Conservapedia
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==Management== | ==Management== | ||
| − | Currently, Conservapedia ("CP" for short) is mismanaged by [[Aschlafly]] and a [[Star Chamber]] of [[homeschool]]ed teenagers known as "The Panel". While there is a list of [[Conservapedia:Conservapedia Commandments|Conservapedia Commandments]], they seem to be mostly honored in the breach, and their basic policy seems to | + | Currently, Conservapedia ("CP" for short) is mismanaged by [[Aschlafly]] and a [[Star Chamber]] of [[homeschool]]ed teenagers known as "The Panel". While there is a list of [[Conservapedia:Conservapedia Commandments|Conservapedia Commandments]], they seem to be mostly honored in the breach, and their basic policy seems to be banning people for ideological differences, attempts at humor, or backtalking them. The latest expansion on this is the "Scorched Earth Editing Policy", in which after banning someone, they undo all of that person's recent edits, just to make ''certain'' the filthy [[heretic]] doesn't feel like trying to get back on to [[vandal|vandalize]] the site further by posting more facts the sysops don't agree with. |
It's mollified by the knowledge that a Wikipedia-like site can only thrive with a relatively free exchange of ideas and some tolerance for vandals, hoaxers, and crackpots, and the gang of beady-eyed zealots running CP are going to stifle it to death while thinking they're 'protecting' it. (For an example, look at all the pages that various editors have locked so that nobody can 'deface' them, thus preventing anyone from improving them as well.) | It's mollified by the knowledge that a Wikipedia-like site can only thrive with a relatively free exchange of ideas and some tolerance for vandals, hoaxers, and crackpots, and the gang of beady-eyed zealots running CP are going to stifle it to death while thinking they're 'protecting' it. (For an example, look at all the pages that various editors have locked so that nobody can 'deface' them, thus preventing anyone from improving them as well.) | ||
Revision as of 16:58, 21 June 2007
Conservapedia |
| Introduction |
| Newcomer's Guide What is going on? |
| Commentary |
| Best of Conservapedia Blatant Plagiarism Differences with Wikipedia Hijacked Articles "SDG" "TZB" "Fab Five" Sysops Timeline CP in the News |
| In-depth analysis |
| Active users Illustrated guide |
| Fun |
| Article Matrix Greatest Insights Parthian Shots More about CP |
Conservapedia is the latest manifestation of the ongoing attempt of the American ultra-right-wing to scare and corrupt users into believing that liberals, atheists, Muslims, brown people, and homosexuals are inherently evil. Their attacks on these groups have been coupled with perhaps unintentional, but very obvious racism and sexism. It was founded by Andrew Schlafly, offspring of professional anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly, in an attempt to offset what he perceived as an excessive Liberal Bias of Wikipedia, to try to make an exact duplicate of Wikipedia with an equal and opposite Conservative Bias.
Contents |
Philosophical Stance
Conservapedia (The Trusworthy Encyclopedia) portrays itself as an encyclopedia with an American Conservative Christian point of view. But what exactly do these terms mean? Some of the main Conservapedia themes are:
- A literal interpretation of the Bible, often putting Old Testament writings ahead of the actual teachings of Jesus.
- Biblical inerrancy
- A young-earth creationist viewpoint
- Anti homosexual
- Anti abortion
- Anti sex-education in schools
- Pro capital punishment
- Anti gun control
- Anti global warming
- Anti environmental controls
- Anti Islam
- Pro Israel (no matter what)
- Anti "liberal" (a pejorative term for any viewpoint that contradicts CP's views)
- Anti medicare
- Anti minimum wage
- Anti public school
- Pro homeschooling (religious)
- Anti vaccination
- Anti United Nations
See also: Conservapedia:Delusions
Management
Currently, Conservapedia ("CP" for short) is mismanaged by Aschlafly and a Star Chamber of homeschooled teenagers known as "The Panel". While there is a list of Conservapedia Commandments, they seem to be mostly honored in the breach, and their basic policy seems to be banning people for ideological differences, attempts at humor, or backtalking them. The latest expansion on this is the "Scorched Earth Editing Policy", in which after banning someone, they undo all of that person's recent edits, just to make certain the filthy heretic doesn't feel like trying to get back on to vandalize the site further by posting more facts the sysops don't agree with.
It's mollified by the knowledge that a Wikipedia-like site can only thrive with a relatively free exchange of ideas and some tolerance for vandals, hoaxers, and crackpots, and the gang of beady-eyed zealots running CP are going to stifle it to death while thinking they're 'protecting' it. (For an example, look at all the pages that various editors have locked so that nobody can 'deface' them, thus preventing anyone from improving them as well.)
Lately, Conservapedia has taken the extreme step of preventing any user from registering a new account or making any edits at certain times of the day unless granted special rights [1]
Interesting Gaps in Conservapedia
Like the press of the now-defunct USSR, paying attention to what Conservapedia doesn't say can be just as enlightening as what they do say. For example, various human bodily parts have been permanently banned from having entries on CP, leading to CP having thousands of words about why a woman shouldn't have an abortion, and not one word on the organs involved in getting her pregnant in the first place.
Conservapedia and Fear of the Unknown
As is common with very conservative groups throughout history, much of their fear stems from unfamiliarity with diverse, nuanced situations and a tendency to believe others are conspiring against them. The former creates fear in the ultra-conservative mind that their position in society is not secure; the latter defines their obsession with security issues.
In the case of Conservapedia, these fears are realized in deletion of user pages and the site as a whole spending an inordinate amount of time tracking down vandalism and protecting pages.
Though certainly not all will agree, this “fear of the unknown” is often used to explain so-called “blind-faith.”
Justice in Conservapedia
- Main article: Conservapedia Commandments
The rule of law at Conservapedia is enforced by the sysops. There is a code of rules known as the Commandments but they are seldom followed. The sysops block arbitrarily, passing out bans upon any and all who disagree with them. The only function for the rules is that they are occasionally used to justify disciplinary action - for example:
- Conservapedia's 90:10 rule states that editors must have 90% of their edits in the main space and only 10% in talk. If they were to follow this rule they would have to ban roughly 80% of their regular editors. In fact not one of the major Sysops (Aschlafly, TK, Conservative, Hojimachong, Karajou) at Conservapedia is in compliance with the rule. Instead when ever they come across an editor who brings up a point they disagree with (No matter how well sourced or logical) they will ban them and use the 90:10 as justification.
- Commandment 1 says to not copy "from Wikipedia or elsewhere", but most users and many of the more active sysops copy and paste regularly (see Conservapedia:Blatant Plagiarism), but when an editor copies and pastes an article that they disagree with they will delete it for plagiarism. This article here was copied and pasted and the user who created it admitted it in the edit summary saying "(copied from theopedia.com / public domain)". When an article was copied off rational wiki (Which is under the same licencing as Theopedia) they deleted it because "copied from RationalWiki".
Censorship in Conservapedia
Conservapedia is often guilty of one of their most common claims against Wikipedia, censorship. Conservapedia, for example, deleted a section of an article on persecution of Christians that pointed out Christians sometimes persecuted other religious sects.
More Discussion
Since many of the original editors at RationalWiki met while banging their heads against the wall at Conservapedia, there will be a lot of commentary and articles specific to that site here. They have been given their own "namespace" (each article title begins "Conservapedia:" to distinguish this) and they can be seen listed here.
Links
- Conservapedia
- Conservapedia Column, blog critical of CP behavior and archive of CP history [1]
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