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Well, it's certainly not irrelevant. Scientology principles were used to manage the company and employees were partially evaluated on their friendliness to it

Well, it's certainly not irrelevant. Scientology principles were used to manage the company and employees were partially evaluated on their friendliness to it [0]. It wasn't ever a major part of the content because of internal resistance by people like the other founders [1]. Managements' religious preferences can have a meaningful influence on how an organization operates, e.g. Hobby Lobby. I don't see why it'd be out of bounds here when it's legitimately relevant to how Neopets was run. [0] https://theoutline.com/post/4190/neopets-was-run-by-scientologists https://theoutline.com/post/4190/neopets-was-run-by-scientol... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/neopets/comments/26fwhh/i_am_donna_one_of_the_founders_of_neopets_ask_me/chqqpbo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/neopets/comments/26fwhh/i_am_donna_...

taeric 3y ago
To.the point above, though; this is not really unique? Is it?
- jrflowers 3y ago
  It is not at all unique for random internet accounts to pop up and assert that Scientology is a normal religion just like all the other religions whenever it is mentioned even in passing, no.
  - DiggyJohnson 3y ago
    It just doesn’t seem relevant to the topic at hand. We’re commenting on an article about the longevity, and someone comes out of the woodworks to share their astonishment that we haven’t not discussed the religious beliefs of the founder. It’s astonishing if that doesn’t seem divisive or bizarre to you, at least just a bit.
    - jrflowers 3y ago
      This is a good point. There’s basically zero current interest in the Scientologist “church” or its involvement in the personal and professional activities of its members. This is evidenced by any cursory googling of the church today. We are all best served by bringing up its equivalence with other churches upon seeing the word online as that serves the best interest of all curious parties.
      - DiggyJohnson 3y ago
        What? What we need to do is not turn every discussion into an ideological battlefield at the first possible tangent.
        jrflowers 3y ago
        [flagged]
        DiggyJohnson 3y ago
        Are you implying that I’m a shill or something? This is a weird conversation.
        jrflowers 3y ago
        I have no idea what you’re implying. I know you don’t mean to imply that that religion has shills online and it is an affront that anyone would ever mention Scientology on the web; we’re on the same page there. I’m agreeing with what you have said.
  - taeric 3y ago
    I'd suspect it is fairly common for most all religions? Would be neat to see data on it. I certainly don't like the behavior. Doesn't feel uncommon, though.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
SllX 3y ago
Yeah. People’s moral values and breed of sacred cows do have an effect on their management and leadership style. Non-religious people are outnumbered here (here being the planet, not necessarily this specific website but maybe even that too), so being militantly against that sort of thing kind of isn’t worth our time, or I guess more correctly it is a poor investment of our time. Better to live and let live.
mullingitover 3y ago
I worked at Age of Learning, which was headed by the founders of Neopets after they sold the company. I definitely had some concerns about the Scientology stuff going into that job, but I never heard a word about it the entire time I worked there. The vibes were definitely a little weird, but nothing overt. The bigger problems were that they were a mess in terms of engineering - for example they didn't even use version control for the first few years that ABCMouse was in business.

taeric 3y ago

To.the point above, though; this is not really unique? Is it?

jrflowers 3y ago
It is not at all unique for random internet accounts to pop up and assert that Scientology is a normal religion just like all the other religions whenever it is mentioned even in passing, no.
- DiggyJohnson 3y ago
  It just doesn’t seem relevant to the topic at hand. We’re commenting on an article about the longevity, and someone comes out of the woodworks to share their astonishment that we haven’t not discussed the religious beliefs of the founder. It’s astonishing if that doesn’t seem divisive or bizarre to you, at least just a bit.
  - jrflowers 3y ago
    This is a good point. There’s basically zero current interest in the Scientologist “church” or its involvement in the personal and professional activities of its members. This is evidenced by any cursory googling of the church today. We are all best served by bringing up its equivalence with other churches upon seeing the word online as that serves the best interest of all curious parties.
    - DiggyJohnson 3y ago
      What? What we need to do is not turn every discussion into an ideological battlefield at the first possible tangent.
      - jrflowers 3y ago
        [flagged]
        DiggyJohnson 3y ago
        Are you implying that I’m a shill or something? This is a weird conversation.
        jrflowers 3y ago
        I have no idea what you’re implying. I know you don’t mean to imply that that religion has shills online and it is an affront that anyone would ever mention Scientology on the web; we’re on the same page there. I’m agreeing with what you have said.
- taeric 3y ago
  I'd suspect it is fairly common for most all religions? Would be neat to see data on it. I certainly don't like the behavior. Doesn't feel uncommon, though.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

SllX 3y ago

Yeah. People’s moral values and breed of sacred cows do have an effect on their management and leadership style. Non-religious people are outnumbered here (here being the planet, not necessarily this specific website but maybe even that too), so being militantly against that sort of thing kind of isn’t worth our time, or I guess more correctly it is a poor investment of our time. Better to live and let live.

mullingitover 3y ago

I worked at Age of Learning, which was headed by the founders of Neopets after they sold the company. I definitely had some concerns about the Scientology stuff going into that job, but I never heard a word about it the entire time I worked there. The vibes were definitely a little weird, but nothing overt. The bigger problems were that they were a mess in terms of engineering - for example they didn't even use version control for the first few years that ABCMouse was in business.