Battle of the Online Encyclopedias

Launched back in November 2006, Conservapedia is one of the most recent online encyclopedias trying to make its mark as an accurate reference source. In just the few months it has been established the site already has over 5 million page views. But what really makes this site so unique is their claim to be “without the liberal and anti-Christian bias of other online sources like Wikipedia.”

The project is the brainchild of Andy Schlafly, son of the Eagle Forum founder, Phyllis Schlafly. He began the project to provide a trustworthy resource for students that would be free from liberal bias. Schlafly hopes the site will become a valuable resource for parents, teachers, reporters and students that will promote original insights and circulate daily news censored by other media outlets.

There are many similarities between Conservapedia and online reference giant Wikipedia. Both are almost identical in the cosmetic setup of their web pages. This is largely due to the fact that they both use MediaWiki, a free software wiki package that was originally designed for Wikipedia.

Both sites also give freedom to the users to edit and add entries to the encyclopedia. What most recently has caused a problem for Wikipedia was when news broke that one of their “editors,” thought to be a tenured theology professor, turned out to be a 24 year-old community college dropout from Kentucky. The site has also had repeated claims against it for being biased and inaccurate, which has prompted many universities to ban Wikipedia as a viable source of information to use for projects and papers.

Schlafly does not foresee this problem for Conservapedia. “We have a merit-based system that facilitates correction of entries, and our ‘cream’ rises to the top. Our editors are topflight and we have much higher standards than Wikipedia. For example, we cut down on errors by prohibiting gossip, which Wikipedia allows. We also prohibit obscenity, while Wikipedia allows even pornographic images,” he told Accuracy in Academia during an exclusive interview.

Even with all the speculation and controversy, Wikipedia is still the leading online encyclopedia. Almost anytime a subject is searched through major search engines such as Yahoo or Google, Wikipedia is in the top three search results.

The competition does not seem to bother Schlafly. “Wikipedia is like Kool-Aid, a favored first drink for kids. But like Kool-Aid, Wikipedia does not satisfy. Many Wikipedia users, particularly smarter ones, want a better ‘beverage’. That’s Conservapedia,” the Harvard law graduate told Accuracy in Academia. “I think a brain drain is already occurring from Wikipedia. Quality does matter in encyclopedias.”

So if Wikipedia is so “left” as Schlafly claims, wouldn’t this mean Conservapedia is to the “right” politically speaking? In response to that Schlafly told us, “Conservapedia merely prohibits liberal bias. We are neutral to the facts. We have some liberal contributors, but they must stick to the facts.”

Accuracy in Academia contacted Wikipedia to ask their thoughts on the above accusations. They gave us this response:

“Wikipedia editors come from all political spectrums and all parts of the world. Additionally, Wikipedia articles are neutral and adhere to a neutrality policy called NPOV (Neutral Point of View). This means that all major viewpoints are represented in an entry, reflecting the diversity of our editors as well as ensuring the stability of our articles.

Wikipedia entries are under a copyleft license, which means that anyone can redistribute them and use them for any purpose, as long as they do not deny this right to others and give full attribution. Wikipedia is run by a non-profit organization, the Wikimedia Foundation, and is available in more than a hundred languages.”

The best rule of thumb that can be learned from this is to double-check sources; use multiple references when trying to retrieve facts. Using online encyclopedias where almost anyone can be an “editor” should be a first place of reference and not the last.

Both sites can be found at:

www.conservapedia.com

www.wikipedia.com

Wendy Cook is a staff writer for Accuracy in Academia.