User:Bicycle Wheel/RationalWikiWiki UZ

Vandal bin

The Vandal bin (a.k.a. Vandal brake) is where sysops can put vandals at RationalWiki. Binned vandals are limited to one edit per 30 minutes. If vandals try and do more they see an inedible uneditable text and a snarky comment. It’s like being blocked, except RW sysops can pretend they are better than Conservapedia.

This is a cute trick as it allows RW to, in effect, infinitely ban vandals - while at the same time maintaining their liberal credentials and not actually banning them at all. It other words it allows RW sysops to chemically castrate users while maintaining that they technically are still able to use their testicles.

What vandals see if they try to do too many edits while they are in the vandal bin:

You are unable to edit because you have been placed into the vandal bin. You were put in the vandal bin by $1 and the reason given was: "$3".
While we hope you had fun, we had to do something, so you can only make one edit every 30 minutes now. If this is a mistake or you have turned a new leaf please alert any sysops.
You will be able to edit again in $1 minutes.

Our article: block talks about the problems RW sysops have with coordinating their blocking and binning actions.

Despite being for vandals the lamer sort of trolls and parodists are also thrown in the bin.

After the July 2012 server upgrade the bin appears to be broken.

WIGO

WIGO, short for "What is going on?", is a series of pages on Rationalwiki dedicated, as the title suggests, to what is going on at a certain topic (Such as Conservapedia, The World or blogs). For many people it simply means "Conservapedia:What is going on at CP" and may be their primary interest in the site and where they first arrive.

Also in use on the pages is the Voting system, allowing you to Vote up, down (and if you want to, neutral).

For WIGO:CP outing parody or your own work is considered bad form and will usually result in angry comments from the users there.

History

*ahem*

WIGO began life as "According to Conservapedia", which appeared with entries directly on the main page of RW. This was then re-titled as "According to *ahem* some people" and expanded to include all manner of craziness. There were no up/down votes in this system, and news items were placed manually on the page with bullet points. Discussion was held wherever and whenever. On the talk page of the relevant template, Human established what the page was for:

“”Feel free to debate, but I think this should be for "on mission" craziness. It is turning into a (US Democratic Party) news blog feed, which is boring and, I think wrong for the intent of our main page. There is no need to update it every seven seconds. Please just add new MISSION-CENTRIC items - or discuss here if you think I'm wrong.

While the description was updated to remind people:

“”Remember, this list is on the front page. It's not a bunch of in-jokes, or smarmy half-stories for those familiar with our site. It's also not a news ticker. Please think before adding, think while adding, and hopefully, then, people will think about your additions.

This version was officially blanked and shut down in July 2008, with a redirect to the new "What is going on" pages established in its place. If things had turned out differently, perhaps the name would have stuck and the news pages would have been titled "ATSP" instead.

Broadening scope

In July 2008 WIGO was officially expanded and split to include people who don't care that much about Conservapedia, establishing four separate pages. WIGO now covers the blogosphere (blogs they like), clogosphere (blogs they think are nutty) and the "world" (whatever that is, but it seems to attract attention whenever big news events break).

Other sites that have come under the gaze of RW have had their own WIGOs, although none are as active as the original. WIGO:4th Reich, which was for Metapedia and Stormfront, was started 7 May 2008 and received it's last non markup/cat edit on 25 July 2008. On 20 November 2010, Citizendium got a WIGO. This remains fairly active and is the place where LArron posts statistical updates about Citizendiums progress and expansion - or at least it's lack thereof. There is also a WIGO:ASK (founded 25 March 2009) to cover A Whorehouse of Knowledge and WIGO:Armondikov a dead mini-blog-cum-Twitter-account for RW's most egotistical editor to project themselves through. On July 24 2012 WIGO:ASK was mothballed.

Homogenous corporate style

Around May 2010, the WIGO pages were given a facelift to give them individual colour schemes and icons representing each page. After a bit of bickering over the colors ("of course the clogosphere should be brown to represent shit") things settled down and (visually speaking) became what they are today.

WIGO:CNAV

With Conservapedia itself becoming more and more stagnant and boring, the talk page for WIGO:CP is increasingly devoted to the goings on at the website of CP sysop Terry Hurlbut, Conservative News and Views. Whether this is a to be a permanent change or whether the dissatisfaction with CP proper is only a phase is yet to be seen.

Wikipedia

RationalWiki has had its own article on Wikipedia. Several times, actually. It has also had a section on WP's Conservapedia article. It sat there quietly until the Spring of 2010, when RobS and TK decided to poke it with a stick. This resulted in ludicrous and entertaining drama on both talk pages and various administrative pages there. Other CPers have edited at RationalWiki and Wikipedia, including Ed Poor and PCHS-NJROTC.

Wikipedia is also a minor source of editors, who come to RW after reading about Conservapedia there - and often assume RW is still a base for vandalism because the LA Times said so and Wikipedia echoes what the LA Times said. The other reason Wikipedians go to RW is because they have been chucked off the Big W; Abd, JimJast and Tisane are examples.