1. Comment #118086 by Gymnopedie on January 30, 2008 at 10:09 am

Another reason to not use MySpace!

Other Comments by Gymnopedie

2. Comment #118088 by al-rawandi on January 30, 2008 at 10:15 am

People still use this? Facebook you D-bags.

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3. Comment #118094 by jackdavis on January 30, 2008 at 10:28 am

Is there someone we can contact to complain?

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4. Comment #118095 by Mal3 on January 30, 2008 at 10:28 am

Well, thats a bit unsettling.

I've always found it funny how violently people react to atheism, as if its some sort of personal attack. Might as well as been a "You suck, and your god does too" myspace group.

...actually, that doesn't sound too bad. I think I might start one.

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5. Comment #118096 by HoyaSaxa87 on January 30, 2008 at 10:35 am

"myspace is for the terminally underachieving and the chronically unemployed"
-colin cowherd

unless you're in a band or a record exececutive, that's excusable

Other Comments by HoyaSaxa87

6. Comment #118098 by al-rawandi on January 30, 2008 at 10:41 am

HoyaSaxa87


And for the people who are known, by the locals, to have an STD. Also perverts.

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7. Comment #118099 by Recalcitrant on January 30, 2008 at 10:42 am

Must be a marketing issue. Either the loss of good will from the theists is more than the revenue from the atheists OR MySpace is completely blind to the marketing potential of the atheists.
Could also be that we're a niche market that crosses too many demographics and is hard to track and sell to. Who owns MySpace and how do they make their operating revenue?

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8. Comment #118101 by acidhouser on January 30, 2008 at 10:48 am

Just visited my page for the first time in ages, and noticed they have removed my big red 'A' from my page. Bastards.
If it wasn't for essential music contacts I would be deleting my account.

Other Comments by acidhouser

9. Comment #118103 by Cartomancer on January 30, 2008 at 10:49 am

Ugh! Christian bully-boy tactics like this are disgraceful. Apathy on the part of the company who runs MySpace is similarly reprehensible. I am glad I never got into that one.

Facebook is the way forward I think. I currently define my religious beliefs as "Utter disdain for all such ridiculous nonsense", though I have yet to add the OUT application or join the "Richard Dawkins is cooler than Jesus" group. Though he is, no question about it.

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10. Comment #118104 by GoneGolfing on January 30, 2008 at 10:52 am

--

I know very little about these social networking sites and have never signed up for one.

I'm curious though as to what significance this discrimination will have with regards to the links on this page to both MySpace and FaceBook ?? Should Professor Dawkins continue to support and promote these sites in the light of what has happened ??

GG

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11. Comment #118106 by annabanana on January 30, 2008 at 10:53 am

I'll be deleting my account at the end of the day when I get home. That's absolutely ridiculous.

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12. Comment #118108 by ChrisMcL on January 30, 2008 at 10:56 am

There's a new atheist community website for Americans that offers streaming video, and it's run by atheists at http://www.atheistjournal.com . You'll find many of the same elements of MySpace, YouTube, FaceBook, Meetup.com, and other similar sites, but this one is exclusively for atheists (so no censorship) and as of now has no advertising.

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13. Comment #118109 by al-rawandi on January 30, 2008 at 10:57 am

ChrisMcL,


No censorship except for keeping the religious out.


:-)

Other Comments by al-rawandi

14. Comment #118110 by drcancerman on January 30, 2008 at 10:59 am

Myspace is not the only one who does this!!

Orkut has been deleting atheist and agnostic communities and profiles for years! They only need a few jesus's boys to complain and they do it!

Then they have a bunch of users who acts like vigilantes, they start stalking and bothering and threatening the life of the user until he leaves!

The only one who is good is Facebook.

Other Comments by drcancerman

15. Comment #118112 by rustylix on January 30, 2008 at 11:03 am

I'll be deleting my account at the end of the day when I get home. That's absolutely ridiculous.

Make that two of us. I'm deleting my account as we speak.

Other Comments by rustylix

16. Comment #118113 by anthropicOne on January 30, 2008 at 11:05 am

Not surprised.

Myspace is owned by Rupert Murdoch's New Corp, which also owns the right wing FOX News.

Other Comments by anthropicOne

17. Comment #118114 by Storeo on January 30, 2008 at 11:08 am

Youtube has a lot of anti-atheist sentiments. Most of the youtube 'atheist-community' have had their videos removed from the 'most viewed' and 'most subscribed' lists in the recent months. Pat Condell's channel has been taken off such lists amongst others.

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18. Comment #118116 by Janus on January 30, 2008 at 11:09 am

Deleting our accounts isn't going to do any good; in fact, that's exactly what those bastards want us to do. Send e-mails to Myspace instead. Even better, send e-mails to various media to make them aware of this.

Other Comments by Janus

19. Comment #118117 by little_monkey on January 30, 2008 at 11:12 am

You're all welcome to join Atheist Forum at http://www.atheistforums.com/

Other Comments by little_monkey

20. Comment #118118 by toddaa on January 30, 2008 at 11:12 am

Pulling accounts will do no good. Yanking your personal account costs MySpace nothing. MySpace has to feel it in the pocketbook and feel it bad. For years we've just sat around and whined about how mean religious bigots are towards us and where has it gotten us? Appeasing them by playing by their rules, when most of them don't even acknowledge our very existence ISN'T WORKING.

The alternative is to collect as much information on MySpace advertisers and turn up the heat. Look at what GLAAD and ADL do when one of these sorts of discriminatory events occurs. The heat is ratcheted up so high that it starts costing people money. Lot's of money. It must be made abundantly clear to bigots that doing this to atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers will cost you millions of dollars.

Other Comments by toddaa

21. Comment #118119 by al-rawandi on January 30, 2008 at 11:15 am

ChrisMcL,


I signed up.

Other Comments by al-rawandi

22. Comment #118120 by Noncombatant on January 30, 2008 at 11:16 am

My account is now closed! My personal protest!

Other Comments by Noncombatant

23. Comment #118121 by rthille on January 30, 2008 at 11:16 am

But isn't Myspace just for ridiculous wankers anyway? I think I visited a link to a myspace page once and my eyes bled for a week.
We caught our daughter on myspace after we told her it was forbidden and now I just block port 80 for her...not that she probably isn't on it at school...

Other Comments by rthille

24. Comment #118122 by al-rawandi on January 30, 2008 at 11:16 am

Damn it. So many atheist forums. So little time.

Other Comments by al-rawandi

25. Comment #118126 by zferrari on January 30, 2008 at 11:29 am

That is outrageous !

Hold guys , we should not be deleting our accounts. On the contrary we should do stuff like the following :

1. Email the media like someone mentioned
2. Create multiple accounts and tag all of the as Atheist
3. Each one of us should create an Atheist Group or two. I wan see them deleting a few thousand groups. That should be interesting media news.

Other Comments by zferrari

26. Comment #118127 by epeeist on January 30, 2008 at 11:37 am

I have submitted a summary to Slashdot. They don't often publish my submissions but we can only hope.

Not sure even MySpace could stand up to the Slashdot effect.

Other Comments by epeeist

27. Comment #118128 by alfonso on January 30, 2008 at 11:38 am

Well, I have cancelled my account and left a clear note about the reasons why. Not that I used that site that much anyway, really sucks in pretty much every sense, now on EVERY sense.

Other Comments by alfonso

28. Comment #118135 by Verylee on January 30, 2008 at 11:50 am

To paraphrase Ron Hubbard "If you want to make millions, start a religion"......"if you want to stay in business, pander to religion". I guess only when atheists/m gets some serious economic clout will it ever be taken seriously....Mammon rules OK.

Other Comments by Verylee

29. Comment #118150 by Elles on January 30, 2008 at 12:17 pm

I deleted everything on my MySpace profile long ago (except for the picture of me standing next to a bust of Darwin). I only keep it because it's the only way to keep in touch with some old friends from middle school.

I find it absurd that accounts and groups are getting deleted because theists find atheism offensive. What? Is it a thoughtcrime now? If they find what other people believe (or don't believe) offensive, they need to get over it. If they find people getting together because of a shared lack of belief offensive, then they don't need to join said group.

Other Comments by Elles

30. Comment #118154 by konquererz on January 30, 2008 at 12:26 pm

This is bullshit and flat out discrimination! I'm deleting my myspace account. They can kiss my ass!

Other Comments by konquererz

31. Comment #118156 by Slyer on January 30, 2008 at 12:27 pm

The thing they have to understand is that they do not have the right to not be offended.
I'm offended by their stupidity, will they take down the Christian pages now?

Other Comments by Slyer

32. Comment #118158 by Goldy on January 30, 2008 at 12:29 pm

MySpace...hmmm, never done that. Got a Facebook thingy becasue students sent me invitations to join - useful for putting pictures on I guess as some want to follow my daughter's progress (Chinese love being aunties :-)).
I'm sure this is a sueable offence - after all, as Elles said, it's thoughtcrime. But, given the dirty Digger's reputation (he loves China and the CCP, doesn't he) and the US' infatuation with religion, especially God, it's one of the things athiests'll have to put up with. And it never did Christianity any harm...

Other Comments by Goldy

33. Comment #118166 by drcancerman on January 30, 2008 at 12:38 pm

I find it absurd that accounts and groups are getting deleted because theists find atheism offensive. What? Is it a thoughtcrime now? If they find what other people believe (or don't believe) offensive, they need to get over it. If they find people getting together because of a shared lack of belief offensive, then they don't need to join said group.

Well, to tell you the truth, for them ...yes it is! That is the answer I got from christians zealots who deleted my communities in orkut about atheism... And then later on, they started to threaten my life...then I had a few cops saying "I'll get you no matter what! You atheist bastard" (dirty cops...but if a new law goes through in Brazil, then it will be a crime to blaspheme jesus/mohammed and criticize religion)

That is why I left orkut, and one responsible for the discrimination is a national organization called safernet, which is a biased christian organization.

Thankfully I'm not in Brazil...and I don't want to return to my own homeland EVER again... being back stabbed is not my idea of freedom

Other Comments by drcancerman

34. Comment #118182 by bad_andy on January 30, 2008 at 12:57 pm

I'm honestly considering dumping my MySpace account over this. My personal dilemma is that as a musician it's an easy way to promote myself or post new songs. But after a stunt like this I'm not sure how comfortable I am sending even my tiny bit of traffic to their ad servers. This is just pathetic.

Other Comments by bad_andy

35. Comment #118186 by Steve Zara on January 30, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Facebook you D-bags.

I am on facebook, but only because last year a friend wanted to show me some pictures, and I needed to sign on to see them. I have yet to find any actual use for facebook. If I want to chat to people, I use IRC or Skype. If I want to write about something, I blog.

If anyone can tell me what Facebook is actually for, I would be grateful!

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36. Comment #118187 by peahix on January 30, 2008 at 1:04 pm

my "scarlet A" is still on my myspace page... i wonder if it would help for me to put "atheist" in the "religion" field? i've always left it blank because, for me, atheism is NOT a religion. if they had an option for "none," i would put that.

edit: i suggest to NOT delete your myspace account, and instead send this story as a bulletin to all your myspace contacts. hopefully the word will get buzzing around myspace very quickly.

Other Comments by peahix

37. Comment #118193 by annabanana on January 30, 2008 at 1:09 pm

Steve, you are needed immediately in the "'Irrational Atheist' trounces god-deniers" thread. Your existence is in question.

Other Comments by annabanana

38. Comment #118220 by Prankster on January 30, 2008 at 1:40 pm

Unbeleivable.......your account gets deleted on the grounds of Atheism?

Isn't this persecution?

Fuck 'em I've no use for these social network sites such as myspace and facebook myself-I've got real friends, an e-mail facility and a telephone if I want to arrange to meet or talk to somebody

Hypocritical shower of bastards....

Other Comments by Prankster

39. Comment #118229 by LordSummerisle on January 30, 2008 at 1:47 pm

Well, I've had the big red "A" in my Facebook account for months now and I haven't heard any complaints, I belong to several atheist groups (all going strong), I've marked my religion spot as Atheist from Day One, and I have quotes from both Dawkins and Hitchens on my profile. No complaints of problems so far.

I've considered joining MySpace for some time now, but in light of this, I think I'll pass.

Mind you, the iThink application on Facebook is a veritable playgroud for theists and theist appeasers.

Other Comments by LordSummerisle

40. Comment #118246 by SpecterOpacus on January 30, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Er, referring to: http://newhumanist.org.uk/1720

Those 8 states that say you must believe in a supreme being in order to run for candidacy are actually not valid. The Constitution invalidates those laws due to the 1st amendment.

Other Comments by SpecterOpacus

41. Comment #118248 by Steinsky on January 30, 2008 at 2:04 pm

I deleted my account. I hardly needed this new excuse to, and it was the first time I had logged in for a year.

To those who think that deleting your account is the wrong approach: myspace is still just about the largest such networking site in the world. But its market share has fallen from nearly everything, to around half. The more users it has, the more musicians and other content it attracts, the more page imprints it gets, and the more advertising revenue it gets. My approach is to delete my account, and tell all the musicians and other content providers that I think would be sympathetic. They can't ignore a fall in content and visitors.

Other Comments by Steinsky

42. Comment #118250 by Alter_GX on January 30, 2008 at 2:05 pm

Let's see Rupert Murdoch own Myspace and Fox news. Draw your own conclusions

Other Comments by Alter_GX

43. Comment #118287 by bad_andy on January 30, 2008 at 3:00 pm

Urge to delete MySpace account rising... rising... According to Wired we're not the only ones:

Fed Up With MySpace? Join the Club and Delete Your Account
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/01/fed-up-with-mys.html

Apparently Jan 30th is now international Delete Your MySpace Account Day.

Other Comments by bad_andy

44. Comment #118289 by Dorion on January 30, 2008 at 3:03 pm

I've always found myspace to be pretty gross, but a few friends of mine are very active there, and if I ever want to know what's going on, I have to login. However, just a few minutes ago I changed my profile headline to read "Hello, myspace.com? I AM AN ATHEIST." I am not going to do their work for them and delete myself. Now, if they take action against me, I'll have a very good reason to put genuine effort at getting those friends of mine to migrate elsewhere.

Other Comments by Dorion

45. Comment #118318 by rustylix on January 30, 2008 at 3:36 pm

Deleting our accounts isn't going to do any good; in fact, that's exactly what those bastards want us to do. Send e-mails to Myspace instead. Even better, send e-mails to various media to make them aware of this.

During the account cancellation process there was a comment box where I calmly stated I was removing my account in protest to religious discrimination of the aforementioned group. And like someone else said

I deleted my account. I hardly needed this new excuse to, and it was the first time I had logged in for a year.

Other Comments by rustylix

46. Comment #118343 by Gymnopedie on January 30, 2008 at 3:50 pm

MySpace is for people who haven't left the mindset of a 4th grader. The only good thing about it is the networking offered for bands, but I think even that is becoming a bit obsolete as more websites offer a means of low-cost advertisement and networking.

Facebook isn't really all that much better being as they do extensive advertising for Christian groups. I assume they give them a huge financial break because the massive amount of advertisement they have done has got to be well over 5000 dollars in costs. But yet again, Christian groups have the money, so who knows.

It's all about marketing, anyway. If discrimination lands them cash and no legal troubles, then why wouldn't they as long as they don't care about anything but the money? This whole scandal just shows the owner is a money hungry disgusting amoral pig. What a surprise...

Other Comments by Gymnopedie

47. Comment #118380 by Russell's Teapot on January 30, 2008 at 4:15 pm

Do we really want atheism associated with MySpace? It's owned by Rupert Mur-dick and the whole point seems to be to have a website that will let you relive the days of crappy HTML websites and garish web styling.

By the way, anyone that has an account on Digg- digg this article!

Other Comments by Russell's Teapot

48. Comment #118386 by ScareCrow on January 30, 2008 at 4:19 pm

um the Norwegian Humanists is the largest humanist organization with 80,000 members.

Other Comments by ScareCrow

49. Comment #118396 by SPS on January 30, 2008 at 4:25 pm

This is not at all surprising. MySpace.com is owned by News Corp, headed by founder, and ultra-conservative, Rupert Murdoch. The same company owns Fox News and now the Wall Street Journal, among many many other companies and media outlets. This company also owns beliefnet.com. According to Wikipedia: The "Largest online faith and spirituality network."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation

Other Comments by SPS

50. Comment #118468 by notsobad on January 30, 2008 at 5:19 pm

Vote with your wallets and move elsewhere.

This is a good example to be used when some apologist starts that one about love and tolerance promoted by religions.

Other Comments by notsobad