A Catholic apologetics Wiki - Is it possible?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cherripeeps
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Cherripeeps

Guest
Hello, friends.

So, here I’d like to share an idea with you.

You know how people use wikis as a means for sharing and quickly looking up information about topics they care about? Wikipedia and TV Tropes are among the most commonly known examples. I’ve also noticed that devotees of certain fandoms will often create wikis for a specific show or novel series or videogame saga. This happens especially when the story in question is quite deep or complex or so richly textured that you need to have a centralized source of articles that people can use as a reference as they navigate the world of the story.

Heck, even atheists have their own wiki. They put up their articles “debunking” strawman versions of various religious beliefs.

With this in mind, I was quite shocked to discover that we the Catholics do not have a wiki of our own yet. We should! Can you imagine what that would look like? It would be such a fantastic resource where anyone who wants to understand a particular concept in our faith – or someone who’s been grappling with a certain atheistic argument – can just type in a keyword and what shows up is the aggregate of information and resources that faithful Catholics have pooled to help them find the right answers.

After all… nothing in this world is as deep or richly textured as our faith. If we the Catholics of today could only create this resource, I’m sure future Catholics would come to know God way easier and faster than we did with the limited resources that we had in our generation.

What do you guys think?
 
I think it’s a terrific idea (👍), but we need strict locks on who gets to create and edit content. Otherwise, it’ll become a free-for-all of vandalism, people replacing the Pope Francis page with “ANTI-POPE!”, long discussions of how Father X’s sermon wasn’t good, people endorsing the Winnipeg statement, and so on. It already happens enough on CAF. 😃
 
have you ever visited the Catholic Encyclopedia? it’s not exactly a wiki, but it has a lot of information on it. I can imagine a “Catholic wiki” looking very similar.
 
RPRPsych said:
I think it’s a terrific idea (👍), but we need strict locks on who gets to create and edit content. Otherwise, it’ll become a free-for-all of vandalism, people replacing the Pope Francis page with “ANTI-POPE!”, long discussions of how Father X’s sermon wasn’t good, people endorsing the Winnipeg statement, and so on. It already happens enough on CAF. 😃
Click to expand...
Well, , given all the bad info on Wikipedia and the ability to edit at will, I think a Catholic wiki would just give carte blanche to people who develop their own notions of what the Church teaches and a platform to broadcast those erroneous thoughts. Sorta like CAF. 😃

As R says, you’d have to vet the staff to such a high degree, and even then it would really be who shouts the loudest.

The Catechism is online. That, and the Catholic Encyclopedia online kids of covers it without “opinion” murking the waters.
 
RPRPsych said:
I think it’s a terrific idea (👍), but we need strict locks on who gets to create and edit content. Otherwise, it’ll become a free-for-all of vandalism…
Click to expand...
pianistclare said:
Well, , given all the bad info on Wikipedia and the ability to edit at will, I think a Catholic wiki would just give carte blanche to people who develop their own notions of what the Church teaches and a platform to broadcast those erroneous thoughts. Sorta like CAF. 😃
Click to expand...
You know, I considered that same problem when the idea first occurred to me. Due to the nature of Catholicism – where you have orthodox, faithful Catholics on one hand and then on the other hand all kinds of heretical liberal peeps confusing matters – a Catholic wiki would not work exactly in the normal wiki way, wherein anybody can edit whatever they like.

Rather, I think we could make it work with a slightly different system. A group of very orthodox moderators/editors could be in charge of serving as gatekeepers, choosing what gets published and what doesn’t. So, if someone wants to contribute to the wiki, they suggest their contribution, but their addition cannot be publicly visible until an editor approves it.
The Catechism is online. That, and the Catholic Encyclopedia online kids of covers it without “opinion” murking the waters.
Click to expand...
Those two resources help, for sure. However, if you have a minute, open up a separate tab and pay a visit to the Ask an Apologist subforum. Chances are in the first page you’ll see some very basic question about a simple doctrine of the faith; people asking for help understanding the Eucharist, or asking if this or that is mortal sin, or grappling with some Marian doctrine. I believe the existence of a wiki would make it much easier for people to look up “Eucharist” or “mortal sin” or “Immaculate conception” and they’d come off it with a much more solid understanding than they had at the outset. They get instantaneous answers and the CA staff has less super-basic questions to deal with.
Stephen_says said:
have you ever visited the Catholic Encyclopedia? it’s not exactly a wiki, but it has a lot of information on it. I can imagine a “Catholic wiki” looking very similar.
Click to expand...
Yus, the CE has been super useful to me. My only annoy is that the tone and content can be a bit too dense and scholarly, I think a notch above what most people can digest without having to re-read a paragraph a few times. If you want to read an article, you have to hunker down, open up Wikipedia in a separate tab, and very patiently slog through it (though it’s very rewarding when you actually read the thing from start to finish).

But yes, I can see a Catholic wiki looking like that! Or even sleeker, perhaps. One can purchase some pretty snazzy user interfaces from the Envato Market for just $20, so having it look sexy would be a pretty simple and inexpensive affair. 😃
 
Rather, I think we could make it work with a slightly different system. A group of very orthodox moderators/editors could be in charge of serving as gatekeepers, choosing what gets published and what doesn’t. So, if someone wants to contribute to the wiki, they suggest their contribution, but their addition cannot be publicly visible until an editor approves it.
Click to expand...
But yes, I can see a Catholic wiki looking like that! Or even sleeker, perhaps. One can purchase some pretty snazzy user interfaces from the Envato Market for just $20, so having it look sexy would be a pretty simple and inexpensive affair.
Click to expand...
CAF is in the midst of a TOTAL revamp right now. Things maybe rather spectacularly updated soon.
 
The main particularity is you would have to have qualified staff writers who could read every submission and screen them for correctness. There are many topics in the world where the best answer is a matter of skilled opinion. Dogma is not and neither is representing the particulars of a religion. In these arenas accuracy is crucial–especially for those whose vocation it is to make that faith available to others which is us.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top