Conservapedia: A confession

27th February 2007

posted in Society by themaiden |

It looks like somebody named Ken is trying to take credit for the “Northwest Arboreal Tree Octopus” article at Conservapedia.

At last my 15 minutes of internet fame seems to be on the way!

The tree octopus article is mine, as well as a few other bits. Luckily, I discovered the site before they locked out new accounts. I’m hesitant to fess up on the bigger blogs, as I’m afraid that the admins at Conservapedia will notice, block me and remove my entries.

Yes, the site is for real, and yes, it has been invaded by hordes of folks spoofing articles. The obvious ones get removed fairly quickly. But frankly, even the “real” articles are almost a spoof of themselves.

Ken L

I’m not sure if Ken is telling the truth or not, but that doesn’t matter for my purposes.

As funny as such sabotage may seem, this kind of thing is not fair play. It is juvenile. Let the crazies make themselves look bad. They do a fine job of it without help.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 12:27 am and is filed under Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On February 27th, 2007, Pedro Timóteo said:

Just noticed: isn’t saying both “arboreal” and “tree” redundant?

2 On February 27th, 2007, themaiden said:

Absolutely… but its a very, very special octopus

3 On March 1st, 2007, StealthBadger said:

If nothing else such vandalism makes it harder for them to help us learn about their beliefs, and therefore understand just what the hell they’re doing.

Wow. That is a special octopus, capable of truly super-simian brachiation.

4 On March 1st, 2007, themaiden said:

Hi Badger,

Its been awhile since I’ve heard from you, so “Hi-dee Ho!”

Really, the vandalism is just not fair play and that annoys me no matter who does it. It may even annoy me more when “my” side does it.

I remember seeing a TV show several years ago which featured future animals– predictions of critters that might eventually evolve. Land dwelling cephalopods were on the list. Interesting, but fiction.

5 On July 18th, 2008, Lyle Zapato said:

Hi. I’m the one who wrote the tree octopus article. You can find the original (without the odd redundant title) at: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Someone had posted it to Conservapedia without my knowledge or permission or credit. I asked Andy Schlafly to remove it (after unsuccessful attempts to get him to put a simple “Originally by Lyle Zapato, whose website is here” at the bottom of the article) as it was causing confusion over authorship. That’s why it disappeared from their site.

Anyway, sorry for posting over a year after anyone cares. I’m just Googling “conservapedia octopus” and adding, for posterity’s sake, notes to any blogs discussing the article that don’t already note where it came from.