When "Everything" is taken as everything

[Stephen Ewen]

We have a certain PR issue I am hoping the community can help solve.

When people hear "Citizen's Compendium of Everything" they sometimes take it too, well, literally.  They hear "article" to mean anything from an ad for their company to a private essay to a piece in the tone of a personal memoir to what have you.  They are a "citizen" and that's included in "everything", so they've done their part and feel proud.  But then when we point out that's not really what we have in mind and delete the article, they wonder what the hey. 

The result is that this continually creates needless and sometimes awkward work for the constabulary, and sometimes editors and authors.  For a recent example, it took me more than an hour of work just to bring a certain user to be able to access their account, and a tech person 20 minutes.  Fine, but for what?  A personal essay fit for the delete button (wait, I'm a "citizen" and my essay is included in "everything").  I could give numerous very specific examples, but I will refrain for obvious reasons.

Sure, people should read stuff a bit more deeply, but they don't always. 

So as I see it, we have a public relations issue: Its just not clear to a lot of newcomers that we are first and foremost an encyclopedia project. 

One option is to make that explicit through an addition to the logo.  Another is to customize some MediaWiki settings to display, "Editing the Encyclopedia Article on [Topic]."

Any others?

[Robert_W_King]

I think we should be a little more up front on defining the role of whatever the individual is assigned to or has assumed; maybe moving the information about this stuff "up front" meaning it should go on a page that's more immediately seen rather than an optional recommendation to explore.

Perhaps this could be dealt with on the registration page?

[luke brandt]

... So as I see it, we have a public relations issue: Its just not clear to a lot of newcomers that we are first and foremost an encyclopedia project. 

One option is to make that explicit through an addition to the logo.  Another is to customize some MediaWiki settings to display, "Editing the Encyclopedia Article on [Topic]."

Any others?

I was thinking about writing a critical article on Grav-mass, Stallman's lame parody of Christmas  I checked Wikipedia and found there was once an article but now it's a re-direct to Richard Stallman, where it's given 2 sentences and a footnote.

So what to do. We have these definitions for encyclopedia:

en·cy·clo·pe·di·a   –noun

     a book or set of books containing articles on various topics, usually in alphabetical arrangement, covering all branches of knowledge or, less commonly, all aspects of one subject.

     (initial capital letter) the French work edited by Diderot and D'Alembert, published in the 18th century, distinguished by its representation of the views of the Enlightenment.

     A comprehensive reference work containing articles on a wide range of subjects or on numerous aspects of a particular field, usually arranged alphabetically.

     a reference work (often in several volumes) containing articles on various topics (often arranged in alphabetical order) dealing with the entire range of human knowledge or with some particular specialty

     a reference work containing information on every branch of knowledge, or on one particular branch. Examples: an encyclopaedia of jazz; If you do not know the capital city of Hungary, look it up in an encyclopaedia.

and locally we have:

The nature or purpose of an encyclopedia article

Inclusionism and exclusionism

Notability is an editorial question...

Comments?