RationalWiki and internet trolls

RationalWiki.org is a politically left-leaning website that skews towards atheism/agnosticism in terms of its worldview.

According to an article published in the Los Angeles Times in 2007, RationalWiki members "by their own admission" vandalize Conservapedia. At the same time, RationalWiki.org is currently experiencing a significant amount of trolling and vandalism.

RationalWiki.org is a politically left leaning website that skews towards atheism/agnosticism in terms of its worldview.

The editors of the website RationalWiki try to portray the website as a thinking person's wiki where the editors carefully analyze various matters.

But SimilarWeb.com data shows a significant portion of RationalWiki's web audience is interested in "adult" material as can be seen by the "adult" audience interests in the above graphic.

Many feminists contend that pornography exploits women. RationalWiki is a pro-feminism website.

The 5th most similar website audience in terms of RationalWiki.org is Kiwifarms.net. Kiwi Farms is an American Internet forum dedicated to the discussion of online figures and communities it deems "lolcows". According to the website, Knowyourmeme.com, "Lolcow, a portmanteau of the acronym LOL and cow, is a derogatory slang term used to describe an individual who is deemed highly exploitable, and therefore susceptible to online trolling and flaming, due to his or her display of gullible behavior online."

As can be seen in the graphic to the right from SimilarWeb.com, the 5th most similar website audience in terms of RationalWiki.org is Kiwifarms.net.

According to Wikipedia, which is a website founded by an atheist and agnostic, "Kiwi Farms, formerly known as CWCki Forums, is an American Internet forum dedicated to the discussion of online figures and communities it deems "lolcows". The targets of threads are often subject to doxing and other forms of organized group trolling, harassment, and stalking, including real-life harassment by users." According to the website, Knowyourmeme.com, "Lolcow, a portmanteau of the acronym LOL and cow, is a derogatory slang term used to describe an individual who is deemed highly exploitable, and therefore susceptible to online trolling and flaming, due to his or her display of gullible behavior online."

At the Kiwi Farms website, there is currently 136 pages of discussion pages at the Kiwi Farms website dealing with RationalWiki and much of it is of a disparaging nature. A discussion thread about RationalWiki at the Kiwi Farms website describes RationalWiki as a "Whiny hugbox for spergs and a cluster**** of neverending drama on a rapidly declining website." Atheists have a reputation for having poor social skills (see: Atheism and social/interpersonal intelligence). In recent years, as noted above, the website RationalWiki has seen an enormous loss of web traffic. Apparently, the web visitors of Kiwi Farms consider RationalWikians to be gullible "lolcows" who are easily upset (see also: Atheism and gullibility).

The website Kiwi Farms has antipathy towards social justice warriors. RationalWiki.org is largely a pro-SJW atheists website.

Both atheists and Muslims have developed a reputation of being thin-skinned (and for wanting to impose their ideology on others). It has been quipped that "Atheism is the easiest religion to troll". Internet trolls often actively pursue trolling atheists due to their penchant of being so proud and so easily angered.

In 2012, The Guardian published an article entitled Limmy's Show: Confessions of an internet troll which had the subtitle There's a witch-hunt going on against internet trolls right now. But, argues Scots funnyman Limmy, randomly goading atheists, jocks and non-existent techno geeks can be fun. And of course, being thin-skinned is symptomatic of having excessive pride.

Breitbart journalist Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-described provocateur, indicates "the reason I have a go at atheists is that it's fun. They are so thin-skinned. They are like libertarians, or...they are like liberal Democrats in the UK or..feminists in fact. They are so easy to wind up... They are so touchy."

Atheists have reputation for being arrogant (see: Atheism and arrogance). Most people and cultures take a very dim view of proud people and some cultures are known for actively engaging humbling successful people and/or proud people (Several Anglosphere nations are known for having tall poppy syndrome and Filipinos are known for having a "crab culture". Crabs in a bucket of water will pull down crabs trying to escape from the bucket).

As can be seen by the below screenshots, RationalWiki is currently attracting a lot of trolls and vandals.

The above graphic is the block log for RationalWiki taken on February 6, 2022 at 6:45pm. As you can see, RationalWiki is currently blocking a lot of internet trolls who engage in vandalism and edit warring.

The above graphic is the deletion log for RationalWiki taken on February 6, 2022 at 6:40pm. As you can see, RationalWiki is currently deleting a lot of content created by internet trolls who engage in trolling and vandalism.

The above graphic is the page protection log for RationalWiki taken on February 6, 2022 at 8:25pm. As you can see, RationalWiki is currently protecting web pages due to internet trolls who engage in trolling and vandalism.

RationalWiki and concern trolling

According to Dictionary.com a concerning troll is: "Concern trolling involves someone opposing an idea or viewpoint, yet acting like they’re an advocate for the cause. A concern troll offers undermining criticisms under the guise of concern. Their goal is to sabotage the cause being discussed, and to inspire doubt among group members. This occurs in groups rallied around a particular issue, especially in political parties, and the goal of concern trolling is to cause dissent within a community."

Given the many problems of atheist worldview (see: Rebuttals to atheist arguments), the decline of the secular left, atheist hypocrisy, global desecularization and the many problems Democrats are experiencing under the Biden Administration, RationalWikians especially dislike concern trolling. It raises questions that cause cognitive dissonance within RationalWikians and it undermines group cohesiveness. RationalWiki has created an entire article devoted to concern trolling.

SimilarWeb data for RationalWiki as of January 9, 2021: On January 9, 2022, SimilarWeb indicated that RataionalWiki.org was losing its ranking relative to other websites when it comes to web traffic.

See also: RationalWiki and web traffic

Websites that are under troll and vandal attacks often take a bunker mentality and become preoccupied with fighting trolls and vandals. This bunker mentality is especially prevalent for websites that wish to defend a narrow-minded political/ideological narrative that poorly reflects reality such as RationalWiki. As a result, they often become unwelcoming websites to a large portion of the public.

Furthermore, because the individuals involved in the website are bogged down fighting trolls and vandals instead of creating new content, often this is a contributing factor to the websites losing global marketshare, Google rankings and web traffic in general.

As can be seen below, the website RationalWiki is currently losing global market share. See also: RationalWiki and web traffic

On January 9, 2022, SimilarWeb indicated that RationalWiki.org was in decline relative to other websites in terms of web traffic.

Web marketing is often a relative strength game. Just because a website is gaining content or links does not mean that its competitors are not moving faster.

See also

• Internet atheism
• Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists
• Internet evangelism
• Decline of the atheist movement
• Decline of the secular left
• SJW atheists