Time magazine’s reader poll to determine the 100 most “influential” people in the world has closed, and the results are in! Unfortunately, (for Time and Scientology) the results were rigged.
The most influential person in the world, as voted upon by millions of readers, is named “moot.” Moot is the founder of 4chan, a computer hacker and anarchist”s collective.
The first letters of the top 21 vote-getters spell out, “MARBLECAKE ALSO THE GAME,” and this is where Scientology comes in.
In 2008, the Church of Scientology successfully removed from YouTube a video of Tom Cruise speaking about church doctrines. In response, some hackers formed a group named “Anonymous” and made it their mission to expose Scientology’s shady practices and unusual beliefs, both online and through protests. One of their first acts was the posting at various sites of a video called, “A Message to Scientology.”
According to the Urban Dictionary (and trust me on this, because there are other definitions of the term there), “marblecake” refers to a sub-group within Anonymous (which is itself associated with 4chan) that cooked up the first video message to Scientology and the first three themes for the protests.
“Also, the game” is a common way of “signing off” on 4chan boards. It refers to this game, the rules of which are simple: if you think of “the game,” you lose. If anyone mentions “the game,” you lose. You cannot win “the game.”
So, what’s the message Marblecake/Anonymous/4chan is sending via Time’s poll? I think it’s a message to the Church of Scientology (which has filed suits against every member of these groups it can identify) that they aren’t going away, and furthermore, that Scientology is for losers.
And since my full name is available on this website, I feel I must strenuously denounce these vandals.
h/t Freakonomics
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“What I was working on while Rufus was fooling around”….. You actually have a tag category for this?
If this story from Freakonomics is all true, what a complete hoot!
“You actually have a tag category for this?”
Now I do.
It was not Freakonomics story. They only commented on the results! I put it all together and served it to you on a plate, in about 45 minutes!
You’re welcome!
–Mike!
Too harsh?
Naw.
I wonder who gets laid less; hackers or George Murtha?
Does George wear a foil hat?
Good reporting Mr. Kriskey!
Thank you, Kit.
It’s nice to be appreciated by somebody.
You’re welcome.
I actually said that first. I just forgot to post the comment. Sorry, Mike. I was busy being dazzled by the brilliance of Mr. Firefly!
Is it just me, or do these anti-Scientology types really think that the best way to gain public support in their crusade to expose a creepy cult is to act exactly like that creepy cult?
Could we just lock ‘em all in the Superdome without any food but lots of weapons and ammo for a couple of months and see who gets out alive? (And maybe broadcast it all on pay-per-view…)
Works for me, Raoul.
Had a battle with a hacker at a Web site I worked at about 10 years ago. We were cranking in nearly 20,000 uniques a day until the jerk crashed us for about week. The site, which I quit contributing to once I got into the newspaper business, has never recovered that mark to this day, which tells you the damage they do. Cost me a potential full time job.
Ticked, I called the guy out by name on the site’s main page. Hundreds of hackers e-mailed protesting, saying I was in for it and was asking for trouble. Hackers really hate it when you don’t bend over and take it.
My pronouncement got the attention of the FBI, who started monitoring our ISP, at their request, and caught the guy trying to get back in. Ended up being a 15-year-old punk who the FBI was chasing for breaking into several military and government sites. He was banned from computers except on school premises and had a couple months worth of probation to work off.
Boy, did I enjoy reporting that one.
“Hackers really hate it when you don’t bend over and take it.”
Just like schoolyard bullies.
While I’m sure that these guys are hackers, maybe I should have chosen a different word for this story.
They didn’t break into Time’s website, or damage anything in any way. They discovered that you could vote as often as you pleased and set up automatic routines to rig the vote.
If this were anything of any kind of importance (like the All-Star game) I’d be pissed, but since it’s just a Time poll I don’t see the harm.
Yeah, big difference in rigging a Time poll (which is sport anymore on the web) and doing YouTube videos versus actual cyber crime.
That said, 4chan is slow mix of either scaring the living hell out of me or cracking me up beyond belief.
I don’t know much about 4chan. I took a quick look around and wasn’t sure what I was seeing! I described them as hacker/anarchists, because that seems about right. But there’s a sense of humor there too, which surprised me.
But 4chan is not for the faint of heart. I’ve seen things…
Oh, there’s a ton of humor. My brother reads the site constantly. One of the more hilarious things they sent was a prank – everyone on the board called their local GameStop and asked for the old Nintendo game “Battle Toads.” That was harmless fun, can’t attest to what else happens there.
John–
Totally unrelated, but may be of interest to you:
http://gawker.com/5284348/boston-globe-rejects-bad-cutbacks-in-favor-of-worse-cutbacks
What’s weird is how they slipped this one in:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894410_1893837_1894180,00.html
I can’t tell what’s real and what’s not over at Time.
So what else is new?
Definitely have a love/hate relationship with hackers. They are almost always willing to go after targets that deserve that one else touches. But the damage they do is unforgivable. They are another symptom of the powerful narcissism that infects our society and happily abuse the goodwill of others.
Thats actually John Murtha…not George. The name George gets abused too much.
Stephanie, the name “George” can’t be abused enough. Honestly, who names their kid, “George?” Georges grow up to be goofs. Personally, I can’t stand Georges.
You’re correct Stephanie. My bad for following Brandon’s lead and getting derailed. Most Georges I’ve known do sit in front of their laptops wearing foil hats, though.
Boy, you said it, Fritz! I can’t think of a single George who is worth a darn. Something about that name just dooms its holder to failure. C-Looney is par for the course. We ought to exile all the Georges to an island so they are no longer a bane to humanity. That includes Jorges.