RationalWiki:Guide to the Hidden Forum (or there is no cabal)

A random sample of the shocking discussions that go on in secret..ooooh!!! (this discussion was about the sockpuppet "pearson", proving that some socks are created without everybody knowing)

The Hidden Forum is an uber-top secret forum hidden from public view that has been used in the past by some members to reveal the identity of socks on conservapedia and to coordinate occasional actions. It has also been a place to discuss certain high-profile interactions between conservapedians who edit this site when having those discussions in public would harm those individuals.

Brief background

RationalWiki started its existence shortly after a rash of banning of evil liberal editors on conservapedia. Several of these users contacted each other via e-mail in order to maintain a loose knit group, because frankly we had way too much in common to let us just be ships passing by on the tumultuous sea that is conservapedia. We had never had off wiki contact really but were accused of being a "cabal" so we decided to embrace the label. RationalWiki.com was set-up as a private wiki to bitch about conservapedia and its sysops, also to just hang out with friends.

This site was discovered after a month or so by conservapedia sysops and we decided it was time to take things in a new direction. That was the creation of the current site or what we like to call RW 2.0. Several of the original members of RW wanted to continue covert actions against CP. A forum was setup that was blocked from view to allow these editors to better organize their attempts at gaining positions of authority at CP or other actions. The original members of the "cabal" were given access to this forum and it was hidden from public view. This was to keep the identity of socks and plans secret from conservapedia sysops. Since it orginated, one non-original "Cabal" member who we met on the blogs has been added as well.

The forum's relationship to RationalWiki

This forum is completely unrelated to the wiki and no decisions involving the wiki are made in it. No discussion of users outside of their potential involvement with conservapedia is discussed on the forum. Several things have been said on the forum under the pretext that it would not be generally viewable (particularly to conservapedia sysops) and so the forum has remained hidden. From time to time some issue that involves this "secret" forum may emerge on the site so I offer up this explanation as to what is going on. The forum receives relatively little traffic and is not an integral part of the site or the site goals. Questions/comments/concerns about its existence will be gladly welcomed on this page's talk page.

Example issues discussed and debated in the forum

• Various sock-puppet actions were planned, executed, and celebrated (or responded to). The "Samwell" event was among them, but actually met with mixed reactions: many users were thrilled to see the hilarity it caused, but others thought it verged too closely on the needlessly offensive. Plans for deep-cover sysop sock operations were thereafter either terminated in whole, or greatly curtailed. Secrecy should be understood, here; we can't have RobS tearing through our sock operations, and full disclosure need not be a suicide pact.
• The possibility of incorporating RationalWiki to avoid full legal liability, if Schlafly decided to sue us, was discussed and rejected. Responses to Schlafly's legal threats were also planned. Any of the undersigned members would be happy to explain more fully the circumstances surrounding, and the debate about, this issue.
• Creation of this article occurred sua sponte, without discussion in the forum, proving the disjoint between the group and the site.
• The "debate" that occurred under PalMD's signature below (and was moved to the talk page) is actually more typical of what goes on there. Much innuendo (in her-endo!).
• Operation Smoke and Mirrors, which was a hilarious page-bump operation that led to "Goat" being the #1 most-viewed article on Conservapedia, until Ken deleted it.

Forum membership

The forum membership is made up of original cabal members as sort of a throwback and memoriam of RationalWiki v1.0. Since most of the information is meaningless to the wiki but could be harmful to several individuals (both active RW editors and active members of CP) its membership has not been expanded. Anyone who wishes to fess up to being a member should sign here:

• tmtoulouse ^beleaguer 22:34, 2 November 2007 (EDT)
• AKjeldsen^Godspeed! 22:46, 2 November 2007 (EDT)
• Kels (also general forum admin and resident disapprover of CP-socking) 2 November 2007 (EDT)
• Ζωροάστρης (bitchy ex-CP sysop and resident hotheaded teenager)
• αmεσ (tailor) 11:52, 3 November 2007 (EDT)
• --Bob^{bing up} 05:25, 3 November 2007 (EDT)
• human = pure evil.
• There is no CABAL!
• PalMD is not...the whole pants thing.
• מְתֻרְגְּמָן וִיקִי ^{שְׁלֹום!} 16:59, 5 November 2007 (EST) - responsible for the banning of a sizable portion of the internet's proxy IPs.
• Sid ("I edited on RW 1.0 and all I got was this stupid membership" :P)
• I have heard it said that I am a Forum Member, but I can neither confirm nor deny this. DogP 18:10, 10 November 2007 (EST)
• Sterile^xx
• ĵ₳¥ášÇ♠ʘ Over 2700 edits! Thats over 118!, lurking, hiding. Do you know who I am?
• Udon 04:22, 14 October 2009 (UTC) -- my alternate personality.

Feel free to ask any of these members about the forum or its contents.