RationalWiki (en)

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Revision as of 01:37, 20 November 2008 by Jazzman831 (talk | contribs) (not only is this a gross simplification, but it's not actually a criticism of RationalWiki; if you want to criticise Conservapedia, then do it on the right page!!)
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[{{{URL}}} {{{logo}}}] [{{{URL}}} RationalWiki (en)]
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Description

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RationalWiki is an open wiki taking a critical look atthe pseudoscience movement and extremal politics, through the use of side-by-side examinations and humor.

Their stated goals are:

  • Analyzing and refuting the anti-science movement, ideas and people.
  • Analyzing and refuting the full range of crank ideas.
  • Explorations of authoritarianism and fundamentalism.

RationalWiki has about 2,250 registered users, of which 129 (or 5.75%) have Sysops rights, which are rewarded quite liberally by the bureaucrats.

RationalWiki runs a large collection of specially customized extensions allowing a wide range of features such as; up-down voting, slider voting, a site wide intercom system, and easy bible quotations.

RationalWiki also has a namespace dedicated to Conservapedia.

History

RationalWiki started in May 2007 after a group of editors at Conservapedia were banned over ideological differences with the authorities there. Their edits had consisted mostly of debating on talk pages, attempting to counteract what they perceived to be overwhelming anti-scientific and far-right political bias. Although the site was called RationalWiki to highlight the pro-scientific worldview of the founders, the content was largely weighted to the perceived lunacy of events at Conservapedia.

Rationalwiki today

While Conservapedia continues to be a major focus of RationalWiki, they have branched out into many areas of skepticism. Many articles focus on unfounded medical claims, pseudoscience and Biblical literalism. Despite a seemingly anti-religious stance, some editors are practicing Christians or Jews, tending towards the more liberal aspects of their religion rather than fundamentalism.

The site works to refute a range of faith based ideas and superstitions. They have material on Scientology, Creationism, Astrology, "New Age" philosophy, and many others.

Despite this branching into other areas, most of their traffic is to the page What is going on at Conservapedia?. The situation is perhaps best described as on ongoing war between the two sites, discussed in more detail in the article, The Conservapedia RationalWiki war.

The website has a rather unusual sense of humour, which includes widespread intentional misspellings and other peculiar phrases. There are many "inside jokes", particularly in the material relating to Conservapedia, and the writing often has the tone of a close-knit social group.

Example of RationalWiki’s perspective:-

As a site we have a point of view, and that point of view is that the scientific method and the information gained from its application is better than almost anything else humanity has come up with. We believe that the support of, profiting from and creation of pseudosciences is dangerous and wrong. [1]

Criticism

Some members have admitted to vandalising Conservapedia. In addition, most if not all of the users hold fundamentalist religion in contempt. Many users criticize Christianity and conservativism and some of the admins and users openly espouse atheism on their user pages, and criticize what they see as various religious irrationalities.

See also



further tags:

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