RationalWiki
| I thought this was supposed to be RationalWiki |
| Key pages |
| RationalMedia Foundation |
| Moderation |
RationalWiki (RW) is a community working together to explore and provide information about a range of topics centered around science, skepticism, and critical thinking. RW currently has 6,488 mainspace articles. RW is owned by the RationalMedia Foundation (RMF), an incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The RMF operates the infrastructure that keeps RW running and holds its associated trademarks and copyrights, but it does not govern the community or any content the community produces.
Our purpose here at RationalWiki includes:
- Analyzing and refuting pseudoscience and the anti-science movement.
- Documenting the full range of crank ideas.
- Explorations of authoritarianism and fundamentalism.
- Analysis and criticism of how these subjects are handled in the media.
We welcome contributors, and encourage those who disagree with us to register and engage in constructive dialogue.
Contents |
History
RationalWiki 2.0 was created as an open editing wiki on May 22, 2007. Lulz ensued.
Scope and statistics
RW is a fairly popular skeptic site. According to peer-reviewed[1] research, as of July 2015 RW is the most visible anti-conspiracy website on Google/Bing English search engine results.[2] By November 2012, RW's traffic had reached about 32,000 unique visitors per day[3] and since 2013, RW has had 700-1,000 monthly editors and 15,000-30,000 monthly edits.[4]
Also since 2013, RW's Alexa rank (a measure accurate only in a broad sense) has hovered between 15,000th and 25,000th most popular website on the entire Internet, which translates to about 4 million-ish unique monthly visitors.[5][6][7] This puts RW above other skeptical sites like Quackwatch,[8] Skeptoid,[9] and Freethought Blogs,[10] though still below big players like PolitiFact[11] and Snopes.[12]
However, RW's objective isn't to collect views in and of itself (the truth is not a popularity contest), especially since we don't sell anything, nor run any type of ads in order monetize hits. Instead, our intention is for every individual view to prove a chance for us to disseminate accurate information against the flood of pseudoscience and anti-intellectualism that permeates much of the public discourse today.
For us, more viewers simply translates into more chances to help dissuade pseudoscientific thinking and to rally the interest of still more dedicated editors to the cause of scientific skepticism (thus resulting in the proliferation of more and better skeptical content — here, as well as in society generally).
So, do any "real" news outlets cite RationalWiki?
Yes, certainly. Since RationalWiki's inception, we've featured in articles, op-ed pieces and news reports (excluding blog posts and mention by commenters) — either being quoted verbatim, or outright referenced as one of the sources for the article's claims — by a slew of mainstream media outlets worldwide, including:
- The Columbian[wp][13]
- The Raw Story[wp][14]
- The Conversation[wp][15]
- The New Republic[wp][16]
- New York Magazine[wp][17]
- The Guardian[18]
- The Queens Chronicle[wp][19]
- Metro[wp][20]
- Slate[wp][21]
- Gawker[wp][22]
- The Independent Online[wp][23]
- The Telegraph[24]
- The Los Angeles Times[wp][25]
- Wired[wp][26]
- The Washington Post[wp][27]
- The Week[wp][28]
- Houston Press[wp][29]
- Gizmodo[wp][30]
- NBC News[wp][31]
- The Blaze[32]
- The Huffington Post[33]
- The New Statesman[wp][34]
- The Vancouver Courier[wp][35]
What is a RationalWiki article?
While RW uses software originally developed for a well-known online encyclopedia, it is important to realize that RW is not trying to be an encyclopedia. While many of RW's articles may look like encyclopedia entries, RW goes much further – it encourages original research and opinion formation.
- The community has embraced the concept of wikis by creating an information source out of the collaborative editing of thousands of people.
- By encouraging original research and essays, RW has also incorporated many aspects of the blogging community.
- Discussion among members is facilitated on many levels such as debate articles, specific discussions on talk pages, and just coming together to talk about whatever is on our minds at the Saloon Bar. This focus on discussion captures the essence of Internet forums.
- RW has a serious mission, but its users here because it's fun, and stick around only while it's still fun.
Administration
Who runs this place? Ultimately, nobody. It's a wiki.
Decisions are made by the will of whoever shows up and does stuff. Mobocracy and do-ocracy rule the day. Most users who've been around a while and aren't utterly incompetent are sysops. The most effective place to be outraged is on the talk page of the article you are outraged about. People may well engage with you in a relevant fashion.
A few users are moderators, elected by the community. They don't like work, so will do anything other than be your go-to parent.
In one extreme case the board have acted to ban someone for libel of a level that could have attracted lawsuits to the RMF itself. They don't like work either, so don't expect this to happen again any time soon.
Criticism
RW has numerous critics, roughly divided in two (overlapping) groups: those that take issue with the content and those who take issue with the style. Both tend to quickly degenerate into "so why do they call it RationalWiki, then?" This may be based on a slight confusion between rationalisation and rationalism – as no one ever thinks they're being irrational, they're likely to accuse anyone who disagrees with them as irrational. In principle, this point extends to RW itself, which declares everyone who doesn't follow its POV irrational – making the choice of title somewhat unfortunate and ironic.
The content critics are typically the fans of people or subjects that RW doesn't speak favorably of. Supporters of noted politician Ron Paul certainly aren't fans,[36] angry that someone, somewhere dares not declare Ron Paul to be the Second Coming. Ayn Rand fans do much the same. Other criticism of content is often directed at shorter and less complete articles.[37] RW's rating system goes part way to rectifying the issue of lower quality articles but is implemented in a completely ad hoc wikilike fashion.
RW's style is frequently criticized, with some objecting to the odd sense of humor and getting upset that people aren't taking their idea of rationalism seriously. LessWrong bloggers and commentators in particular find it annoyingly irrational (with prior probability
). LessWrong's founder, Eliezer Yudkowsky, once defended RW as a potential recruiting ground for hardcore rationalists but mostly as "clueless."[38] Other issues with style include the running debate over whether RW's self-touted viewpoint, "SPOV," means "Scientific Point of View (plus snark)" or "Snarky Point of View (plus science)."
Language sections
While the overwhelming majority of RW's editors are English-speaking, RW also has articles in other languages, namely:
- Russian: More than 980 articles (for example, Научный креационизм);
- Spanish: 4 articles (for example, Cabra);
- French: 40 articles (for example, Science).
- Portuguese: 4 articles.
Helpful links
- Our main help page
- RationalWiki:Community Standards
- RationalWiki:What is a RationalWiki article?
- RationalWiki:Newcomers
- RationalWiki:How I found RationalWiki
See also
| |
For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about RationalWiki. |
External links
- Main Page on RationalWiki (hey, wait!)
Footnotes
- ↑ http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/about/editorialPolicies#peerReviewProcess
- ↑ http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5597/4652
- ↑ Server admin Tmtoulouse remarks on RW traffic.
- ↑ http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/File:RW_Stats_16-Jul.png
- ↑ http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/rationalwiki.org
- ↑ http://www.rank2traffic.com/rationalwiki.org
- ↑ http://siterankdata.com/rationalwiki.org
- ↑ http://siterankdata.com/quackwatch.com
- ↑ http://siterankdata.com/skeptoid.com
- ↑ http://siterankdata.com/freethoughtblogs.com
- ↑ http://siterankdata.com/politifact.com
- ↑ http://siterankdata.com/snopes.com
- ↑ http://www.columbian.com/news/2014/dec/21/pundits-claim-victory-in-imaginary-war-on-christma/
- ↑ http://www.rawstory.com/2015/01/gamergates-savage-defender-is-a-tortured-soul-who-turns-tori-amos-songs-into-terrible-poetry/
- ↑ http://theconversation.com/why-conspiracy-theories-arent-harmless-fun-43923
- ↑ https://newrepublic.com/minutes/131495/following-fathers-footsteps-donald-trump-jr-retweeted-white-supremacist
- ↑ http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/06/peter-thiel.html
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/jul/25/these-are-the-best-arguments-from-the-3-of-climate-scientist-skeptics-really
- ↑ http://www.qchron.com/editions/central/vaccinations-are-key-to-good-health-worldwide/article_db9362bc-63e9-11e6-ba30-ff5d58f43fea.html
- ↑ http://www.metro.se/jacks-internet/sa-satter-natet-spinn-pa-vandringssagnerna/EVHnew!tSOKBi7po3Hq2/
- ↑ http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/07/roko_s_basilisk_the_most_terrifying_thought_experiment_of_all_time.html
- ↑ http://thevane.gawker.com/weather-hoaxer-threatens-facebook-after-it-takes-down-h-1604875212
- ↑ http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/activist-tries-to-get-transparency-in-banking-sector-1272646
- ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6408927/Internet-rules-and-laws-the-top-10-from-Godwin-to-Poe.html
- ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/19/nation/na-schlafly19
- ↑ http://www.wired.it/scienza/energia/2016/06/14/bufala-climatica-onde-scalari/
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/donald-trump-and-the-politics-of-white-male-anger-commentary/2015/08/20/978dc484-475e-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_story.html
- ↑ http://www.theweek.co.uk/
- ↑ http://www.houstonpress.com/news/the-10-best-houston-conspiracy-theories-7396111
- ↑ http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/04/why-freezing-yourself-is-a-terrible-way-to-achieve-immortality/
- ↑ http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/aliens-moon-tv-show-adds-weird-ufo-twists-apollo-tales-n159806
- ↑ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/05/blaze-debunk-obama-regime-rumored-to-shoot-down-f-16s-sent-to-white-house-in-retaliation-for-emails-exposing-colin-powells-alleged-affair/
- ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/18/freemen-on-the-land-andreas-pirelli_n_4464131.html
- ↑ http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mehdi-hasan/2011/11/public-debt-young-ebook-fiscal
- ↑ http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/prisoner-s-dilemma-plays-out-in-reality-bachelor-pad-1.383918
- ↑ Ron Paul forums
- ↑ Comment of Abiotic oil
- ↑ Eliezer Yudkowsky Facts
| Welcome to the Wikisphere. Please proceed with caution: | ||
|---|---|---|
| A Storehouse of Knowledge - Anarchopedia - Citizendium - Conservapedia - CreationWiki - EvoWiki - Knowino - Metapedia - New World Encyclopedia - PESWiki - Palaeos - Psiram - RationalWikiWiki - RationalWikiWikiWiki - RationalWiki (français) - Rightpedia - SourceWatch - TV Tropes - Wiki - Wiki4CAM - wikiFactor - WikiIndex - WikiIslam - WikiSynergy - Wikipedia | ||
