Wow, eMusic, you’re really not getting it!
According to this comment, eMusic is now censoring the comments in the epic thread following their blog post I wrote about here. Logn story short, there was a movement afoot in the comments to stage an online protest on Twitter using the hashmarked thread name “#emusicfail”. For those not on twitter, this would make all tweets using that name searchable, essentially linking them all together in (another) massive thread of comments.
Well, eMusic, after claiming the high ground of letting users speak their mind and saying “We read all of your comments”, deleted basically every comment that mentioned the Twitter protest. This threw off the total comment count, re-sorted all the comments so that references to a specific comment number now referenced someone else causing mass confusion, and then they handled the deletions ineptly enough that they got caught, which is the highest crime of censorship!
Shame on you, eMusic.
//UPDATE: Cathy Nevins from eMusic stopped by and dropped a comment to this post. Here’s an excerpt and you can read the full comment in the comments section!
Our Managing Editor Joe Keyes says “Absolutely not, that is not something we would do. We are letting through all comments, positive or negative.” He did note that there is occasionally problems with our CAPTCHA process which may lead to delays in comments going up, and one of our customer service directors mentioned that there is sometimes a problem with caching on browsers that will cause people not to see some posts (sorry I can’t be specific about this but I am not a tech person). Joe also told me that we have no ability to re-number posts – it is technologically impossible.
//UPDATE 2: Great post on the whole situation from the former GM at eMusic here at social-cache.com.
Comments (9)In Response to the Dr. Tiller Post
Well, it’s clear that people are reading, and I’m pleased about that. I got a great response from a very smart lady, and I should know, ’cause she’s my mom! Great lady.
Anyway, here’s her response to the previous Dr. Tiller post (I hope she doesn’t mind my posting it!):
You are right that the church is not what it should be. It is full of painfully human people who, many times, are seeking their own agenda rather than the one set for us by the Lord. The things that are done in His name are sometimes horrific. All through history you can find examples of man’s attempt to convince others of the righteousness of their position by the most anti-Christian behavior. But, we do not have the corner on that market. You have given a wonderful example of someone who has actually lived their beliefs before someone else who was desperately seeking. This does happen. There are many examples of that in the Christian church, and yes, even within the Southern Baptist denomination. Please do not allow your very appropriate revulsion at the action of this person / group who was responsible for shooting Dr. Tiller to fire your strong leaning toward cynicism – especially toward the church.
There is no place for this behavior in the Christian life – most of the people in our (and by “our” I mean Southern Baptist mainstream) churches would agree with you completely. Until we are all completely devoted to Him and living each day in obedience to Him, there will be aberrant groups who do really stupid, and sometimes criminal, things. We must stand against that as much as we stand against the actions of Dr. Tiller. The way we stand against it can be as much a harm to the Church and to our own faith as the actions of these killers if we aren’t careful to keep it in the light of His word and His teaching.
This is a great reminder to me personally, because I’m very often hard on my brethren (while openly acknowledging my own sinfulness). Here’s part of my response to her email.
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New bin Laden Tape Released, Called “Ludicrous”
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden released a new audio tape which received wide news coverage. The tape blames the US for the violence in the region and threatens continued violence if America insists on supporting Israel among other things. The tape is believed to be several weeks old, which is understandable since bin Laden is believed to either be at the end of a long road that literally just ends in the mountains of Pakistan, or at the end of a long road that literally just ends in the mountains of Pakistan.
While bin Laden is just continuing the same type of rhetoric he has for years, it seems to me that his power of conversion is waning. Yes, he’s still recruiting fighters; yes, there are still battles going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, but to assume that he’s leading these battles in any meaningful way doesn’t make sense. Further, the fact that he’s sitting back in a cave complex has to be hurting his freedom fighter image that he earned leading troops against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and then against the world in Sudan and later in Afghanistan again pre-9/11.
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The Murder of Dr. Tiller and a Convert to Islam
I’ve got a great sadness in my heart for what the Christian Church has become. There are so many signs of degradation starting at the very top of the leadership and flowing (trickle is exactly the wrong word) down to the grass roots. I was raised a Southern Baptist and there are few denominations that equal the SBC in its capacity for besmirching the name of Jesus Christ. That’s for future posts, though.
The murder of Dr. Tiller, the abortion doctor in Wichita, KS, has provide great fodder for those that are looking for any reason to distract or demean the message of love and forgiveness of Christ. And why not? The man was shot and killed in the lobby of his church. The lobby of his church.
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