Anonymous is Legion!

[Kazuael]

Eh? I was just making fun of Scientology, not implying that anyone is or isn't.

[TormakSaber]

I was kidding, hence the >_> <_< faces... =P

[Latooni]

I was kidding, hence the >_> <_< faces... =P

I'm not sure where you got the idea I supported Scientology from. Even as a joke.

[Squishy]

I... oh god, the fucking news today... LOL.

[TormakSaber]

Reports of 5000+ people worldwide.

'm impressed, and I continue to support them, personally.

[Venator]

You know what amazed me? They made sure that the local laws were all followed, they strictly enforced rules to prevent conflict with local government and police forces. They covered every possible avenue.

The better maintained nerve centers (for example, the Toronto Feb. 10th wiki) are extremely well organized; it's an interesting dichotomy, talking about newfags and memes, listing photos of the area as "reconnaissance", and at the same time listing and repeating how to avoid conflict with the law, the correct way to deal with harassment, and citing specific laws and legal rights.

Oh, no, they're all sorts of people. They just plug themselves into a primitive hivemind when participating in things like this.

I think that the level of organization (and dedication to keeping things legitimate) demonstrated today shows the silliness of calling it "primitive hivemind".

One thing that a lot of people seem to forget is that Anonymous is in effect everyone, anyone, and no one. There's the /b/tards who are at times really, really stupid, but there's also a large number of dedicated /i/nsurgents who have better ideas than "lol letz destroy myspace!!1!", net-browsers with level heads, ex-Scientologists joining the fight average people who see a poster and decide to get involved...

There's nothing primitive about five thousand people with the same message world-wide (at least when the message makes sense, of course the message of "OMG teh ending of Halo 2 r teh suxx!" and the like is another story ).

The mere fact that they're going to dress up and stand outside some offices all over the world does not mean they're actually capable of accomplishing anything. I have severe doubts whether it will, in fact, accomplish anything at all besides grow their ego.

It's called silent protest. They've decided that, rather than through violence and other uncivilized acts of conduct, they're going to do a world-wide synchronized display.

Squishy's got it pretty much right - the protests were by no means silent ("Ron is gone, but the con lives on!" is going to be stuck in my head for weeks!), but the idea of peaceful demonstration has never been futile. It sends a message, it encourages people to get information and maybe even get involved. Acting like a bunch of screaming anarchists and throwing Molotov cocktails at the CoS buildings does nothing but destroy any public sympathy Anonymous might have - violent protests do not end well.

As for ego-boosting... one part about masked anonymity is that you really don't get to play "internet tough guy" and brag about your exploits. You can feel good about it, tell your real-life friends that you were protesting an evil cult, and maybe make a newsreel or paper, but who cares? You're one of many, and unless your sign says "My name is John Doe (Johinator of insertboardhere.com), and I'm against Scientology", you don't get much by way of fame.

The problem with /b/ / 4chan / /i/ /Anonymous / whatever, is that they have or tend to have, an incredibly short attention span, and they have no sense of pacing. They will often overflood their target, and instead of having the intended effect, people will start to write it off as untrue harassment. See: Dog Mongler.

A guy on another of my forums predicted that after the initial denial-of-service spam, crank calling, and fax-ink draining, the whole campaign would just fizzle out.

Today, he was the guy in Sydney wearing a giant Che Guevara cape .

Sorry for the long, perhaps ramble-y post and butchered order of quotes - five hours in the cold followed by midterm study is not conducive to rational thought.

[Latooni]

I think that the level of organization (and dedication to keeping things legitimate) demonstrated today shows the silliness of calling it "primitive hivemind".

Er, no it doesn't? Even ants make gigantic colonies, you know. You can have a hive mind and still be organized.

And now that it has happened, the rest of the world noticed for 5 seconds and will now completely ignore it.

[Squishy]

Ants and 5 seconds eh?

Come on Mug, just come out and say you have a personal dislike for these guys no matter what they do.

That's fine of itself. To each his/her own.

[TormakSaber]

I think that the level of organization (and dedication to keeping things legitimate) demonstrated today shows the silliness of calling it "primitive hivemind".

Er, no it doesn't? Even ants make gigantic colonies, you know. You can have a hive mind and still be organized.

And now that it has happened, the rest of the world noticed for 5 seconds and will now completely ignore it.

They have more planned. They're still going on. I'd be willing to bet the only reason this didn't get more coverage is because it's an election year.

Come on, internet "hackers on steroids" vs one of the most controversial "religions" to hit the world in recent times? You can't tell me that's not interesting news.

[Kazuael]

It may be interesting news, but how interesting it is to the world is based on how much coverage they actually get, which sadly isn't a whole lot right now.

[Venator]

I think that the level of organization (and dedication to keeping things legitimate) demonstrated today shows the silliness of calling it "primitive hivemind".

Er, no it doesn't? Even ants make gigantic colonies, you know. You can have a hive mind and still be organized.

And now that it has happened, the rest of the world noticed for 5 seconds and will now completely ignore it.

Should probably have moved my end quote to only include the "primitive" part.

Hivemind - check, by your definition, but that definition pretty much applies to everything that's ever been done by a group of organisms more complex than amoeba (photosynthesizing and larger heterotrophic prokaryotes conspire to create plants, oh no!).

Primitive - ... no.

[Mjolnir]

I think that the level of organization (and dedication to keeping things legitimate) demonstrated today shows the silliness of calling it "primitive hivemind".

Er, no it doesn't? Even ants make gigantic colonies, you know. You can have a hive mind and still be organized.

And now that it has happened, the rest of the world noticed for 5 seconds and will now completely ignore it.

Should probably have moved my end quote to only include the "primitive" part.

Hivemind - check, by your definition, but that definition pretty much applies to everything that's ever been done by a group of organisms more complex than amoeba (photosynthesizing and larger heterotrophic prokaryotes conspire to create plants, oh no!).

Primitive - ... no.

There is good evidence that your brain is a hivemind, and a froup of organisms working together can be considered a hive mind.

[Latooni]

Ants and 5 seconds eh?

Come on Mug, just come out and say you have a personal dislike for these guys no matter what they do.

That's fine of itself. To each his/her own.

I just wish they would do something constructive. Like a global trash pickup day. That would be fantastic.

[ArcaneDude]

Just a quick question: why is scientology so hated? I'm far away from most of it, so I don't have an idea.

[T-002]

Because they are the epitome of evil. They extort their followers (I think 'extort' is the word), encourage them to cut off all ties with friends and family, and people even get killed by them (allegedly, but it's all very suspicious). And all the time they pretend being a nice, peace-loving religion.