Can we have ATS back, please?

Thank you! I totally subscribe to your words speacially because i dont understand half the nonsense.
You discuss the politics of your own country as if it was a very bad reality tv show, everyone complains in one of the biggest country in the world, and really i dont understand since the state belongs to the people, the government only manages the state, and the management is again chosen by the people, i dont understand when the castration of the people has occured, since you even seem to be well armed and stuffs XD
Well, we want UFOS, little people, giants, other dimensions and unexplainned stuff to make our brains work, please bring ATS back!

*and by the way this post is traveling in time since i wrote it at 22:16 in the 8th of February 2017

I have been visiting ats for many years as well, I don't bother logging in (I lose the active/recent topic sidebars).

I discovered ats after experiencing sleep paralysis for the first time and stayed because of "the language of the vampry" thread (what a read, I still check it, and forgotten languages occasionally).

Please bring back the old ats, in the last couple of years it has gone down hill, in my opinion, to the point where I only read a thread or two a week, and have been rather unsuccessfully looking for alternative sites.

I used to open up so many tabs of ats topics to read that I couldn't get through them all and had to save them to favorites for future reading that I would never get too because more threads would draw my attention.

It would be great to see an alternative home page on ats were we have the option to filter out topics related to US-politics and Syria, so we can find the "other" top, new, recent, active, etc topics

This is possibly the best thread I've read this year, now I get to research fortean's and learn something!

originally posted by: ketsuko

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
a reply to: ketsuko

I have spent a lot of time researching the mother of all conspiracies, something I pretty much ignored, some of it is BS but much of it is right on the money when you see how once wild theories are coming to pass.

There is noting more fascinating at this point in time, I wanted to start a topic but, they stress me out.

I know. There are a lot things you see on YouTube that I used to class as entertainment that start to make a lot of sense, and that's pretty scary. I can't tell if it's the world that's shifting to match what they say or if I'm going off the deep end or a bit of both.

lol I know what you mean.

I seldom post, but often lurk. Big S&F as this thread was very much needed. This has been my favorite website for a very long time as it offers endless knowledge and critical thinking across the board. I also, as others stated felt ATS would go back to normal shortly after the elections, but boy it's been hard on the eyes lately with so much hate in general. The front page has been littered with politics related threads that are filled with a lot of the same hateful posts for some time now (it's the hateful posts I don't care for). Thank you OP for sharing your thoughts, the feeling is mutual.

I'm not sure I'm allowed to single out another thread but I'm just going to post the title as an example of the current ATS vs the old ATS.

Americas newest TV reality show- Bannon and Cheeto

You'd never see a thread like that a few years ago. It's trolling and purely meant to start an argument. There's no real thoughtfulness in that thread.

So are we going to see this type of thing posted for the next 4-8 years? I don't mind people who despise Trump, hate the ground he walks on but there's a difference between debating that and starting threads with no real point, simply meant to invoke arguments.

I do more lurking then posting but I couldn't agree more with the OP.

a reply to: ForteanOrg

I agree with you.
But I would drop the Mexicans being aliens #e... it's like saying all of us from the US are a bunch of fat a$$es. Would help with your argument getting somewhere.

Just sayin'

originally posted by: MysticPearl
I'm not sure I'm allowed to single out another thread but I'm just going to post the title as an example of the current ATS vs the old ATS.

Americas newest TV reality show- Bannon and Cheeto

You'd never see a thread like that a few years ago. It's trolling and purely meant to start an argument. There's no real thoughtfulness in that thread.

So are we going to see this type of thing posted for the next 4-8 years? I don't mind people who despise Trump, hate the ground he walks on but there's a difference between debating that and starting threads with no real point, simply meant to invoke arguments.

I agree with you completely, but we should balance this by saying both sides are equally guilty of baiting the other, day in, day out. It's less about political discussion and more about point scoring and trying to invoke an emotioral reaction out of someone. It's basically Xbox Call of Duty in forum form, except that it's largely grown men acting like 13yr old boys.

In some ways, the changes in the site should be considered a good thing. As others have mentioned, a lot of the wackier ideas have already been either debunked and/or examined heavily to bits.

One aspect of "The Old" ATS that used to frustrate me to no end is, that you could pop in any old time and find essentially the same topics that you saw a couple months ago, a year ago or more were posted all over again as new topics with people asking the same questions and pondering the same theories.

Maybe, we're evolving.
Maybe, we have reached a new plateau in forum discussion where we can finally set aside the numerous topics we had questions about for all the years before the internet and can move onto the more compacted ideas that most certainly or almost inevitably involved politics.

I know I've been learning over the years. I was able to discern a lot of truths about religion or supernatural woo. I was able to learn more about the involvement of our leaders and our laws and how our liberties have eroded. At this point, I've come to understand that politics and religions are incredibly intertwined with the bigger plots coming to a head as time goes by.

So maybe we're learning folks and this is just a part of the evolution of free discussion as we come together to truly unravel all the mysteries that we've been kept shielded from all these years. Sure, it's not the BEST form of discussion yet and there's a long ways to go. So, while there's a lot of posts that continue to annoy or a lot of nitpicky political debates, maybe we're actually making... dare I say it? Progress.

a reply to: Grambler

I've seen people do exactly that, but unlike heated political debate, these things just get shunted off into the ether as political piranhas descend upon the political threads voraciously piling into them hungry do devour each other politically.

People get frustrated, and just say screw it. It wouldn't matter if people made a hundred such threads, they'd all just get shunted into the ether.

There simply is no way for things to reach equilibrium so long as everything else is required to compete in the same space as the political stuff with all the crazy # going on right now. Is unreasonable to think this can just be fixed by more people posting other stuff. At best you'll just end up with more frustrated people throwing their arms in the air, posting threads like these in desperation, having people like you blaming them instead of listening, then them saying screw it, leaving and ATS becomes more and more barren of people wanting to talk more than politics by the day.

The only way to save ATS is to remove politics from the main list of forums. It severely needs it's own special place.

By the way I'm saying this and I enjoy many of the political threads. It's simply a fact that, other things simply cannot compete right now. Even if only temporary til things die down, politics needs to be separate for a bit.

originally posted by: MysticPearlstarting threads with no real point, simply meant to invoke arguments.

And something else that often happens as of lately is that no matter what a thread is about, somebody brings up his political views, mostly in an uncivilised way, which provokes an uncivilised response. Suddenly the honourable opposition is reduced to a turd, a 'libtard' or a 'fascist', and instead of building bridges and try to find common ground, both sides paint themselves in a corner where they really don't belong.

a reply to: ForteanOrg

I'm with you on a lot of the topics, which is why I joined up in the first place. I rarely, if even participated in the Political Top Secret site section, being bored of the political topics. That and having seen the brint of what it is, a haven for trolls and if you don't agree with the majority you're treated like #. Partisan sides then had "cat-fished" in political chats throughout the net.

Some months ago I recall a discussion alluding to this site isn't doing well(ie see a main PGate thread). Viewing that personally, with about 130 people on it at night(US), I don't recall the signed in member list being that low in numbers, used to be around 300 or so then(?).

It's either CT topics and the mysterious, etc. minus the political ones are just on the way out with this place-from too many hoaxes to too much debunking(I'm guilty here too!). Looks to be the last driving factor in site participation is political, especially since the change in demographics around here in the past two years or so.

As I mentioned I'm with you OP, but unfortunately don;t see a light at the end of the tunnel to having the site back to the way it was. best thing to do is try to "be the change you want to see". if you're seeking participation or even s&fs that may be a challenge however. Thanks for reading.

originally posted by: ForteanOrg

originally posted by: MysticPearlstarting threads with no real point, simply meant to invoke arguments.

And something else that often happens as of lately is that no matter what a thread is about, somebody brings up his political views, mostly in an uncivilised way, which provokes an uncivilised response. Suddenly the honourable opposition is reduced to a turd, a 'libtard' or a 'fascist', and instead of building bridges and try to find common ground, both sides paint themselves in a corner where they really don't belong.

I agree it has happened to my threads, at least in one the composure wasn't too bad as some threads and from participants. Getting in there, explaining the political question, etc., seemed to have helped before it turned into that kind of argument.

a reply to: ForteanOrg

Yes, please!! While I do enjoy a good political discussion, i agree that the behavior of many leaves a lot to be desired! Most of the time, the poor mods have to step in with warnings, and comments get removed, because people aren't discussing civilly anymore. Plus, there are far more "top" discussions on politics than on anything else. While I like some of those, I'd love to see the other stuff as well! Come on, folks, there are plenty of conspiracies we can discuss, unusual sightings, old legends, and so forth!! New videos of sightings pop up all the time, and I see more browsing YT than I do here. We can do better!!

a reply to: ForteanOrg

I am a fortean. Forteans, as you probably know, thrive on the unexpected, the weird, the strange

In my 50+ years I can't think of a more strange, unexpected and weird time than now and the last several months leading up to the present, it just happens that most of the issues in these categories are political. Compelling, captivating enlightening and highly entertaining nonetheless.

It will pass eventually, but nothing will ever be the same welcome to our new changed reality.

Honestly, I don't think this has anything to do with politics.

Political people are not showing up in the fortean sort of threads and killing the discussion with dismissive, rude behavior. ATS 'clubhouse regulars' are the ones doing that. Bunch of 'Dr House' wannabes.

The same people show up again and again to ridicule people and kill discussion. Discussion should be about people collaboratively pursuing topics through discussion at their own pace. It's a reasonably good way to learn in your free time. But rather than having the patience to make the most of 'teachable moments' these toxic regulars prove again and again that they are here not for discussion, but simply to puff themselves up, as a daily addiction, with the feeling of superiority they get from crushing people and discussion topics as quickly and over-dramatically as possible. Some of these people have even acquired mod power over their topic areas.

Whereas the only sort that I feel that it is appropriate to get short with are the ones knowingly spreading disinformation as part of selling books or other products, seeking youtube clip views, etc.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

No. It is about how ATS has turned into a political website and the direction it is taking.

Denny

The site seemed to go downhill after the whole 2012 end of the world thing. There was so much emphasis around 2012 by proponents of the "prophecy" it even got it's own forum. It invited so many "non-forteans" in to begin debunking the theory and I guess they just stuck around. That's my theory anyway...

The whole 2012 thing was nonsense to me which was clear in my posts, and very annoying that it basically became the center of attention. Kind of like how Trump is now the only thing everyone wants to talk about. I am surprised he doesn't have his own forum yet.

Yes. Please.

The main pages of any newspaper worlwide: Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Putin, Trump and Putin.
Yeah some people died in Syria and those who survived flooding Europe.

But TRUMP!
And PUTIN!

Most US presidents supported the same hidden agenda. Just different faces for the same s1ht.

Yes, i want to know about the lost civilisation frozen in time beneath antarctica.

About hideous lifeforms in the subsurface oceans of enceladus and europa!

Even everyday greys would do the trick, on the mainpage, just a modest wish.

I always thought that the ATS Republic stands above the political games, that they wont be manipulated that easily.

One can dream. I want to believe

originally posted by: ThinkingCap
Total speculation here,
Since the elections, I think ATS has been raking in a lot of views and hits.
Now with Trump, I don't expect it to be slowing down any time soon.

Even if ATS had a master plan to restore it to it's previous glory, I don't think it would be a good for business.

100% agree, in my view that's the nail, hit straight on the head.
At the end of the day, it's a business.

ATS is becoming more like the Daily Mail and its forums every day and the mail sure makes enough profit from hits and ads.

The old ATS will never return, there's simply too much to lose