Well, voting multiple times is just as much a sociological outcome of some stupid thing like this as allowing your poll to be freeped by a right-wing minority and then giving them a national platform to spew their woman-hating agenda.

I wonder if they'd be so complacent if some racist, right-wing fringe decided to freep the poll with something like, "I wish Canada could be preserved for the white race" or "I wish all Jews and Muslims would convert to Christianity in Canada"?

[ 22 June 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2355464304&topic=2773

On the anti-choice wall:

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Word down the grapevine is that there are whole Catholic schools voting for the Pro-Life side; that may help to explain the higher numbers this morning.

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Delete Wishes from this List that Violate Human Rights

I wish Bob and Doug Mckenzie become official National Emblems

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"Free Republic is the premier online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America..."

Freep this Poll! TheGreatCanadianWishList needs a pro-life hand

Help!! The uber-socialist ponytails at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have sponsored the Great Canadian Wish List on their website. Probably they imagined that Canadians would create wishes like "Che Guevara on the dollar coin," or "force the Catholic Church to bless interspecies unions," but to their SHOCK and horror, (and to the surprise of the nascent conservative minority) the number one wish is this ...

Abolish Abortion in Canada

]http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1854468/posts

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[ 22 June 2007: Message edited by: writer ]

There is no significant support in this country for restricting current abortion practices, nor for restoring "traditional" marriage.

The best way, therefore, to deal with vocal fanatic minorities is to ignore them and laugh them off - not to debate or "compete" with them.

The CBC and Facebook have (inadvertently or otherwise) created a "virtual" platform which these creeps would never have in real life. For us to participate in that is also to provide them with credibility they could never achieve in real life. Even if we "win", the number of votes on the misogynist side will give a horribly false impression of the strength of anti-choice opinion.

In the previous thread, babblerwannabe responded to my comment that the contest was not serious:

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This contest might not be serious, but it has influence on some of us. While you might not think this is something worth looking at, the wish list has been distressing and upsetting for some of us, and we will express our feelings about it.

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quote:

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Originally posted by writer:
I remember when the U.S. Moral Majority was laughed off. Not so funny, now.

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I said this at the Don't Cheat thread:

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What an interesting development over the course of a day..

This phenomina of the anti-choice base groups finding ways to pervert the outcome of polls and voting is nothing new. They have taken courses on how to do this.

What is amazing to me is, that they do not realize what an act of disbelief in God's will that it is, when they cheat and skew polls and votes.

If they truly believed in God, and the omnipotence of God, they should then realize whatever the outcome was, if it was let grow organically, there would be the wishes of God expressed.

That they feel compelled to cheat, to skew the outcome, exposes that they are conducting themselves in the opposite expression of God's will.

In part, this understanding can be contained in the old addage: "cheater's never prosper". Or one can think of it like athelites dopping themselves to win.

Yes, when you cheat it is a win, but it means nothing. In this case, it will be an embarassment for them, nothing like hearing your group won because of cheating on national TV before millions of Canadians. What a good way for them to gain support for their cause, eh?!

Not only do they seek to remove charter rights, but they seek to pervert democracy and control Canadian's beliefs and actions, nothing could expose this to Canadians more than this action they have taken.

Good for them in this action, now ALL Canadians will know them for what they are cheaters aka liars and subverters of democracy.

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Good job on alienating all Canadians you anti-rights people.

Nothing, in my view, could have drawn people, especially women, across Canada together in unity to oppose them. Both for this wish and in society at large. Those who would not know what and who they are, because of disinterest in politics, now have been exposed. Pandora's Box is open now to see how this plays out.

These two messages were just posted on the pro-choice wall:

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EVERYBODY LOOK AT THE TOP 10

See something fishy?

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I'm confused. Why are we ahead in ranking but behind in numbers?

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... It's not loading for me, so I can't see the latest.

From "Don't Cheat" (pro-choice discussion):

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This contest began as a misguided alternative to an opinion poll; an experiment in social networking and memetics. Despite intentions, the nature of the contest is inherently polarizing, facilitating angry "debate" over productive discussion. Through posting the cheat, I have seen opponents make accusations referencing post order, vote counts, and morality. We are too quick to judge the intentions of others, based only upon a fragile knowledge of one small aspect of a (mostly) coherent morality. The whirlwind of freedom, life, and rights, may encompass these debates, but at the eye of this storm lies the root of the disagreement. It is our responsibility to weather the winds of rhetoric and find the relative calm: only then can invariable progress is made.

While we live in a democracy, the validity of an idea is *not* determined by a popularity contest, nor is it determined by the strength of the convictions of an ideas proponents. The numbers beside the ideas indicate nothing beyond the efficiency of the supporter-harvesting effort. The rampant cheating will hopefully bring focus back to the ideas, where our attention belongs. The experiment in memetics is over, but the experiment in the Canadian Spirit has just begun.

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[ 22 June 2007: Message edited by: writer ]

quote:

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ickle: An ICQ2000 client for GTK+ Ickle is an ICQ client which is able to communicate with ICQ servers using the new ICQ2000 protocol. This offers much better reliability than the older ICQ99 protocol. ickle has a constantly improving interface, now supporting history browsing, and much more. Ickle currently supports: * Sending/Receiving normal messages * Sending/Receiving URLs * Sending/Receiving SMS messages * Retrieving away messages This version is compiled without gnome support, for gnome support install the package `ickle-gnome'.

what is an ickle

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[ 22 June 2007: Message edited by: writer ]

I think we're seeing "V" light, here. Probably more to come.

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Originally posted by Michelle:
I'm pretty sure our side was cheating too, remind. Our numbers went up pretty quickly. I think it's also true that their side started cheating first

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Awww, but why? It was such a perfect way to expose them for what they are. Just like leaving the on line polls they freep alone, the results are so skewed, there would be no way anyone would believe them.

1. 5515 Pro-Choice
2. 5770 Abolish Abortion

quote:

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Originally posted by writer:
At 4:22 today, the numbers were as follows:

1. 5515 Pro-Choice
2. 5770 Abolish Abortion

These first two wishes are also wowing up and down by 5,000 votes fairly regularly now, minutes apart.

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From comments on walls, it looks like the tuition wish was ranked more highly -displacing the one for choice - for a moment.

Earlier this afternoon, votes for the top two were popping up from 5,000+ to 10,000+ and back down within minutes (or with a screen refresh).

Just now:

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5537 I wish that Canada would remain pro-choice
5808 Abolish Abortion in Canada
2242 It's time for drastic measures to save our environment
2767 For a spiritual revival in our nation.

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2
1
4
3

[ 22 June 2007: Message edited by: writer ]

quote:

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Originally posted by writer:
I think someone is doing some serious monkey business. This is beyond supporters of one group or another. Forcing the second most popular wish to be listed as first is all about hacking.

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Young idealistic pro-choicers may not be old enough to remember but the anti-abortion crowd is capable of shooting off more than just their mouths.

Edited to add: seems that Facebook is pulling votes outside Canada and has fixed the multiple votes. Pro-choice is now behind by under 300.

[ 22 June 2007: Message edited by: writer ]

I am boycotting this wish list and have removed my support from the pro choice wish.

[ 23 June 2007: Message edited by: babblerwannabe ]

A court injunction?
Protests at CBC stations?
Disruptions of any other Canada Day events sponsored/covered by the CBC or its affiliates?

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Originally posted by Ursa Minor:
So, if the woman-hating reactionary troglodyte waste of skin that is the anti-choice movement prevails, what must be done to prevent them from getting the free airtime on the CBC to spew their right-wing hateful vomit masquerading as a 'wish'?

A court injunction?
Protests at CBC stations?
Disruptions of any other Canada Day events sponsored/covered by the CBC or its affiliates?

From the pro-war propaganda on Hockey Night in Canada to this Goebbels-type experiment in online social engineering, it's now obvious that the CBC is the Conservatives' primary tool to spread its agenda of reactionary fascist evil.
It's not the people's network anymore - shut it down.

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Your first impulse was correct - protest!
Demand the heads of the top brass!
Remove Preston Manning from the airwaves - neo-con dogma already has hundreds of hate-talk-radio outlets across the country.

Last week I heard Asper Jr. on CBC Radio, being given the opportunity to justify the shamefully one-sided propaganda machine that he oversees. WTF is that about? He already owns half the media in this country - he needs yet another platform?

So while I agree that the Harper Conservatives are making a farce of the CBC mandate, I think it's long past time to make a HUGE issue out of it.

I'll see you at the protest on Canada Day. Where are we meeting?

[ 27 June 2007: Message edited by: Lard Tunderin' Jeezus ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ursa Minor:

It's not the people's network anymore - shut it down.

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That'll real piss off the extreme right troglodytes, won't it?

1. The CBC made a dumb mistake with this Facebook nonsense.

2. Progressives ought to have said: "This is bullshit, don't participate."

3. Anti-choice would have scored 10,000 to about 50.

4. Leaving the CBC with a choice between carrying on with the farce and saying, "Well, gosh, looks like 99.9% of Canadians are anti-abortion - who knew!?", or calling it off.

This way, it just looks like a narrow win for the anti-choice.

A narrow win for pro-choice would have looked just as bad.

quote:

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Originally posted by jrose:
...I see it as a poor, stupid mistake on the part of the CBC, trying to keep up with a new technology that in no-way has the potential that they were hoping for.

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quote:

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Originally posted by jrose:
Thanks Michelle!

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Nicely done article. I am so happy to have contributed to it!

[ 27 June 2007: Message edited by: babblerwannabe ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Lard Tunderin' Jeezus:
Shut it down, and they've got what they wanted all along.

I'll see you at the protest on Canada Day. Where are we meeting?

[ 27 June 2007: Message edited by: Lard Tunderin' Jeezus ]

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You're right, shutting it down is probably what they want, but I am so pissed off at the CBC's complicity in promoting the Harper agenda. As for a protest on Canada Day - downtown Vancouver is pretty much closed so picketing the CBC studios there might not do much.

I would think the best tactic is to hang out at any Canada Day events, watch for CBC crews, and confront them about how they feel about working for a reprehensible misongynist employer.

The fact that the anti-choice movement gets an hour infomercial from the national public broadcaster is an outright atrocity. These are the same people who bomb women's health clinics and try to murder physicians, by the government's own definition they should be treated as terrorists.

If in fact, we have been forced to choose between a public broadcaster that acts as the propaganda wing for Capitalists and Christofascists, and no public broadcaster at all, I choose no public broadcaster at all. What's next, programs saluting the tar sands? scab labour? police brutality? A docudrama about the shooting of Dudley George making Mike Harris the good guy?

In the meantime, I'll continue to swing my backpack and shove the hateful human excrement who block the sidewalks at Broadway and Commercial every Friday because they think their God lets them tell to take away the hard fought rights of others.

quote:

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Originally posted by 500_Apples:
Banning abortion is not part of the Harper agenda.

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[ 28 June 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ursa Minor:
These are the same people who bomb women's health clinics and try to murder physicians, by the government's own definition they should be treated as terrorists.

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quote:

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The winner will be announced on Canada Day on CBC Newsworld, says CBC reporter Mike Wise, who came up with the wish list project with youth group Student Vote.

... "We stepped out into an area where, because it was on Facebook, it was beyond the reach of the CBC journalistic policy so it was edgier stuff that we had no control of. However, I think we should get some marks for trying something different."

... Wise says he will file a radio report Saturday and a Newsworld report Sunday that will explore some of the issues and pitfalls surrounding the project.

CBC Facebook experiment dogged by controversy

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quote:

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Hey, your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience.

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There's nothing about this situation on the CBC's Wish blog: http://www.cbc.ca/wish/

CBC loses face

I can’t login to Facebook for a few hours

(I still can't log in.)

Edited to add: wow, now it's -

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Safari can’t open the page “https://login.facebook.com/login.php”. The error was: “lost network connection” (NSURLErrorDomain:-1005) Please choose Report Bug to Apple from the Safari menu, note the error number, and describe what you did before you saw this message.

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[ 29 June 2007: Message edited by: writer ]

[ 29 June 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]

Edited to add: I am able to look at the "about" section, as well as "developers" - everything that's listed on the footer of the homepage (http://www.facebookcom).

But I can't log in.

[ 29 June 2007: Message edited by: writer ]

quote:

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Yup most of it’s backup now (in UK) - cant seem to get to other peoples profiles though so there still doing something. Can do a lot of operations though, just updated status etc.

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[ 29 June 2007: Message edited by: writer ]

[ 29 June 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]

[ 29 June 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]

(Perhaps you are all-powerful, or it's just weird timing.)

Edited to add: So I'm notified of your message, but it's not in my inbox. Strangerer and strangerer.

[ 29 June 2007: Message edited by: writer ]