User:Barney the barney barney/Ignorance

This is an essay on dealing with topics related to fringe theories. "Fringe theories" (FTs) is a euphemism used on Wikipedia for pseudo-scholarship (i.e. pseudoscience, pseudohistory, etc).

Wikipedia being an open encyclopedia with a big edit button tends to attract proponents of fringe theories (hereafter, "fringers"), who usually combine completely misunderstanding what they're talking about with an obsessive intent to WP:RGW.

Wikipedia, being a mainstream encyclopedia, defers to scholarly opinion on these topics, which is generally sceptical of new ideas. This considers the stages of support and response to a fringe theory.

In assigning categories, it is worth noting that this is a continuum. However, although there may be some movement along it, such ideas rarely