User:Sterile/RWW

First wave: (by invitation only) largely precipitated by the Guardian article of CP, the creation on RW1; RationalWiki was a pain in the ass to log into focused on CP, when it was a page of pages (there is no cabal), ending in the Night of the Blunt Knives; silliniess at CP, such as the doughnut affair, Icewedge edits to CP and Richard at CP; it sounds all glorious, but it really didn't last that long.

Second wave: (the initial public RW) Creepy E.Wig conversations and the first real trolling by HeartOfGold; the LATimes article; the countdown to the 2008 election; PalMD and Caius around but eventually faded away to their own blogs, and the WIGOs and Article of the Weak stuff; forums were a separate page with the separate cabal and cabal within cabal forums; side-by-sides were common (Expelled: Leader's Guide); CP was still the real focus (click-bots, Lenski affair, lots of focus on TK; unearthing their forums and e-mails), although there were a lot of general skepticism articles, honest; lots of user templates; the Constitutional Convention (that went nowhere); the Great Pissing Contents (which was a huge deal at the time); probably the height of the era of Human; William Demski's legal threat; RationalBlogs; the vandal bin (?) it probably ends with the Colbert influx; really the most fun the wiki ever was (no offense), nobody really knew what they were doing (but that was the fun of it)

Third wave: the formalization and branding stuff; moving from .com to .org (right?) the forums went mothballed in favor of the Saloon Bar (maybe earlier); the new logo; more looking past CP (although there was a lot of post-CP initially, honest; it was Trent's intent); focus on other projects (ASK, WikiSynergy); eventually Facebook page comes on-line and Marcus becomes a problem in the eyes of lots; current form of Main is pretty much set; height of 'crats and sysops (don't remember when that started) and the coup; the great blackout for a month; the formation of the foundation; Loya Jira; Susan dies, and TK over at CP dies; definite ending in May 2011 because you all couldn't figure out how to 'crat me (according to many), although I still think the inability to figure out what to do with Marcus (or diffrences thereby) is the real reason May happened.

Fourth wave: (post-uber HCM) I suppose the editors are a big part of this, but it's also the mods and the reshuffling of "power" (whatever that means), which I still think led to the alienation of lots, ergo oldtimers leave like Elves going into the west; bizarro trolls (and troll-like-ness); promise of podcasting and other forms of social media.

There are definitely things in the wrong place, but that's what I remember of it. Actually, it is event driven except perhaps between the second and third waves (Blunt Knives & May "throw out the 'crats"-fest)