RationalWiki
From RationalWiki
RationalWiki is a community working together to explore and provide information about a range of topics centered around science, skepticism, and critical thinking.
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.
We welcome contributors, and encourage those who disagree with us to register and engage in constructive dialogue.
Contents |
[edit] How RationalWiki works
It's best to think of RationalWiki as a bunch of drunken skeptics down the pub pointing at bullshit and loudly shouting "BULLSHIT!" and then returning in the morning to add their references, maybe. If you came looking for LessWrong, you may not be in quite the right place. Our good stuff is great, though.
| “ | This is a goofy wiki, not ... Meet the Press or the Times of London. | ” |
[edit] This is not an encyclopedia
While RationalWiki uses software originally developed for a well-known on-line encyclopedia, it is important to realize that we are not trying to be an encyclopedia. Wikis were originally developed as a tool for collaborative content creation, which is what we strive to do here.
Many aspects of the popular web 2.0 paradigm have been incorporated into the site.
- 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, the site has also incorporated many aspects of the blogging community.
- Discussion between 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 mind at the saloon bar. This focus on discussion captures the essence of Internet forums.
- We have a serious mission, but we're here because it's fun, and only stick around while it's still fun.
While many of our articles may look like encyclopedia articles, we go much further - we encourage original research and opinions on the topics we write about. We are on a Mission from God!.
[edit] History
- See the main article RationalWiki:History
RationalWiki 2.0 was created as an open editing wiki, on May 22, 2007.
[edit] Future
RationalWiki is gradually expanding, and has reached the point of creating a non-profit corporation, the RationalWiki Foundation, which owns the infrastructure and basic copyrights. The Foundation is ultimately managed and run by the users of the site.
[edit] Notability and repute
RationalWiki is a small site and rarely makes it into the top 100,000 sites at Alexa. We come up usually on the second page on a google search for a topic we have a page on, with a few exceptions where we are ranked very high. We so far are not notable enough to have a Wikipedia article,[2] since we haven't "made the news" yet; however, we were mentioned in passing in an LA Times article about Conservapedia, and later an article in the UK Daily Telegraph drew heavily, with attribution, from our series of articles on Internet laws.[3]
Our objective here is not to collect hits or increase the article tally for their own sakes, but to disseminate true and accurate information whilst debunking pseudoscience and other anti-intellectual "information". Remember, the truth is not a popularity contest.
[edit] Criticism
RationalWiki has numerous critics, roughly in two 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?" as rationality obviously involves thinking like them.
The content critics are typically the butthurt fans of people or subjects that RationalWiki doesn't speak favorably of. Supporters of noted right-wing politician Ron Paul certainly aren't fans,[4] angry that someone, somewhere dares not declare Ron Paul to be God. Ayn Rand fans do much the same. Other criticism of content is often directed at shorter and less complete articles.[5] 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.
RationalWiki's style is frequently criticized, with some objecting to the odd sense of humor (and the even odder one of humour) 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 eiπ), although the founder, Eliezer Yudkowsky, defended RW as a potential recruiting ground for hardcore rationalists. Issues with style, the so-called SPOV, also extend to bickering on RationalWiki itself.
The site's governing system of mobocracy comes under frequent criticism by some users, who consider that such a system is no longer appropriate for the site now that its membership has grown beyond a dozen or so active users.
[edit] See also
- Our main help page
- RationalWiki:What is a RationalWiki article?
- RationalWiki:Newcomers
- Snarky point of view
- RationalWiki.info
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ RationalWiki - Difflink
- ↑ It was available for some time, but now just redirects to a subsection of the Conservapedia article. Encyclopedia Dramatica merely redirects to tl;dr. Uncyclopedia has the usual jibberish about the the site being founded in 64 BC, because it's soooo totally zany to have a date that can't possibly be true!!!!111
- ↑ 23 Oct 2009 [1]
- ↑ Ron Paul forums
- ↑ Comment of Abiotic oil
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