Why is there so little recent and new topics on ATS anymore?

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Because it's been the same old crap for the last 10 years I guess.

originally posted by: mr10k
I could tell it was dying when people respected Arken more than Phage. Just saying.

Yeah, I noticed one of the newer members said something nasty to Phage and I haven't heard much from him since.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I've noticed most people skip threads that involve a little reading. It is the twitter culture, and the idea that we can get our points across by linking to someone else's points.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

I've noticed most people skip threads that involve a little reading. It is the twitter culture, and the idea that we can get our points across by linking to someone else's points.

If we sampled ~5000 posts and analysed the number of stars compared to the word count, we'd get a broad idea of the optimal post length.

A comparison of a similar sample from 2009 could be interesting too. Although we might expect to see a diminishing word count to star ratio, it'd be interesting to see if it really was the case.

originally posted by: ObservingYou
if you do go against the grain, you must be prepared to take on twenty hounds dogs all ready aggrevate you into an emotional response - to detract from the truth, and embrace ignorance.

Over the last few years all real researchers have been bullied and plauged away from this site, leaving us with the bottom rung of internet posters.

Spot on

originally posted by: mr10k
I could tell it was dying when people respected Arken more than Phage. Just saying.

Really?? How is that supposed to make Arken feel? He doesn't get to choose who respects him and who doesn't, yet you bring up his name as if Phage is somehow more worthy of respect than he is. Both are worthy of equal respect.

One man's trash is another man's treasure as the old saying goes. Both Phage and Arken contribute things that people here obviously like. A fan of one may not be a fan of the other. Some people may prefer Arken's Mars rocks threads to Phage's scientific ones, but neither is more worthy of respect than the other based on that IMO.

a reply to: DonVoigt

One way to engage the status of a subject would be by the amount of trolls that hit it . Could be a good barometer to guage if the subject is one to read and read past the nonsense rascals posts and find out any good responses for infomation .

I find myself doing that all the time .. I too find that their aren't any really exciting posts anymore . Ones where people found a mystery that needed reseraching together .
Trolling and shilling , a good way to shut down free flowing infomation on Pop culture sites as this one now is . Faceboook tell you whats on ATS

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Excellent opening post ! I've also noticed a change over a period of time but I think that most of the reasons have already been specified in the replies. I, for one, do miss the "good old days". Never thought I'd say this. But it's true. Most of the posters that I tremendously enjoyed reading have either vanished (banned or quit) or have been promoted or demoted and I hardly see them anymore.

I cannot blame any of those reasons for the lack of good quality threads though. I think that the conspiracy ideology has somehow saturated on ATS. There are already tons of past fantastic threads that have discussed the best conspiracies that exist. So it's pretty darn hard to come out with something new and exciting. The Mega Epic threads are behind us, not in front of us.

I've also noticed a lot of hostility in certain topics that would discourage anyone from putting a new thread up and especially lurking members. Seriously, certain topics rattle feathers and are best to be avoided. I learned my lesson with that not too long ago.

i was thinking about this yesterday, and all I had in mind was "Be the change you want to see...". Sounds cliché, I know but I don't think it's the answer any more. Pretty hard to make a change when the change that I'd like to see is from the past. And I don't think those days will ever come back. I love ATS dearly, anyone who's been around a few years knows that, but the peak of ATS has come and passed. All we have left is residual memory.

The shills ran everyone out of here. They sapped the fun out of the site. All thats talked about is basic newsmedia stories. The element that made the site unique is gone.

A certain group of people are starting to flex their collective muscle around the web. When they are done, it'll be as useless as television.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

People attack others just for having a different opinion. They receive stars at the same time.

a reply to: mr10k

It appears that dominance rather than evidence' based reasoning and posting has for a while been ever more obvious on ATS.

Certain cliques that now spend most of their ATS time in chat forums etc see the site more as a social thing than for discussing more serious topics and when they do they remain faithful to their clique, as the social side of things is where it is at for them, so they won't post contrary opinions to their clique or 'clique alpha' or participate in or star an 'enemy' of their clique. That removes a lot of the active members from posting on the more serious forums.

Kind of like ATS disco (yes a tacky picture) where there is some guy in a John Travolta white suit gestures around strutting (dominance based) (impressing his flunkies and spray tanned, neon mini skirted flooslets) shouting out ''hey look at me I can throw any #### out there and you guys gonna lap it up, woop woooooop feel my egooooo'' whilst the more reserved and refined are shoved off the dancefloor every time they bring something (research and evidence) based to the table.

If ATS is to keep being a quality conspiracy site where the more intelligent choose to read and post and make threads it should probably up it's game. There are too many entirely unresearched nonsense threads that most know are bunk being thrown out and starred just because of people doing the opposite of denying ignorance and refusing to listen to the truth.

Not sure if there's anything 'Above Top Secret' about a bunch of egotists aiming at being the 1%, do we not have that sort of thing going on in our societies enough!

Attention spans are splintering. The smartphone-i-zation of the way people communicate on the Internet means people look at anything longer than a few sentences and think "eww, wall of text. TLDR." The fact that you can't communicate with one-liners, little burps of leet-speak, and cat-picture memes turns people off. Not saying it is a good thing (it's not), but it is what it is.

Also, ATS is heavily modded, and the list of "certain subjects about which we cannot speak" is rather long IMHO, especially for a speculative board. I've sometimes wondered if "Disneyfication of the alternative media" might be on a slow and pernicious rise. The desire to keep everything civil and polite is a noble one, but also brings its own restricting mentality and can seem stuffy and forced to a certain type of mind. Lastly, the feature bloat (hundreds of icons, more bells and whistles than a jet cockpit) is a bit offputting to many. There is a reason why the smartphone's success is connected with its simplicity and intuitive use, while clunky digital watches with a zillion buttons have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

Not trying to rag on ATS, just telling it as it is.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

We DO have over a HALF a MILLION members here!

a reply to: mysterioustranger

How many of those are active though, and which percentage of active members post regularly, say weekly replies in threads, and which percentage post threads and how regularly.

It appears that there is a small percentage that regularly post threads and those have an ATS 'following' of sorts and could basically post anything and get stars and flags, a few of them are mods.

An example is the recent thread by Springer I think it was, about a 'yeti' that if say a newbie posted, it would have been trashed on the first page, got maybe 3 flags and a few stars and maybe 2 pages, the newbie might have been put off for ever posting a thread again, or improving their research, though Springer got maybe 30 something flags and plenty of stars, because he has an ATS 'following'.

Things like that, posters making threads for the first time and them being ignored but any old nonsense from certain other posters getting flagged to oblivion.

Just in the last 2 weeks there have been numerous threads I commented on that were totally misleading, should probably have been retitled or sent to the hoax bin and despite the facts being shown on the first pages, they got many stars as people just ignored the facts and went on believing a fantasy.

Experiences like that ''hmm are these people for real'' doesn't lend well to credibility nor to their being any point in showing the facts in threads if people just ignored them anyway.

originally posted by: mr10k
I could tell it was dying when people respected Arken more than Phage. Just saying.

Really? i'm pretty sure phage is paid to be here. It was in his intro thread.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

We shouldn't attribute the overall feelings or theme/representations of opinions just to the ones who post frequently. Youre attributing everything here to the same set of posters... all the time. Im saying there are potentially a few hundred thousand able to post. Regardless of whether or not we see the same responders a lot or not.

It takes all of us to make up this site. Otherwise, should we maybe kick out all the members who DONT post a lot or frequently as being un-important to the whole tone of ATS? Forums are supposed to go up and down, in and out, topical and philosophical, yea and nay.

Why even bother with adding members when we're gonna call them out on the number of posts or contributions to the site? The one time-occasional poster has the same rights as the 10x daily ones...whether they post only once a year or daily...and all of us set the standards....

And of course the overall tone is set by the frequent responders...but in no way should it be construed to be indicative of the whole when its not. That's the "ebb and flow" necessary for a good forum group.

2012 didn't happen.
And losing ones doomvirginity in such a bad episode withholds a lot of people to participate in doomorgies.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

Just as a little bit of ATS trivia, there have been about 10,700 members who have even looked at the site in the last two months.

a reply to: mysterioustranger

Actually I didn't say that at all. Just making an observation, clearly many others are making similar observations.

Youre attributing everything here to the same set of posters... all the time.

a reply to: charles1952

Thanks, yes I do check the stats.

It would be interesting to know which percentage of those members posted.

Many new members lurk for years before joining and similarly for those joining, they might lurk for years before posting any replies or making threads.

Of course making constructive observations just gets some on ATS defensive. Their ride here might have been all flowers and sunshine but for many it hasn't been, yet mentioning it appears frowned upon. Transparency and honesty is often the basis of looking forward in a true light.

Another point that might deter visitors from joining or members posting is the percentage of US politics or US specific threads, some clearly do not want opinion from elsewhere. Often the non US threads are slim pickings to say the least.