While it is somewhat of a futile point since people that are ambitious can get around that by blocking their I.P.’s, using proxies or going off-site to another location, the gesture itself sends a message that the usually neutral wikipedia isn’t happy about the bombarding of Scientology propaganda on their website, which tries to have it’s content remain objective.
Penn Jillette, an avowed atheist, had an interesting commentary about the situation.
Two gentlemen, fired for refusing to attend mandatory Scientology classes at their place of work, are suing software firm Diskeeper for religious discrimination. Included in the lawsuit is a sanction preventing Diskeeper from making attendance at Hubbard Study Technology courses compulsory.
The company, who’s founder and chief exec Craig Jensen is a committed Scientologist, argues that religious instruction in the workplace is protected by the First Amendment, so the sanction is unconstitutional. Really? Forced cult classes are totally ok with the US government?
The German government was so spooked by the Co$ connection that the asked Microsoft if they could inspect the source code before Diskeeper, integrated into Windows 2000, was allowed to be used in government applications. There were some rumours the software would harvest data from user’s machines, presumably creating a database for Xenu’s nefarious purposes.
In other Scientology news, Katie Holmes looks god awful! Some say it’s her Broadway schedule or that she’s pregnant again, but they’re underestimating Tom’s mind control powers. Katie’s also sporting some weird cult-like vampire bites around her foot.
Somebody’s a big ole’ false idol over on Twitter. If you recall we introduced you to almightygod, the Lord’s Twitter feed, earlier this fall. Almighty God has recently been joined on the social media scene by HolyGod, a rival Big Guy with the exact same avatar! Holy God, location: everywhere, has 192 followers already.
almightygod is a little testy at the sudden appearance of this (possibly real) HolyGod. almightygod, location: Heaven, still has 5 times the followers and has issued such ominous thunderclap-accompanied warnings as “Pay no attention to @HolyGod. I’m the real thing, he’s a fake” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” That last one is a commandment, people.
What to do with competing Gods? Now you know how the Romans felt when the Christians showed up, or what the Mormons experience when they see a can of Coke. Just the existence of that other possibility, that crack in your worldview, makes you wonder why you’re so attached to an idea in the first place.
If you’ve got no evidence either way, then the reality is the idea makes you feel better, which is different than being true.
VenomFangX is a creationists that makes videos for youtube about why Christianity is so great and why “Darwinism” is so bad/evil/of the devil, etc.
Thunderf00t is a non-creationist (i.e. scientifically minded person) that routinely makes videos debunking various creationist claims. He often uses portions of those creationist video in his own, to comment on them. This is authorized under “fair use” in the U.S. Copyright Law.
VenomFangX decided to be an ass and started filing DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) take-down notices to YouTube about Thunderf00t’s videos where he used material from VenomFangX’s video.
VenomFangX was in the wrong because of the fair use doctrine, and filing DMCA notices where there isn’t a violation, is a violation! VenomFangX got some heat because of this, and ended up having to make this apology, seemingly supplied by Thunderf00t.
Browse around their other videos, they are quite entertaining.
Feeling fair and balanced, I decided to capitalize on the fine suggestion of commenter Jake Samuels and email PrayAbout.com, in an effort to get to the bottom of these pay’n'pray candle-purchasing shenanigans. Here is their reply (in less than the advertised 2 business days!):
“In the next few months, prayabout.com will be moving away from candle purchasing. Instead we will use paid advertisements on the site to earn revenue. This will eliminate the cost that affects our users. We have, however, always provided ways for users with limited resources to earn candles. Inviting friends, praying for others, and lighting candles will earn a user candles on the site.
We understand that many of our users experience financial hardships and we want to make the site accessible to anyone who wants to use it. However, we are running a business. We have costs that need to be covered. The larger the site becomes, the more money the business requires to keep itself running. I assure you that no one is trying to take advantage of the site’s users or line their own pockets.
I hope this answers your question.
All the best,
Erin
Managing Director
PrayAbout.com”
So the waxy tithes do, in fact, pay for staff at the site as I suggested, though no mention was made of whether they’re chubby or not. The domain is registered in California, so I’m going to assume they’re reasonably in shape. Do the costs that need to be covered include spa lunches and company Smart Cars? Undetermined. Was I being fair and/or balanced, or was the robust marketing plan an incredible—some may say divine—coincidence?
Oooh, crap. One of the things sweet, naive religious people fall prey to is spending assloads of money on stuff that doesn’t get them one inch closer to God. Like Hello Kitty fanatics who will purchase every Band-Aid®, air compressor and prepared mustard they come across shaped like the famous triangle ears and button nose, Christians are susceptible to all manner of thinly-veiled marketing manipulations. Who can blame them when their eternal souls are on the line?
That’s where your basic charlatan comes in. May I introduce PrayAbout.com, a website devoted to listing the prayers of people with problems so that your superconscious praying energy may be directed where it’s needed most.
A noble goal, you declare! How nice that users can vote up the most “important” prayers by assigning them virtual prayer candles! How does one acquire this PrayAbout currency?
3 Easy Ways!
1. You receive candles when you invite your friends to the site.
Fair enough - you get paid to viral market the site.
2. You receive candles when people light candles for your requests.
Tell the most sensationally pathetic story, and heavenly rewards are yours! Compelling user-generated stories are the most valuable content an online community can ask for, so naturally you’ll get a few cost-free ‘candles’ for your tale of woe.
3. You can purchase candles via PayPal or with your mobile phone.
Failing having friends or being interesting, you can still participate for a nominal fee!
There are 2 modifying caveats on the game…”the sooner you light candles for something, the more candles you can receive (because you get more candles every time somebody else lights candles; and the more candles you light for something, the more candles you get when someone lights candles after you. So light candles for prayer requests that you think other people will also light candles for).”
Marketing strategy for that includes getting you to a) spend your inventory quickly so you must interact socially or pay for more community currency b) promote the most sensational content. “Write your request in a way that resonates with other people. Tell a story and give details.” And spend your candles where you think they’ll get the most attention!
Am I misjudging these humble Webmasters of the Lord? Let’s ask the magic FAQ eight ball:
“How is the money from buying candles used?
The sale of candles helps pay the expenses to keep PrayAbout online, and to raise awareness for the site.”
So it pays for some chubby prayer wrangler to tend the site in his underpants and for advertising to propagate said situation. Truly a higher calling. The page title for the main page, valuable search engine fodder, is “Prayer requests for free“.
This kind of exploitation of people in their saddest moments makes me sad. Maybe I should post a prayer for the people getting bilked by this site.
If you’re too young for email, you can always follow God on Twitter! With over 600 followers, Almighty God answers personal questions, issues proclamations, explains the Bible and his “mysterious ways”, and offers prizes to numerically significant adherents! Is God a Kabbalist, or just bored?
40 followers from now will be #666, and the Lord is no doubt cooking up something special for that lucky supplicant! Many geeky mortals will no doubt be vying for the eternal life or get-out-of-Hell-free card on offer. Link from Danny / Personman in the Friendly Atheist’s comments.
Side note, does God ever look like Jesus in this picture, eh? They have the same nose.
Last week there was some litigation nonsense over at YouTube, with someone suspiciously like the “Church” of Scientology issuing takedown notices on some 4000 Scientology-related videos. In response to this, Anonymous has launched their own video channel…AnonTube!
The site pulls videos from YouTube with tags like “Scientology” and “Chanology”, but has backups, should the meddling f(r)iends of Co$ try to remove the content again. AnonTube serves as a nice aggregator of raid documentary videos and original Anon content, and will hopefully develop some good Anonymous conversation & commenting.
“You’ve shown many times that you are unable to make the right decisions on your own. Only after complaints of hundreds or thousands of users, you are willing to listen. You are often a tool in the hands of fraudulent corporations, evil regimes and abusive cults. You have taken down videos of users who simply spoke out against evil and abuse.”
What’s been shaking over in Scientologyland lately? Quite a bit, actually. Some un-googleable folks calling themselves the American Rights Counsel [sic] sent more than 4000 DCMA takedown notices to YouTube - the sort of thing one does when one is asserting copyright over a video - and all of the videos in question just happened to have something to do with Scientology. Some are news reports from Europe & Canada, Anonymous protests, Clearwater (Florida, a bastion of Scientology) city council meetings, all with C0$ connections. YouTube’s policy with regards to these kind of copyright issues is to immediately remove the potentially offending videos. Many of them have apparently been reinstated, but Mark Bunker’s XenuTv is a YouTube graveyard of ‘this video no longer available’ notices.
This kind of litigious, censorious crap was what got Co$ in hot water with Anonymous in the first place, and the fine Anons on the Enturbulation boards are all over this recent attack. Will we see another Anonymous strike? Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson reports that Anon plans to purchase group tickets to Katie Holmes’ upcoming Broadway opening & sit silently in the audience in their all their Guy Fawkes glory. Creepy yes; effective, potentially - Katie, the gentlemen in masks are your friends and will help you make a getaway. Just give them a signal.
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