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Citizendium ( ; "the citizens' compendium of everything") is an English-language wiki-based free content online encyclopedia launched by Larry Sanger, co-founder of Nupedia and Wikipedia.
Larry Sanger had worked as paid staff with Jimmy Wales to make Nupedia and Wikipedia, though Sanger left for financial reasons. He had been the editor-in-chief of Nupedia, which had an editorial review process similar to what he founded at Citizendium.
It was first announced in September 2006 as a fork of the English Wikipedia,Andrew Orlowski. "Wikipedia founder forks Wikipedia, More experts, less fiddling?", The Register, 18 September 2006. In software engineering, a project fork occurs when developers take a copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software. but instead launched in March 2007 with an emphasis on original content. The project's aim was to improve the Wikipedia model by providing increased reliability. It planned to achieve this by requiring virtually all contributors to use their real names, by strictly moderating the project for unprofessional behavior, by providing "gentle expert oversight" of everyday contributors, and through "approved articles" which have undergone a form of peer-review by topic experts with credentials.
Active contributors increased through the first quarter of 2008 and then declined; by 27 October 2011, the site had fewer than 100 active members. The last managing editor was Anthony Sebastian, until the office was vacated in 2016. , it had 17,956 "live" and 6,322 "lemma" articles (lemmas are undeveloped articles which contain little more than a definition, like stubs on Wikipedia). , this had changed to 16,440 articles "Welcome to Citizendium", Citizendium. Retrieved 2025-09-08. with an additional 3,744 lemma articles. Category:Lemma Article, Citizendium.Retrieved 2025-09-08.
On 18 January 2007, a change of plans was announced. Sanger announced on the CZ (Citizendium) mailing list that only articles marked "CZ Live", those which have been or will soon be worked on by Citizendium contributors, would remain on the site, and all other articles forked from Wikipedia would be deleted. Not all Citizendium contributors were supportive of this change, but Sanger emphasized that this deletion was "an experiment" and a new set of Wikipedia articles could be uploaded if the experiment were deemed unsuccessful.Larry Sanger. "OK, let's delete the Wikipedia articles (an experiment)" , Citizendium-l mail list, 18 January 2007.
No announcement was made on Citizendium editions in languages other than English, but Sanger stated that they may be forthcoming after the English-language version was established and successfully working. In a review of Andrew Keen's book The Cult of the Amateur, Sanger comments ironically on Keen's favorable treatment of Citizendium: "The first example of a 'solution' he offers is the Citizendium, or the Citizens' Compendium, which I like to describe briefly as Wikipedia with editors and real names. But how can Citizendium be a solution to the problems he raises, if it has experts working without pay, and the result is free? If it succeeds, won't it contribute to the decline of reference publishing?"
Experts are required to verify their qualifications openly, for transparency and publicly accepted authority.Larry Sanger. "Citizendium Policy Outline" , Citizendium. This contrasts with the open and largely Anonymity nature of Wikipedia, where subject specialists have neither any verifiable special knowledge of their subject nor agreed special status. Sanger stated that editors would not have pre-approval rights over edits by ordinary authors, though editors would have somewhat undefined authority over articles that fall within their specific area of expertise.
Originally, Sanger operated as Editor-in-Chief, the "main individual in charge," part of and answerable to a Board of Directors. Sanger stated that final decisions about management structure will not be made "until more of the (future) primary stakeholders are on the scene."Larry Sanger. "How should we manage growth?" , Citizendium forum, 2 October 2006.
Citizendium articles are subject to an "approval" process after they have achieved reasonable quality. An "editor" can determine when an article is ready to be approved.
Initially the project phased under the Tides Center as an incubator project and then was supposed to be carried out under the auspices of the Citizendium Foundation, but in 2020, the treasurer of the project stated that the foundation was never registered.
In an apparent attempt to quicken the pace of the project, on 2 October 2006, Citizendium web forum moderator Peter Hitchmough suggested what he called an "alpha test" of the concept. Hitchmough proposed the forking of a limited number of Wikipedia articles to a site where Citizendium web forum and mailing list members could "rewrite a complete section" of Wikipedia content.Peter Hitchmough. "Proposal: Fork Wikipedia and launch with some A1-class model subjects" , Citizendium forum, 2 October 2006.
Larry Sanger reacted enthusiastically to the idea and at first suggested his already existing Textop wiki as the site for the alpha test. Sanger later posted that Textop would not be a good choice, but showed continued interest in the proposal. He envisioned a "restricted-access" wiki where the idea could be tried and requested further discussion.Larry Sanger. "Administrivia: interesting pilot project proposal" , Citizendium-l mail list, 2 October 2006.
No access to the pilot version of Citizendium, even read-only, was allowed to the general public. Sanger stated: "Only invited people will be able to view and edit the pilot project wiki."Larry Sanger. "Call for applications to participate in the Citizendium Pilot Project" , Citizendium. Sanger also said that constables for the pilot project will be chosen by the chief constable.Larry Sanger. "Pilot Project Application Review Procedure" , Citizendium-l mail list, 13 November 2006.
In a press release on 17 October 2006, Sanger announced: "the fledgling Citizendium Foundation will launch a six-week pilot project open to potential contributors by invitation". Several editors and other project leaders were named. It was also announced that the Citizendium Foundation had "started the process of applying for 501(c)(3) status non-profit" and had "received a firm commitment for a significant seed grant from a foundation, as well as small personal donations." In a follow-up post to the press release, Sanger said that the initial group allowed access to the pilot would consist of "ten editors, three constables, six authors, and me."Larry Sanger. "Ad hoc steering group kicked off" , Citizendium-l mail list, 18 October 2006.
The pilot project began operations on 23 October 2006.Jason Potkanski. "Developers Wanted: forge.citizendium.org Open" , Citizendium-l mail list, 23 October 2006. On 8 November, Larry Sanger reported that 263 user names had access to the pilot wiki, 183 articles on the wiki were "live" (meaning "someone is or intends to be working on them") and there were about 300 total edits to the wiki on 7 November.Larry Sanger. "Stats" , Citizendium blog, 8 November 2006.
In a 17 January 2007 post to the Citizendium forum, Sanger stated that "we have had only 10–20 (very) active people out of 500 accounts created." As a result, Sanger decided to delete all articles besides those marked "CZ live" from the pilot project in an attempt to motivate greater participation.Larry Sanger. "Would you contribute more if the wiki were blank?" , Citizendium forum, 17 January 2007. On 22 January 2007, Citizendium experimented with a new self-registration procedure: read/write access was granted automatically after creation of the account. There were a few instances of vandalism after this change, though the vandalism was quickly reverted.Citizendium pilot wiki. "Main page revision history" , 23 January 2007. On 19 January, Sanger announced the formal organization of Citizendium as a legal non-profit organization.Larry Sanger. Upcoming announcements; your help requested , Citizendium-l mail list, 19 January 2007
On 16 February 2007, in response to rising site vandalism, automatic account creationLarry Sanger. "Self-registration begins!" , Citizendium-l mail list, 22 January 2007. The first act of vandalism was carried out via an account named 'Chris Nguyen', to vandalise three pages including the main one and that of Larry Sanger, apparently before the announcement was made. The account was indefinitely blocked a little over half an hour after the first improper edit. was put on hold while increased protections were being put in place to counter vandalism. Vandal Assault, at the Citizendium Blog The next day, page moves were limited to constables as an additional measure against vandalism. "Page moves now require constable help; and semi-automated hand-approval of new accounts?" , Citizendium-l mail list, 17 February 2007 In addition, Sanger continued the process of un-forking the Citizendium from Wikipedia by inviting contributors to delete any Wikipedia content that had changed only superficially since it was imported.
The day prior to launch, Sanger released an essay, "Why the Citizendium Will (Probably) Succeed" in which he stated that activity at Citizendium grew from 100 edits a day in the first month to over 500 prior to launch.Larry Sanger. "Why the Citizendium Will (Probably) Succeed" , Citizendium, March 2007.
"Our activity has grown from 100 edits per day in the first month to over 500 prior to launch. Every day, a large variety of people from many fields sign on and do some work. This is all in a period in which the project has been visible only to those who have applied to the project. In addition, while it has received a fair bit of press, we have done very little in the way of recruitment—but with good results when we have. More aggressive recruitment is our trump card, which we haven't played." After the launch, on 27 March 2007, a press release quotes Sanger as saying "You don't have to choose between content and accountability. We have shown that we can create open and credible content. We can, in fact, be open to all sorts of participants, but still hold people to higher standards of content and behavior as a community."Larry Sanger. Citizendium Opens its Free Online Encyclopedia Project to the Public Citizendium, 27 March 2007.
"The modest success of our pilot project shows that there is hope that we can correct exactly the sort of abuses that people demonize Web 2.0 for," said the project's Editor-in-Chief, Wikipedia co-founder Dr. Larry Sanger. "You don't have to choose between content and accountability. We have shown that we can create open and credible content. We can, in fact, be open to all sorts of participants, but still hold people to higher standards of content and behavior as a community."
Sometime after the launch, it was noted that Citizendium's family-friendly policy would mean the project would likely tend to avoid articles on slang terms for sexual activity, and particularly explicit articles on sexual practices. The Citizendium has a "professionalism" policy for editors, which Sanger said is different from most online communities.
On 29 June 2007, Sanger announced an initiative via the project-wide mailing list that he dubbed "Citizendium 2.0". Characterizing his comments as a "project planning document," Sanger detailed a series of initiatives designed to launch Citizendium into its next phase of development. The document outlined plans for a judicial board, an advisory board, a personnel manager, a new chairman of the editorial council, wider participation in the project by volunteers, a system of subpages for articles, and an expanded article checklist.
Citizendium was honored on 5 December 2007, as an award finalist of the Society for New Communications Research. The Society describes itself as a nonprofit global think-tank "dedicated to the advanced study of new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business, culture and society." The Society chose Citizendium for an award because it considered it "a leading organization" in these respects.Report: http://www.newsobserver.com/1566/story/803518.html. The Society for New Communications Research website: http://www.sncr.org. Also see Citizendium Blog entry .
In March 2010, the project had 90 contributors who made at least one edit, with a core of 25 contributors who made more than 100 edits. Median word count dropped from 468 words per article in October 2007 to 151 in May 2010. In June 2010, the number of users making 1, 20, or 100 edits per month all were at their lowest point since the project went public in March 2007. By October 2011, only about a dozen members made edits on a typical day, and an Ars Technica headline called the Citizendium project "dead in the water." In 2014, the number of Citizendium contributors was under 100 and the number of edits per day was about "a dozen or so" according to Winthrop University's Dean of Library Services. In September 2015, only seven editors had been active in the previous 30 days.
In November 2016, a referendum was held to abolish the governing Citizendium Charter and the Council in favor of Wikipedia-style discussion and consensus. It attracted nine votes, and was passed. A new managing editor was to be elected at the same time, but there were no nominations.
, Citizendium's web traffic was 70,000 visits per month.
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