31–40 of 261 posts
UPDATE: Mat Mullen, Disqus employee got a comment past the moderator (maybe he knows someone): This is the weirdest thing I've ever read on the Atlantic. You're actually letting the Church of Scientology sponsor content on your website?
if you go watch the 'upvote' count on his comment, it is flickering rapidly, up two, down one, up one, down two - fascinating.
UPDATE: Mat Mullen, Disqus employee got a comment past the moderator (maybe he knows someone): This is the weirdest thing I've ever read on the Atlantic. You're actually letting the Church of Scientology sponsor content on your website?
if you go watch the 'upvote' count on his comment, it is flickering rapidly, up two, down one, up one, down two - fascinating.
So they're essentially letting Scientology use The Atlantic's "brand" to trick people into reading this? (Yes, I know it says Sponsored Post) This, on top of http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4108929 and http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/06/13/reddit-... makes me pretty weary of trusting anything I read on TheAtlantic ever again
Edit: fixed typo
I understand that this is "sponsoderd content" AKA an ad. I have seen "sponsored pages" in newspapers for many years about a lot of crap, is there a reason to consider this one worse than the average? (Yes, scientology is evil but they are not forbidden from making ads I reckon?) edit: the "sponsored" bit is right on top of the page, as it is in dead-tree-form newspapers too.
In this case, I can't imagine any outcome except for significant brand damage to The Atlantic. They had better have been cut an absolutely toe-curlingly-large check, because I expect they're going to pay for this in credibility loss pretty heavily.
A sample of moderator approved comments: Seems like David Miscavige and Scientology are on a roll. Also it appears the media have been missing the real story. I hadn't realized there were so many new churches opened this past year. Great report!
Finally the true story of scientology is being told!
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5055604
And frankly, I think it's high time to kick them the fuck out of Berlin, at the very least. We tried radiating the cancer; it's time to reach for the scalpel.
UPDATE: Mat Mullen, Disqus employee got a comment past the moderator (maybe he knows someone): This is the weirdest thing I've ever read on the Atlantic. You're actually letting the Church of Scientology sponsor content on your website?
if you go watch the 'upvote' count on his comment, it is flickering rapidly, up two, down one, up one, down two - fascinating.
UPDATE: Mat Mullen, Disqus employee got a comment past the moderator (maybe he knows someone): This is the weirdest thing I've ever read on the Atlantic. You're actually letting the Church of Scientology sponsor content on your website?
if you go watch the 'upvote' count on his comment, it is flickering rapidly, up two, down one, up one, down two - fascinating.
Edit: This seems to be a UI issue. After reloading his comment is sitting at only 1 upvote.
There is going to be a lesson here over the next few days about how some advertising decisions can ruin a brand.