Another branch of Deep Rifts, this time nothing whatever to do with me (hooray!).
The story, as concisely as possible: before the Freedom From Religion Foundation had a Facebook page, someone set up a group called Freedom From Religion Foundation as a place for fans of FFRF to hang out. It apparently became rather…contentious as time went on, and meanwhile FFRF got itself a Facebook page. On Friday the publicist for FFRF posted there.
My name is Lauryn and I’m the publicist for the FFRF. Eric and other admin have been kind enough to agree to shut down this group by June 30 and start a new group. The reason for this is because our pages have been commonly confused.
We know this is disappointing and we apologize for the inconvenience. However, as an organization we had no choice. Eric’s group although known as “Friends of FFRF,” is actually known as and officially registered as “FFRF”. They cannot change the name based on the size of members. It was was created before an official FFRF page existed. Because FFRF is our official name, we must keep full control of all domains including just that name.
As you’ve mentioned, people forget about the pages they “like” and check them less frequently than groups. However, at our FFRF page you can find official press releases, updated news and photos from inside the FFRF etc. Our page is moderated by staff and volunteers to prevent an …overwhelming amount of proselytizing from trolls.
The good news is that Eric is creating a new “Friends of FFRF” group. We urge you to join the new group created by these folks. We would also appreciate if you follow our official page at https://www.facebook.com/4ffrf. Thanks so much for your support!!
All good. But guess what – it’s being spun as politicalcorrectnessgonemad and ftbulliesplusshuttingeveryoneup. “MosesZD” spins it that way on Michael Nugent’s post about the attempt to get me kicked out of the Dublin conference:
This link: http://tinyurl.com/qfnohg7 was to a friends of the FFRF group – a FB page for friends of the group but is not officially representative of them.
It was shut down by A+. Maiforpeace, The Lousy Cannuk and others who waged a false-flagging campaign.
Now do you see what we’re up against? Now do you see the problem? Or is it going to be more of the golden mean fallacy as A+ strives to destroy skepticism and atheism with their intolerance of others and desire to inflict their ideas of ideological purity on others.
Not true. Just made up, out of whole cloth. Jason once argued with some people on one thread there, and that’s it – the sum total of his involvement with that group.
We’re like the Freemasons, right? We have a secret hand in everything. We are hidden and dangerous. Be afraid.
It appears Moses ZD’s little brain is unable to navigate from FRFF to friends of FRFF. Poor Moses. Will the burdens for him never end?
Had some deranged anti-A+ person on Twitter come out with about every accusation you could think of, A+ people attacked her, bullied her, called her “fucking bitch”, attacked her friend, got her favourite podcast shut down… I hate to think how far it would have gone if blocking hadn’t stopped the tirade. Suffice to say the allegations were completely false, *one* random person on Twitter had a go at her who was not even A+! They didn’t say they were A+… This person just sort of assumed I assume… I also asked the podcast Tweeps and they said A+ had nothing to do with them shutting down either. So pretty much everything was made up. But this person seems to sincerely believe it all so cannot call it lies in that sense.
Such a weird conspiracy theory or reds under the bed mindset, I just don’t get it as its totally irrational. Every time you ask these people to back up their accusations they cannot and when challenged they block/rant etc but carry on believing they are right.
Seriously?
That reminds me of the “chemtrail” people.
“I have no evidence at all and that’s all the evidence I need!”
Creeeeeepy.
A+ can get forums shut down now?
It’s a bit like that joke where the Jewish guy reads the anti-Semitic newspaper. It’s nice to find out that we have so much power.
Didn’t you know? A+ sunk the Titanic and caused WWI.
I know everyone single one of you here is shocked to know that this story originated in the slime pit. So they’re just using Mick’s blog as an extension of place.
oolon@2: Wasn’t much of a go at that. Just a l’il snark before the block. Or am I thinking of another deranged twitter anti-A+ freakout?
The full story is long, and I’m working on a post now. The short version of the story is, because Mai was the one who asked the real FFRF about Vacula, and linked back to the Friends-Of-FFRF group, suddenly that means FFRF learned about their existence and that makes Mai a snitch. The fact that the FFRF decided to ask the guy who started it to take it down because it was originally registered in their name without their consent, that’s all coincidental.
I’m only involved because I saw that thread come up in my Facebook reader at one point, because I’m friends with Mai, and Facebook timelines are magic. I wasn’t a member of the group or anything, I just saw Mai’s post. And I commented. And antifeminists trolled it, and I fought with them a little. Then suddenly I’m involved with a false flag free-speech-silencing effort. Because that’s how mythologies work.
Gah. I forgot to click the “notify me of follow-ups” button.
Hey Ophelia, remind me to ask you to change it so you have the “subscribe without commenting” thing because that’s super convenient when I forget like this.
Wait… what?
Jason, link to that post when you write it.
I’m trying to parse this, and I can’t. Is FTB/A+ the new Illuminati or something?
Done and done, Nate.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2013/06/09/splitting-the-difference-between-reality-and-mythology/
Seriously. We have our own group of part-WBC, part-Bilderbergers.
What? This sort of thing happens all the time every time a new place to grab up namespaces comes out.
Give it time.
I honestly didn’t know that this was going to be… big. Or even news. It is simply FFRF policy to, you know, keep our name trademarked. Haha. But thanks for covering this 🙂
Lauryn
(Publicist for FFRF)
Lauryn – of course you didn’t. The strangest things become news! It’s impossible to predict.
And you’re very welcome. I would have made a big point of Liking the FFRF page, but I’d already Liked it long ago, so I couldn’t. 😛