Wiki4CAM
(→Activity: updating) |
David Gerard (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
[[Image:Wiki4CAM logo.png |right|thumb|Saving the world from evidence-based medicine since August 2008.]] | [[Image:Wiki4CAM logo.png |right|thumb|Saving the world from evidence-based medicine since August 2008.]] | ||
| − | '''Wiki4CAM''' (though under their logo, '''Wiki 4 CAM''') is a tiny wiki dedicated to saving [[alternative medicine]] from the [[scientific method]]. While the website makes it clear that [[skeptic]]s need not apply,<ref>[http://www.wiki4cam.org/wiki/A_note_for_skeptics Wiki4CAM: A note for skeptics]</ref> the site is, to date, predominantly a RationalWiki outpost, enjoying low to moderate use by only a few editors. The site is supported in part by [[Hpathy.com]], a website dedicated to promoting [[homeopathy]], which is supposedly also at work optimizing Wiki4CAM's search engine presence.<ref>[http://www.wiki4cam.org/wiki/Why_do_we_need_Wiki4CAM%3F Wiki4CAM - Why do we need Wiki4CAM?]</ref> | + | '''Wiki4CAM''' (though under their logo, '''Wiki 4 CAM''') is a tiny wiki dedicated to saving [[alternative medicine]] from the [[scientific method]]. While the website makes it clear that [[skeptic]]s need not apply,<ref>[http://www.wiki4cam.org/wiki/A_note_for_skeptics Wiki4CAM: A note for skeptics]</ref> the site is, to date, predominantly a RationalWiki outpost, enjoying low to moderate use by only a few editors. The site is supported in part by [[Hpathy.com]], a website dedicated to promoting [[homeopathy]], which is supposedly also at work optimizing Wiki4CAM's search engine presence.<ref>[http://www.wiki4cam.org/wiki/Why_do_we_need_Wiki4CAM%3F Wiki4CAM - Why do we need Wiki4CAM?]</ref> Large amounts of the content also concern [[ayurveda]]. |
==Differences from Wikipedia== | ==Differences from Wikipedia== | ||
Revision as of 18:49, 21 August 2010
Wiki4CAM (though under their logo, Wiki 4 CAM) is a tiny wiki dedicated to saving alternative medicine from the scientific method. While the website makes it clear that skeptics need not apply,[1] the site is, to date, predominantly a RationalWiki outpost, enjoying low to moderate use by only a few editors. The site is supported in part by Hpathy.com, a website dedicated to promoting homeopathy, which is supposedly also at work optimizing Wiki4CAM's search engine presence.[2] Large amounts of the content also concern ayurveda.
Contents |
Differences from Wikipedia
Wiki4CAM has been set up to counter perceived bias in Wikipedia, in this respect it is similar to dozens of other wikis out there on the Internet. In this case, Wiki4CAM states that Wikipedia's open policies has lead to it "gaining political views" and that editors have gone out of their way to "discredit and disrepute nearly all alternative medicine as unscientific". As Wikipedia must be A) neutral and B) verifiable, this is hardly surprising and pseudoscience, by the site rules cannot be written as if it was 100% verifiable and real. It also claims to be a "true knowledge base" for alternative medicine whereas Wikipedia is biased due to "skeptical intervention".[3]
Articles of note
While Wiki4CAM struggles with Poe's Law and has all ready deleted some real classics such as "tree therapy", a few articles are starting to become worth mentioning, for all the wrong reasons:
- That's not lemonade, that's a space station! Although its "Criticism by mainstream medicine" (which was retitled as "research" in September 2008) section is about as fair as you can get.
- The suspense is totally killing us. For some reason, a lot of Wiki4CAM seems to be like this....
- "A wand is a thin rod used by a magician..."
- A good wiki article should always start with the title... and end with the title. And have the title in the middle, of course.
Articles you might consider important for a CAM site, like say homeopathy and even alternative medicine have been copied almost wholesale from Wikipedia. This also includes all of the evil criticism they complain about on their various policy pages.
Amidst the Wikipedia copying and stub-fest are a few solid bastions of wacky CAM rhetoric. The Myths about homeopathy offers some great reading, including the fact that homeopathy is not just water but water that has been shaken just right.
Activity
Despite heroic attempts to the contrary, Wiki4CAM appears as if it died on arrival, being edited only about 10-430% of the total hours available in any given week (which means it's potency is greatly enhanced). The only activity is a couple of site administrators puttering around once or twice a week.[4] The one stop CAM shop of the future needs some serious injection of "caring," a caring for which no homeopathic remedy yet exists. Although it's not easy to tell when it happened, Wiki4CAM has recently given over a lot of its space to Google-ads based advertising. This could be a last ditch effort to get the cash needed to host the site, so it is possible that it could truly die at any moment.
As of mid-2010, account creation at Wiki4CAM has been disabled,[5] perhaps another sign that the Wiki is truly on the brink of extinction. Be sure to tell all your Reiki master and snake oil peddler friends about Wiki4CAM before it is too late!
External Links
Footnotes
- ↑ Wiki4CAM: A note for skeptics
- ↑ Wiki4CAM - Why do we need Wiki4CAM?
- ↑ Why we need Wiki4CAM
- ↑ 9 edits registered on Recent Changes when you select "the past 30 days". 5 of these were user creation logs. (Info retrieved 12/09/09)
- ↑ User permission error, cannot create an account
| Welcome to the Wikisphere. Please proceed with caution: | ||
|---|---|---|
| A Storehouse of Knowledge - Anarchopedia - Citizendium - Ameriwiki - Conservapedia - CreationWiki - Encyclopædia Dramatica - EvoWiki - RightpediaMetapedia - New World Encyclopedia - PESWiki - RationalWiki - RationalWikiWiki - RationalWikiWikiWiki - RationalWiki (français) - SourceWatch - TV Tropes - Wiki - wikiFactor - WikiIndex - WikiIslam - WikiLeaks - WikiSynergy - Wikipedia | ||
