Scientology - new comments to the ads

This is a continuation of the Thread www.abovetopsecret.com... (“Scientology ad”) which was prematurely closed by someone (order from Scientology?) the same day it was started! Which moderator did that without giving me another chance for a comment or a follow up? Is – maybe – one of them a Scientologist? I doubt that, it was just a silly conspir…, I mean: thought…

I use the Add-On NoScript in Firefox 3.5.1. When I here in Slovenia start the above page, first nothing appears that has to do with Scientology. I then allow (so far) only AboveTopSecret in NoScript, and then the following ad immediately appears on top:

“What is Scientology?
Love. Hate. What is the Answer? Scientology. View Online Videos.
Scientology.org”

It was suggested on the above page, that Google would put these ads in. But so far that should have nothing to do with Google! I have at this point allowed neither GoogleAdServices nor GoogleAnalytics in NoScript.

When I click on to www.abovetopsecret.com... (see my first contribution on the above page), another ad text appears:

“Spirituality
Learn about the spiritual answers to life's most difficult questions.
Scientology.org”

When I open this page via a proxy that makes it seem that I open it from another country, these ads DO NOT APPEAR!

That was yesterday evening. This morning – strangely enough – the ad doesn’t appear at all in Firefox, but it does in Opera! What is going on here? I someone playing hide and seek with these ads?

My screen-dumps are already linked to by Gemwolf on the above page, so that I don’t need to repeat them here. The one dump shows the starting screen of the promotional video and the other the last screen, clearly announcing “Scientology”. Right now, however, I don’t see this video again, but only the ad texts quoted above, with links to click. If I would click a link, the video would probably come. Before, however, it appeared by itself without clicking a link, as shown in the screen dump. Has someone already taken a bit of action here?

It seems unlikely that these ads are generated by Google … It rather looks like someone at ATS has accepted these ads or that they have been hacked in by Scientology!

One thing is to choose to discuss Scientology, and that is what we are doing here now. Another is to present promotional ads and videos about it! And much another thing is to make them appear to persons in certain countries only, and in countries in which the population is by far not as much aware of the dangers of Scientology as it is in Western countries. Since it does appear in Slovenia, I presume that it appears also in other ex-communist European countries as well, which are countries in which 1. Scientology is new to most people, 2. its dangers are quite unknown to them and 3. Scientology will want to expand to.

This is truly sneaky and a danger to persons who are unaware of what they are shown …

Other remarkable threads in this context are www.abovetopsecret.com... and www.abovetopsecret.com... The first one is closed with only one page but the second one is still open.

Again: WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? And: HOW COME THAT ATS DID LET THESE ADS IN? They should have been banned!


[edit on 8-8-2009 by memyself]

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Originally posted by memyself
Again: WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? And: HOW COME THAT ATS DID LET THESE ADS IN? They should have been banned!
[edit on 8-8-2009 by memyself]

This has been bought up a number of times. ATS does not condone condones scientology, i dont think that the owners have any control of what the ads are advertising

reply to post by OzWeatherman


OK, but there certainly are some highly suspicious things in this!
As I wrote ...

And they probably haven't been observed before! Especially that it makes a difference from which country you log in! To others, these ads are hidden ...


[edit on 8-8-2009 by memyself]

I certainly understand ATS's commercial structure, so it was no surprise to me that an ad for scientology came up via google.

While I respect ALL the admins here at ATS, I can't believe they closed the original thread. Isn't that what ATS is all about? If people think its a conspiracy, than so be it. Debate away. Mods can chime in with the real reason why the ads came to be, but to lock it was a little eye opening.

Just my two cents. . . .

I closed the thread because in a single beat the thread turned into a discussion about Scientology. If you want to discuss Scientology - this isn't the subforum for it.

This is Board Business and Questions - i.e. issues about ATS.

The way ads (including the scientology ad) are generated on ATS was explained.

It was explained that ATS has NO affiliation whatsoever with Scientology. Never have. Never will.

To accuse me of being a member of Scientology - just because I did my job as Moderator is immature and groundless. If I - or any other staff member - had something to hide, we would've deleted the thread, not close it and simply leave it there.

I see no reason why another thread should have been opened on the same issue. The ad issue was addressed. A link was given for a thread where you can report unwanted ads. I see no reason for this thread other than to make baseless accusations against ATS.

If you want to make accusations against ATS, do it here.

If you want to report unwanted ads. Do it here.

reply to post by Gemwolf


Well, we are not actually discussing Scientology per se here, but how it could happen that ATS carries promotions for it to certain countries.

This is still puzzling and, as I observed and described, it seems unlikely to me that it came in from Google ... (see above). So I presume that there will be another explanation.

I don't accuse ATS but raised a discussion that seems to be unwanted (maybe embarrassing) ...

And I don't accuse anyone in ATS of being a scientologist, sorry if that was misunderstood, it was (as I wrote) just a silly thought that wasn't seriously meant.

And since my original thread was closed just like that, and since I had some more puzzling observations to report, I simply had to start a second thread to report them.

OK.

If you have an ATS issue, then as previously advised, raise it in the ATS Issues thread

If you have a personal beef about Scientology then the Conspiracies in Religion forum might just be the place for you.

Now last time I checked Scientology wasn't a banned cult, or banned religion. And whether you consider their motives to be questionable or not, the fact that they put adverts on the internet is nothing to do with ATS. The fact that they make adverts that display on the advert feeds that ATS uses is, again, nothing to do with ATS

Yes, SO can and will remove the ad if it breaks the sites terms and conditions, or if it is particularly annoying and causes disturbance to the membership. If you want to register your protest on it, then - as previously mentioned, raise it on Skeptic Overlords AD hitlist

I hope thats clear now. Any more threads on this subject will be closed.

Thread closed.