Changes

Snark is mocking in a sarcastic way. There is a logical fallacy called the [[Appeal to ridicule|appeal to ridicule logical fallacy]]. From a branding perspective, RationalWiki readers may have the perception that there is an incongruence between the name RationalWiki and a website that is overreliant on mocking. And because RationalWiki covers a lot of medical science topics, readers may feel uncomfortable with snark because it involves humor and the public doesn't usually associate science with sarcastic humor.  

Snark is mocking in a sarcastic way. There is a logical fallacy called the [[Appeal to ridicule|appeal to ridicule logical fallacy]]. From a branding perspective, RationalWiki readers may have the perception that there is an incongruence between the name RationalWiki and a website that is overreliant on mocking. And because RationalWiki covers a lot of medical science topics, readers may feel uncomfortable with snark because it involves humor and the public doesn't usually associate science with sarcastic humor.  

The RationalWiki Moderator Bongolian wrote at RationalWiki: "Over time, RW has clearly become less snarky over time, particularly in 2017 when the Scientific Point of View became favored over the Snarky Point of View when there was any issue over SPOV."<ref>[https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=RationalWiki:Saloon_bar&diff=2477600&oldid=2477597 Revision as of 06:33, 14 August 2022 (edit) (undo) Bongolian (talk | contribs) (→‎Rationalwiki should tone down on the snark.)]</ref>  

The RationalWiki Moderator Bongolian wrote at RationalWiki: "Over time, RW has clearly become less snarky over time, particularly in 2017 when the Scientific Point of View became favored over the Snarky Point of View when there was any issue over SPOV."<ref>[https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=RationalWiki:Saloon_bar&diff=2477600&oldid=2477597 Revision as of 06:33, 14 August 2022 (edit) (undo) Bongolian (talk | contribs) (→‎Rationalwiki should tone down on the snark.)]</ref> Historically speaking, atheists have a reputation for having an overreliance on mockery in terms of their rhetoric (see: [[Atheism and mockery]]).

   

   

RationalWiki tripled its organic traffic from 2017 to late 2019 in a big way and then something happened to cause a massive decrease in organic traffic in November 2019 (See: [[RationalWiki and Google referral traffic]]). [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=RationalWiki Google trends for RationalWiki] from 2017 to November 2020 indicates that Google searches for the keyword RationalWiki bounced between the range of 50-75 on the Google trends relative scale (not the number of actual searches) which presumably was due to websites with large amounts of web traffic mentioning RationalWiki periodically during that time. Starting in May of 2021, Google searches for RationalWiki have bounced between the range of 25 to 50 searches a month on the Google trends relative scale.  

RationalWiki tripled its organic traffic from 2017 to late 2019 in a big way and then something happened to cause a massive decrease in organic traffic in November 2019 (See: [[RationalWiki and Google referral traffic]]). [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=RationalWiki Google trends for RationalWiki] from 2017 to November 2020 indicates that Google searches for the keyword RationalWiki bounced between the range of 50-75 on the Google trends relative scale (not the number of actual searches) which presumably was due to websites with large amounts of web traffic mentioning RationalWiki periodically during that time. Starting in May of 2021, Google searches for RationalWiki have bounced between the range of 25 to 50 searches a month on the Google trends relative scale.