Help:Index/Intro/Topics

This is a Citizendium help page

This help page is meant for help and guidance only. It can be edited by any Citizen and, whilst we try to ensure it is accurate, it may not fully represent current policy.

Further guidance can be found at the Subpages page.

Generally, we write about whatever we like in Citizendium. There are, however, some basic constraints on the choice of topic:

• Encyclopedia topics. Topics should be plausible as encyclopedia article topics. This excludes, for example, topics expressing personal opinions (e.g., "Why I think God does not exist"), or complicated topics that reflect original research (e.g., "Fruit production in France, Turkmenistan, and Australia").

• Redundancy. Try to avoid covering the same ground as an existing article that's been given a different name. If one topic is similar to another--for example, is just a variant on the name--then the less common topic name should in many cases be redirected to the more common topic name. Thus, for example Great War redirects to World War I.

There is no requirement that article topics be "notable." We do not exclude topics solely on the ground that their topics do not strike contributors as being significant or important. What may be trivial to one person might be quite important to another.

You don't have to aim to write a complete article, You are welcome to just start a new article, with just a few hundred words - we call these "stub". Stubs may be written solely to introduce the topic of the article in such a way that you or other authors can use the stub as written to continue on to develop the article. Many people can write excellent stubs or short developing articles even when they don't have the knowledge to expand them.

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These help pages are a work in progress and need developing. Some topics are not written at all yet. Feel free to edit this page, or any other within the help system, and contribute towards making this a useful tool to all.