The recent surge in new members; some conjecture.

We can't see the IP's.. that would be the real teller here.

10-20 Ip's in a small range making accounts in the same 4 hour block = NGO or Corp Shill tank.

Yes i know.. VPN's and such.. but not everyone's that "savy" there will be mistakes made by rookies.. like flooding the site with newbies too fast, not scattering IP's when doing so...

I'd be on the lookout Mod/Admins.. these are strange times.

Board has enough mill/gov Damage Control experts and PR corps as it is.. we really don't need whole teams beating us down with the "everything's fine.. go back to sleep THIS IS PERFECTLY NORMAL" chant.. watch for that too... after they settle in, If those same block IP's start chanting in unison (IE: flooding a thread with the same agenda then destroying the thread once that fails) then PLEASE start taking action.

We rely on you to keep us somewhat safe, so we can actually engage in debate without having to walk on eggshells.

It's getting hard to even have a "outside the box" idea already... just sayin..

For me I had been lurking and reading every day just like the OP. The main diffrence is that I didn't have and account. So the turning point for me was that I wanted to be more involved inthis community

Very well could be the Jade Helm thing. I don't watch the media but the news must be going around. I had a complete stranger sitting next to me the other day say to me: "You have military connections, what's up with this Walmart tunnels Jade Helm thing?" Caught me off guard for sure since I never thought that would make headlines.

originally posted by: Jakal26
I'm just going to put this here in the gray area because I honestly don't think it is deserving of "skunk works" and it's just an observation anyways....

....this will be short and to the point.

I registered here in 2010. I have been lurking, near daily, on this site for far longer than that (3 or 4 years plus) and in all that time, I have not seen as many "introduction" threads as I have in the last 2 or 3 days.

...ATS is my homepage, so when I open my browser I am taken to the "recent posts" page, it's been set up that way for me for years now....so I have not missed them. Like I said, even when I remain silent, I am generally here...reading, listening, learning, and of course entertaining myself.

In the past few days, I've literally seen introduction after introduction, sometimes 5 or 6 in a row on the recent posts page. I have never seen so many of them before.
....generally, we have more new members come around during times when schools have been released for summer vacation. Even then, I did not see the "surge" in new members that I have seen in the last few days.

Now, I'm not accusing new members of anything at all. I just find it rather strange, the recent surge.

Are some of these accounts "spam" that is being used to attack the site (not sure how that would work but I'm sure others here know more about that than myself)

Is it possible that these accounts are being set up so as to be "gatekeepers" of conversation for some future event that is about to occur (pure conjecture on my part, btw).....

Idk...it just seems strange to me. It's definitely got me wondering....

So, am I reading too much into it, or have others noticed this recent surge as well?

What say you, ATS?

good point

a reply to: StoutBroux

I wasn't really aiming at "it's a conspiracy"....more along the lines of, could this be used to "attack" the site.
The sudden influx of introduction threads seemingly coincided with "server not found" and "connect timed out" errors that I was getting.

Funny thing. Last night I was having problems sleeping....so I was here basically all night, reading.
The "surge" had stopped. No 5 and 6 "introductions" in the recent posts like it had been for about 2, maybe 3 days....and no "errors".

Coincidence? Very possibly. We were having some fairly windy weather here, so it could have been on my end.

Personally, I don't know how someone cannot sign up because viewing ATS pages while not being logged in is literally intolerable. I lurked for a short while but decided to join just to avoid the overwhelming ads.

I can't really speak on that. Never had that problem signed in or not signed in.
I once added a link to help a member here with that and got the hammer brought down on me...so I'll go no further.
Just know that it can be fixed How you "fix" it is up to you to educate yourself on....(ATS don't take kindly to folks who eliminate those pesky ads..lol)

it's almost election year so those lurkers want to get in on the great discussions.

it's almost election year so those lurkers want to get in on all the pissing contests so they can bicker back and forth with the best of em. There are also some looking to push an agenda (obviously)...

^^There, I fixed it for ya.

a reply to: Bobaganoosh

Over the last two weeks, many who usually don't want to strike up a conversation about my favorite subjects have come to me asking what I know about the whole "jade helm" thing.

Yeah, tell me about it. I've seen a LOT of people generally not discussing "conspiracy" themed material and a LOT of those people are generally not the type to be doing so.

In my CT oriented mind....that IS the conspiracy.
This whole "Jade Helm" thing just screams diversion tactic to me. (being used to distract from TPP perhaps?...anyone?)

Just an opinion though, as I remain open minded and will take into account any and all (verifiable) information from all sides and I have been "lurking" those threads and such...even though I'm about burnt out on "Jade Helm" and "walmart tunnels" (though, I do find the "walmart tunnel system" conspiracy stuff a bit entertaining and laughable)

a reply to: Jakal26

By experience I will have to agree that is all because of politics, we used to have a whole forum dedicated to politics, because the incredible surge of political thread during elections, but the forum was eliminated once people started to lose interest in big political news after elections.

You have not seen anything yet, is going to get very busy in about a few more months.

a reply to: ColeYounger

But rebelling against facebook is not the 'in' thing.

Perhaps you misunderstand what I'm saying....let me clarify.
Using fb is the "in thing" for the masses, sure....which makes it the "in thing" for those that are of a rebellious nature to "rebel" against....catch my drift?

I agree with aerospace engineer John Bennes when he said, regarding Facebook's IPO, that the largest technology IPO in U.S. history was for a technology that wastes peoples time.

Way too simplistic and not true.
Sure, people waste time on fb. Those same people were "wasting time" while playing net mini golf or whatever the hell they did before fb and will be "time wasters" when fb is no more. It's a choice, we all make them.

Learning to utilize the platform and surrounding yourself with those of like mind (or like myself, a lot of opposition to my thinking and some that are "like minded" to balance it all out) is the key to not "wasting time" on fb.

Experience varies....what you choose to do, read, learn etc etc is up to you.
I do not feel I "waste time" at fb anymore than I do here. I do the exact same things there, same discussions etc etc.

I share a lot of what I glean from here, there...and sometimes (if it's not already posted - lots more people here than my fb "friends" list...so they are quick to the draw) vise versa....

Again, it's up to the user to utilize the platform "correctly"...not the people that created fb or any other site, social media or not.
I'd venture to say that many "waste time" here as much as any other platform.

a reply to: marg6043

Oh, I know. I recall the last election cycle and am very familiar with the increased traffic at that time.

We do have the "political mud pit" (I think that is it) so maybe that will mitigate it spilling over into some of the less politically based threads. (I can only hope)

So sick of the left/right paradigm believers....when will they learn?

a reply to: Jakal26

The mud pit of today is nothing compare to the one the site used to have back when I joined, it was not as controlled, I remember I got my first butt kick and first flag (back then) during my stupid attempt to compete with seasonal mud pit timers, they are all gone now once the old mud pit was eliminated, people asked for it back, but is not even close what used to be.



And yes, politics and political elections will bring a big crowd, more often than not, is about campaigning for their favorite parties and candidates, it will be lost of banning, bickering and more, this time around, I will just look from the side lines, it is not good for the blood pressure.

a reply to: marg6043

I will just look from the side lines, it is not good for the blood pressure.

Yeah, me too.
No use arguing with those with a firmly closed mind who still think the crooked bastards in charge have their "best interest" in mind. I've accepted the fact that, for some, it's useless to waste the breath. This applies to the real world as well.

Though, at times, I seem to get "drug in"....like a moth to a flame, for some reason I just can't stop myself
Perhaps, some days, I just like to argue with em a bit. LOL

and have a nice day. I'm outta here for a while.

originally posted by: Jakal26
a reply to: marg6043



Though, at times, I seem to get "drug in"....like a moth to a flame, for some reason I just can't stop myself

Perhaps, some days, I just like to argue with em a bit. LOL

and have a nice day. I'm outta here for a while.

Don't feel bad I do too, but is better to come out and post details with reliable links, is more fun like that as those that usually are campaigning or just been trolling do not have anything to back them off but opinions.

Have a nice day too.

Based off of personal experience and intuition. I feel that there are indeed gatekeepers seeking to gain presence (and with presence) as well as spammers who's job is to be negative and aggravate people.

Of course there are plenty of people who are just this way...but I'm not convinced they all are.

I have noticed this with youtube big time...for a while now...so much negativity and racism in the comment section just looking to perpetuate hate between people. People feed into it.

Dbl post

Anyone checked for consistencies with all the civil unrest threads lately?

Might be a connection to jade helm if the civil unrest "appears" to gets too much for authorities to handle, like many other suspected fake flags a event could see a drill be called into action instead of practice.

Agent provocateurs or shills?

Everyone is a suspect now.

Hehe