Difference between revisions of "Conservapedia"

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(Influential editors and users: Add some more editors who have contributed a lot.)
(please don't introduce users who are parodists, and agents of vandal sites to this article.)
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*[[User:AddisonDM|AddisonDM]] watches over maintenance work, and in addition to neutral contributions has created the popular article [[Essay:Examples of Moronic Vandalism by the "tolerant"|Examples of Moronic Vandalism by the "tolerant"]], as well as the Conservapedia article itself.
 
*[[User:AddisonDM|AddisonDM]] watches over maintenance work, and in addition to neutral contributions has created the popular article [[Essay:Examples of Moronic Vandalism by the "tolerant"|Examples of Moronic Vandalism by the "tolerant"]], as well as the Conservapedia article itself.
 
*[[user:BrianCo|BrianCo]] (first edit May 2007) has created hundreds of articles and scores of templates, as well as contributing many pictures and other images.
 
 
*[[user:HelpJazz|HelpJazz]] (edited June 2007 to January 2009) contributed a lot of the "housework" necessary for an encyclopaedia, such as tidying up and formatting articles, eliminating redirects, and fixing links when articles were renamed.
 
  
 
*[[user:Iduan|Iduan]] (first edit April 2007) has written many articles about universities, edited articles for consistency, and improved many templates.
 
*[[user:Iduan|Iduan]] (first edit April 2007) has written many articles about universities, edited articles for consistency, and improved many templates.
 
*[[user:Aziraphale|Aziraphale]] (edited March 2007 to February 2009) contributed an enormous amount to the categorisation of articles, as well as taking part in talk-page discussions, which frequently had witty post-signature comments appended:
 
{{QuoteBox|... Believe it or not, I don't actually go OUT of my way to do so heheheheh. [[User:Aziraphale|Aziraphale]] 12:58, 15 August 2007 (EDT) ''<-not bad, just drawn that way...''}}
 
  
 
==Testimonies and Impact==
 
==Testimonies and Impact==

Revision as of 17:41, February 22, 2009

Previous Breaking News:
Conservapedia

Conservapedia, launched on November 21, 2006, is a conservative, family-friendly Wiki encyclopedia. It was founded by teacher and attorney Andrew Schlafly with the help of several students from his fall 2006 World History class.

When a student handed in her paper using the date-markers “BCE” and "CE” from Wikipedia, Schlafly realized that Wikipedia, despite its claim of neutrality, contained bias against the achievements of Christianity and conservatism. Other occasions of liberal bias, including the reversion of factual edits about an evolution case, led to the creation and launch of Conservapedia.

Though Conservapedia originally contained mostly history articles, it has grown over two years to be a general reference, with information about history, math, science, politics, religion and other topics. It also contains debates, essays and educational resources.

In March 2007 it was picked up by the media, and faced a barrage of vandalism.[1] Ever since then, it has continued to grow, and now has tens of millions of page views, and enjoys prominence on search engines.

Leadership

Unlike Wikipedia, which bills itself as a democratic system and ends up as a mobocracy, Conservapedia employs a merit system and a hierarchy.

Andrew Schlafly is the chief administrator and is the most prolific editor, followed by bureaucrats, sysops, and regular editors. Editors who contribute substantial content may be promoted to sysop and bureaucrat, or gain extra user rights such as blocking power and uploading images.

Differences with Wikipedia

Conservapedia strives to keep its articles concise, informative, family-friendly, and true to the facts, which often back up conservative ideas more than liberal ones. Rather than claim a neutral point of view and then insert bias, Conservapedia is clear that it seeks to give due credit to conservatism and Christianity.

Wikipedia articles may contain trivia, gossip, profanity, and even pornographic/sexually explicit images. The latter three are prohibited on Conservapedia and trivia is largely discouraged.

The administrative hierarchy prevents Conservapedia from being hijacked by a faction, and thus preserves it from mobocracy, as mentioned above.

Influential editors and users

  • Aschlafly is the username of the aforementioned founder of Conservapedia, Andrew Schlafly. He has contributed massively to Conservapedia since the beginning, authored many articles including the student lectures, and is the final authority on article content and user conduct.
  • Ed Poor, active at Conservapedia for over a year, and at Wikipedia for seven years, was the first elected bureaucrat at Wikipedia and has been extremely influential at both sites. At Conservapedia, he has primarily aimed at accuracy, rationality, and user cooperation.
  • Philip J. Rayment is best known for defending and explaining Creationist beliefs on Conservapedia. He is also often in conversations in an effort to improve the project.
  • TK has made many substantive contributions and is known for his vigilance against vandals.
  • DeanS helped found the Conservapedia news project, and he is its main contributor. He has also worked on articles related to Mormonism.
  • SharonS has been an editor since the very beginning of Conservapedia, and was interviewed and quoted in a newspaper article to explain and defend the project.
  • BethanyS has been active since December 2006. She has been influential in the project and has contributed many articles, especially about American ships (such as USS Abraham (1858)) and legal topics. For a more complete list, see [1]
  • Iduan (first edit April 2007) has written many articles about universities, edited articles for consistency, and improved many templates.

Testimonies and Impact

Conservapedia has been praised and ridiculed in the media, on blogs, and on rival sites. Critics claim that it contains fringe viewpoints, and supporters note that it simply provides another viewpoint and an alternative to liberal bias.

  • Conservapedia provides information about the American people that liberal critics would rather hide: for example, nearly 50 percent of Americans reject evolution and embrace creationism, and even more want creationism taught alongside evolution in school. [2] Another example is the fact that atheists- often claiming to be more equipped to help their fellow men than religious people- actually give less to charity than believers, even when church giving is excluded. [3] [4]
  • Search results for controversial subjects such as homosexuality and evolution contain Conservapedia links within a few searches and often on the first page.[5]
  • Many biographical articles contain religious references and information about the person’s religion, much more so than Wikipedia. Editor and college student Tasha Jones, (Taj) said of this aspect, “It gives me a better understanding of how people feel religion relates to our lives.” [6]

Educational atmosphere

Due to the existence of essays and debates on Conservapedia, and conventions such as the "90/10 rule" and the use of real names, Conservapedia successfully fosters an educational environment. Because liberal bias is not allowed, much information that would be elsewhere censored can be found on Conservapedia; often it is one of the only places to find such information in one place.

Many pages tagged as essays are really more like projects, or are otherwise thought-provoking, giving Conservapedia some characteristics of a think tank. See Best New Conservative Words, The Coming Fifth Great Awakening in America, Top Causes of Rejecting Conservativism, Why Do Non-Conservatives Exist?, Disputed Biblical Translations, and Linguistic Analysis of Candidates.

See Also

References

  1. See Examples of Moronic Vandalism by the "tolerant"
  2. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/22/opinion/polls/main657083.shtml
  3. http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=272
  4. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3647/is_200310/ai_n9340592/Religious
  5. http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu5abSHtJKrEAHU9XNyoA?p=homosexuality&fr=ush-news
  6. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/19/nation/na-schlafly19