From RationalWiki
The following is a timeline of major actions at Conservapedia; it will be updated as it unfolds, or folds up, as it may.
[edit] November 2006
21st - Aschlafly makes his first edit; Conservapedia begins. The front page reads
[1]:
Tired of the LIBERAL BIAS every time you search on Google and a Wikipedia page appears? Now it's time for the Conservatives to get our voice out on the internet!!
22nd - The first page to be deleted is 'Piper' by the now defunct 'Admin'.[2]
[edit] December 2006
[edit] January 2007
Nothing interesting happened in January.
[edit] February 2007
| 21st
| -
| User MountainDew (AKA DanH) makes his first edit.
|
| 22nd
| -
| AmesG joins Conservapedia, and gets banned for the Conservapedia first time. That was fast, huh.
|
|
| -
| User Conservative makes his first edit.
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| 25th
| -
| User MountainDew (AKA DanH) is made sysop after 4 days on the site.
|
|
| -
| Conservative made sysop after only three days editing, specifically to make changes to the locked Theory of Evolution article[3]. Despite many complaints about abuse of power continues to hold Sysop position.
|
[edit] March 2007
Beautiful logo debuts March 18, 2007 CE.
The 3/22 replacement, due to "graffiti".
| 1st
| -
| the press first notices Conservapedia, with two articles in The Guardian. This results in the biggest ever spike in Conservapedia's alexa ratings, with it reaching approximately 0.028% of the internet.
|
|
| -
| The Young Earth Creationism article is locked from editing, and kept under tight rein ever since.
|
| 10th
| -
| The George W. Bush article is locked from editing, and except for brief periods, has never been open for editing by non-sysops since
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| 13th
| -
| User Richard is made a sysop.
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|
| -
| User TK makes his first edit.
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| 18th
| -
| User TK is made sysop after 5 days on site.
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|
| -
| The first site logo is finally chosen - an image of the US Constitution, designed by the user BillOReillyFan.
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| 19th
| -
| User Ed Poor makes his first edit.
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| 21st
| -
| User Creation Log extension is installed
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| 22nd
| -
| Checkuser extension is installed
|
|
| -
| In the midst of the scandal over BillOReillyFan's logo (there was graffiti inserted in the background), a previous design by David R is hastily put up in its place.
|
|
| -
| It's announced that a 'panel' of Andy's homeschooled students (later known as the Conservapedia Student Panel) will be used tackle the important decisions at CP, including choosing a new logo, and the content of the Theory of evolution article. [4]
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| 24th
| -
| User Ed Poor is made sysop after 5 days on site.
|
|
| -
| User Tmtoulouse (joined 3/7) is made Sysop. And unmade 62 minutes later... Then he's banned for six months.
|
|
| -
| The student panel chooses a shiny new Conservapedia logo, featuring a wavy US flag.
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| 27th
| -
| Richard reveals he'd been Richard's having fun with Conservapedia all along. He's banned (after several failed attempts).
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| 29th
| -
| The first Icewedge vandal registers.
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|
| -
| The last edit by an editor who is not a sysop to the Theory of Evolution page.
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[edit] April 2007
| 1st
| -
| Andy adds an entry to his Examples of Bias in Wikipedia page criticizing Wikipedia for disabling Special:Statistics[5] , even though it wouldn't be accurate in WP's case due to their massive caching and distributed hosting. He asks "Why is Wikipedia hiding its data on its popular pages? Wikipedia used to be hosted by a company profiting from pornography. Is Wikipedia traffic increased by its sex-related entries? Are minors, who are heavy users of Wikipedia, attracted to those sites?"
|
|
| c.5th
| -
| The amount of edits and page views levels off, and never again truly rises, according to Alexa.com.
|
| 9th
| -
| The Conservapedia Student Panel finally makes a decision on the Theory of Evolution article, and many hopes are dashed as they decide to keep it largely the same the user CPanel is created.
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| 11th
| -
| The Donut War. (wasn't it earlier?)
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| 14th
| -
| 15th The 'wavy flag' logo is changed to a static flag logo and initially proclaims Conservapedia to be "The Trusworthy Encyclopedia".
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| 20th
| -
| Andy starts the Deceit article.
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| 22nd
| -
| Andy makes his first use of Godspeed; in this early version, it's included in a full sentence "Thanks and Godspeed to you."
|
[edit] May 2007
| 6th
| -
| Andy makes his first use of Godspeed in its evolved form, as a full sign-off.
|
| 9th
| -
| MediaWiki:Usernameblacklist is created, restricting new usernames to alpha-numeric characters only.
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| 11th
| -
| 'Icewedge' variants are added to the username blacklist.
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| 16th
| -
| First Night of the Blunt Knives. Mass blockings of 'liberal users'.
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| 17th
| -
| Second Night of the Blunt Knives. The stragglers are blocked.
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| 22nd
| -
| Rational Wiki 2.0 is set up.
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| 29th
| -
| Image upload rights are instituted, and limited to "trusted" users.
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|
| -
| Mass image protection completed
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[edit] June 2007
| 5th
| -
| Editing rights are introduced to reduce vandalism.
As of June 12 ,[6] there were 18 editors the Trustworthy Encyclopedia felt they could trust. Some of those also had upload and block rights. In addition there are also (as of June 12) 30 sysops or administrators, or put another way, more chiefs than indians. Registered Liberals may edit during the day if they happen to live on the conservative side of the planet.
|
| 9th
| -
| The flat earthers open up editing during the day - EST, of course, not realising those stuck in spheroid reality on the other side of the planet find themselves unable to edit when it best suits them. Editing is turned off overnight, except for Sysops and those with Edit rights.[7]
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| 12th
| -
| Conservapedia is open for anyone (not just registered users) to edit for about 2.5 hours [8][9].
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| 14th
| -
| Site Admin rights are introduced. A Site Admin can "lock and unlock the database". Initially, 14 accounts received this right.
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| 16th
| -
| Aschlafly updates the MediaWiki:Usernameblacklist page to filter out many undesirable words from new usernames.
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|
| -
| Various Special Pages are disabled
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| 19th
| -
| LA Times Reporter Stephanie Simon wrote an article about Conservapedia and RationalWiki, as noted here. Despite the fact that LA Times slams Conservapedia for spelling errors, consistent shocking bias, and other problems, Andrew Schlafly puts it on the front page in big, gaudy letters. The same report calls RationalWiki cyber-vandals :-(. But we're so much more...
|
| 22nd
| -
| Someone named Vincent Valentine creates a parody article on Final Fantasy 7. After it is discovered to be a fake, the vandal goes on two separate hour-long attacks on consecutive evenings using over 50 Final Fantasy related accounts.
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| 27th
| -
| Comedian Lewis Black lambastes Conservapedia on the Daily Show. Vandals and Trolls flock to Conservapedia after the popular television show ends.
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| 29th
| -
| The Conservapedia Team Contest is officially announced. Follow the excrement excitement here!
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| 30th
| -
| Conservapedia sysop TK is charged with the high crime of cooperating with RationalWiki members (OH NOES!). Could it be an example of conservative deceit?! Or is it all a lie!? Details as this story develops.
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[edit] July 2007
| 1st
| -
| Karajou (a.k.a., "The Great Non-Compromiser") packs his bags and leaves over the fallout from incidents on June 30th, 2007. The first of more?
|
| 2nd
| -
| the first non-Christian user to be named a sysop, Fox, receives his commission. It all went down here. Andy's affirmative action program seems to be working.
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| 3rd
| -
| Karajou makes his unfortunate return. Also, fighting between cp:user:RobS and cp:user:TK continues at a riotous rate.
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| c.6th
| -
| Sysop namespace is created. Articles in this space are not readable by non-sysops.
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| 9th
| -
| Andy discovers range blocks and promptly bans 65,536 IP addresses as a test.[10]
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| 10th
| -
| The Conservapedia Team Contest officially begins at 12:01am NY time. Analysis and excitement is here! The contest includes mass copying from public domain sites, as the conservapedian editors confuse "not illegal" with "morally correct." Andy in particular adds law stubs from a glossary without any citations, an offense which colleges call "plagiarism".
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| 11th
| -
| Karajou makes the above range block permanent.[10]
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| Mid
| -
| The Team Kontest (yawn) ends. It takes longer to score than to happen. No one cares.
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| 31st
| -
| After almost a week, the stale "Today in History" section is emptied.[11] The section stays empty for a few edits, only to finally tell us that the only noteworthy thing on August 1 was related to Rush Limbaugh.[12] Roughly two days later, the "Today in History" section is completely scrapped for good,[13] thus making the start of Rush Limbaugh's show the last noteworthy event in human history.
|
[edit] August 2007
| 1st
| -
| The super-secret "Sysop" namespace is practically abandoned... because pretty much everybody and their *insert pet of choice* was reading it.[14] Of course, everybody who read it first-hand is a vandal and/or terrorist.[15] Conservative later tried to revive it, but the new page only lasted a few hours.[16]
|
| 7th
| -
| TK deletes the next-best Sysop namespace page, "Sysop:User blocks".[17] This comes just minutes after the announcement that all that is important is that the material was intended to be private, ignoring the fact that information was merrily kept in quasi-public even after the breach became widely known.[15]
|
| 28th
| -
| The sidebar gets several new items: "All pages" (the page that was used to point out vandal entries that weren't properly deleted), Statistics (which show an immensely homosexual article count that greatly differs from the one Andy shows on the Main Page), and a help box with a new link to the Commandments (no link to the tons of written or unwritten rules that get members banned practically every day, though)
|
| 30th
| -
| Another incident in the ever-increasing antagonisms between the Sysops occurs when Ken calls Ed a vandal. In the waning hours of the day, Terry stops just short of Michael Savage-level insanity, bitching out Ken. The thin veneer of civility cracks yet further.
|
| 31st
| -
| The "permanently protected" article template is born.[18] No need to change anything about George W. Bush! Or the Republican party! I guess there's nothing new in those articles.
|
[edit] September 2007
| Mid
| -
| Three courses with Andrew initiate the autumn homskollaring term:
- "American Government 000.5 explains why liberals are always wrong."
- "The Supreme Court and the activist anti-American liberal agenda."
- "Critical Thinking in Math for lawyers, and why liberals are always deceitful."
The grading uses Andy's classic "contest" scoring method, which comes down to "write my blog for me".
|  Someone makes a big mistake. |
| 14th
| -
| TK nukes the file Talk:Main_Page. This is where many brave RW editors took their last stand against idiocy, their accomplishments forever enshrined in Conservapedia:What is going on at CP? with history-specific links to old versions of the page... links that are now broken. Thanks to TK's deletion, many of the stories of our martyrs have vanished.
|
| 17th
| -
| A hideous new logo is unveiled (see right). Someone is not a graphic designer.
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| 20th
| -
| A user named "Samwell" creates a tempest in two teapots by going on a (short-lived) serial blocking spree.
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| 24th
| -
| TK blocks Conservative... again. Yet still, no enduring fallout.
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| 29th
| -
| A new team kontest starts? In competition with the classes for points? One team has an impressive, even scary, logo or masthead. By the way, the last Friday in September, on my planet, is the 28th.
|
[edit] October 2007
| ?
| -
| Team Contest 2 Cut-and-paste-fest ends. No one cares. Government websites now have a copy of their work somewhere else.
|
| 21st
| -
| TK and Conservative get in a minor block fight over the editorial "thrust" of Conservapedia's "article" on Richard Dawkins.
|
[edit] November 2007
| 1st
| -
| Hojimachong becomes the last Cabalist to bite the ban, and joins RationalWiki full-time. Excerpts from What Is Going On? should tell the full tale. Someone brings up the FBI [1].
|  Getting ready for the party! Whoopee! Wait, where's the Kool-Aid? |
| 5th
| -
| The website RationalWiki.info is partially published. Ed Poor and Karajou think that RationalWiki put up our own hate page... and that we timed it to coincide with Conservapedia's downtime (?). However, the website is traceable to both NightTrain and TK (in an e-mail dated Nov 3, 2007 1:08 PM, TK threatened to "expose" AmesG on the site, implying his control, unless Ames did something).
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| 6th
| -
| Forgetting to check the volume of drivel on the hard drive leads to Conservapedia going down teh innertubes from about 2 - 9:45 AM and 10:45 AM to 12:15.
|
| 7th
| -
| Conservapedia's Niandra/Jallen takes a hacksaw to the "famous" article, "Theory of Evolution." God help us.
|
|
| -
| The third team contest is announced[2] (yawn). It will run from Monday Nov. 12th, Noon to Nov. 19th, Noon EST.
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| 21st
| -
| Happy birthday, Conservapedia!!! Signed, the Mob at TrashionalWiki.
|
| 26th
| -
| Horror of horrors, Sysop TK is now ex-Sysop TK. And over the next couple of days, he's blocked, and his user pages are blanked and locked down. Godspeed! Fallout reports continue to roll in. Expect more info as this story develops!!!!!11two1!
|
| 27th
| -
| the Special Discussion Group, the secret forum for discussing Conservapedia policy, is opened by TK for all the world to see. Highlights: apparently every vandal to ever grace Conservapedia is either Human, Icewedge, Trent, or Ames; the FBI thing isn't going so well for Conservapedia; Karajou wants to sue us civilly but can't seem to get it to work; and the members of the Group don't particularly like the non-member Conservapedia sysops.
|
| 29th
| -
| A reporter apparently observes a Conservapedia class! We can't wait to see it. Sneak peak: "creationaryianist science proves that gay marriage killed the dinosaurs."
|
| 30th
| -
| the Special Discussion Group is closed to non-member viewers again. However, a number of RationalWiki members are admitted to the group. Although some of the main players - TerryH/Temlakos and Karajou - have left, all that secret info remains to parse through...
|
[edit] December 2007
| 5th
| -
| TK's explusion is allegedly finalized.
|
|
| -
| RationalWiki holds another boycott of Conservapedia.
|
|
| -
| RobS takes a few days off to visit Hillary's campaign headquarters in Rochester, New Hampshire, but returns feeling fully refreshed (ed. note: lulz).
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| 11th
| -
| In an effort to ease tensions, several RationalWiki users propose and debate the possibility of discussion with Conservapedia members, in a neutral forum. The proposal is rejected by the Conservapedia sysop group known, in over-romantic fashion, as "The Ten" (Andy, RobS, Karajou, Ed Poor, TerryH, Ymmotrojam, Geo.plrd, DanH, Philip J. Rayment, and Niandra).
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| 19th
| -
| "CollegeRepublican" gets promoted to sysop one minute after joining. The first contrib? Editing the Front Page News...
|
[edit] January 2008
[edit] February 2008
| 8th
| -
| The Guard Dog extension is introduced. It apparently monitors edit behavior and blocks users who violate unwritten rules. It's well programmed and acts like a true CP sysop: It promptly started its duty by blocking one of the most competent and productive editors - first for a day, then for five years when said editor unblocked himself to ask a question.
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| 16th
| -
| 21st or so (we weren't watching due to a boycott) - Cut'n'paste fest 5 went off without a hitch. Or so we have been told.
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| 22nd
| -
| MexMax, Conservapedia edit/upload/block-rightsholder, blocks the entire site, unblocks a couple old-school Cabal users, and fires off a Parthian Shot before meeting his ultimate fate. Samwell Incident Redux?
|
| 28th
| -
| after some strange ultimatums, Andy blocks Iduan and desysops him, but Iduan gets in a commentary to lift tensions. Andy being immune to reason, Iduan is forced to issue a Parthian shot, and gets the come-uppance. Goodbye Iduan.
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| 29th
| -
| If there's somethin' strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? BOHDAN!
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[edit] March 2008
| 4th
| -
| After accusing Karajou of copy/pasting a Wikipedia article... which he clearly copy/pasted... SSchultz bites the bullet. Turns out he was one of ours anyways. His long reign included the gaining and loss of edit rights, the terrorizing of Contest3, and many more songs that will be sung of his deeds.
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| 7th
| -
| Conservapedia Sysop Fox starts undoing blocks. First Wikinterpreter, then old hand Palmd001 and AmesG. Wow. Either a major change is at hand, or Fox is about to get kicked out of Conservapedia.
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| 8th
| -
| Karajou redoes the blocks undone by Fox.
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| 18th
| -
| After growing tired of Conservapedia "articles" like liberal friendship, Fox starts mocking the "liberal" phenomenon with articles like cp:Liberal, Kansas, a course of action which eventually results in his loss of sysop privileges.
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| 19th
| -
| Freedom777 becomes a sysop. As of right now, he (1) doesn't use his real name and (2) has TWO mainspace edits (plus 549 edits to his Intelligent Design draft). Yes, only working on a single article in userspace for nine months is a definite qualifier for sysop-ship.
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| 23th
| -
| TK returns to Conservapedia on "parole". Drama ensues.
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[edit] April 2008
| 8th
| -
| History repeats itself: TK begins copy-pasting and promptly gets promoted to Edit status.
|
|
| -
| Bohdan is no more. Out of his ashes rises HenryS - the New And Improved Bohdan!
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| 9th
| -
| Apparently, there are gradations of crazy. And Philip J. Rayment is not Schlafly-crazy. Schlafly and PJR begin an exegesis-war on the "liberalism" of some Bible passages.
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|
| -
| Kettle o' fish is granted the ability to block and upload.
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| 11th
| -
| Joaquin Martinez goes on a temporary sabbatical. TK blames Philip Rayment for causing it, and TK threatens to leave himself.
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| 12th
| -
| April is promotion month: Learn Together becomes sysop!
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|
| -
| TK's last edit [19]
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| 28th
| -
| Bugler makes his appearance. He is suspected of being a parodist for picking up the lingo and kissing Andy's ass so quickly.
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[edit] May 2008
[edit] June 2008
| 10th
| -
| MakeTomorrow posts an interesting article on talk:Main about an experiment in evolution, few people comment.
|
|
| -
| Bugler is given Sysop lite powers.
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| 13th
| -
| Andy adds a Conservative-style shout out to the main page about an email he sent to Richard Lenski about his research.
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|
| -
| Two hours later Lenski replies.
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| 17th
| -
| Andy issues a call to arms calling on people to help him write a second letter to Lenski asking him for the release of his data. Thus setting in motion what would become known as the Lenski affair.
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| 18th
| -
| Andy sends his second letter to Lenski. After not receiving a reply that afternoon, Andy becomes sure Lenski is avoiding answering his questions and allows people free reign to slander Lenski on the talk page[26].
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| 19th
| -
| DanH resigns from Conservapedia, citing the unsubstantiated claim that Obama is a Muslim. He has not edited since[27].
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| 22nd
| -
| DeanS resigns saying that he is no longer going to participate, due to a disagreement with other editor about Mormons and whether they are Christian (Dean being Mormon himself). However as of yet he has not stopped editing. It should be noted that he pretty much took back his resignation, most likely because of Andy's implied promise to bully anybody who thinks that Mormons are less than perfect.[28]
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| 24th
| -
| Lenski replies to Andy and his "acolytes". Lenski takes offense to the things on the talk page, and Andy in general, Andy becomes laughingstock of the blogosphere. Andy's response is to say that Lenski has a bad attitude.
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| 26th
| -
| Lenski is added to Conservapedia's list of Bad Professors amongst other minor attacks.
|
[edit] July 2008
[edit] August 2008
| 4th
| -
| Andy announces that he has sent a letter to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science asking for correction or retraction of Lenski's paper. Even we are getting bored of this one.
|
| 14th
| -
| CP was briefly hacked. All links that didn't contain "/index.php" redirected to a scam site. The hack was undone relatively quickly.
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| 25th
| -
| Andy announces that the Lenski letter to the PNAS "is now under Editorial Review". Yawn.
|
[edit] See also
[edit] References
