RationalWiki:How I found RationalWiki/2014

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2014[edit]

December 2014[edit]

  • By looking up an article on Intelligent Design.--Palaeonictis (talk) 22:14, 27 December 2014 (UTC)
  • My first time here. Found a link while reading about the "Creation Museum" in Kentucky. I will definitely be spending some time here! Rat (talk) 08:59, 11 December 2014 (UTC)rat
  • I first saw this wiki at least a year ago. Found different articles from Google searches and links people posted in various online discussions. Recently set up account so I could comment on one of the talk pages :-) -Helvetica (talk) 09:31, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
  • After watching an episode of Ancient Uncyclopedia, on the channels of History. Exiled Encyclopedist (talk) 16:37, 31 December 2014 (UTC)


November 2014[edit]

  • I have been reading for several years off and on. I honestly forgot how I ended up finding it. I think that I was searching for articles on religion and skepticism some time in 2008, but don't remember exactly what. Arachne1988 (talk) 03:37, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
  • Someone mentioned it on r/Atheism. Yeah. -Raian — Unsigned, by: Raian / talk / contribs 18:29, 15 November 2014 (UTC)
  • Long-time lurker. Found my way here a while back after rewatching Jon Ronson's documentary about David Icke. I love David Icke - he never fails to make me unbelievably angry. Furo ergo sum (talk) 07:55, 10 November 2014 (UTC)
  • Well i was watching some video on vsuace and it was talking about the "no cussing club". Interested i decided to go search for it on google and try and find a wikipedia page.I found you guys instead
  • I was reading a comment thread (CiF) on The Guardian's website yesterday, and someone had posted a link to a RationalWiki article (Creationist Argument Bingo). It didn't take me long to (a) bookmark the home page and (b) make an account. At last! I no longer need to rely on falling by accident across sites like Objective: Ministries:) ProblemChimp (talk) 20:01, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
  • I've been a lurker following RationalWiki for some time. I usually use the logical fallacies to learn about how to debate, probably most of my understandings come from RationalWiki. I recently created an account when I saw a lot of BSing on pages and not for comedy, sarcasm, irony or stupidity. My experience with most Wikia pages with agendas have been rather tedious and aggressive. The active users make it their duty to belittle and condescend new users. It grinds my gears, I tell ya.--PeachyPanda (talk) 13:36, 2 November 2014 (UTC)
  • Came here looking for retorts to my partners sister and her crank theories about 9/11, the shape of Bananas, Mein Kampf, hand signs thrown up by rappers, The Illuminati, The Rothschild's, Cat magic (oh yeah, Cat magic), what a Pentagram means and David Icke (to be honest I didn't need much help with rebutting his claims, such as sound waves traveling across a vacuum). Despite all of the articles on here about every crank theory she spat out, with well constructed arguments against and all the evidence cited, alas she is yet unswayed. This site is now at the top of the sites I use for news, Thanks Rational wiki contributes! -Anthony, UK.

October 2014[edit]

  • I'm the guy from Buttcoin and we receive an appreciable amount of traffic from the bitcoin article. I'm also one of the monsters who founded the original ED. For some odd reason I never bothered to sign up until today. KH »»What 23:20, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
  • I was googling rebuttals to conspiracy theories, sometime in 2012. I found the RationalWiki article on the topic. I became addicted to RationalWiki ever since. I was already good at debating them but, this is a great resource. I also live in rural PA so, I'm surrounded by Republicans and whackjobs. RationalWiki is a great way to retain my sanity.
  • I work as a tutor and have a particular issue with a lot of students being rabidly anti-GMO and wanting to argue with me over it. I already knew enough about them to argue back but Rationalwiki make a wonderful resource, and I just enjoyed reading the articles after that. Mikema63 (talk) 13:26, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
  • I started reading Rational Wiki a long time ago, well before I ever bothered to register an account. I've always been a dirty 'librul and Rational Wiki was just perfect for me.— Unsigned, by: Samstr / talk / contribs 17:54, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
  • In a common cold induced delirium I wrote an essay kind of like Essay:Potential For NOMA and then tried to find a place to post it. I googled NOMA and you came up. Serendipity! Bluetetrahedron (talk) 17:59, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
  • Living in Texas, I'm surrounded by YEC. I've asked several of them about the starlight problem and they just tell me they don't know, they just have a blind faith in creationism and that's that. Frustrated and wanting an answer from at least one YEC, I googled. This site, aka, breath of fresh air after 30 years in Texas, came up and now I'm hooked. It's nice to know I'm not the only one. Mstag (talk) 01:22, 12 October 2014 (UTC)Mstag

September 2014[edit]

  • There was a weird graffito on our boardwalk about "OPPT" and such. I googled it and found RationalWiki. Kodo (talk) 18:59, 11 September 2014 (UTC)
  • http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fun:You_have_two_cows I was searching for a response to a Facebook post about: A banker, a tabloid reader and an immigrant. They sit together at a table. There is cake in 10 slices. The banker takes 9 slices and tells the tabloid reader, watch out the immigrant wants to take your slice. — Unsigned, by: Michielh / talk / contribs
  • Decided to delurk today- Found this place wanting to know more about the tomfoolery of Conservap**ia about three years ago. (does saying the name of the foul beast summon it?) Notnicenonny (talk) 10:58, 20 September 2014 (UTC)
  • Well, as far as I remember it was via Google, when I searched about "yoga flying". Science (talk) 17:23, 25 September 2014 (UTC)

August 2014[edit]

  • I've been an atheist Wikipedian for about as long as RationalWiki has existed and it has long been in my peripheral vision and occasionally a point of reference. Having just found need to make a minor edit to Islamophobia I've made my citizenship official. OGRastamon (talk) 23:54, 26 August 2014 (UTC)
  • Initially found out about it through Encyclopedia Dramatica's page on Conservapedia. From there I developed a "train wreck fetish" for finding out about prominent wingnuts in America. First article was probably Conservapedia related. Kempston Hardwick (talk) 05:49, 18 August 2014 (UTC)
  • Don't recall when I first became aware of Rational Wiki. Probably a number of years ago. I follow science and cosmology closely as a profession. I eventually landed on the "alternative cosmology" page, then went to the talk section and left some comments there and upgraded some of the information on the talk page. Recently I added info from the talk page to the main page and added some new information. I also help Wikipedia from time to time, primarily with science related articles. Most of the added information to Rational Wiki was from pre-existing references. I will help update and upgrade information as time permits. Keep up the good work. August 15, 2014, regards, Forrest Noble
  • I've been reading RationalWiki for a few months, only bothered to make an account now. I'm not sure what the first article I read was, but it was definitely about creationists in some way. Libertyprime7 (talk) 00:01, 12 August 2014 (UTC)
  • I googled for a formal definition of "Nuremberg Defense" and found RationalWiki. In the end, it was the brain logo that snagged me. GrumpyTerrier (talk) 17:53, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

July 2014[edit]

  • I browsed this website for around a month before I finally registered here. The exact article I found I cannot remember, but initially I read about right-wing lunatics e.g. the BNP. JHolderness (talk) 00:42, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
  • I found RationalWiki when I ran a google search for rightwingwatch thearm ( thearm) 4:38, 27 July 2014
  • I found RationalWiki when I wanted to know more about GlobalResearch. This after my timeline on FB got spammed with conspiracy theories regarding the crash of MH17 (I'm Dutch)which I found very disturbing. This site restored my faith in humanity and common sense. Keep up the good work. Claudia (talk) 07:37, 25 July 2014 (UTC)
  • I found RationalWiki when it came up in a Google search for Time Cube. --Theoneandonlyduncan (talk) 13:06, 23 July 2014 (UTC)
  • I've made comments awhile back here on the cosmology page, anonymously since I had problems then opening an account. Originally I found RationalWiki from a search engine maybe regarding the same subject. I also consider myself a skeptic of many assertions/ theories in modern Physics. I also pride myself in "rational examination." Hope to make a few more valuable contributions to RationalWiki. regards! — Unsigned, by: Forrest Noble / talk / contribs
  • I've been reading RationalWiki for a few years now. I consulted it to find overviews of pretty diverse topics such as LessWrong, MRA and other fringe movements which are perhaps less blatantly "out there" than YEC, but still need a good critique from a skeptical and progressive perspective. I've also been doing a bit of reading about Ayn Rand and Scientology. I've edited Wikipedia for a while, but the community there is (perhaps understandably) paranoid that anything could be construed as POV-pushing. In the past year or so I got more interested in the topic of metrication (in particular, why the old ways still cling on in some places) and I thought I could start off by contributing to the article on the metric system, hopefully turning it into a good resource for people who want to help "advance the cause". Of course, there's no end of stuff in need of a good rational examination. A skeptic's work is never done! Archon 2488 (talk) 13:11, 6 July 2014 (UTC)
  • I browse RW occasionally and have made a minor edit or two without ever feeling the need to create an account. I've done edits in fandom wikis before and I appreciated the high quality here. Came for the autism/vaccines type pseudoscience (on which this is an incredible resource). The snark kept me sane. I found myself mostly coming back for discussion of various movements (MRA, Objectivism, etc.) that are in vogue on forums I frequent, Decided to become more of a contributor when I ran across an article that was way off base.User:Kelseypiper.
  • I arrived here after trying to work out what some obscure references in a flame war meant. Stayed mostly for the snark. --Raider (talk) 12:47, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

June 2014[edit]

  • I've been a long time reader,(sevral years now) I remeber the site beeing extremly SLOW, I decided to join up when reading "wolf hysteria" page, as it mirrors very much what is happening back here in Norway. I'll try and edit that page with a norwegian perspective, just got to find all my sources first. I'll try not to be biased, but can't promise it 100% as I really despise the norwegian sheep farmer. Gunfreak (talk) 19:47, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
  • I found this site while searching Conspiracy Theories. Since then, I found it to be VERY reliable to get away from all the wingnuts.--TemplarJLS (talk) 01:55, 1 July 2014 (UTC)
  • It was a while ago. I was thinking of the Amazing Atheist and what a total fucking dingleberry he is, and wanted to read an article documenting what a hilarious tool he was, is, and will continue to be until his rapist fat ass finally has the decency to have a heart attack. I believe ED was down at the time, but low and behold, RationalWiki had a page on him. I thought it was hilarious, so I decided to check out the other articles. Some of them were great, but others I felt needed improvement. So I decided to become a contributor. I intend to add the best content my ability allows.*Asterisk* (talk) 20:18, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
  • Last month I was linked to rational wiki during a debate on the minecraft forums. Since then I have used this regularly and got an account last week. Bazer63 GMT 11:34 28th June 2014
  • For at least the last couple of years I have often come across RationalWiki when googling likely woo and peddlers of woo, as well as rationalist memes. Often very helpful. --Chriswaterguy (talk) 14:28, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
  • In a world where deranged idiocy is taking over, Rationwiki is a bastion of sanity. I googled "John Hawkins" and "right wing" in order to find out about an author and Rationwiki told me he was the "batshit-crazy wingnut who runs the website Right Wing News." Awesome! I have lots I can add to this website on batshit-crazy wingnuts and conspiracy theorists. LMM (talk) 20:52, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
  • I was checking the credibility of a writer, examining their references in an interesting but sloppy article which provided several citations supporting its statements, one of which sent me far beyond my comfort zone of suspended disbelief. The references were lame: mainly links to Wikipedia entries which I did not bother with. Rather than go to the source of the other reference -provided for that most 'woo' statement and the most suspicious link (it went to 'infowars' -which rang a dissonant bell) I searched elsewhere for a good hit on 'infowars' which brought me here, where my suspicions were confirmed by reminder that that ...that is that creepy Alex Jones website I found myself on momentarily once many years ago; coming quickly to the same conclusions represented here.--Greeneggs (talk) 04:48, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
  • I was looking for the intelligent equivalent of Conservapedia. I searched "Conservapedia" in Google, and ended up in the page titled "Conservapedia" on RW. DrunkBrain (talk) 08:04, 17 June 2014 (UTC)
  • I was looking for a site that had detailed breakdowns and rebuttals against AiG and stumbled on this RationalWiki. By far the best place to see things from a rational lighting in a long, long time. I would never in a thousand years regret going here.--MedicalCyanide (talk) 23:01, 6 June 2014 (UTC)
  • I was searching for some really nutty conspiracy theories a couple of months ago, so I did a Bing search for "Tin foil hats to protect the brain". This was the sixth or seventh site to come up and the first one not to deal directly with the construction of Tin Foil Hats. The landing page was Tin Foil Hat. — Unsigned, by: Ed Swanson / talk / contribs
  • Found the place while looking for a source to educate somebody on why the Friend argument is fundamentally flawed. Azuno (talk) 21:57, 3 June 2014 (UTC)
  • I found RationalWiki after having read the entirety of the Time Cube cult-spiracy, which was brought to my attention by a friend claiming it was an educational resource. I knew, after the first word, that Time Cube was not educational at all and might have dropped my IQ by several points, but I read the whole thing because I found it rather funny that someone had dedicated time to that nonsense. I found RationalWiki while searching for Time Cube on google, and it sounded like a great place to find out about even more crazy ideologies without having to go to a website founded by followers of those crazy ideologies. It most certainly was, and it even helped me dispute some more common ideologies too. Quesosama (talk) 13:48, 6 June 2014 (UTC)
  • Found it years ago when searching up on various logical fallacies. NonameAllgame (talk) 15:35, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

May 2014[edit]

  • Prize from box of cereal ROPChain (talk) 10:49, 31 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I've been lurking here for a while now ant decided to make an account randomly. I'm pretty young (14 as of typing) and thanks to this and various other sites I already have an above-average grasp of theoretical sciences (Philosophy, Politics,Economics etc.) so hopefully i'll have some sort of insight.--Goven (talk) 16:50, 30 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Long-time reader, first time editor. Grew up in a homeschooling, Independent Baptist home. Currently attending a fundamentalist diploma mill (trying to transfer). I guess I'm a deep-cover conservative IRL so I figured my experience could be useful. Plus I've read RW so much I feel like I owe something to the community. AugustusCaesar (talk) 02:53, 30 May 2014 (UTC)
  • A year ago, when I was still a christian and a hardcore conspiracy TRUTHER, in a discussion about 911 being an inside job someone linked me to the corresponding page here at RW. All those bullet points, each one refuting my beliefs, one by one. So I simply ignored it. I couldn't handle the pressure and mindblow. Then, months later I was already too much questioned, making my beliefs weak. I decided if I couldn't answer some simple counter-arguments, my belief was pure BS. So I jumped in this marvelous place. Within a month or two, I became an atheist and an antitheist and stopped believing in black magic, the Illuminati, chem trails, hollow earth, ancient aliens, homeopathy, and a whole lot more insane shit. I am very thankful for this awesome project. I was even able to bring more people to the skeptic side of the force, such as my sister and a lot of friends. Just recently I registered and decided to help here a little. ~epixSay What? 15:31, 29 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I was just Bing'ing it (the new Googling. Hey, it's a thing!) for one of my favorite things ever: debunking pseudoscience and... bam! Very funny! I can' believe how funny it is! And informative. Figured I'd lend a hand in the copy-editing. Kassorlae (talk) 19:05, 28 May 2014 (UTC)
  • My chemistry professor told us about it when we were discussing denialism. I am overcoming Christianity and interested in learning more about creation science from a skeptical perspective. Wabansia (talk) 13:19, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I found it ages ago via Google search while searching for info about kooks such as Andrew Wakefield and John Best, as autism is relevant to my interests. I was then hooked, but finally decided to register now. CassieHikari (talk) 03:49, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Badgered into returning. Also, my leechblock was erased when I reinstalled the OS. Aldon (talk) 18:44, 26 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I was guided to it by God, who, it turns out, is a great enthusiast. Glynhughes (talk) 18:42, 26 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I had been aware for the website for some while, mostly as it provided a less conservative representation of issues regarding gender and race than Wikipedia did. I decided to start editing after receiving off-website threats by a racist editor concerning work on articles relating to Lee Rigby. I hope my edits are appreciated --Drowninginlimbo (talk) 19:33, 21 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I follow some pages on Facebook where people debunk pseudo-sciences, anti-vaccination and other woos. A few day ago, they highlighted the legal threats sent by the guy behind Natural News to a reporter and a news websites (Forbes, if I remember). Within the article, there where a link to this wiki, on the NatNews page. And in a bat of an eye, I was in love with the wiki. If I may not contribute often, I'll put this wiki to good use, having an awful numbers of woo believers within my friends and family. Science rules! Killiox (talk) 12:58, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
  • Back in April I was looking for a discussion about Otherkin as I was completely confused... The discussion I read was dynamic on both sides, something you don't see much on the internet! Or at all, in general. Due to the interesting terms littering the pages I got curious. This place is awesome to put it bluntly. Even though I thought I was a well educated liberal I have a lot more to discover. (Knowledge is power!) I have shown this wiki to a few of my friends and we all love it. Keep on rolling, guys. Almighty Wholegrain (talk) 03:22, 15 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I knew the infamous conservapedia long before RationalWiki (for fun, needless to say) and decided to seach a bit further for Cp's criticism. On the WP page, I saw "RationalWiki was created in reaction". Hey, what about peeking a look for this wiki's CP page? . Hey, but the whole thing is quite interesting! Let's create an account! Towerator (talk) 11:48, 9 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I was searching for critical articles about crank climate denial arguments, and found a wealth of information here. What a great resource, hope I can contribute from time to time. Andrew McLaren ([User talk:Andrew McLaren|talk]]) 21:24, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I was looking for something about denying moon landing and found the article here, now I check the content of this Wiki every day. Manki (talk) 01:24, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I was googling Conservapedia and found this on some article that linked to it. I browsed around and found it very interesting. Logiblocs (talk) 12:39, 6 May 2014 (UTC)
  • I found RationalWiki after a friend of mine posted an article to RationalWiki's corresponding facebook group. The article in question, "Homosexual agenda", caught my eye and I spent the next 90 minutes flipping around from article to article, taking in the majesty of this shining beacon of a website. For an atheist, feminist, asexual, ultraliberal skeptic (yay for labels!), this is a wonderful haven. It's the best thing I've discovered on the internet since pandora. Thanks for existing. Alphaomega2112 (talk) 10:01, 1 May 2014 (UTC)Alphaomega2112 (talk) 22:06, 1 May 2014 (UTC)Alphaomega2112

April 2014[edit]

  • I have known of RationalWiki for some time. I've been teaching about skepticism (as a psychology professor) for many years. JRicker (talk) 21:15, 20 April 2014 (UTC)JRicker
  • Found this place by trying to evidence to debunk various conspiracies theories. Specifically the racist/anti-Semitic conspiracy theories like white genocide and the International Jewish Conspiracy. Also finally found a good place that called out Mark Dice's bullshit and various other fundie conspiracy theorist. — Unsigned, by: 98.181.34.36 / talk / contribs 2014-04-08T01:16:25
  • Followed a link to http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Laura_Knight_Jadczyk in an alt.religion.scientology usenet post by Hartley Patterson. Hartley maintains the ars FAQ and is a consistently balanced and informative participant in a newsgroup that is otherwise all but overrun by trolls, spammers, and kooks. His links are worth following, so here I am! Riley the Atheist Dog (talk) 16:11, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • It was multiple reasons, but I think I saw things like "Galileo gambit" in Google search results. Naturally, my curiosity got the better of me, and the wiki's bias supports my own bias (nothing to do with my username, by the way). The Fun articles also entertained me, especially some of the crap from Conservapedia, and I've also wanted to add some stuff (like death row worker psychology in Capital punishment). So, I just decided to create an account and log in here, for ease with my editing. LeftyGreenMario (talk) 20:19, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

March 2014[edit]

  • Looking up for more info on Scientology BS... Vas (talk) 03:56, 23 March 2014 (UTC)Vas 23:53, 22 March 2014 (UTC)
  • While looking up logical fallacies... Stephen (talk) 06:12, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
  • I blundered into its TV Tropes page a few weeks ago. --Optimusjamie (talk) 21:43, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Was researching on some definitions, decided to see if there was an in-depth definition of the word Cisgender. Interesting, to say the least! Iruki (talk) 19:02, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
  • I've been using RationalWiki for several years now, but just registered. I probably first came to it from Randi.org or Doubtful News. I've been a contributor to Wikipedia for many years, mostly on scientific, skeptical, and social/political topics. Today's visit was prompted by the article on Kent Hovind reached from Doubtful News. By profession, I'm a largely retired scientist, educator, and technical writer/editor. JonAK (talk) 16:01, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
  • After a day of being dumbfounded by people and whatever the hell is wrong with quite a lot of them, I performed a search on 'what the hell is wrong with some people'. The Essay:What_The_Hell_is_Wrong_With_People? explained to me exactly what is wrong with some people. My faith in humanity is currently being restored page by page. Ubee0173 (talk) 10:25, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

February 2014[edit]

  • Doubtful News! I saw discussions on pseudoscience and thought this would be a good place to find updates.Dwsalter (talk) 14:12, 2 March 2014 (UTC)dwsalter
  • I was reading Schizo by Ivan Brunetti and searched for some things he spoke of there. Ended up here. First article was Godel's Incomplete Theorems. 23:49, 14 February 2014 (IST)
  • I went to Google and found Jesus-is-savior. After having read what I clicked on, I immediately decided to search for 'jesus-is-savior batshit crazy' and the name RationalWiki stuck out like a sore thumb. I've loved reading the articles on here ever since. AConservativeGod (talk) 2:03, 14 February 2014 (UTC)
  • I was looking for the antithesis to Conservapedia and a source for information on logical fallacies. It all lead me here. Grifguz (talk) 16:59, 13 February 2014 (UTC)Grifguz
  • I am writing a book in Serbian about logical fallacies and Google brought me here. No idea which article was my first.-- Pedja  (speak up, contributions) 21:16, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
  • I found this wiki trying to find a way to contact the admins of Conservapedia after I was banned for bringing up logical point that counter their claims (I MAY have also mentioned something about their wiki's logic making me feel humanity is doomed. Maybe.) I think I ended up on the main page. Can't remember for sure.ZeroIsLogic (talk) 03:05, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

January 2014[edit]

  • I was a contributor to StealThisWiki until it vanished. I was doing a websearch on it, trying to see if it had popped up elsewhere, when I found a discussion on it on this very wiki. I've been contributing ever since. Unidyne (talk) 02:11, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
  • I actually found RationalWiki a year ago when I first heard about Conservapedia. I found RationalWiki to be a nice refuge from the clusterfuck that is Conservapedia. I lurked for a year and here I am now! dietrich pls (talk) 23:13, 26 January 2014 (UTC)
  • Cracked.com, "The 5 Most Terrifying Bastardizations of the Wikipedia Model" led me to CP, the desire for more information about which led me here. Subsequent reading suggested it was worth joining. Frostbyte (talk) 08:26, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
  • My research placed me here so with its name (Rational) I empressed and joined the URL. I belief rationalism is a true religion and submissiveness towards lack of knowledge. Nannadeem (talk) 12:59, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
  • I already knew of Uncyclopedia and was curious if there are more sites out there similar to Wikipedia. Someone referred a few sites in Yahoo Answers and RationalWiki was among them. I was in a bit of a belief crisis by then and RationalWiki helped me figure out what i wanted. The first page was something related to Atheism. Earthling (talk) 04:56, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
  • I came here from Reddit's /r/skeptic subreddit, but I don't remember what the page was. Frederick♠♣♥♦ 07:27, 14 January 2014 (UTC)
  • I think I was looking for critiques of Bitcoin several months ago and stumbled upon this wiki, but I then found stuff about gold-buggery, the problems with Austrian economics, and then many other types of woo; at one point I had more than 100 tabs open on this wiki. Lewisje (talk) 05:29, 14 January 2014 (UTC)
  • In the course of pulling some articles from the web I stumbled across the Institute for Noetic Sciences, which appears to be a collection of really gullible people, and specifically an article about identical twins and psychic powers associated with Psi. My stomache hurt so bad from laughing so hard that I googled "natural healing woo" which had the RationalWiki article on "Nature Woo" as the top hit. Now I'm hooked and I think I'm going to like this place. As an aside, I did battle against the Creationists at talk.origins in the mid nineties and more recently I have been on the warpath against the vaxxers and the GMO hysterics - but always the Happy Warrior in the tradition of Hubert Humphrey. FriendlyScientist (talk) 11:45, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
  • I've been reading and referencing this wiki for long enough that I cannot honestly remember what first brought the site to my attention. In line with the new year, I thought I might (eventually) contribute to the place. What really spurred me was recent discussions on the (related?) facebook group, followed by reading the to do list. Essentially, I take my time, and about five or six other persons while I'm at it. So it goes! Aachen (talk) 22:26, 4 January 2014 (UTC)
  • I have recently been exploring the profoundly terrible "Spirit Science", and all the often hilarious rebuttals of it, as I enjoy satire of pseudo-science. Following exhausting all the rebuttal videos on Youtube, I googled this to see if there were any definitive rebuttals (all the videos just address a few points each, and my thirst for mocking stupidity had not been sated), to land on the page for it on this website, and I have since spent about 6 or 7 hours combing through mathematic, scientific and engineering related articles, enjoying the sheer mocking of some people, and also reading articles about American politicians, and have enjoyed the few references to Australian examples (being Australian..). In closing, I'd like to say I disagree with the question I just answered, asking which value is easiest to calculate, and sin(pi/3) is easier to calculate than a logarithm or arctangent..--Skenvy (talk) 12:37, 4 January 2014 (UTC)
  • I was looking up information about Wind Turbine Syndrome, and other terms for this used by wingnut groups, for a dissertation involving community renewable energy schemes; this bullshit is a major obstacle to wind farm construction, so this seemed relevant to my dissertation as a problem that a community scheme would mitigate. I stumbled upon this website while I was researching this "disease" and was immediately intrigued. I didn't cite it because I knew that a freely editable wiki wouldn't be accepted as a source for an academic paper, especially since the people running the course had, quite rightly, hammered in the point that peer reviewed journals are far more acceptable sources than wikis from day one. However, I still found the website funny and informative and since then, I've found reading the well-reasoned idiot-mocking and rebuttals to pseudoscience quite addictive. Being British, I've also enjoyed reading the Britain-related articles, especially the articles about our politicians. ThroningErmine8 (talk) 16:21, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
  • I had been using Google to search for various nutty terms, I can't remember the first and every time I came here I wound up clicking on more and more links until my browser was full; I am fairly sure this is common but I lack statistics for this fact however that won't stop me proclaiming it to be beyond doubt and scoffing at those who request evidence to back up my claims :). What finally got me to keep coming back was a recent controversy on The Guardian online regarding a batshit crazy Freemen article that was printed in their Comment is Free section. I had read a number of legal blogs pointing out the lunacy but they never had enough detail on what the Freemen actually believed and why (if there is a reason why other than someone told them and it didn't contradict their worldview). Two separate blogs pointed to the RW article (one with a warning that it should be for background use only, fair enough). I went back to the RW page and was pleased to find that it had been greatly expanded with many details, cases and wit, as well as links to court judgments. I read the one published by John D. Rooke that looked at the Freemen claims, peddlers and general tactics and practices (fascinating read, I highly recommend it). Since the Freemen article has expanded and included more detail there is no shortage of online articles and posts and a Wikipedia article (that borrows heavily from RW, though I imagine that RW and WP has a lot of crossover among editors), I attribute a lot of this new information to RW to an extent- without a place where information covering so much of their activities is easily available then it stands to reason that so many other people would not know what they are about due to their habits of hanging around their own internet hidey holes- likely due to the scorn they would receive on the internet at large. Admiralty law! Man overboard! Jesus Christ, what a load of shit. Anyway, I think what first drew me hear was Blogs for Brownback- I don't recall what drew me there and I would prefer not to remember, though, if truth be told, I was certain it was legit and not a Poe. Live
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