Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia written collaboratively by people from all around the world. Wikipedia is the first mainstream wiki encyclopedia and certainly the most well known of all wikis. It is a truly international effort and a testament to the success that can be achieved with the MediaWiki software [1]. As of November 2019, Wikipedia has nearly 51,400,000 articles in 296 languages.
The Wikipedia website states:
| “ | Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which anybody with Internet access can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in some important ways. In particular, mature articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while other (often fledgling) articles may still contain significant misinformation, unencyclopaedic content or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this in order to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation which has been recently added and not yet removed.[Reference needed] | ” |
Anticreation Bias on Wikipedia
Many CreationWiki authors have expressed frustration with Wikipedia and its apparent double standards. Wikipedia claims to take a neutral point of view (NPOV) and in most cases it seems to follow it quite well for most topics. However, Wikipedia, it's editors, and administrators have shown very little concern for this policy when it comes to creation science and intelligent design, for which a consistently very negative view is shown. An example is the classification of creation science and Intelligent design as pseudosciences. This is a rather standard anti-creationist tactic which has been implemented by Wikipedia.
Articles for Deletion
An example of this negative bias towards creationism and ID within the pages of Wikipedia was the nomination to delete an article titled, "Views of Creationists and mainstream scientists compared." Although voting based on your personal opinion of the topic was and still would be a blatant violation of voting guidelines, the administrators left the votes up.
| “ | The title of the page is inherently wrong, as it suggests that creationism is a scientific view. | ” |
| “ | ...comparing religious doctrine to scientific theory is comparing apples and oranges, and thus non-encyclopedic. | ” |
| “ | By opposing "creationism" to "mainstream science", the article title suggests that creationism is a scientific POV. | ” |
| “ | Creationism is not science. | ” |
| “ | Delete, since creationism is ultimately based on untestable religious beliefs... | ” |
| “ | Creationism isn't an alternative scientific theory: it is one of many alternatives to science. | ” |
The contributor who nominated the article for deletion was a staunch anticreationist, who had vandalized the article several times and considered anticreation website Talk.Origins Archive to be "the most balanced treatment on the web to date"!
Trinity School incident
NPOV at Wikipedia would seem to mean rather that they conform to the POV of the editors. Almost all conservative Christian institutions and individuals get treated differently at best or thought to be only believers in lies at the worst. The Trinity School of Apologetics and Theology reportedly had a long battle with Wikipedia over numerous false reports published on Wikipedia.
In spite of documented evidence to the contrary, they were forced to contact the WikiMedia Trustees before the articles containing slander and libel against them were finally removed.[Reference needed]
CreationWiki on Wikipedia
And we have yet another blatant example of anticreation bias in wikipedia. Wikipedia previously had an article about CreationWiki, which has since been deleted. The article was typically found expressing the anti-creationist sentiment said to be found there and retained a clear POV criticism of CreationWiki. Subsequent articles about CreationWiki have been posted that were also rapidly deleted.
In April 2006 there was a proposal to delete the article, and the end result of the discussion (with ten votes to keep and seven to delete) was "No consensus (defaults to Keep)". However, another proposal to delete in August 2006 succeeded, with four votes to delete and two to merge to a separate article on Christian Wikis. However, that latter article was itself deleted in early November 2006.
The behavior clearly demonstrates the aforementioned anticreation views of the Wikipedia editors. It is also noteworthy that the Wikipedia editor who first recommended the deletion of the CreationWiki article is the self-proclaimed head of the Wikipedia Neutrality Project.
Censor of the Year - 2018
Through intimidation and silencing of views counter to evolutionary orthodoxy Wikipedia, with its biased non-neutral point of view, erase articles of people related to Intelligent design like Günter Bechly and Walter Bradley and because the site's editors have engaged in a shameless campaign against the scientific theory of Intelligent Design (ID) and its proponents, drawing censure even from Darwinists Wikipedia was awarded with the "Censor of the Year award - 2018" from Discovery Institute.[2]
Pornography
Many public schools overlook Wikipedia in the use of their programs to keep the internet decent for children to look at. Wikipedia, however, provides access to pornographic pictures and videos, and while censorship measures were attempted in the past by Wikipedia staff, the website's users did not comply[3][4]. Wikipedia contains a gap between its staff and users, is largely unregulated and prone to vandalism. Wikipedia is not an appropriate website for children -- or adults.
Interwiki Linking
Wikipedia has been set up for Interwiki linking. A link like [[Wikipedia:Main Page]] will appear like this: Wikipedia:Main Page and redirect you to Wikipedia's Main Page. To create a titled link, use a format like [[Wikipedia:Creationism|Creationism]], which will simply appear as: Creationism.
| prefix | direction | usage example |
| wikipedia | http://wikipedia.org/wiki/ | [[wikipedia:Main Page]]
|
See also
External links
- Wikipedia Main Page
- About Wikipedia
- Notice to Students: Wikipedia No Longer an Acceptable Source by Casey Luskin. Evolution News & Views. Discovery Institute. November 27, 2007
- Secret mailing list rocks Wikipedia by Cade Metz. 4th December 2007
References
- ↑ Software version of Wikipedia
- ↑ Tyler O'Neil. "Censor of the Year: Wikipedia". PJMedia. https://pjmedia.com/trending/censor-of-the-year-wikipedia/. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ↑ Wikipedia abandons efforts to purge porn from online encyclopedia, Fox News
- ↑ Why is Wikipedia still doling out porn?, Fox News
