Conservapedia - the US religious right's answer to Wikipedia

[Doondoo]

It has been attacked many times in its short life, most notably by a former aide to Robert F Kennedy and the editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica. But now the online reference site Wikipedia has a new foe: evangelical Christians.

A website founded by US religious activists aims to counter what they claim is "liberal bias" on Wikipedia, the open encyclopedia which has become one of the most popular sites on the web. The founders of Conservapedia.com say their site offers a "much-needed alternative" to Wikipedia, which they say is "increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American".

Although entries on Wikipedia are open for anyone to edit, conservative campaigners say they are unable to make changes to articles on the site because of inherent bias by its global team of volunteer editors. Instead they have chosen to build a clone which they hope will promote Christian values.

"I've tried editing Wikipedia, and found that the biased editors who dominate it censor or change facts to suit their views," Andy Schlafly, the founder of Conservapedia, told the Guardian. "In one case my factual edits were removed within 60 seconds - so editing Wikipedia is no longer a viable approach."

Among his criticisms listed on Conservapedia, Mr Schlafly explains how many Wikipedia articles often use British spelling instead of American English and says that it "refuses" to give enough credit to Christianity for the Renaissance. "Facts against the theory of evolution are almost immediately censored," he continues.

Mr Schlafly, a lawyer by day, is the son of a prominent American conservative, Phyllis Schlafly, renowned for her opposition to feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment. He says Conservapedia was created last November as a project for home-schooled children - and believes it could eventually become a reference for teachers in the US. "It is rapidly becoming one of the largest and most reliable online educational resources of its kind," he said.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2024762,00.html

[MADem]

1. You know how a lot of Wikipedia entries end up wholesale on answer.com and other pages?

They're essentially lifted and surrounded by ads, but it's the same info.

Some smartass oughta set up a STUPIDPEDIA or MORONPEDIA and siphon off the entries they make...it would be an accurate description of the service, at any rate.

[Clintonista2]

2. As colbert says...

Reality has a liberal bias.

[BOSSHOG]

3. A whining Schlafly - imagine

Evolution at its worst. I would suggest that the conservative trash evolve the "liberal bias" as it is daily proven as an incorrect, nay non existent, description of news. But they won't do that, because they know their target audience.

Wikipedia is more proof that christians in this country are being persecuted unmercifully. Christians might seriously consider leaving this evil country. I'll hold the border open for them.

[Doondoo]

5. Yeah, I really loved it when he said.......

"I've tried editing Wikipedia, and found that the biased editors who dominate it censor or change facts to suit their views"

I guess we're supposed to believe that Schlafly WASN'T trying to do the exact same thing.

[tenshi816]

8. I've tried editing Wikipedia,

and found that the "biased editors who dominate it" won't allow me to make changes to Ann Coulter's entry (or, rather, I make the changes and they're changed back within a half hour). So much for a liberal bias on the editors' parts, eh?

[AllegroRondo]

7. Is he related to Phyllis Schlafly?

[BOSSHOG]

10. Last paragraph of OP's story

[AllegroRondo]

14. Doh!

His cousin owns a brewery in St Louis, that makes Schlafly beer.

[BOSSHOG]

15. I looked up Andy Schlafly

on www.howmanyofme.com and it says there are no Schlafly's living in this country. A nice friday morning chuckle. Maybe they have some caveat about only tracking humans.

[AllegroRondo]

18. maybe it goes by tax records

and he failed to file?

[SpiralHawk]

4. Christian values? Are we talking Ted Haggard here?

Or what? These folks have demonstrated their values, and they suck.

What would Jesus do? He would kiss these phony Christians off, and drive their hypocricial Pharasee moneychanging asses from the temple.

[BOSSHOG]

11. And don't forget sean hannity is a great christian as well

And he's also a brave warrior in the fight against terrorism. He's been trying to get out of his contract with fox for years so he can join the Army but they just won't let him.

[underpants]

17. |

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3141265#3141288

[BOSSHOG]

19. That John O'Neill makes me so proud

to have served in the same Navy. I'd like to take the junior officer in the CPO goatlocker for a counseling session. Worthless scum, totally worthless, lying garbage.

[aikoaiko]

6. Discovered again........and again.....and again......and..

[ecstatic]

9. Couldn't they have taken their disagreement to the forum area?

I don't use Wiki regularly but this conservapedia thing sounds really stupid...lame... unnecessary. An encyclopedia is a place for FACTS... Any other debate should be taken to a message board or forum, but don't create a site full of half truths and associate it with an encyclopedia. That's just wrong! What if a young kid happens upon that site thinking that it is a reliable source for information? Oh well, this is going to destroy the credibility of all the user driven information sites.

[BOSSHOG]

12. Conservapedia - A PROJECT FOR HOME SCHOOLED CHILDREN

In other words an attempt to incubate future ignorant haters. Imagine a stay at home Mom, a member of the sean hannity fan club, perusing conservapedia to "teach" her children the facts; far away from any alternative information. The last thing conservatives want is children exposed to truth, honesty, knowledge, love, compassion, integrity. They want them to be future conservatives. They are so fucking high maintenance. Lets find them a country where they can flourish in their ignorance and fulfill their dreams of living in a theocracy.

[underpants]

16. It's more of the "New Truth"

when the old truth or the new facts counterdict your argument (as well as your own incongruous line of BS) you have to create your own truth.

They have been working on this for over 35 years.

[TlalocW]

13. Is Andy Phyllis' gay son?

If so, we need to put up on Wikipedia and Conservapedia my "Phyllis Schafly's Gay Son Unification Theory" that states:

With the large number of far-right, conservative "christians" having offspring who are homosexual - Dick Cheney, Alan Keyes, Randall Terry, Phyllis Schafly, my uncle - it would appear that there would only be two possible conclusions that conservatives could draw:

1. Homosexuality is in fact genetic as it would be highly unlikely for these offspring to have been exposed to anything during their childhood to "turn them gay."
2. If homosexuality is not genetic, then by conservative definitions, these people are all bad parents and should be branded as such by other religious conservatives as they obviously did not raise their kids right. Particularly glaring is the example of Phyllis - if she had followed her own advice and stayed home instead of going out and making a career of fighting against equal rights, her son may have turned out to be a proper heterosexual.

Liberals on the other hand can only draw one conclusion:

Homosexuality is indeed genetic, and these people are still bad parents.

TlalocW