MySpace Censors the Psychedelic Salon

[Lorenzo]

For reasons that MySpace refuses to share with us, they have deleted the Psychedelic Salon's account. Apparently, they don't think people should be exposed to such radical (in their opinion) ideas.

Rather than ask people to help rebuild the page, I'm of the opinion that we should just ignore MySpace as simply one more branch of the screwheads who want to control your mind.

[VictoriaPandora]

:( I hadn't even seen the page yet...but you are right Lorenzo. MySpace isn't as special as they think they are. I don't use MySpace at all and I am sure there are lots of other places you could have a page if you wanted.
But by the same token, that really burns me up... is there something is their TOS that says they can just delete all your work without notice?

[Son of Gonzo]

Man that sucks. Its funny actually, a guy I met (an Australian psychedelic luminary) named Neil got his page deleted (It was for his band, "Pagan Love Cult"). I haven't spoken to him about it yet, but I'd imagine its around the same "reasoning" behind your banning...

[dopefiend]

But by the same token, that really burns me up... is there something is their TOS that says they can just delete all your work without notice?

Worse than that, they can call the feds on you (and have done several times) if you talk about drug use or post pictures of drug use, and if you're a musician who uploads their songs to myspace, they can publish your music and sell it without having to give you a cent!

I stayed away from myspace for years before setting up a token presence (myspace.com/dopecast) but I'm for deleting that page myself in protest!

[max_freakout]

I never trusted myspace, never got an account there, plenty of other places to spread the word on the internet :rolleyes:

[The Salvia Kid]

Deleting my page now and e-mailing my whole address book to request others to do the same.

[Xochipilli2012]

Hi Guys....

Given what's on my own profile in MySpace (cubensis mushrooms as a background on the contact panel, huge psilocybin molecule graphic as the background, references to psychedelics within the profile text itself, and a link to the MatrixMasters Salon page at the very top of my info) it seems weird that they would single out the Salon for deletion. The existence of pages like Magic Mushrooms (http://www.myspace.com/theshroomery), Divine Moments of Truth (http://www.myspace.com/divinemomentsoftruth_), Immaculate Reality (http://www.myspace.com/immaculate_reality), Turning Quantum Wrenches (http://www.myspace.com/cannacybin), etc. also begs this question.

Also, the Salon still appears in my Top Friends list. As I wrote in a related thread yesterday, deleted profiles typically disappear from your friends list. Perhaps it behaves different if MySpace deletes the account as opposed to the owner/user of it, which is how I've experienced this.

When I go to the Salon page, I get an "unexpected error" message--not the standard "page unavailable/deleted" message. Are you guys--the ones with the password and access to the account seeing something differently?

Has anyone seen a message that explicitly states "Account Deleted?"

If not, is it possible that some code tweak during editing might have messed up the page and made it un-renderable?

I'm sorry to be a stick in the mud here, and I'm certainly not defending Rupert Murdoch/NewsCorp's baby. I know the risks, etc. But in terms of exposure, MySpace is HUGE. And...The Stone Zone Show (http://www.myspace.com/stonezonepodcast)--which is only promotes (as far as I can tell) "illegal activity"--it doesn't even get into legalization or medical use, still has a page up. They have a "paid-for" MySpace Music account, and refer to it as "comedy," but in terms of illicit content, is no less than the Salon. Maybe you guys could redo the site as a "Music" site (where you could stream the shows) if it is not prohibitively expensive. Additionally, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of other sites "promoting illicit activity" that remain on MySpace--so if the Salon page has been "singled out" it is a very spooky thing.


However, from where I'm sitting (given what info is available to me), the evidence of the page being "deleted' is far from conclusive.

Could one of the account managers please confirm that they have actually seen something that says "deleted" on it?



Thanks!

[queerninja]

Fascists...How wonderfully ridiculous to think that if someone finds something offensive they can just not look at it.

But then, I'm sure the name Psychedelic Salon leaves so much ambiguity as the the nature of the beast!

Grrrrrrr.......Big brother can kiss my ass.

[dreamwithinadream]

Fuck Myspace!!!!

[Pothead]

sorry to hear that Lorenzo

i dont use myspace, didn't even know you had a page DF:o all things i hear are bad about it but i leave it upto to each person if they want to or not


peace

[KMO]

I just thought I'd throw in my two cents about MySpace: I don't like it. I think it's clunky and poorly implemented and doesn't hold a candle to my choice of on-line haunt, LiveJournal, and it's owned by the devil and serves the devil's ends, buuuuutttttt....

Everybody and his brother has a MySpace page, so it does connect one to a very large potential network of like-minded folks. PodOMatic (which I use to manage my podcast) posts automatic updates to MySpace but not to LiveJournal or theGrowReport forums, so I let it update my MySpace page with a bulletin for each new episode of the C-Realm Podcast, and then I cut and paste the code to create the LiveJournal entry.

[TirikiteToker]

Have you thought about setting up a Facebook group?
For me Facebook is much much more useable than MySpace.
MySpace really does suck.

if you're a musician who uploads their songs to myspace, they can publish your music and sell it without having to give you a cent!
Gee I didn't know that! I'd better take my music down soon!

[EROCx1]

The following is from my blog entry Myspace is not what you think it is (http://erocx1.blogspot.com/2007/12/myspace-is-not-what-you-think-it-is.html)

At first glance Myspace.com appears to be the ultimate social network for friends to exchange photos, thoughts and correspondence online. However once one falls victim to their censorship and they peek a bit below the surface. Myspace is not what it appears to be.

After realizing Myspace was more then a fad, I decided to check it out and was amazed to find so many long lost friends just a click away. I immediately created an account to begin re-establishing contact with these lost friends. I convinced other people I knew to sign up with out even giving it a second thought.

I helped my friend Lorenzo establish a Myspace page for his podcast The Psychedelic Salon and we were excited to see it take off so quickly with hundreds of friends in just a few weeks. Then one day I went to update the show notes to his blog and the account was not available. I thought no biggie, a technical problem. Then noticed the show was missing from my friends list. After a little more research I realized we had been deleted and Myspace did not even have the courtesy to send us an email explaining why. I sent Myspace a couple of emails and received in return was a couple of generic notices that the page had been deleted, it could not be restored and to find out why it was deleted read the user agreement. We did not breech any of the terms of the "user agreement" Then why were we deleted?

Who is Myspace?
Myspace is owned by Fox Interactive Media \ Fox News Corporation. Thereby owned by Rupert Murdoch, the major shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation (News Corp). He is a long-time supporter of the Republican Party and is a friend of George W. Bush. Murdoch also strongly supported George W. Bush in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. His publications worldwide tend to adopt conservative views. During the buildup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, all 175 Murdoch-owned newspapers worldwide editorialized in favor of the war. He is famous for monopolizing news and information outlets.

Myspace censorship
Myspace admittedly has only 300 total employees, only a few of which administrate over 200 million accounts and growing at the rate of 230,000 new accounts per day (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace). It is evident that Myspace commonly deletes pages that do not fit with in their "paradigm" with out any intelligent consideration what so ever. The have a strict shoot first policy and dont bother asking questions. Myspace membership is a "privilege" not a right.

Brad Greenspan, whose company created Myspace in 2003 wrote:
"The shocking mass censorship of the over 100 million Myspace users that News Corp and Myspace are beginning to aggressively engage in today is simply evil behavior.. "When we started Myspace in 2003, we empowered users by giving them full control over their profile pages. Myspace has flourished by partnering with users and protecting their rights to express themselves and have freedom of choice on their profile page. News Corp’s moves to destroy and limit the freedom Myspace users have enjoyed is analogous to the strategies a dictator would employ after seizing control of a previously free nation.”

Greenspan continued, “If News Corp is able to continue its censorship and mass gagging techniques today, then tomorrow it should surprise no one when News Corp deletes mentions of competitive news organizations to their own Fox News by preventing users from typing CNN.com or ABCNEWS.com in their Myspace blogs. Or when Myspace wants to promote the music artists on its own label, it will simply block users from talking about or promoting similar artists.” (Source: censorspace.com)

What is Myspace, really?
This is the scariest question of all. Myspace is the largest private opt-in database on the planet. We willingly register ourselves, our thoughts, ideas and interests. We upload photos of ourselves, our children and families. We link ourselves to our friends, family, organizations, telling where we live, our relationship status, religion, age, sexual preference, employment, which schools we attended, etc. We feed all of this into the biggest computer networked propaganda machine ever developed all in the name of social networking. A machine owned and operated by friend and supporter of G.W. Bush and his "war on terror" All ready there are numerous reports extreme as people going to jail, because of the contents of their Myspace page? What will be next?

A few good sites dedicated to the Myspace censorship problem.
http://freemyspace.com/
http://www.civic.moveon.org/pdf/myspace/
Myspace censors Presidential candidate Ron Paul - see informeddissent.com (http://informeddissent.com/2007/05/09/myspace-continues-censoring-ron-paul-abc-deletes-all-comments/)

[Little Elf]

I'll just have to post more bulletins and comments letting people know where the real carnival barker can be found.

[VictoriaPandora]

In the spirit I percieve the "free market" at this point in time... I doubt they are willing to delete drug related material. The would need a better hold, much as they may like to, they still don't own everyone, and they know it.

[Xochipilli2012]

In the spirit I percieve the "free market" at this point in time... I doubt they are willing to delete drug related material. The would need a better hold, much as they may like to, they still don't own everyone, and they know it.

This seems to be true, because there are lots of drug-related pages on MySpace that haven't been touched. There may be something to the fact that the Psychedelic Salon's content more directly challenges the Dominator paradigm, plus, there are connections to some political viewpoints that demand a look at the man behind the curtain. Given the role that Newscorp plays in manufacturing other forms of consent, this doesn't seem all that far-fetched (that they could single out the Salon).

Also, the Stone Zone Show (a weed-related "comedy" site on MySpace Music) is a commercial venture. I don't know if that is why they are tolerated, but it seems like they are just goofing around and showing that stoners just want to get fucked up, get the munchies, and buy more ranch dorritos--which makes everyone happy (right?).

OK...I'm done.

[KMO]

The following is from my blog entry Myspace is not what you think it is (http://erocx1.blogspot.com/2007/12/myspace-is-not-what-you-think-it-is.html)Myspace is the largest private opt-in database on the planet. We willingly register ourselves, our thoughts, ideas and interests. We upload photos of ourselves, our children and families. We link ourselves to our friends, family, organizations, telling where we live, our relationship status, religion, age, sexual preference, employment, which schools we attended, etc. We feed all of this into the biggest computer networked propaganda machine ever developed all in the name of social networking. A machine owned and operated by friend and supporter of G.W. Bush and his "war on terror" All ready there are numerous reports extreme as people going to jail, because of the contents of their Myspace page? What will be next?

That paragraph pushed me over the edge. I just cancelled my MySpace account. Thank you, Erocx1.

[Greenking]

Fuck myspace. I was surprised to hear that you had a page there Lorenzo.

What you should do Lorenzo is create an account on Tribe.net, all the burners are there.

Awesome people. You’ll “find the others” a lot quicker too!
:D

PEACE & NOTHING BUT LOVE (for tribe that is)

[CyclotronMajesty]

Well if it is deleted i'm sorry to hear that.

But frankly I agree with max.
myspace sounds just like bubblegum teenie boper show.

They were probably just trying to enforce their low standards quota.

So I would take it as a compliment.

[latewood]

That paragraph pushed me over the edge. I just cancelled my MySpace account. Thank you, Erocx1.


This is exactly why I never signed up in the 1st place! Peace :cool:

[Little Elf]

Fuck myspace. I was surprised to hear that you had a page there Lorenzo.

What you should do Lorenzo is create an account on Tribe.net, all the burners are there.

Awesome people. You’ll “find the others” a lot quicker too!
:D

PEACE & NOTHING BUT LOVE (for tribe that is)

Lorenzo is on tribe, or at least the salon was last time I checked.

[fortytwo]

I participate in Myspace, despite the fact that the software is atrocious, simply b/c it is such an enormous networking phenomena, thanks in no part to Myspace itself.

Like everything once great, it will become/is becoming mired in conformity, populism, commercialism, and censorship. Then the real people will take flight, and they will begin building something else. It has always been this way. A pendulum of nascence and stagnation.

These forums, for example, and all the people here, share in common this drive for nascence, it is the psychedelic way.

[BlackBeauty]

Fuck myspace. I was surprised to hear that you had a page there Lorenzo.

What you should do Lorenzo is create an account on Tribe.net, all the burners are there.

Awesome people. You’ll “find the others” a lot quicker too!
:D

PEACE & NOTHING BUT LOVE (for tribe that is)

I'm pretty sure Lorenzo is already on there :confused:

[Zandor]

This server is dedicated and there is space if you have a domain, you can have your blog site or web site on the server. Not a child domain but rather a full dot whatever if you want to dude.

Let me know, there is room at the Inn.

Peace

Z

[BoschLizzard]

Dude.
I thought Myspace was retarded, but I never thought about how freaking creepy it is.
/CANCEL ACCOUNT

[WakingSleep]

The principles behind Web 2.0 (which is made up of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook; sites made-up entirely of user-generated content, such as forums and discussion boards; wikis and blogs; basically websites whose contents are not static) are indeed principles that should be embraced if the Internet is to move in a positive direction. It's not new, shinier, flashier technology; it's a more effective use of already-existing technology that is needed here. This is a paradigm I've been trying to talk to people about for years. KMO summed it up nicely with this quote (C-Realm podcast episode 53):
I'm growing increasingly skeptical of the ability of technology to solve the problems that have arisen from our unconscious and unthinking use of technology. I think what is required is not new, better, faster more impressive technology, what I think is required for us to really make the most of what we have here, is a more intelligent and conscious use of technology.
I'm not sure what the future of the Web will bring. Perhaps the antics of giants like MySpace will drive people to create smaller, much-more-difficult-to-censor social networking groups maintained by individuals, especially as the generation who have never been without the Internet comes-of-age. If people wake-up that is. Right now, people are glued to their cell phones and laptops like zombies are glued to the idea of eating brains. These technologies are supposed to make our lives easier... and not act as ever-entangling chains, binding us to the profit-driven, corporate-run machines.

MySpace: No Place For Atheists? (http://www.secularstudents.org/node/1933)

[BlackBeauty]

The principles behind Web 2.0 (which is made up of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook; sites made-up entirely of user-generated content, such as forums and discussion boards; wikis and blogs; basically websites whose contents are not static) are indeed principles that should be embraced if the Internet is to move in a positive direction. It's not new, shinier, flashier technology; it's a more effective use of already-existing technology that is needed here.

Check out the video I mention in my first post here:

http://www.thegrowreport.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=1479

[VictoriaPandora]

Yeah fascinating stuff BB. I really enjoyed those vids.
Somewhere along the line I picked up some bad PR on web 2.0
Like it was easier to control or censor or something.
I'd really like to clear that misunderstanding up, if you can recommend any like addressing that.