Discussion About The Putin Stealthy Coup Rumors Mega-Thread...

Echoing my post in-thread here, will have more to say later. Right now, I'm really disappointed with a few ATS members and their apparent inability to discern the validity of the core story.

This is/was a real story.

Twitter, and to some extent Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat were "lit up" with this topic. Twitter alone was seeing over 10,000 unique tweets (not retweets) an hour at one point.

The "Twitter Storm" was real, and often fueled by real reports of a coup, which has been anticipated for some time, which was discussed here on ATS, and mentioned by Stratfor just days ago.

This thread wasn't using Twitter as the source of breaking political news; breaking political news was happening on twitter, and being commented on in real time. There's an important distinction.

For those with aversion to social media, this is going to be difficult, if not impossible to embrace: it is now one of the primary information sharing methods for average people. The evolution toward that has been happening for about three years, and continues now.

These were mostly real events, happening in the world, being shared by concerned people. The fact that some of it was wrong, some of it exaggerated, some of it breathless, and some of it contrived does not make it less of a story. And in fact, on the whole, is no different from the mainstream media's wrong, exaggerated, breathless, and contrived reporting on 9/11/2001.

I hope all forms of social media burn...

Aversion is putting it lightly.

Big no no I saw that and chuckled at it a bit but this was Def not a hoax this had info from various news sources and opinions the legitimacy of the argument and discussion was genuine all 4k pages of it come on hoaxes don't go more than 2pages !!

Hey SO i think pixelpusher might have gotten under your skin with that comment.. reply to: SkepticOverlord

What is this "Social Media" nonsense you speak of?

originally posted by: SkepticOverlord
These were mostly real events, happening in the world, being shared by concerned people. The fact that some of it was wrong, some of it exaggerated, some of it breathless, and some of it contrived does not make it less of a story. And in fact, on the whole, is no different from the mainstream media's wrong, exaggerated, breathless, and contrived reporting on 9/11/2001.

This is an issue I see with many people that are hardcore into believing conspiracies.

They seem to think events unfold in a nice precise timeline so anytime their is a mistake , incorrectly reported item or missed detail it is an indication of the MSM being horrible vs the way the real world plays out. People want info and the want it ASAP which in turn leads to mistakes.

It's no different to me then troubleshooting a complex outage at work where things are reported and as more info is found out those items are refined, clarified or changed 100%. It doesn't mean the people that made the initial report are evil it just means they reported on what they knew at the time. The real world doesn't happen in a vacuum that is easily categorized and reported on.

As for Social Media....

It gives us almost immediate information exchange to a level that we never had before. The problem is a random tween from some person should always be taken with a grain of a salt until that information can be confirmed.

Personally I find Twitter to be a huge help in my networking, career and personal enjoyment.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

I don't think anyone's journalistic integrity was compromised by reporting what very well could have been one of the biggest stories of the year. If you ask me, its still unfolding.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

The fact that some of it was wrong, some of it exaggerated, some of it breathless, and some of it contrived does not make it less of a story. And in fact, on the whole, is no different from the mainstream media's wrong, exaggerated, breathless, and contrived reporting on 9/11/2001.

With respect, it is very different precisely because you/we/ATS are/is not mainstream media. In other words, you did not package this with a particular slant, manipulate the story to suit your demographic or decide to hide it from your readers.

It was real-time news, a global community were able to add bits and pieces and to me this is hugely important. I would rather make my own mind up from seeing all the reports and evidence than be sold a story by an outlet. To take a recent example, Thatcher's complicity in the ongoing abuse scandal was given around 48 hours of minimal coverage by the BBC website, and after 24 hours you really had to hunt for the story. That demonstrates bias, not a free sharing of information.

Social media exists and is here to stay and so we might as well embrace it and take those bits that are useful from it.

B x

And where else online can I find all the scattered and incoming info and try to keep up? RIGHT HERE! This is my "go to site".

In fact I hardly ever go to look for news anymore because I know it's going to be on here immediately.

Until we see proof with our own eyes everything is a rumour until verified. I'm quite satisfied with the way this one went.

Did you ever consider that ATS and its high member rate plus the new twitter account might be partially to blame for perpetuating this hoax??

Yes social media may have been discussing this, but on my media it was only the fringe sites that followed this. Nobody else cared.

Leads me to believe that without your mega thread and all the speculation involved therein, this whole story was a non-issue for the rest of the world.

No, SO...I think your guilty of perpetuating speculation in the wrong forum and by ATS standards this was a Hoax plain and simple.

Eta- I think theres an obvious reason as to why no respected journalist was picking this up and running with it. You would think that if there was merit to the speculation then anybody with a press badge would be all over it trying to be the first to break the news.

Just bad form by ats I believe. It should have never been placed under news. Grey area sure. But, by placing it in the forum you did, and violating your own T&Cs, I believe you knocked ATS's credibility down a peg. But its your site to do what you wish.

As for the troglodytes afraid of social media... get used to it. Its not going anywhere anytime soon. You can take that to the bank.

The best I can do is offer some cheese with your whine while you wait on the whaambulance. Maybe I could play a dirge on the worlds smallest violin?

I still wonder what caused this much of a stir? They don't normally start from nothing. Sure it might have been caused by one key person misspeaking. But to cause this much in so little time, it seems a little overblown. Social Media had it's own little melt down.

I still can't track down how the rumor of the bodyguard being dead started.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Hmmm, before I reply I will have to check what the graffiti on the wall in the back alley is saying.


eta; Yeah, I just checked, there were a whole lot of cuss words that are actually surprisingly relevant. I will not post them.

I do not see any harm with speculating about why a leader of a superpower is off the radar for 10 days.
2th line

I was surprised how many Russian Sympathisers only became members on ATS in the last two weeks to give their opinion on this matter and the thread in question. Probably see these same members handles become "Dormant" this week whilst they create new handles for their next lot of "talking Points".

Does ATS have the facility to see how many "User Names" have the same IP address? (Just wondering :mnky

contrived reporting on 9/11/2001.

I don't know if you consider this off topic, but I am curious to find out what you see as contrived 911 reporting.

a reply to: Chickensalad

HOAX

transitive verb : to trick into believing or accepting as genuine something false and often preposterous

SO was not hoaxing. Pure and simple.

i.word.com...

originally posted by: flammadraco
Does ATS have the facility to see how many "User Names" have the same IP address?

We typically don't hunt for "witches."

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Whew! Dodged a bullet on that one. *Casts spell to make everyone who sees this post forget it*

This was a perfect example of what this site is all about. Sure this time, it didn't turn out to be what was initially thought. (so far) but the fact that we have members from all over the world that can offer their perspective and sometimes their live information, we could be way ahead of the power curve on news stories.

Don't apologize, don't think it was a mistake, don't call it a hoax, and be thankful it looks like the world won't end in the next few moments.