Conservapedia: Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

 

 

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],

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.

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.