From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: WHY ARS IS SO NOISY Date: 18 Jul 1997 16:21:41 +0200 Organization: Replay and Company UnLimited Lines: 90 Message-ID: <5qnu5l$t7@basement.replay.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: basement.replay.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-XS4ALL-Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 16:21:45 MET DST X-001: Replay may or may not approve of the content of this posting X-002: Report misuse of this automated service to X-URL: http://www.replay.com/remailer/ Maybe this message will be useful for the various alt.religion.scientology FAQs. Newcomers to this newsgroup will notice a great deal of noise, flames, and off-topic posts in addition to the valuable material about Scientology revealed here. It may be frustrating, or even close to impossible, to navigate through this newsgroup at times, and newcomers may wonder what all the fuss is about before finally giving up in frustration. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT SCIENTOLOGY WANTS. Newcomers should be aware that this newsgroup has been under constant attack since late 1994 to early 1995. Scientology is atttempting ANYTHING and EVERYTHING possible to make it difficult for YOU to read this newsgroup. Much of the noise on this newsgroup can be summed up as follows: 1) Scientology is using throwaway Internet accounts especially for the purpose of spreading noise and confusion here. Read this newsgroup and you will quickly come to recognize the Scientology "trolls" planted here. They are the ones who refuse to participate in important threads such as the ones about Lisa McPherson, Grady Ward's deposition of David Miscavige, Zenon Panoussis' case, and much more. These trolls will gladly talk about the critics here, using language designed to provoke flame wars. For instance, a Scientology troll will post messages like this: "This newsgroup is so boring, you're wasting your time." "I am seeking information about This Critic's crimes!" "You people need to get a life!" THE PURPOSE OF THESE TROLLS IS TO DRAW ATTENTION AWAY FROM THE TRUE DISCUSSIONS ABOUT SCIENTOLOGY. This is why a thread about Lisa McPherson may die out quickly, for instance, while the trolls will gladly keep a thread like "Grady Ward's Sex Life" alive for months, posting more and more messages there DELIBERATELY intended to provoke more flames. It has been proven in court that Scientology is deliberately and actively assigning people to spread noise on this newsgroup. Ask about Grady Ward and "Vera Wallace," for instance. 2) There are several prominent former members of Scientology involved with many of the most vicious and hateful flame wars here. This has happened more than once: A former member of Scientology appears here and is greeted with cheers...but he then turns out to be vindictive and spiteful, and finds himself on the receiving end of many emotional, outraged messages. Here is a theory: Scientology's effect on a person's stability can be so strong that leaving the organization is a traumatic shock. The person who "blows" is often shaken, fragile, and nervous. When he joins alt.religion.scientology and participates in the threads here, he is quickly exposed to the full brunt of Scientology attacks from the Scientology trolls here, who post messages trying to enrage him. Because this person is so fragile, he easily falls for this bait and his postings soon lose whatever value they might have. The former member lashes out at everyone in sight, uncertain who is a Scientology troll and who is not, and he quickly alienates himself from the other members of the newsgroup. Once again, the Scientology trolls deliberately foster this behavior. When it looks like a flame war is dying down, a troll will post messages designed to start it up again, such as: "I don't believe you, you're lying about your 'traumatic' experiences! You've never said a word of truth in your life!" "You're just a filthy lying sack of garbage, you slime!" And the former members easily fall for it once again, generating yet another series of flame wars. ONCE AGAIN, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT SCIENTOLOGY WANTS. 3) Likewise, the critics here will also become bogged down in useless arguments, which may also develop into more flame wars. After over two and a half years of constant warfare, this newsgroup has naturally caused some of the participants to experience "battle fatigue." They are sick of the flames and the noise, yet they still participate in them out of habit. These people also sometimes say that this newsgroup "used to be" a great conduit for information about Scientology, with important documents being posted every other day. These people sometimes forget that the World Wide Web has now become the premier method for making documents available, because the documents are always there on a Web page. They don't need to be posted and re-posted...but nevertheless, new information is STILL appearing here. The Scientology trolls are doing everything possible to make this information difficult to find and easy to overlook.