Richard Dawkins on Twitter?

[catskill]

I saw on Daily Galaxy a story about RD having a Twitter account.

Original story:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/20 ... wkins.html

Direct Link to Twitter account:
http://twitter.com/Richard_Dawkins

Personally I have never used Twitter but thought some may find this interesting. I did a forum search for "Twitter" and I did not see any other posts about this. Moderator please delete if this is posted somewhere.

[Zuggy]

sweet I use twitter too, fun when I'm stuck on a problem at work

If anyone wants to follow me

twitter.com/zuggy

[justwondering]

I'd be interested if that's really RD's twitter account.

[catskill]

Justwondering - That was my first thought as well. With so many places online to post things I am surprised it does not happen a lot. Even if RD creates a user account as "Richard Dawkins" there is no way to stop someone from creating "RiChArD DaWkInS" and posting stuff. I guess if RD posted on this website it would be confirmed. I imagine he wouldn't post it yet because if he gets a huge following then decides to not use it there will be the flood of disappointed postings asking him to continue.

[Richard Dawkins]

Yet again, some impostor is pretending to be me. I do not Twitter, I had never even heard of Twittering until this thread alerted me to it, and I most certainly have not signed up for it. I am told there are numerous Facebook pages purporting to be mine. None of them is. I do not have a Facebook page, or anything comparable.

I don't understand the motivation of these impostors. They do not seem to intend malice. If that were the motive, I could kind of understand it. If it were amusing satire I could understand the motive. But the fictititious persona that they invent for me is not particularly discreditable, nor is it funny. The statements attributed to me are not wildly implausible. But they are not mine. They are pure fiction. If anybody can suggest a possible motive I would be curious to know. What kind of person makes up fiction about a real person, which is neither malicious nor humorous but just sort of DULL?

And does anybody know how to let it be known to the Twitter admin people that this is an imposture?

Richard

[justwondering]

Yet again, some impostor is pretending to be me. I do not Twitter, I had never even heard of Twittering until this thread alerted me to it, and I most certainly have not signed up for it. I am told there are numerous Facebook pages purporting to be mine. None of them is. I do not have a Facebook page, or anything comparable.

I don't understand the motivation of these impostors. They do not seem to intend malice. If that were the motive, I could kind of understand it. If it were amusing satire I could understand the motive. But the fictititious persona that they invent for me is not particularly discreditable, nor is it funny. The statements attributed to me are not wildly implausible. But they are not mine. They are pure fiction. If anybody can suggest a possible motive I would be curious to know. What kind of person makes up fiction about a real person, which is neither malicious nor humorous but just sort of DULL?

And does anybody know how to let it be known to the Twitter admin people that this is an imposture?

Richard

You might write a letter to them:

Twitter, Inc.
164 South Park
San Francisco, CA 94107


Otherwise the only online contact seems to be customer service with a bunch of FAQs.

I would write to them immediately. While the representations on "your" Twitter account seem harmless enough, I would be concerned about possible misrepresentation in the future that could get to the press.

[justwondering]

It appears Dr. Dawkins has posted in the comments section of the article. Best to you, Dr., getting this rectified.

[Katherine]

I'd never heard of Twitter until now......

[catskill]

I have been aware of Twitter for some time. I would not have posted anything if I had stumbled upon it on my own, but I check the DailyGalaxy site often and they appeared to give the account some validity. I see they have not pulled the story yet though.

This must be like whack a mole for Dr. Dawkins. As he already mentioned there are Facebook pages, I am sure Myspace pages, and every other imaginable type of account set up to imitate him. I imagine it is 99% harmless, although I can foresee a problem when someone attributes comments to him that are false.

[justwondering]

I wasn't sure if you noticed the comments section on the article, but since you posted this thread, he's made comments. It's pretty much a cut and paste of what he said here on this thread. It will be interesting to see if they do anything about this.

[RichardPrins]

Best to you, Dr., getting this rectified.

Could be a day job...



"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"

[lordpasternack]

I had no idea what Twitter was up to this point either. Doubtless one of my faithful friends will make me sign up to it one of these days.

I have no idea why people care to pretend to be someone else, and make up dull fiction about them... Perhaps it's because they're that overwhelmingly dull - that even whilst trying to pretend to be someone "famous", they still can't avoid their inescapable prosaic nature.

But fear not Richard - if comedic satire is what you're after - you might want to check your Uncyclopedia entry. I think you can tell that both the fundies and the freethinkers have had a stab at the article...

[zaardvark]

What kind of person makes up fiction about a real person, which is neither malicious nor humorous but just sort of DULL?

Well, it's obvious, isn't it... the question is the answer!

[djcreamy]

Well that was odd. I don't come to this website often, but I do use Twitter. I was delighted to see Dr. Dawkins using the program and was never tipped-off that it wasn't him until tonight. Here are the last several posts made by the impostor which amounted to a mini-lecture. Read from the bottom up, sorry I'm too lazy to edit it...

Thanks for listening and following along. Have a nice day.

belief system. It's easy to be against people who are different than you, but try not to be like that. Take the high road, unlike RD.

legacy. Just like I, a Chrisitan do not follow Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, don't be mislead by someone just because they share your...

Consider that being hostile towards others has never won any followers. Richard Dawkins is just an old man trying to leave behind a ...

That is my message of peace to all of you. Love one another. It's ok.

People who claim to be Christians can be hypocrites, but they're just people, and all people make mistakes. Try to be good to one another.

It's not wrong to be kind to people who don't believe the same as you. You don't have to be militant atheists.

While I still have 1700 of you paying attention, I just wanted to say: Whatever you believe, respect others beliefs.

[djcreamy]

I will give the Twitter impostor credit. This quote, when read with a British accent, is convincing:

Enjoying an early dinner with my wife. Poached Salmon with Hollandaise sauce and a nice Chardonnay. Just lovely. 04:56 PM June 15, 2008 from web

-Tom

[ZeroByDefinition]

The impostor sounds NOTHING, NOTHING like him.

Anyone who reads his books and his posts here should immediately suspect that it isn't him.

[djcreamy]

Calm down. Twitter is a means of sending short text messages. The 1700 @richard_dawkins fans on Twitter were fooled not because they haven't read enough of his material, but because the messages were too short for thorough analysis.

[lordpasternack]

Well considering one of the "quotes" attributed to Dawkins includes the grammatical faux pas "different than" - I don't know why anyone would need a second opinion on whether this was the prof's own handiwork.

Different than... "Different than"? I just don't know...

[catskill]

Well I see that the original post at Daily Galaxy has been pulled. And checking Twitter today I see that the impostor has changed the account name from 'Richard Dawkins' to 'Not Richard Dawkins' and then immediately proceeded to launch into a lecture and also proudly identified himself as a Christian. Lying for Jesus anyone?

[Elles]

What kind of person makes up fiction about a real person, which is neither malicious nor humorous but just sort of DULL?

The last updates in correct chronological order:

While I still have 1700 of you paying attention, I just wanted to say: Whatever you believe, respect others beliefs.
It's not wrong to be kind to people who don't believe the same as you. You don't have to be militant atheists.
People who claim to be Christians can be hypocrites, but they're just people, and all people make mistakes. Try to be good to one another.
That is my message of peace to all of you. Love one another. It's ok.
Consider that being hostile towards others has never won any followers. Richard Dawkins is just an old man trying to leave behind a ...
legacy. Just like I, a Chrisitan do not follow Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, don't be mislead by someone just because they share your...
belief system. It's easy to be against people who are different than you, but try not to be like that. Take the high road, unlike RD.

And yadda yadda yadda.

I guess I'll have to respect Nazis for believing that I'm inferior because I'm half Chinese.

Personal amusement, probably. Obviously doesn't like RD very much so he/she/it decided to play a practical joke which other people wouldn't find funny but which would bring him/her/it a jolly good laugh.

[justwondering]

Well I see that the original post at Daily Galaxy has been pulled. And checking Twitter today I see that the impostor has changed the account name from 'Richard Dawkins' to 'Not Richard Dawkins' and then immediately proceeded to launch into a lecture and also proudly identified himself as a Christian. Lying for Jesus anyone?

Interesting the tactics "Christians" will take for their cause. Once again, "Thou shalt nots" don't apply when it comes to a cause against atheism.

And just how far will they go in the name of Christianity? Kill doctors at abortion clinics? . . . etc. etc.

Well, of course, pretending to be Dr. Dawkins on a website isn't on the level of murder. I'm just always curious when Christians will step outside of their moral prescripts for their "cause".

[Tom Morris]

Shed loads of the people following the fake account are my friends. I've sent many of them a message through Twitter's Direct Message interface making them aware that it is a fake.

Fake profiles are something social networks have had to deal with a lot in the last few years. The only way we have of really solving them is to get people to set up a personal page and link out to the sites they use from there.

Perhaps you should take this as an opportunity to set up an account on Twitter, Professor Dawkins. There's obviously an audience of people who enjoy what you have to say. See here. And PZ has an account too, replete with squid background and all.

[timstotz]

A few fellow atheists who I follow on Twitter messaged him (Using the @) and I was jazzed to see RD on Twitter. And a lot of verified celebs are on there at the moment. I had my misgivings, but it didn't seem out of the question. And his initial tweets (messages) were very non-controversial. They were just behind the scenes messages, like having a good dinner.

Then, net thing you know...the very un-RD like respect everybody message. I thought he had been hacked, or was just messing with us, or something at first. You didn't have to pick apart the gramar to know that this was not RD. The ideas were fundamentally wrong...and he talked about RD in the third person, and admitted to being a christian.

But until he got on the crazy, contradictory soap box, he seemed like a very possibly legit RD.

The new technology is not mature, but it is gaining ground, and I think it would be great if RD did get a Twitter account. It would be a tremendous way for him to let us know of random book signings, or screenings, or just whatever. He's a fascinating guy. I think the minutia of his life would be far from DULL like his impostor.

[Foth]

I am told there are numerous Facebook pages purporting to be mine. None of them is. I do not have a Facebook page, or anything comparable.

I am friends with one of those Facebook pages. I figured it probably wasn't you anyway, but it still makes me sad that it really isn't!

[clouded_perception]

Yet again, some impostor is pretending to be me. I do not Twitter, I had never even heard of Twittering until this thread alerted me to it, and I most certainly have not signed up for it. I am told there are numerous Facebook pages purporting to be mine. None of them is. I do not have a Facebook page, or anything comparable.

I don't understand the motivation of these impostors. They do not seem to intend malice. If that were the motive, I could kind of understand it. If it were amusing satire I could understand the motive. But the fictititious persona that they invent for me is not particularly discreditable, nor is it funny. The statements attributed to me are not wildly implausible. But they are not mine. They are pure fiction. If anybody can suggest a possible motive I would be curious to know. What kind of person makes up fiction about a real person, which is neither malicious nor humorous but just sort of DULL?

And does anybody know how to let it be known to the Twitter admin people that this is an imposture?

Richard

They do it to see whether they can convince people that they really are the person they're pretending to be. Same reason we get Poe arguments.

My boyfriend did something similar, managing to convince a forum of people that he's gay. I understand that he's since "come out" and admitted the deception, and nobody believes him.