Esowatch.com is a internet project founded in 2007 with articles critical of esotericism

Esotericism

Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...

, conspiracy theories and pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...

 in CAM

Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine is any healing practice, "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine." It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence....

 The platform offers a Wiki, a Blog and a forum. The Esowatch wiki is based on MediaWiki

MediaWiki

MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...

-Software. The German wiki is the largest, with the English a close second.

Anonymity

All authors use anonymous nicknames, the operator is unknown. The domain is registered via a company in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. The anonymity is explained with negative experiences by identifyable critics of New Age

New Age

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...

 beliefs. New authors can register after a check on their abilities.

Public reception

The first major public reception was 2008 in the German online magazine Telepolis. Esowatch's article on Prahlad Jani was referenced in the science blog Pharyngula, and their article on night milk crystals was referenced by the Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

.

A German court based a decision partly on arguments collected by Esowatch. Further, data from Esowatch was used in an inquiry in the Austrian parliament.