I dont know if Im the only one that bit the myspace bullet, but, I think that AD should get a myspace groups profile.

Recently Dateline aired a number of stories about how sexual preditors have used MySpace to set up meetings with underage kids. I think MySpace is great for kids, but adults should stay off. Personally I wouldn't touch this with a ten foot poll.

This is just an opinion.

Myspace- well, it may have a bad rep there- but it is pretty much the entertainers communication and announcment board- just about every entertainer on the planet is on there now.

Lot's of groups for comics and musicians there- many of them exclusive to members and actual entertainers.

I don't think there is any part of the internet safe from pedophiles- but I don't think myspace is any more or less dangerous to kids than any other area of the internet.

this is the second time i've heard this today in a completely different context. considering almost everyone i went to college with uses it and there's an age requirement of 14 how would "sex predators" affect us?

There was a Dateline item about pedophilia that mentioned MySpace in passing - and it was picked up by a couple of cable news programs. It's just a convenient target of the week for would-be internet censors. I don't think a single news item should affect the decision one way or another.

That said, I don't know if AD necessarily needs a MySpace presence any more than it needs a LiveJournal or a BlogSpot or even an OkCupid profile. Individuals are welcome to promote AD (or America's Deabte Radio) in their blogs or whatever and I suppose someone could create an AD "group" or LJ "interest", but I don't know that anyone on the staff would have the time or inclination to maintain an "official" profile elsewhere...

I don't necessarily disagree with what nemov or WERTZ have written.

As a former school teacher, I would personally approach such webpages with caution. I konw some younger people from the coffee shop who are members. They don't make it sound like something that would have appeal to senior citizens.

Apart from all that, I see no value in having a presence on MySpace.

As it does with good doctors and lawyers, word-of-mouth (or perhaps keyboard) will do more to promote than any type of advetising. It's like "dance with the word-of-mouth that brung you."

I don't know that anyone from the staff would have time to maintain that in an official capacity, but if someone (deathalive or someone else) volunteered to do it in an unofficial capacity I bet Mike and Jaime would be amenable to that idea. It never hurts to ask.

MySpace definitely has an appeal to the younger generation BoF, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad In reality stuff like that is just marketing and if one wanted to make a focused effort to get more younger people on AD that would be the way to do it. It probably wouldn't be the way to attract anyone older than say 25 though.

Considering that the majority of AD members are age 29 and under and less than 20% are over 40, it would not surprise me if we have many members on Myspace.

I don't know much about it except what I've heard on the news (not particularly positive) but places where people meet online and share personal information are not inherently bad.

However, it is AD policy not to spread personal information about members. This is better handled by someone not officially sanctioned by America's Debate.

Don't use MySpace unless you have good anti-spyware software. I wouldn't touch the site simply because it's so dirty. Whatever goal you are trying to accomplish, there are much better tools for it than MySpace.

Ah, MySpace. I like to think of it as a late night infomercial - really stupid, poorly produced, yet compelling enough not to tune out.

I have a MySpace account. I initially opened it to keep in touch with a few members. I maintain the account because it's a nice way to stay in contact with friends and family who aren't all into politics, and therefore, don't hang out here.

That being said, however, is not interested in opening a formal MySpace group at this time. Unfortunately, MySpace has attracted a large audience of immature people, many of whom are liars. The signal to noise ratio in regards to honest profile personalities is too great to be bothered with. is not interested in dealing with the problems routinely associated with the general audience of MySpace.

Of course, if any of you are so hard-core that you want to open an I group, we can't stop you.

Cheers.