Conservapedia: Difference between revisions
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An encyclopedia | An encyclopedia with a politically conservative viewpoint, friendly to creationism and Christianity, and massively hostile to Liberals, homosexuals, and people who support/teach the theory of evolution. The site was started in November 2006 by Andrew Schlafly and a group of homeschooled children to provide an alternative to the perceived anti-Christian, pro-Evolution, anti-American and anti-conservative bias of Wikipedia. The main purpose of the site is to provide a family-friendly resource for homeschooled children from fundamentalist Christian homes. However, some more adult topics such as homosexuality are also treated in depth, to explain all the myriad ways in which they are considered abhorrent. | ||
As of 31 July 2008, Conservapedia has 22,091 registered users, of which 30 (or 0.14%) have Administrators rights. Of these registered users 11,086 were blocked (8691 for an infinite period). Roughly half the users are currently blocked and over a third are permanently blocked. It is unclear what proportion of unblocked registered users regularly use the site. | As of 31 July 2008, Conservapedia has 22,091 registered users, of which 30 (or 0.14%) have Administrators rights. Of these registered users 11,086 were blocked (8691 for an infinite period). Roughly half the users are currently blocked and over a third are permanently blocked. It is unclear what proportion of unblocked registered users regularly use the site. | ||
There is an enormous project at [[RationalWiki]] to discredit, mock, and ridicule Conservapedia. They gleefully point out, on the | ==Criticisms== | ||
*The sysops and admins arbitarily deciding whether or not to enforce the [http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservapedia:Commandments Conservapedia Commandments] (see [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=His_Dark_Materials_(novel)&curid=51358&diff=493793&oldid=493777 this] and Commandment number 5, together with the fact 'Learn Together' is a sysop for one example). | |||
*Removing cited facts and calling it 'liberal bias' simply because these facts do not conform to the preconceived notions of the leaders of the site.[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Abstinence&diff=next&oldid=207273]. | |||
*The management driving away experts from the site by, for example, demanding that they email a sysop proof of their qualifications before they continue to post on the site, after that sysop reverted edits on mathematics because they didn't understand them.[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Mathoreilly&diff=485894&oldid=485890] | |||
*"Belabouring a point" is a blockable offense. It ids unclear what this means but it is likely to discourage experts who can discuss a point in detail. [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Ed_Poor&oldid=554521#Block_of_User:Toffeeman] | |||
*The selective enforcement of Conservapedia's "[http://www.conservapedia.com/90/10 90/10 Rule]", which, despite being "a guideline", is a popular way for the sysops to squelch debate on talk pages via blocking and threats of same. Users are not always warned in advance that 90% of their edits must be in articles. Users who did not know that they were breaking any rule can be arbitrarily blocked. | |||
*On Conservapedia, 'vandalism' seems to include 'adding verified, cited facts that disagree with Fundamentalist dogma' makes 'vandalism' much easier than it should be. Many novice editors 'vandalize' the site without even realizing it, until they're blocked for it. | |||
*Administrators decide arbitrarily what is a blockable offense. Users get blocked without having done anything they knew is wrong. [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Ed_Poor&oldid=556123#Block_of_LowKey]> | |||
*Some pages, such as "[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Theory_of_evolution&action=history Theory of Evolution]" and "[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Homosexuality&action=history Homosexuality]" being permanently locked and monopolized by one obsessed sysop. | |||
*Amusingly, despite the fact that many Conservapedia sysops read it regularly, and even refer to it obliquely on talk pages and in comments, mentioning [[RationalWiki]] by name is taboo on Conservapedia. Doing so directly gets mere mortal posters banned. | |||
*Near-total lack of oversight or any sort of appeals process for users who think a sysop is abusing their authority. Many sysops don't even have email enabled, making it impossible for someone they ban to even find out why. | |||
*Extremely poor scholarship. Many 'articles' are [http://www.conservapedia.com/Coral_snake one or two short paragraphs ]at most, except those relating to how awful [http://www.conservapedia.com/Liberal liberals], [http://www.conservapedia.com/Homosexuality homosexuals], [http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism atheists], or [http://www.conservapedia.com/Evolution evolutionists] are, which can run for many hundreds of lines. | |||
*Totally unrealistic criticism of Barack Obama who has the overwhelming support of the American voters. Even other Conservatives feel things can go too far. [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Aschlafly&curid=75325&diff=556141&oldid=556007] The user who complained has been blocked for it. [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Special:Log&type=block&page=User:Vmember][http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Aschlafly&diff=next&oldid=556141] [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Vmember&curid=78273&diff=556140&oldid=555529] [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Special:Log&type=block&page=User:Vmember] There is no free speech on Conservapedia. | |||
*Some confusion between "Encyclopedia" and "Blog", as the sysops make many long, hilariously opinionated articles on various Conservative talking-points, such as [http://www.conservapedia.com/Liberal_friendship how Liberals are incapable of real friendship]. This is an old version of the page [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Liberals_and_friendship&oldid=489782 LIberals and friendship] which may be changed. Note the writers claim that the liberals, Speaker Tip O'Neil and Senator Ted Kennedy were friends with Ronald Regan as were other liberals. This contradicts the main contention of the article. Liberals do not invariably refuse to be friends with conservatives. The more sensible conservapedians recognise this. [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Talk%3ALiberals_and_friendship&diff=556328&oldid=465412] | |||
*At least one sysop keeps deleting perfectly factual mathematics articles because he doesn't understand the concepts involved. | |||
**The site's founder, Andrew Schlafly, apparently believes that "Imaginary Numbers" are part of a Liberal Plot. | |||
==The RationalWiki / Conservapedia War== | |||
There is an enormous project at [[RationalWiki]] to discredit, mock, and ridicule Conservapedia. They gleefully point out, on the [http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Conservapedia:What_is_going_on_at_CP%3F "WIGO"] page, instances of foolish behavior such as outlined above. This ridicule is perhaps the most popular part of RationalWiki. | |||
Conservapedia forbids any mention anywhere of the phrase "RationalWiki", and has a so-called "spam filter" that automatically blocks any attempt to enter the phrase in that form. People who evade that by entering things like "<nowiki>Rational<!-- -->Wiki</nowiki>" are immediately blocked. In recent months (2008) the sysops have allowed oblique references to "that other place" or "RW", but all such references must be vitriolic. Any expression of sympathy with, or tolerance of, "that other place" leads to an immediate ban. As of late summer 2008, some sysops appear to be using the phrase "mouth-breather" as a euphemism for RW people. The origin and meaning of this is not known. | |||
RationalWiki appears to have been started by disaffected refugees from Conservapedia, and explicit vandalism of Conservapedia by RationalWiki people was probably a common activity at that time. Conservapedia accuses RationalWiki of being responsible for most of their vandalism, though the heavy ongoing influx of new users suggests that that is not the case. In any case, the anonymity of the internet makes it impossible to tell. | |||
Conservapedia usually bans anyone known to have an account at RationalWiki, though there seem to be occasional exceptions for long-standing Conservapedia editors. One user, Ames Grauert, was permitted to come back after a long ban, and took Andrew Schlafly up on the latter's challenge to have a debate with any liberal. However, the planning discussion did not go well ([http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Aschlafly&oldid=496823#Debate.3F], | |||
[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Aschlafly&oldid=496823#More_on_Debates], | |||
[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Aschlafly&oldid=496823#Debates.2C_Round_3]) | |||
as the sysops repeatedly [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Special:Log&type=block&page=User:DParker blocked] Ames during discussions. As of August 2008, the debate does not appear destined to occur. | |||
A few Conservapedia sysops have accounts at RationalWiki, where they are treated with great hostility but not blocked. | |||
==Difficulties== | ==Difficulties== | ||
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==Evaluation== | ==Evaluation== | ||
The great strength of the Wiki format is allowing anyone to edit. This causes major problems for the management of Conservapedia, who are forced to spend much of their time scrutinizing every edit for deviation from their ideology. | The great strength of the Wiki format is allowing anyone to edit. This causes major problems for the management of Conservapedia, who are forced to spend much of their time scrutinizing every edit for deviation from their ideology. The site is sometimes characterized as "Andy's blog" because of his pervasive control over its content. A major consequence of making it a wiki instead of the usual (closed) blog is that it has the problems noted above. | ||
[[Category:Political]] | [[Category:Political]] | ||