The same conversations, again and again and again

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
I suppose a solution would be to create a thread on something new? (I know, crazy thought... but damn, it just might work!)

What he said.

I think they used to call it Time to lean? Time to clean!

Only where leaning is complaining and cleaning is... you get the idea.

Speaking of which, Jakko have you read the new thread on the government's efforts to conserve oil by moving daylight savings time back further? I'm sure it's in the Peak Oil forum somewhere. Wait, that's right, you haven't started it yet.

I think we need a new board tradition that all these complaints get assignments for research and new topics.

Non-contributors not seeking to be voluntold need not volunteer.

Originally posted by RANT
I think we need a new board tradition that all these complaints get assignments for research and new topics.

Can you imagine the wealth of research the could be done if one-half the time spend on these kind of complaints went to researching?

I thought of another reason that new threads on old ideas are sometimes worthwile....who wants to wade through six pages from six months ago of info that may or may not be relevant to what you want to say? Sometimes, it's just plain better to start a new thread.

i wish ats could return to the way it was backin say 2003 and 2004, nevermind my registration date i remember 2003 at ats very well. 2002 was great here to.

Revolving door discussion vs Enhancing our knowledge base.

Nostalgia vs Anticipation.

'Small is beautiful' vs 'Bigger is better'.

Originally posted by Jakko
Lately I have been spending far less time on ATS than ever before, and as I was evaluating why I this is, I realized that ATS has become quite repetative for me.

The discussions that I've had so many times allready, are being re-opened with slightly different topic starts every day, and the more posts I write about christianity/abortion/aliens/"insert your topic here", the more I realize that I am just repeating myself over and over and over, sometimes even to the same people.

I am not sure how to deal with this, I could just write about the same posts in different threads over and over, or copy paste my previous posts into new threads, or force myself to start posting in different kind of threads to begin with.

I am wondering how all you fellow ATSers deal with this phenomena, and how you keep ATS fresh for yourself.

Welcome to the club! I've definitely noticed the same thing, i've been here since 2003 and I definitely spend a lot less time surfing the boards nowadays since it's mostly all the same stuff. It's hard to keep anything "fresh" for oneself over time. Visit the site less, and perhaps you'll miss more of repetitive junk, wait for some new events to occur or something.

I think one way to solve it would be for the Moderators to archive the old topics and make it so you have to submit new topics to them for approval so people could not repost the same stuff in different threads..

- Attero

A lot of things have been said, I don't want to be repetetive or redundant but: if I had to go back to school, maybe back to first grade, I would be veeeeeery bored (no smiley for that? invent a new one!). But I think sometimes it would be funny and sometimes I would see something from a whole different angle. If you're still bored, why not searching for the second grade?

And: The interesting news seem to be limited, so we have to treat them like cows do: chew it, and chew it, and ... sometimes a burp has a different smell. (Bad boy! You ate the mushrooms too??)

I hate to complain, i will leave that for when i'm 85 and cranky...

But- The meat is gone. I realize stories and breaking news come and go, and we have slow news days. Speaking of that, not many are posting ATSSn news lately. Is it all the rules? I dont dare try it myself. I dont want to be the laughing stock (I'm paranoid) so i dont go there.

I try to tell the new people to post something. Anything. They bring fresh ideas to the board and perhaps that would help. I would encourage all mods to greet the new ones and tell them to post something they like or are concerned about. It may be something we have covered many times, but we can pull the old thread and move on. The point is to get them to post! Not 3 months from now, but now!

My 2 cents

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar

'Small is beautiful' vs 'Bigger is better'.

No!!!!! Not at all...never! Both can be combined if done so properly! There is nothing wrong with having a sticky thread within each forum of links to past topics that are "always" repeated....that could be added to by those that want to....but for some reason people don't want to do that......it's not hard to do at all, the only time consuming part id getting the threads together for each forum...making it a sticky at the top of each forum is nothing.....but again...that's just my thinking and others don't agree so...........

Complaining about there not being anything new to read at ATS is senseless. If you're wearied of the present discussions then it's time to start looking at the old threads starting from the very first one and working your way forward to the present time. It's like time-traveling back to the past, where you find an entirely new crowd, new issues, new everything. Every day you will come across several surprises, including links to all kinds of sites.

For example, four days ago I found a thread titled "Helmet-Blocking Alien Telepathy & Mind Control", started on 5-I-04 by kalk, that led me to a site called "Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie" (rated CRANKY by Crank Dot Net) with instructions on how to make your own Reynolds Wrap cap and messages sent in by satisfied users, including the funniest thing I've ever read. It's from someone pretending to be a hillbilly:

Howdy...

Thank y'all kindly fer tha infumashun 'bout tha 'Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie'...

Aftar a hard day drinkin' suds then spendin' all weekend a-trainin' wif tha good ol' boys of tha 'Souf Arkansor City-zen's Milishah' ('cept every forth Sterdae nite when I goes bowlin') Ah iz well aware of tha need fer such pretection frum tha insideous mind bendin' rays that tha guv'ment is beamin' inta our homes an' branes thru tha Televishun - espeshially when them thar bleedin' hart pinko commies on 'Entertainment T'night' is on!

Ah'm shore y'all will agree that God, Guts, Guns and Aluminum Foil has made America tha country it is t'day...

Less keep orl three.... ummm.. orl four... y'all...

Kindest ree-gards

Billy-Bob-Joe-Jebidiah-John-Boy

(but y'all kin jes' call me "Cletus")

Pee.S. Pleeze find encosed a pikshur of me in my new helmet that Ah now wear when I iz with my buds from tha 2nd Platoon 'Souf Arkansor City-zen's Milishah' ...

- B-B-J-J-J-B. ("C.") [2005-03-24]


You can spend the rest of your life doing this and never finish the task.
*

Originally posted by phantompatriot
i wish ats could return to the way it was backin say 2003 and 2004, nevermind my registration date i remember 2003 at ats very well. 2002 was great here to.

I wish we could go back to a time when people concerned themselves with spelling, grammar and punctuation. By the way, the shift button is there for a reason.

I remember ATS, pre-2003, and it was great, then. It is a great place now, as well. Need new blood here? Fine; but there need not be new people. We, the existing people, need to be more curious.

I have found that I spend less time on the boards, as well, due to repeating threads. I don't mind it though as I still find reading through some of my favorite topics entertaining. I like to see the theories of others and try to unerstand how they came to that conclusion because, who knows, I could be dead wrong on my ideas. It is important to remeber that what is "old" news for some can be completely new to others. Plus, who knows, someone could bring new, valuable information to an old idea and send the whole theory in a new direction. Finally, take heart, the world is a dynamic place and I can guarantee that there will always be new material on the horizon.

Originally posted by Attero Auctorita
I think one way to solve it would be for the Moderators to archive the old topics and make it so you have to submit new topics to them for approval

Yikes! Having to get individual posts approval? Or even thread starting 'new topic' posts approval?

I don't think too much can be done really, especially since brand new members aren't going to know to check the search page and all that.

Also, when you get down to it, there's only so many 'paranormal and weird' things/events out there. Short of new people reporting their abductions and the like, most 'new' stuff is going to be poltical conspiracies and such.

edit to add

Thomas Crowne
We, the existing people, need to be more curious.

Indeed, the Peak Oil forum is a good example of that.

What can some of us think about that are weird new things, non-politics wise? If most of us who have posted in this thread can go out today and start a new weird discussion, then that'd be getting somewhere.

[edit on 12-4-2005 by Nygdan]

Personally, I'm hitting the first "this is stale" time for me. I've been keeping myself interested by posting to ATSNN (mostly Sci/Tech). There's always cool new stuff happening in the medical, science, and technology fields. While these may not always open completely new paths of discussion, they may very well place a new perspective on a path that's already been travelled.

My way of keeping things fresh on the board, is to start something new.
A bit of research onto what has been covered usually leads me to find something new to discuss.

My rule of thumb is, think about what you know best. Try starting a thread on that and see how you go.

Try setting your self goals too. See how many replies you can get from a post and then create another one of a different interest and topic and see how many replies you get from that, and so on.

Its down to us, the users to keep the board fresh. There are masses of topics out there to debate over. Dig deep and you will find them.

Just my thoughts anyways............

In this vein, I've posted a post on a subject that I've noticed comes up, but isn't allways addressed from this angle.

politics.abovetopsecret.com...'

Same Here. Board Burn?

This stuff tends to go in cycles. I think ATS is still suffering aftereffects of the last partisan mass-hysteria attack, and we're still seeing more resident trollery than I prefer.

Sometimes I look over the new threads and think “Aw geez, the same old crap from the same old members.”

It does get old, especially when it's the same old partisan dreck or the ten-thousandth incarnation of some propaganda blitz or another.

My usual solution is to poke around other ATS features, or just cruise some other boards to take a breather.

But I always come back, because there's stuff you just don't see anywhere else. And besides that, the site is really well run. I don't say that to kiss up, I'm serious as a heart attack.

ATS really stands out as an exceptionally well-run site to me, with a stunning concentration of resources I just can't locate elsewhere.

What To Do About It

Of course, “This Board Is Going Downhill” threads are a natural, and I've done my share of that.

But where I'm moving lately is seeking to start new threads on things that not only interest me personally, but which I think may open new or overlooked topics for discussion.

I also like to promote grassroots campaigns like PLEASE POST HONESTLY.

Granted, I tend to be a bit obnoxious about stuff like that more often than not, and am really sorry I get that way sometimes (I'm trying to get better), but it does give me a feeling of doing something worthwhile to help ATS.

Roll Your Own

If you really think things are going downhill in the boards, though, my advice is to take positive steps to start threads and make posts you really do think are worthwhile.

Maybe try to spank a few trolls now and then and hopefully coax them into improving, and basically not just sit around and wait for the staff to break your melancholy.

While I tend to avoid the titles like “Scholar” and such (not because I don;t like them but prefer to speak as a “Member” and thus allay questions about my impartiality about the board), I do perform research and share it on ATS whenever I can.

You Get out What You Put In, Plus Interest

I love ATS. Whenever I feel a bit burnt, I go do other things. Sometimes I'm gone for quite a while.

But I keep coming back because ATS really is special.

If the repetition gets you down, I recommend stepping in and starting really new threads, counseling immature or trolling posters where they get in the way of denying ignorance, and assert your power as an ATS member.

The Power Of One Times The Power Of Many

Because in truth, the most likely reason you feel like ATS is lipping out of your hands is because you aren't stepping in and taking hold of the flame.

Sure, Simon may own the board, but we own our minds and our opinions, and the quality of the content of ATS is up to us collectively, which means the more each of us strive to make it better as individuals, the better this board will be.

Call me a Pollyanna giving a trite pep talk if you like, but I truly believe ATS is what we make it, and that we have only scratched our true potential to make it better than ever.

All you need to do is want it to be better, and do your part by improving your own contributions.

I promise: Do that and you'll be happy with where it takes ATS.

ATS is a genuine Internet treasure. Lets celebrate it for what can make of it and the amazing things it gives us, not fixate morosely on what we don't get from it.

Originally posted by Jakko
I am wondering how all you fellow ATSers deal with this phenomena, and how you keep ATS fresh for yourself.

Well, here's what I do:

• I avoid tabloid topics. I don't even click on them anymore, because it's one more "viewed" stat that entices others to do the same, and I certainly don't post on them. I only read articles that have a fairly serious sounding headline.
  
  
• Any time I think I found something interesting to post about, I see if there's any more material on it out there to educate myself before posting. If there's not, it's either really new, or really unneccesary. Then I run a search on several key words and mispellings of those words, and see if someone already did a thread on it.
  
  
• I'm not married to my arguments. I always leave myself open to be convinced of something, provided their evidence is more powerful than mine. This means I either have to root around and find better evidence to support my view, or be convinced of their view instead. This keeps my mental life interesting.
  
  
• When I accidentally end up viewing a thread that starts off entirely with speculation, has no supporting evidence, I find something better to read.
  
  
• I limit my "MY ATS" page only to threads that I created, or that I have an active interest in talking about ever again. If I feel I made my point in one thread, and it's either been ignored completely, or has moved on to some other point that no longer concerns me, then I drop it from my list.
  

Hope this helps.

Maybe this is due to the size of ATS, we are growing fast and cracks are starting to show. We are still in the dark days, hopefully we shall soon see the light, but whats worrying, is more problems keep coming around.

Tips

- Firstly, use the search feature to see if a thread already appears

- Continue to use existing threads instead of creating multi threads on the same subject.

- Index threads are a great thing. Use these threads to see what topics already exist. If a section doesnt create an index thread, create one for it. Ive done it twice

- If you do repeat a discussion, call it "insert title of topic (revisted)" revisted means its been covered, but your looking into it again. This is good on some of our best subjects, such as bohemain grove, etc.

- Remember, ALWAYS search before posting...just to make sure.

Those are all great suggestion on how to keep yourself interested in ATS!!

But if everything fails, then hit yourself in the head, have an amnesia and all will be brand new to you again

Disclaimer: Paperclip is in no way responsible for all the serious crap that can result from hitting yourself in the head.

worse comes to worse, take a break, we all do...ive taken about three in my time, twice i thought about leaving for good. I just couldnt keep away in the end