Help:Introduction

Centiare is a free directory service that anyone can use, including: commerical enterprises, non-profit organizations, self-employed individuals, job-seeking individuals who wish to post a personal resumé, actors and artists who wish to create a biography or post headshots of themselves or images of their work, etc.

Centiare is based on MediaWiki, the same powerful media program that powers Wikipedia, with some distinct advantages:

• Centiare developed a set of custom extensions that allow users to control and protect their own Directory page content. Unlike Wikipedia and other wiki sites that do not provide this feature, this means NO ONE ELSE can edit, vandalize, or otherwise interfere with your protected Directory pages.

• Centiare incorporates semantic tagging in all Directory entries that enables users to quickly search and/or browse Directory listings in conjunction with a number of different filters and search parameters, e.g. industry, zip code, city/state/country, etc., to provide more focused and accurate searches.

• Centiare supports an advocate point-of-view (APOV) for protected Directory page content. While Main page articles are reserved for traditional neutral point-of-view (NPOV) subjects (e.g., Accounting, Aeronautics, Auditing, Banking, etc.), which are subject to open-editing capabilities, the protected Directory page content can advertise, promote, advocate, and provide sales contact information for specific companies, locations, branches, stores, franchises, products, services, individuals, etc.

Legitimate individuals and organizations that accurately identify themselves will be able to "claim ownership" of their Directory space(s). If there are ever cases of competitive conflict over a Directory page (e.g., Amazon.com and the Amazon Coffee and Tea Company both want ownership of the "Amazon" Directory space, Centiare administrators will adjudicate the claims and implement a fair resolution for both parties.