Conservapedia:Fab Five

This Conservapedia-related article is of largely historical interest and is no longer the focus of RationalWiki today. Conservapedia (and religious fundamentalism to an extent) was a major focal point in the early history of RationalWiki, but long ago ceased coming up with new ways to appall and amuse. Our energies are now spent debunking other, fresher examples of pseudoscientific claims, authoritarianism, and deceit. For RationalWiki's less ancient content, try the Best of RationalWiki.

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The Fab Five is a secondary Google Group for Conservapedia administrators. It was created by Ed Poor on January 8, 2009. The contents of the group were leaked on February 9, 2011.

The original members were Ed Poor, TK, Andrew Schlafly, DeanS and Geo.plrd. Ed described the site as "quiet place with no rancor where we can discuss security and personnel matters." In the same post, Ed goes on to say,

“”The members of this group were chosen by TK. Since early December, he has been sending dozens of messages to Andy, Dean, Geo and me. I just thought it would be more convenient to use Google to keep track of them all. For one thing, it gives each of us the option of having each post emailed to us, or collected in a digest, or just viewed through this interface.

This would seem to imply that TK was already dictating policy on Conservapedia, long before he was re-appointed an administrator. It would also appear to make Andy's request for new sysops an even bigger sham, but it does explain why he ignored all objections to TK's promotion.

Since its creation, the Fab Five has expanded to include Karajou and TerryH, leaving Conservative and RobSmith as the only "senior' administrators not allowed to play with the big boys.

Quotes by individual users

Andy Schlafly

Andy on why CP is suddenly a nice place to work:

Superb insights, Karajou! The site is MUCH more pleasant do to the improved blocking by you, TK, Dean and others. Also, it's possible that our entry on vandal behavior on Conservapedia has an effect of exposing them and shining a light on their wrongdoing.
If I may, I think the courses have a positive effect too. The vandals see that the train is leaving the station, and it's not so much fun trying to stop it anymore. After a month goes by, several dozen students have learned something but the vandals have learned nothing. That contrast has to affect some of them. Or let's hope it does!

TK

Talking about Ken's weird edits:

What in the world is going on with Conservative? "Hispanic ladies"? More Hitler pictures? It is getting pretty ridiculous

TK sends an email about Hispanic leaders in Victoria, Texas boycotting Caucasian shop owners and how this had the knock-on effect of reducing shoplifting by 77%. TerryH sends him a Snopes link explaining this is not true. TK (using up a year's supply of commas) replies:

Snopes is very liberal, and hardly a source I would cite, but I think the purpose of these, such as this one, is more commentary than actuality, anyway, Doctor.

Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

Karajou

Karajou was seeing an increase in spam in his inbox, including foreign bride sites, which in his mind is clearly the work of RationalWiki. Call the FBI!

I had a talk about this last night by my lawyer/customer buddy, who said that there is a federal law requiring US citizens to contact the FBI when a foreign national makes a suspicious contact. I knew of this law when it applied to myself as a sailor, but as a civilian it may or may not be different.

Is your IP / username blocked at Conservapedia? Well Karajou has the answer:

I guess he/she/it/or them can remain blocked. If they have a problem with that, then the nearest Congressman is a phone call away.

Not content with calling the FBI, Karajou deduced that a recently blocked editor was stationed at a US military base. He proceeded to fire off a rambling letter to the Officer Commanding, in which he refers to himself as a "retired Navy man" (but strangely gives no rank) and concludes his letter with the following:

I want a direct order placed on SSgt Willey. He is not to participate in RationalWiki while he is a member of the United States Air Force; he not to participate in any online forum of any kind while in uniform; he not to participate in any online forum while using a government-owned computer system.

Karajou isn't a fan of twitter:

I discovered - much to my disappointment - that Twitter is just a fancy chat room. Uptates are limited to 140 words each, which is enough to spout off a single sentence about how you're opposed to the same-sex marriage blurb posted on page four of Janie Frickle's personal web site...with a link.

Terry Chuckarse

TerryH openly admits to burying posts on Digg.

I have already buried it. If any of you want to do the same thing, might I ask that you follow this link: http://anonym.to/?http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Deceit_thy_name_is_Terry_...
This will hide your IP from the Digg moderators. We consider that the latest thing in mass burials.

He's also aware that what he is doing is wrong, because he concludes:

Let me emphasize the extreme sensitivity of this information, and that it not leave the Fab Five. Technically, I could lose my own Digg privileges, if the Digg moderators found out that I was telling other users to bury stories. But I'm doing it anyway.

See also

• Conservapedia:Special Discussion Group
• Conservapedia:The Zeuglodon Blues
• Conservapedia:Conservapedia Group
• Forum:Latest dump discussion
• Conservapedia:Fab Five discussion group index - breakdown of the posts, by date, title and author.

External links

• Conservaleaks - online database of all the leaked documents