Essay:Moving Beyond Conservapedia

From RationalWiki

This essay is an original work by Sterile. Please comment only on the talk page.

There is no doubt that RationalWiki "owes" a lot to Conservapedia. Many of the most dedicated and loyal editors here formed Rationalwiki to resist the inaccuracy and lunacy that Conservapedia represents. Most of our editorship undoubtedly comes from "the other place." And yet, we must eventually move on from resisting Conservapedia as the primary focus. The reasons for this are listed below:

• By continuing to focus on Conservapedia, we may confuse new editors as they must "get" what Conservapedia is about, as well as what we are about. There are a lot of inside jokes and information about Conservapedia, which are not approachable for the uninitiated.

• Pinning ourselves to Conservapedia means that our success is linked to a failed wiki model. Wikis are successful when people cooperate and discuss changes, which is actively discouraged at Conservapedia (ala the 90/10 rule and the liberal block policy--no pun intended).

• The reputation of cyber-vandals will persist, which does not lead to a good image and may discourage new editors.

• There is a lot of other anti- and pseudoscience out there, much of which needs refutation. The growing links between politics and the anti-science movement are also worrisome. Particularly worrisome are the Wedge Document and the Bush administration's anti-science stances.

Hence, while I urge us to be vigilant of Conservapedia, I also urge us to actively look beyond.