1. SPS Accounts:
    Do you find yourself coming back time after time? Do you appreciate the ongoing hard work to keep this community focused and successful in its mission? Please consider supporting us by upgrading to an SPS Account. Besides the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting a good cause, you'll also get a significant number of ever-expanding perks and benefits on the site and the forums. Click here to find out more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
You are currently viewing Boards o' Magick as a guest, but you can register an account here. Registration is fast, easy and free. Once registered you will have access to search the forums, create and respond to threads, PM other members, upload screenshots and access many other features unavailable to guests.

BoM cultivates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We have been aiming for quality over quantity with our forums from their inception, and believe that this distinction is truly tangible and valued by our members. We'd love to have you join us today!

(If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you've forgotten your username or password, click here.)

Conservative rival to wikipedia

Discussion in 'Alley of Dangerous Angles' started by Cúchulainn, Mar 2, 2007.

  1. Chandos the Red

    Chandos the Red This Wheel's on Fire

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2003
    Messages:
    8,252
    Media:
    82
    Likes Received:
    238
    Gender:
    Male
    Yes, that happened here in the Woodlands just a few years back. A local "Christian" group went into a county board meeting and complained about some small Renaissance replicas that adorned a local shopping center. They put up such a fuss that the local officials ordered fig leaves to be put onto the statues, just to "shut them up," as county officials explained later to the rest of the community, who thought the whole thing was rather silly.
     
  2. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,407
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    231
    Gender:
    Male
    Eh, such silliness isn't just the province of Christians. I remember not too long ago the ACLU threatened to sue over a tiny cross in the Los Angeles County seal (which has been there since the 1950s). I remember the estimate to remove it was something like $700K. I'm not sure if they actually removed it or not though.
     
  3. Dalveen

    Dalveen Rimmer gone Bald Veteran

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2002
    Messages:
    1,443
    Media:
    3
    Likes Received:
    9
    In the conservapedia entry on genetics:
    Wow, that was helpful, let me go write my Uni essay with that...

    Where as the Wikipedia article for it is over 2,000 words.

    Also, i just looked up the source that they get most of their biology info from. Funnily enough, it is a book written by a creationist, so will obviously have a fair and un-opinionated view on every aspect of biology :rolleyes:
     
  4. Nakia

    Nakia The night is mine Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2003
    Messages:
    5,575
    Media:
    102
    Likes Received:
    136
    Gender:
    Female
    After taking a look at conservapedia I strongly doubt that I would go there for research. However I am very happy to know about. This way if Google brings up a reference to it I know to not waste my time.
     
  5. Vukodlak Gems: 22/31
    Latest gem: Sphene


    Veteran

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2002
    Messages:
    1,443
    Likes Received:
    6
    They have another page about evolution - a better one:

    It's just a Theory

    :1eye: Not as good as this though:
    Agenda

    Edit:

    As an interesting comparison:
    Wikipedia and our new friends about Jesus

    Edit 2:

    They don't have a page about sex, true. However there is one about procreation:

    Procreation is a holy act between a married man and woman. Its purpose it to further the races of God's children. Procreation is a natural act that is the act that occurs when a marriage is consummated. Abortion is the act of undoing the procreation and in doing so, one is insulting God directly.

    That's it. In its entirety.
     
  6. Nakia

    Nakia The night is mine Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2003
    Messages:
    5,575
    Media:
    102
    Likes Received:
    136
    Gender:
    Female
    Gee, so nice to know that there is an unbiased encyclopedia on the Internet. (Sarcasm intended)
     
  7. Chandos the Red

    Chandos the Red This Wheel's on Fire

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2003
    Messages:
    8,252
    Media:
    82
    Likes Received:
    238
    Gender:
    Male
    And then there was the guy who complained about Christmas trees at the airport, the Jewish guy who complained about a place to pray at the airport, and people not being able to say "Merry Chistmas" - the list can go on and on with this kind of nonsense...it seems everyone's religion is offended by someone else's religion.

    But in this instance we were speaking of a small group imposing their own moral standard on the rest of the community. The same group in the Woodlands then went on to attempt to ban books at the community library that they claimed did not meet their "Christian standards." Of course, this nonsense goes on all the time as well in a lot of other places.
     
  8. Celesialraven Gems: 11/31
    Latest gem: Bloodstone


    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2004
    Messages:
    402
    Likes Received:
    0
    Strange, you'd think that WikiChristian would have been adequate enough. Whereas Conservapedia was created in 2006, WikiChristian was created in 2004. How many wiki's are there now anyway?
     
  9. Shadow Assassin Gems: 13/31
    Latest gem: Ziose


    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2001
    Messages:
    526
    Likes Received:
    0
    lol, this is too funny. [sarcasm]And as a fundamental agnostic I am offended by your theistic and atheistic views... all of them. I shall sue for all theist and atheist images to be removed from public view.[/sarcasm]
     
  10. Gnarfflinger

    Gnarfflinger Wiseguy in Training

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2004
    Messages:
    5,423
    Likes Received:
    30
    I'm going to guess that the article on Vagina was handled irreverently, and that the "information" was insensitive or obscene as opposed to factually correct. I believe this is more to discourage crude jokes than to silence facts.

    Further, if anyone can edit Wikipedia to say what they want it to say, then what is to say that anything there is accurate? How do they ensure that someone who wrote the article on evolution actually knows what they're talking about? And what if the real facts are more complicated, and thus the thing gets "dumbed down" repeatedly, losing accuracy in the process.

    And that's one other thing that makes me laugh. You get on religion for silencing those that question it, but why was the stuff questioning evolution removed from the article on evolution? Ripping something off from us Christians and not giving us credit? Or did you accuse us of something then think it was a pretty good idea...

    Sure, it does have a political bias, but at least they're honest about it. They try to get people to be honest and accurate with their posting, rather than allowing people to post whatever they want about a topic at hand.
     
  11. Cúchulainn Gems: 28/31
    Latest gem: Star Sapphire


    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2004
    Messages:
    2,956
    Likes Received:
    1
    I just looked up N.Ireland...

    The person that updated this article yesterday, must have been in a coma for the last 5 years :rolleyes:

    [ March 15, 2007, 10:18: Message edited by: Cúchulainn ]
     
  12. Equester Gems: 18/31
    Latest gem: Horn Coral


    Veteran

    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2003
    Messages:
    1,097
    Likes Received:
    6
    Gender:
    Male
    wikipedia is constantly policed by its owners and of cause by its users, if you find something incorrect you can either logon (if you have an account and correct it) or you can repport it.

    for instance, right after the burrat movie , burrat (or however you spell it) was listed as kazhakstans president and so one, for one day, then the entry on Kazhakstan was closed and corected.

    Secondly if you look at Wikipedia, most articles as tons of references to all kinds of literature and other internet sites.

    thirdly wikipedia has been tested several times and has been found to a fault margin of less then 10%, thats lower then a fair bit of physical ensyclopedias.

    that said, as a student of history, i know i can never list wikipedia as a source in an assignment, because sites on the internet seldom listens the author, but thats a problem with all internet sites.
     
  13. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2000
    Messages:
    10,140
    Media:
    63
    Likes Received:
    250
    Gender:
    Male
    Gnarff,
    by creating conservapedia they make the accusation that Wiki is biased.

    That is, however, mostly untrue. Most of their criticism rotates about Wiki's unwillingness to accept their faith based stuff in a basically scientific summary, on evolution for instance. However, there is a pretty lengthy and exaustive page about creationism. Creationism is also referred to in the evolution article.

    That means only that Wiki puts things in the right place.

    It's just that the conservapedia folks couldn't get over the Holy Bible not to be referred as a scientific source to in the evolution entry - where it doesn't belong - despite their persistent efforts.

    That they interpreted that as bias only means they don't have a clue what a scientific, empirical approach is ... :nuts: And I bet they don't care.
    Every opinion is equally valid, and so they feel they're entitled to be mentioned equally with 'godless' science ... :bs: One can predict one of their arguments to be that when compared to science, the Holy Bible, the Word of The Lord, carries more weight, and thus ought to be granted priority. Fighting Wiki's elusive 'bias' they are on a quixotian quest. I pity everyone who has to face their wrath. In their indignant fervor they must be a real pest.
     
  14. The Magister Gems: 26/31
    Latest gem: Diamond


    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2006
    Messages:
    2,364
    Media:
    16
    Likes Received:
    7
    Gender:
    Male
    The whole idea is just stupid. Why bother to create something that doesn't really tell you anything?
     
  15. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,407
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    231
    Gender:
    Male
    Probably because people like to be told what they want to hear ;)
     
  16. Montresor

    Montresor Mostly Harmless Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2005
    Messages:
    3,103
    Media:
    127
    Likes Received:
    183
    Gender:
    Male
    I have a nagging feeling that Conservapedia is not so much a serious effort to provide an alternative to Wikipedia, but rather an attempt to ridicule right-wing religious "conservatives". I have a very hard time taking it seriously.
     
  17. Trellheim Gems: 22/31
    Latest gem: Sphene


    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2006
    Messages:
    1,469
    Media:
    5
    Likes Received:
    23
    The two most important facts about rock music:

    Indeed :rolleyes: , that's all I needed to know.

    Wait... there isn't an article about Stairway to Heaven's satanic backward messages?
     
  18. Ofelix

    Ofelix The world changes, we do not, what irony!

    Joined:
    Dec 19, 2002
    Messages:
    5,989
    Media:
    5
    Likes Received:
    111
    Gender:
    Male
    This Can't be true

    While I clicked « random page » on this witty 'lil site I end up with this

    Here's the WHOLE page

    WTF?! :eek:
     
  19. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,407
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    231
    Gender:
    Male
    According the the reference supplied that's false. They drove the stake through the ground without digging up the coffin and missed his heart.

    LMAO!
     
  20. Tiana Gems: 3/31
    Latest gem: Lynx Eye


    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2002
    Messages:
    69
    Likes Received:
    0
    I actually feel sorry for these people. Not that I truly expected anything, but they obviously copied the definition of "neuron" out of a textbook. And it's even a good textbook, but the "definition" is a paragraph. On wiki I can find entries on incredibly obscure cancer treatments.

    I think they really want to be taken seriously, but are simply too understafffed and (to be honest) crazy.
     
Sorcerer's Place is a project run entirely by fans and for fans. Maintaining Sorcerer's Place and a stable environment for all our hosted sites requires a substantial amount of our time and funds on a regular basis, so please consider supporting us to keep the site up & running smoothly. Thank you!

Sorcerers.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.