (UK) mentions Citizendium …] by 
Russell Potter (June 14, 2007, 06:19:51 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from April 26, 2009).</ref> and decreed that Citizendium would treat both scientific and [[anti science|anti-scientific]] views [[balance fallacy|equally]] in [[manufactroversy|manufactroversies]] such as [[intelligent design]] and [[global warming]].<ref name=SangerIsAnIdiot/> When others dared question this approach, he responded:
{{cquote|I am sick and tired of reference works, journalists, and professionals generally, simply instructing me what to think, when [[Dunning-Kruger effect|I know that there are other professionals who disagree with them and who are not given a fair hearing]]. There is a sort of paternalism about the acceptance of bias in expository writing that I find disturbing. It's not unlike propaganda, ultimately.<ref name=SangerIsAnIdiot />}}

Citizendium practice reflected Sanger's philosophy. The article on [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Intelligent_design&oldid=100636889 Intelligent design] promoted it in a manner reminiscent of [[A Storehouse of Knowledge|aSK]], changing only after Sanger left. Similarly, the [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Global_warming global warming article] included an extended apologia for denialism that was not pared back until after Sanger's departure.

Sanger claims academic credentials, expertise, credibility, and respect for and from academia and loves the idea of academia.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061017153004/http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/09/an_expertfocuse.php What will kill Citizendium] by Nicholas G. Carr (September 20, 2006) ''Rough Type'' (archived from October 17, 2006).</ref> But he had never held a position as a professor or the equivalent and had ''no idea'' what actual working academics do for a living or how to work with them.<ref name="the2010" /> His idealized vision of academic knowledge production, in which philosophically robust propositions are put forth and formally debated,<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Dispute_Watch#Detailed_dispute_watch_rules_and_procedures Detailed dispute watch rules and procedures] [[:File:Capture_067784c651c1c735395c90efc1617c6126dd3494.png | (screencap)]]</ref> bears no resemblance to reality, in which academic exchanges are more typified by snatches of hallway conversation or arguments over a beer at a conference &mdash; casual semi-social interaction the way humans have always done it. His inflexibility and the emulation of his worst behaviors by his acolytes did the rest. Having run off the recruited academics was not considered a problem by the remaining Citizens.<ref name=failurecurry>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140731043853/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3315.msg31563.html Citizendium failure] by Aleta Curry (August 02, 2010, 23:12:22 UTC) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from July 31, 2014). "Do you realise that, the people spouting off on the talk pages you quote are, for the most part, disgruntled and vindictive ex-CZers and, unlike your respectable self, (and with a couple of notable exceptions) hiding behind pseudo anonymity?"</ref>

===Crank magnetism===

Citizendium's expert approval was just as much a double-edged sword as Wikipedia's open editing policy. In some cases, the Citizendium approach worked fine and avoided the problems with Wikipedia's almost unguided editing that causes articles to degrade (although Wikipedia's counterpart articles have often become far more comprehensive over time). But it also allowed people of dubious qualifications to obtain control over articles with relatively little opposition. In this way, supposed "[[Crank|experts]]" could hijack articles on their pet topics and ensure that the articles were as uncritical as possible.

Citizendium's approval process meant that once an article was approved, it was locked from further editing and all changes had to be made to a draft version that was not presented to the public until it went through the approval process again. And who controlled the reapproval process? The same "experts" who approved the original article. Once a fringe enthusiast had managed to get an article approved in their preferred version, it was difficult for reality-based contributors to undo the damage. This locking down remained in place until late 2013, long after anyone cared about what Citizendium was doing. 

It was certainly not the case that all, or even most, Citizendium contributors were cranks. Some lamented the project's reputation<ref name=HaeBPDF>[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lessons_from_Citizendium.pdf Lessons from Citizendium] (Slides and notes for HaeB's talk "Lessons from Citizendium" at Wikimania 2009)</ref> for fringe topics and pointed out that it had driven away potential contributors.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140731044249/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,1029.msg20880.html#msg20880] Citizendium forum comment by Tom Morris, 26 April 2009</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101112051732/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,2898.msg23991.html Re: How to recruit and retain active editors? (From Matt's userpage)] by Howard C. Berkowitz (October 01, 2009, 09:30:03 PM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from November 12, 2010).</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100514100224/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3165.msg29211.html Re: Ormus: protoscience, pseudoscience, or non-encyclopedic] by Daniel Mietchen (May 09, 2010, 05:54:40 PM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from May 14, 2010).</ref> But the site's policies, such as its emphasis on credentialism, made it especially appealing to cranks. Whereas actual, practicing experts tend simply to get on with their work instead of waving their credentials, cranks compensate for their lack of substance by faking expertise and working for status and perceived credibility. This means cranks will be attracted to and stay on a credentialist project, mainly if those of genuine expertise are driven out. Cranks on Citizendium were further protected by users in positions of authority who were, themselves, purveyors of "[[alternative medicine]]."

Citizendium also had a unique protective mechanism that made it particularly crank-friendly: the rule against attacking other contributors prohibits questioning their claimed expertise. For example, an editor was banned for pointing out that [[Dana Ullman]] &mdash; a well-known and tireless advocate for homeopathy who was banned from Wikipedia for disruptive advocacy<ref>{{wpl|Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Homeopathy#DanaUllman_banned | Dana Ullman ban announcement}}</ref> but became a Citizendium Healing Arts editor &mdash; has no medical ''or homeopathic'' qualifications and had been arrested for practicing medicine without a license.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Talk:Homeopathy/Draft&diff=next&oldid=100531687#Request_to_revoke_approval Discussion] of Dana Ullman's complete lack of any of the qualifications they claim experts are required to have, leading to the user pointing out the issues, Adam Cuerden, being banned by Hayford Peirce.</ref> Even an expression of general frustration about homeopathy and other fringe topics got the smackdown from a pro-alt-med constable.<ref name=rmhomeocrit>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Talk:Memory_of_water&diff=prev&oldid=100712879 Comment removed by D.Matt Innis from Talk:Memory of Water at 20:39, 20 September 2010] The offending words were "Oh, how I wish homeopathy [i.e., the homeopathy article] and its spinoffs would go away. I may just deal with the frustration by leaving Citizendium, as long as this is the main area of discussion. Desperately waiting for the Charter, hopefully ratification, and the Editorial Council..."</ref>

== Does the "expert guidance" model work? ==
The Citizendium process has been critiqued in detail since before the launch. The Citizens reasonably replied that the proof would be in the resulting product. Unfortunately, the product did not turn out so well either.<ref>[http://onwikipedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/on-citizendium.html On Citizendium]</ref> The project has been excessively tolerant, even deferential, toward cranks while driving actual academics away, so, unsurprisingly, far too much questionable material appears for a site that prides itself on being "authoritative, error-free, and well-written."<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:FAQ#What_is_Citizendium_trying_to_achieve.3F What is Citizendium trying to achieve?] ''Citizendium''.</ref><ref>[http://reinderdijkhuis.com/wordpress/2009/02/12/citizendium-the-encyclopedia-only-pro-homeopathy-editors-can-edit/ Citizendium: The Encyclopedia only pro-Homeopathy editors can edit] by Adam Cuerden (February 12, 2009) ''Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan''.</ref> Even where pseudoscience is not an issue, the presentation is often disorganized and unfocused or contains obvious errors that should never have made it past a true "expert."

===Citizendium's greatest pseudoscientific hits===
As an example of the deference to cranks, Citizendium's horrific piece on [[homeopathy]]<ref><capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Homeopathy&oldid=100431883 ''Homeopathy'']</capture> (now-archived version from January 2009 which appeared on Citizendium's main page)</ref> was taken over by Dana Ullman (whom ''Time'' magazine has called a "leading proselytizer of homeopathy"<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983466,00.html "Is homeopathy good medecine?"], ''Time'' magazine, 25 September 1995</ref>) ''at Sanger's personal invitation.''<ref>[http://www.otherhealth.com/homeopathy-list-discussion/10239-new-good-alternative-wikipedia-especially-homeopathy.html A NEW and GOOD Alternative to Wikipedia,especially on homeopathy!] (Dana Ullman, otherhealth.com forum post)</ref><ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Talk:Homeopathy/Draft&curid=100000201&diff=100711607&oldid=100711593 Talk:Homeopathy > Draft] (revision as of 22:26, 14 September 2010)</ref> The resulting article was so badly skewed that the alt-med promoters at [[Wiki4CAM]] copied it almost wholesale to use as their own entry on the topic.<ref>[http://www.wiki4cam.org/w/index.php?title=Homeopathy&oldid=3159 "Homeopathy", article at Wiki4CAM.org]</ref> Likewise, the article on [[chiropractic]]<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Chiropractic&oldid=100240996 Citizendium:Chiropractic]</ref> was "owned" by D. Matt Innis, a practicing chiropractor and [[acupuncture | acupuncturist]], who, as a Constable, removes criticism of homeopathy.<ref name=rmhomeocrit /><ref group=note>Although in fairness, Innis has been a long-term dedicated participant in Citizendium in general, and insightful concerning its problems.</ref> Both of these pseudoscience advocacy articles were fully embraced by the Citizendium community. They are both marked as approved articles, and the homeopathy advertisement &mdash; which Sanger called "an excellent article, remarkably balanced and neutral"<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090406205841/http://mail.citizendium.org/pipermail/sharedknowing/2009-February/000110.html Episteme issue about Wikipedia appears] by Larry Sanger (Feb 16 09:25:08 CST 2009) ''Citizendium SharedKnowing'' (archived from April 6, 2009).</ref> &mdash; was even featured in January 2009 on the site's main page.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Welcome_to_Citizendium&oldid=100440838 Citizendium main page, January 28th 2009]</ref><ref group=note>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Homeopathy&oldid=100431883 This version] was live when it was featured.</ref> It wasn't until Sanger's departure in late 2010 that the homeopathy article was finally reduced to something better by the project's Editorial Council. In an extraordinary overruling of the project's "expert approval" process, the EC not only legislated the new version of the article but ruled that the article was such a blight on Citizendium that they forbade all editing on it for a year, after which they ''might'' allow editing again.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140731043651/http://ec.citizendium.org/wiki/EC:DR-2010-006 Citizendium EC:DR-2010-006/Homeopathy moratorium] by CZ_Editorial_Council (2010) ''Citizendium'' (archived from July 31, 2014).</ref> Their [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Chiropractic article on chiropractic], however, remains pure advocacy. 

Some more examples of pro-pseudoscience articles:
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Alice_Bailey Alice Bailey] &mdash; Puff piece on the [[New Age]] author; relies heavily on her autobiography for sources on such matters as the telepathic transmission of books and the hidden "Masters of Wisdom".
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Cold_fusion <!--&oldid=100563361-->Cold fusion] &mdash; Largely written by the proponent and advocate Jed Rothwell. Rothwell was banned indefinitely from Wikipedia for disruption and advocacy using an army of sockpuppet accounts.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&type=block&page=User:JedRothwell User:JedRothwell block log]</ref> Remained profoundly at odds with the scientific community for over three years, with some of the most blatantly promotional wording finally redacted in October 2011. 
* <capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Critical_views_of_chiropractic Critical views of Chiropractic]</capture> &mdash; Not what you'd think. It's actually an ''attack'' on criticism of chiropractic by the "medical establishment." 
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Global_warming Global warming] &mdash; An early harbinger of future colonization of Citizendium by pseudoscience advocates who had tried and failed on Wikipedia. The [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Global_warming&oldid=100099941 2007 version] was a feast of [[climate change]] denial bad enough to attract the attention of experts in the field.<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2007/05/14/citizendium-crp-or-what/ Citizendium: cr*p or what?] (William L. Connolley, ''Stoat'', 2007-05-14)</ref> It was improved somewhat — by copying from Wikipedia.<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2008/09/10/citizendium-is-still-doomed/ Citizendium is still doomed] (William L. Connolley, ''Stoat'', 2008-09-10)</ref> It was biased enough that the global warming denialists at the [[Heartland Institute]] listed it as part of their recommended "Primer on Global Warming." The article was finally brought into reasonable agreement with the scientific consensus in early 2011, after Sanger's departure.
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Pseudoscience Pseudoscience] &mdash; The [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Pseudoscience&oldid=100499162 2009] version was terrible. The current version is much improved, though written in the rambling and chatty style typical of many Citizendium articles. The article ''still'' contains a paragraph defending astrology.<ref>'From [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Pseudoscience#Astrology http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Pseudoscience#Astrology]: ''"Astrological researchers often complain that they cannot receive a fair hearing in scientific circles, and find it hard to have their research published in scientific journals. They claim that their scientific critics have wrongly dismissed studies which do support astrology. An example would be Michel Gauquelin's purported discovery of correlations between some planetary positions and certain human traits such as vocations."'' - What the hell, Citizendium?</ref>
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Qigong Qigong] &mdash; A barely readable promotion that mentions skepticism only to dismiss it and concludes: ''In spite of the above, there are many accepted, and in the author's opinion, legitimate "Masters" of "Qigong".'' The promotional version had remained for almost four years; although some Citizens had edited it in the meantime, they did not alter the promotional tone.
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Reiki Reiki] &mdash; A promotional article on one of the stupidest and least supportable alternative medicine quackeries. Page after page after page of promotion, then, right near the end, two sentences basically amounting to "Some skeptics don't like it" as the only balance, then the rest of the controversies are controversies ''within reiki''. The article was in this state from late 2007 through January 2011.
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Samuel_Hahnemann Samuel Hahnemann] &mdash; Short article heaping praise on the creator of [[homeopathy]].<ref group=note>Lists among its references a page from an online merchant of alternative medicine; hardly the type of source material one would expect for a site with Citizendium's aspirations.</ref> 
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Shang_reviews_of_homeopathy Shang reviews of homeopathy] &mdash; Uses bizarre arguments (''e.g.'', Shang used a different pre-determined definition of "high-quality" than a study homeopaths liked), a discredited data-mining attempt by a pro-homeopathy team led by Ludtke, a letter from a homeopathic organization, and outright lies about the study's methods and findings<ref group=note>For example, "In the final analysis, the researchers included only the 8 largest studies" - that's completely and totally false; the whole point of the study was to see how things changed as study size and quality increased, and those 8 studies are the large, high-quality studies used in the highest rank of the comparison, not the only ones considered.</ref> to attack an innovative, well-respected study. A hit piece, nothing more, and a bizarre topic for an encyclopedia. 
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Tests_of_the_efficacy_of_homeopathy Tests of the efficacy of homeopathy] &mdash; Pooh-poohs large, respected negative studies, lists every single tiny study it can find that ever had a positive result.
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=UFO Unidentified flying object] &mdash; A highly unskeptical article based mainly on the claims of UFO proponents. 
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Vertebral_subluxation Vertebral subluxation] &mdash; A pseudoscientific article on [[chiropractic]], written mostly by an unpublished author without any verifiable medical background. That this is one of the site's "approved" articles is especially damning.

Wikipedia, of course, also has lots of pseudoscience. But apart from having many more contributors to help better approximate reality, Wikipedia does not have mechanisms in place that actively promote pseudoscience; on the contrary, {{wpl|WP:FRINGE|its policies forbid its advocacy|,}} and {{wpl|WP:FTN|mechanisms are in place to allow it to be identified and fixed}} (at least in principle). Meanwhile, Citizendium considers alternative medicine qualifications as signs of expertise, which allows a user to take over an article, and has neither policy nor sufficient numbers of motivated people to keep these supposed experts in check.

===Scientology===
The [[Church of Scientology|Scientology]] article has been heavily edited by at least two well-known members of that organization. On 1 May 2007, the article "Scientology" was moved first to "Scientology (the philosophy)" then finally to [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Church_of_Scientology Church of Scientology]. The word "cult" was deleted, as well as any mention of Scientology being banned in some countries, and the term "adherent" was replaced with "parishioners" by Terry E. Olsen, a public member of Scientology well-known for his Internet advocacy on its behalf as "Terryeo" on Wikipedia<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log/block&page=User%3ATerryeo User:Terryeo block log]</ref> and elsewhere.

Shortly afterward, Steven Ferry joined Citizendium. Ferry did not declare his membership of the Church<ref>[http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/s/steven-ferry.html Truth About Scientology: Steven Ferry]</ref><ref>[http://forums.whyweprotest.net/291-scientology-discussion/can-someone-provide-me-information-scientologist-50808/ Scientology discussion]</ref> nor his previous position working in public relations for the Church<ref name=ocmb-ferry/> before editing and purging the article of criticisms.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200105192746/http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Church_of_Scientology&diff=prev&oldid=100247397 Difference between revisions of "Church of Scientology"] (9 January 2008) ''Citizendium'' (archived from January 5, 2020).</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/save/http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Church_of_Scientology&diff=prev&oldid=100314730 Difference between revisions of "Church of Scientology"] (18 April 2008) ''Citizendium'' (archived from January 5, 2020).</ref> Ferry was subsequently elected to the Citizendium Editorial Council unopposed in 2008,<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Category:Author_members_starting_a_2008_term 2008 Council Members]</ref> leading to claims the project had been successfully infiltrated by the Church of Scientology.<ref name=ocmb-ferry>[http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic.php?t=24460&view=next&sid=c9ae02f077ea612a2b2a3f32c250a970 Scientologist infiltrates Citizendium] (Operation Clambake Message Boards)</ref> Ferry ceased contributing mid-2008, and the article was gradually cleaned up over the next two years.

===Thank goodness for gentle expert guidance!===
{{cquote|Welcome to Citizendium, an endeavor to achieve the highest standards of writing, reliability, and comprehensiveness.|||Citizendium's Main Page as of January 2012.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200105193100/http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Welcome_to_Citizendium&oldid=100789411 Welcome to Citizendium] (12:40, 14 November 2011) ''Citizendium'' (archived from January 5, 2020).</ref>}}

Even on less contentious topics, the supposed expert guidance appears worryingly absent at times, with poorly written articles and basic errors that many a non-expert would spot.<ref>{{wpl|User:HaeB/Citizendium_approved_errors | Citizendium approved errors}} (HaeB, Wikipedia)</ref>
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Atomic_hypothesis&oldid=100469188 Atomic hypothesis] &mdash; Appears unable to tell the difference between a hypothesis and a theory in scientific terminology. A hypothesis is a proposed explanation that can be tested. On the other hand, a theory is a body of knowledge and principles that have been found to (approximately) explain observed phenomena, such as "gravitational theory." Nowhere is it mentioned that since Dalton's proposals, the atomic hypothesis evolved into a theory supported by experimental testing. It stops with Dalton and goes no further - it's stuck in the 18th century. IUPAC,<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=w1Kf1CakyZIC&pg=PA2&dq=%22Atomic+theory%22+IUPAC&hl=en&ei=vhwATdWCEJGWvAPituG6Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false IUPAC]</ref> Encyclopædia Britannica,<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/41788/atomic-theory Atomic theory] Encyclopædia Britannica</ref> World Book, and Wikipedia use "Atomic theory".
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Biology&oldid=100370485 Biology] &mdash; One of their ''approved'' articles, it consists mainly of a rambling, disorganized history of biology. Contains a ''single paragraph'' on evolution while giving disproportionate space to outdated curiosities such as the [[CZ:Biology#Technological_advances_in_biology|homunculus]]. Essential concepts like dominant and recessive genes, chromosomes, [[mitosis]], and [[meiosis]] are never even defined, just mentioned offhand. There is an enormous amount of irrelevant verbiage, random philosophical musings, and, just for good measure, a see-also link at the ''top'' of the article to the one on "healing arts" - Citizendium's term for alternative medicine. Anyone with the slightest understanding of biology could crank out a better article in half an hour.<ref group=note>Due to page moves (and possibly server moves), the [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Biology/Draft&limit=500&action=history article's history] is very confusing.</ref> 
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Cat&diff=prev&oldid=100011708 Cat] &mdash; For four years used the redundant scientific nomenclature for the domesticated cat, ''Felis silvestris catus''. The accepted nomenclature is ''Felis catus''; see, for example, [http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=183798 ITIS taxonomy]. Note that ''silvestris'' is a wildcat ancestor, not a domesticated cat. [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/168536/domestic-cat Encyclopædia Britannica], [http://tolweb.org/Felis_catus/123531 Tree of Life] (TOL), [http://www.eol.org/pages/1037781 Encyclopedia of Life] (EOL), and Wikipedia all use ''Felis catus'' for the domesticated cat. Has since been corrected.<ref group=note>Thanks to us: [http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Citizendium&diff=686898&oldid=686408 RationalWiki edit]; [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Cat&diff=100732551&oldid=100713317 Citizendium correction].</ref>
*[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Compton_effect Compton effect] &mdash; The article defines: "The '''Compton effect''' is the name for the primary manner in which energy is absorbed by matter." Thus, the Sun heating the oceans and their beaches is the Compton effect? Arthur Compton, and all textbooks after him, define the effect as the elastic collision of a photon with a nearly free electron. No free electrons on the beaches or in the oceans: energy absorption by sand and rocks is by exciting lattice vibrations; the oceans absorb energy primarily by water molecules gaining kinetic energy. No Compton effect in sight.
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=HTML5&oldid=100713499 HTML5] &mdash; For quite a while, the second half of the article was not shown because of an ordinary bug (the MediaWiki parser crashed on the tag &lt;source>). The Citizens that worked on it were too sloppy to preview to the end, where they would have noticed the bug or did not know how to fix it. Shortly after someone did manage to fix it, two new errors were introduced. The syntactically correct &lt;audio> &lt;source /> &lt;source /> &lt;/audio> was "corrected" to the syntactically wrong: &lt;audio> source / source / &lt;/audio>.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/HTML5#HTML5_Video_and_Audio HTML5 audio].</ref> Why would an expert make such a WP-type correction? Isn't an expert somebody who knows when they don't know?
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Jupiter_%28planet%29&diff=100693764&oldid=100220299 Jupiter] &mdash; Claimed for two and a half years that Jupiter has a surface. Gas giants don't have surfaces. Remained uncorrected despite complaints mailed to the project.<ref>[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Citizendium&diff=626945&oldid=626901 RationalWiki edit]; [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Jupiter_%28planet%29&diff=next&oldid=100693764 Citizendium correction].</ref>
* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=William_Bonham&diff=100531013&oldid=100530702 William Bonham], [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=William_Bonham_%28outlaw%29&oldid=100531016 William Bonham (outlaw)] &mdash; Claim Billy the Kid's name was William Bonham, a name mentioned in no existing source. The alias most famously used by Billy the Kid was William ''Bonney''. Uncorrected from July 2009 until, apparently, August 2013.

When errors are detected, more often than not, they are detected by people outside of the project (such as RationalWiki) &mdash; bringing into question how qualified these CZ experts are<ref>[http://modernityblog.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/hagiography-and-citizendium/ Hagiography, Gilad Atzmon and Citizendium] (25/02/2009 at 22:58) ''ModernityBlog''.</ref> and whether CZ's expert oversight procedure can be claimed to work in practice at all.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:HaeB/Some_notes_on_Citizendium User:HaeB/Some notes on Citizendium] (22 August 2010, at 17:41 UTC) ''Wikipedia''.</ref>

===The great Wikipedia killer shows its strength===
To be even minimally useful, an encyclopedia needs information on subjects people want to know about. Here is a list of articles that '''do not exist''' on Citizendium as of March 2020 and, unless they are created in the waning days of the project, never will.
* Most of Shakespeare's plays, including ''King Lear'', ''Othello'', ''As You Like It'', ''Julius Caesar'', ''Richard III'', ''The Merchant of Venice'', ''Anthony and Cleopatra'', ''Much Ado about Nothing'', and ''Twelfth Night''. Luckily, no one ever studies Shakespeare.
* Basic body parts, like organ, bladder, diaphragm, uterus, or testicles. In addition, [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Skeleton skeleton] and [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Bone bone] are less than 10 words each. 
* Historical figures such as Marco Polo, Hannibal, and Cleopatra.
* The Boer War, the [[Spanish-American War]], the Franco-Prussian War, the Bosnian War, and much of the rest of military history.
* Many famous scientists, including Linus Pauling, Rachel Carson, Jacques Cousteau, Heinrich Hertz, Lise Meitner, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin Schrödinger, J.J. Thomson, and Robert Oppenheimer. Max Planck at least gets a one-sentence stub.
* Many spaceflight pioneers, such as Buzz Aldrin, John Glenn, and Alan Shepard.
* Critically acclaimed film directors including Michelangelo Antonioni, Billy Wilder, Quentin Tarantino, and Andrzej Wajda, and classic films such as ''Gone with the Wind'', ''Citizen Kane'', ''Double Indemnity'', ''Solaris'', ''Ran'', ''L'Avventura'', ''If...'', ''Jaws'', and ''E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial''. Also, classic or critically acclaimed TV shows such as ''Game of Thrones'', ''NYPD Blue'', ''Roseanne'', ''Bewitched'', ''Murphy Brown'', ''Barney Miller'', and ''True Detective''.
* Visual artists including Donatello, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Edouard Manet, Jasper Johns, and Mary Cassatt.
* Composers Giacomo Puccini, Claudio Monteverdi, Joseph Haydn, and George Frideric Handel. Benjamin Britten and Giuseppe Verdi each have less than 50 words of text. In popular music, there is no article on Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, Diana Ross and/or The Supremes, Velvet Underground, Fleetwood Mac, Status Quo, Deep Purple, Morrissey, or Duran Duran, but at least there's no article on Ted Nugent.
* Capital cities including Warsaw, Bucharest, Santiago de Chile, Port-au-Prince, and Reykjavik. And other important geographical features Lake Titicaca, Lake Baikal, River Thames, and the Kalahari Desert.
* Geological terms including mantle, subduction, granite, gneiss, lithosphere, and quartz. Geographical terms including watershed, plateau, village, cartography, climatology, and continental shelf. Ocean, volcano, and geological fault have articles of less than 25 words.

==Why Wikipedia wins==
Wikipedia is far from perfect, but it ''is'' one of the most successful volunteer-driven projects on the World Wide Web, making it hard to compete. Any other wiki needs something that differentiates them from Wikipedia to lure people to them rather than Wikipedia. The successful ones, such as [[Conservapedia]], [[RationalWiki]], and all the various wikis devoted to analyzing video games, television shows, and so on, have a particular focus that does not overlap with Wikipedia's (and is more often than not highly specific), allowing them to carve out a unique niche. [[Conservapedia]], for instance, caters to right-wing nutjobs. [[RationalWiki]] snarks about pseudoscientific topics from a skeptical and scientific perspective. [http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Muppet_Wiki Muppet Wiki] has over 33,000 pages (more than all of Citizendium) covering everything anyone might want to know about the various Jim Henson shows, movies, and characters. These wikis provide something that Wikipedia cannot, whether due to special focus, intentional bias, tone, or obsessive detail.

Citizendium, however, exactly duplicated Wikipedia's focus of being a general encyclopedia. Its major difference was an organizational one (during the time in which it had enough editors for there to ''be'' a de facto organization), which only affected editors, not readers. 

Citizendium can make a somewhat fair claim to beat Wikipedia in its "approved articles", which have (allegedly, at least) met certain standards and undergone some form of peer review. According to Citizendium, such articles are "tentatively declared to be of reasonably high-quality and so are locked to prevent further editing."<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Approval_Process CZ:Approval Process] ''Citizendium''.</ref> As such, they can be seen to be "complete" and "accurate" in a way it is hard to ensure any Wikipedia article is at any given time. These articles can theoretically be said to be more in the vein of traditional encyclopedias at this stage. This might indeed be a strong point in Citizendium's favor over its rival were it not for the fact that as of March 2020, there are only 166 such articles in the entire project (out of 16,861 total). Disregarding the fact that even these articles have not always been of the highest quality, it is only in this particular handful of subjects that Citizendium can make ''any'' claim to be superior to Wikipedia. If one is looking for information on air pollution or fossil fuels (on which there are a disproportionate number of approved articles), Citizendium might be a good place to visit. On almost any other subject, they can't even pretend to offer anything Wikipedia doesn't (except a smaller amount of random vandalism). Thus Citizendium bears more resemblance to Wikipedia's failed predecessor {{wpl|Nupedia|Nupedia}} than it does to Wikipedia itself.

Even worse, from a competitive standpoint, Citizendium's content is available under a Creative Commons license — meaning that Wikipedia can import any content it deems good enough. And Wikipedia did so, setting up {{wpl|Wikipedia:WikiProject Citizendium Porting|WikiProject Citizendium Porting|,}} a group dedicated to reviewing Citizendium's approved articles and adapting them for use on Wikipedia.

Some statistics: 

* At least 23 of Citizendium's 156 approved articles (circa 2010) either were taken from Wikipedia, or both Wikipedia and Citizendium's versions were written by the same person. Of the ones taken from Wikipedia, this was often done without attribution.<ref name=Wikizendium>{{wpl|Wikipedia:WikiProject Citizendium Porting|WikiProject Citizendium Porting}}</ref>
* Approximately 150 articles on Wikipedia incorporate some text from Citizendium,<ref>Figure obtained by counting the number of uses of {{wpl|Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Citizendium|Template:Citizendium|,}} which is used to notify users that some text in an article has been taken from Citizendium. This figure is likely a bit high, since no attempt was made to subtract non-article usages.</ref> though this was as little as two words in some cases.<ref>{{wpl|Wikipedia:WikiProject_Citizendium Porting|WikiProject Citizendium Porting,}} note for John Logie Baird: "two words ported, citizendium article based off of wikipedia, but sans references"</ref>
* Many of Citizendium's ''approved'' articles were considered too low quality to use on Wikipedia, either in whole or in part. For instance, the Citizendium article on DNA was considered "a degraded version of the Wikipedia article that tries to deal with too many subjects at once", and Tux, as in the Linux mascot, has the note "Strongly against porting any more. A little information added from a low quality article." The Citizendium-approved articles on [[homeopathy]], literature, [[chiropractic]], and World of Warcraft, among others, were all considered utterly unsuitable for Wikipedia.<ref name=Wikizendium />
* The Citizendium articles on [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Scarborough%20Castle Scarborough Castle], [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/wheat wheat], and [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Cypherpunk cypherpunks] were singled out for praise. And were copied wholesale to Wikipedia under the terms of the mutually compatible Creative Commons licenses of the projects.<ref name=Wikizendium />

This importing did have ''some'' benefit to Citizendium since each imported article will link to the Citizendium one, at least for as long as Citizendium continues to exist. But in a bizarre twist, while Citizendium's license allows its material to be freely used elsewhere, the project's Editorial Council [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:How_to_convert_Wikipedia_articles_to_Citizendium_articles forbids] the importation of articles from any other source, including Wikipedia. Thus when a Citizendium article is better than its Wikipedia counterpart, Wikipedia can use the better one, but when the Wikipedia article is better, Citizendium must make do with whatever it has.

With its best content also available at its much larger competitor, which also has much more user-friendly registration procedures, and with Sanger's behavior costing Citizendium the initial goodwill of the academic community, Citizendium never became a viable competitor to Wikipedia.

==Rearranging the deckchairs==
Citizendium failed to make the bold moves necessary to regain its lost ground. Instead, much of its effort was wasted in petty bickering{{efn|For a sample of this petty squabbling see the Citizendium forum thread entitled "Appeal of block 1549"<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121007090700/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3665.msg41067.html Re: Appeal of block 1549] (March 17, 2011, 11:59:14 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from October 7, 2012).</ref>}} (some of which took place on this wiki){{efn|See the WIGO:CZ talk page archives [[:RationalWiki talk:What is going on at Citizendium%3F/Archive2|one]] through [[:RationalWiki talk:What is going on at Citizendium%3F/Archive6|six]]. Note how it escalates quickly.}} and byzantine governance procedures that were inappropriate for such a small project. 

A Citizendium Charter was mentioned in the project's inaugural press release of October 2006<ref name="Sangerpr"/> and intended to be implemented within the first twelve months. The charter was, at last, voted in on 23 September 2010.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140731043517/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=q94aupjguj4c023qs511uupsc2&topic=3365.msg32549 Re: Vote for Charter Ratification] by Matt Innis (September 18, 2010, 19:05:45 UTC) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from July 31, 2014).</ref> The approved version contains 55 Articles that set up a seven-member Editorial Council, a five-member Management Council, and the three "ancillary positions" of Managing Editor, Constabulary, and Ombudsman — all for a project with less than 10 contributors on an average day.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Statistics#Daily_contributors Citizendium Statistics: Daily contributors] Accessed 22 March 2012.</ref> (Note Article 24 promises "a minimum of bureaucracy.") It has obvious typographical and grammatical errors, and some of these, when taken literally, reverse the text's intended meaning.<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Charter Citizendium Charter.] A couple of examples: Article 5 is mostly a long, convoluted sentence that includes the wording "upon complaint of the aggrieved Citizen, the punishment of which may include..." This literally says that it is the "aggrieved citizen" who will be punished. In Article 12, what is "dispute resolutions should be resolved" supposed to mean? And so on.</ref> But the committee assigned to create the charter was disbanded,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100824133428/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3335.msg32091.html Re: Comments on "final" version] (August 19, 2010, 05:14:51 PM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from August 24, 2010).</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100824133132/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3335.msg32103.html Re: Comments on "final" version] (August 19, 2010, 05:14:51 PM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from Augsut 24, 2010).</ref> the former members seemed pretty burnt out on the process,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100825014818/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3335.msg32104.html Re: Comments on "final" version] (August 19, 2010, 05:14:51 PM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from Augsut 25, 2010).</ref> and personal sniping between them remained a regular feature of the site forum.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110316172154/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3895.msg40904.html Openness & the public record] (March 11, 2011, 10:28:56 PM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from March 16, 2011).</ref>

A month after the elections for the Management and Editorial councils, one of the members of the Editorial Council resigned, citing his frustration with fighting "absolutely pointless bureaucracy": 
{{cquote|1=It has been like the scene from Douglas Adams' ''{{wpl|Hitch-hikers' Guide to the Galaxy|Hitch-hikers' Guide to the Galaxy}}'' where they task the hair-dressers with discovering fire, so they form the Fire Discovery Subcommittee who then decide they need to do consumer focus groups to decide how best to market fire… Look at any successful open source project and you’ll find few if any committees or Councils or quorums or any of that faff. That is a feature, not a bug. I’m not saying we don’t need those things. But we don't need them now. What we need are sensible, mature people who can make a decision without drama and bickering.|4=Tom Morris, [http://web.archive.org/web/20160722092232/https://tommorris.org/posts/2708 "Citizendium Editorial Council: resignation statement"]}}

While some progress was made after the charter passed, the fundamental problems remained. The homeopathy article was finally replaced with something reasonably sane by Editorial Council fiat, overriding the "expert approval" process and implicitly admitting its failure.<ref>[http://ec.citizendium.org/wiki/EC:DR-2010-004 Citizendium Editorial Council decision]</ref> The Healing Arts workgroup — consisting of alternative medicine practitioners — was disbanded.<ref>[http://ec.citizendium.org/wiki?title=EC:D-2010-019/_Healing_Arts_workgroup&oldid=4298 Citizendium Editorial Council decision: Healing Arts Workgroup]</ref> However, according to that decision, no healing arts editor licensed to practice their craft lost their editorship, instead automatically gaining the right to register as Health Sciences editors, where they could do even more damage. (Dana Ullman was listed as an editor<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Category:CZ_Editors Category:CZ Editors] ([[:File:Capture_12463d4ada5e9019ee4c00fa5deb8425f2810762.png | screencap]])</ref> though apparently not attached to Health Sciences or any other workgroup.) Such spot fixes did nothing to solve the wider problem. Many promotional articles on the same level as the old homeopathy article still exist, including "approved" articles such as the one on <capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Chiropractic Chiropractic]</capture>.

Even if these issues could have been overcome, the charter itself was deeply flawed, which likely hindered Citizendium's progress. The document<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=CZ:Charter&oldid=100713576 CZ:Charter] (revision of 23 September 2010)</ref> violated every possible principle of parsimony and practicality, comprising 55 Articles, some of which contradict other articles (with Article 24 promising "a minimum of bureaucracy" and then detailing an overly detailed bureaucratic structure<ref>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Charter#Part_III:_Organization_and_offices Part III: Organization and offices], Citizendium.</ref>). It made constitutional the real names policy. It failed to mention Citizendium's objective as an encyclopedia. It showed no awareness of the problems that killed participation in the first place, and several users objected to the bureaucratic structure.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100817212328/http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3278.msg31977.html What if we cannot fill all of the positions?] (July 16, 2010, 09:36:30 AM) ''Citizendium Forums'' (archived from August 17, 2010).</ref>

Even worse, Citizendium's most crucial problem — its failure to attract and retain members — was actively exacerbated by the Editorial Council. For example, when a member of the Editorial Council pointed out that one of his friends chose not to join Citizendium because he felt the questions being asked were too intrusive, another Editorial Council member <capture>[http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,3672.msg38564.html#msg38564 responded:]</capture>

{{cquote|Your friend may be the world's leading expert on whatever subject you say he is, but he's also the world's leading imbecile. And you may tell him that I said so, and use my name as well. What a cretin! And if all the other myriad people you tell us about share his feelings (which I seriously doubt, by the way), then they are cretins too.

And we are better off without them.}}

And then, the Editorial Council fell apart in late 2012 due to not having enough members to participate. Not only did approvals of new users start to take months - <capture>[http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,4451.0.html if the emails sent to the constables aren't accidentally deleted]</capture> - but when bureaucracy limped back together enough to hold an election in late 2013, all attempts to fix this with a saner registration process were not only rejected by the one remaining bureaucrat before voting was allowed to happen(<capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ_Talk:Election_July-August_2013/Referenda/4#Managing_Editor_rejects_this_referendum 1]</capture> <capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ_Talk:Election_July-August_2013/Referenda/4a 2]</capture>), but the attempts resulted in a backlash insisting that <capture>[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Council#2013 real names must be verified by methods "as foolproof as practically possible".]</capture> 

Welcome to Citizendium.

==See also==
{{Fun|Citizendium FAQ}}
*[[Conservapedia]]
*[[Crank magnetism]]
*[[Knowino]] – a static Citizendium fork
*[[New World Encyclopedia]]
*[[RationalWiki:Nothing_is_going_on_at_Citizendium|Nothing is going on at Citizendium]]
*[[WOMBAT]]

==External links==
*[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Citizendium Citizendium's front page]
*[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/RationalWiki Their page on us]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2|group=note|80%}}

==References==
{{reflist|3|80%}}

[[category:Citizendium| ]]
[[category:internet]]
[[Category:Websites]]
{{keyword|wikikey=Citizendium}}
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Categories: Citizendium, internet, Websites