Important Update to the Terms & Conditions coming soon...

And, while we're at it, we'll start up a portion of the domains for the rest of the secret societies; let them all tell us about the virtues of their boys' clubs, and we'll do this free of charge.

I'll get the Bush's, the Kerry's, and the Rockefeller's on the phone right away. They can then spread the word to the rest of them.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
And, while we're at it, we'll start up a portion of the domains for the rest of the secret societies; let them all tell us about the virtues of their boys' clubs, and we'll do this free of charge.

Hows that any differnt from people debating the merits of differnt reglions ?
Cheers Xpert11.

[edit on 5-12-2005 by xpert11]

Originally posted by Riwka

That is rediculous.

Either you completely missed the message "This is a CONSPIRATORIAL BOARD, not a Masonic Lodge or you on purpose misunderstood the podcast and countless moderator efforts.


[edit on 5-12-2005 by Riwka]

Not at all it is merely a statement of fact.

Originally posted by smallpeeps

The funniest part is that the ATS top dogs would be the first fellows to step up and defend a Mason who was being abused or treated unfairly here. They are clearly just trying to moderate a tone without allowing any group to grab the microphone.

Then we should be made aware that if any group conducts a microphone hogging excerscise they should be banned also , YES?

Well, I think the problem is that a lot of the masons reduce or supplement their arguments with attacks on the character of those questioning the merits of Freemasonry. If it wasn't for that, I'm sure this would not have happened.

Many of the freemasons, like senrak, essentially reduce themselves lower than those who are questioning/attacking freemasonry. I can understand how freemasons feel that attacking freemasonry is attacking the character of themselves, but it is completely different when you are attacking individuals. One side that attacks freemasonry may be done out of ignorance (even though I think there is something odd with Freemasonry), but these freemasons are doing what they are to manipulate people. People like senrak are trying to manipulate arguments and viewpoints by attacking the character of the person.

Then, it's not about intelligent discussion anymore, it's a political argument bent on the manipulation of facts, posters, and readers.

@billmcelligott

Wow.

You are trying a reversal of roles. That won't work.

Those Masons are not the victims here - they (or at least a group of them whith all others of the same group standing idly by) have been the perpetrator.

Where is the excuse from that group for the one of them who posted "Nazi-Moderator" ?!?

Well.. I for one do participate on one other board here, the Ancient and Lost Civilizations board, and I do read a lot in the other areas.

I'm not sure why ATS feels the need to silence anyone who challenges the wild claims made over in the Secret Societies forum (99% of the Masons participate civily over there, IMHO) but so be it.

I doubt I'll be coming back here anymore, but then again, that seems to be what the ATS admins want.

xpert, it is considerably different than discussing religions. The first and foremost is that religions don't come equipped with sinister undertones, as "secret societies" do.
There are, however, many secret societies embedded in religions. This makes for an interesting twist, but for some reason, this forum seems to be all about the Masons; the most boring of all the alleged secret societies.

I'm sure if you want to find a site that is all Mason, all the time, you can find one. This one was not to be. Were we to not have a clue what would happen, I could see us stumbling into creating a Masonic Virtual Lodge and Recruiting Ground forum, but after what the conspiracies in SS forum has turned into, I feel pretty confident that we won't be giving out shop space for free like that.

TC thanks for the reply. Personaly I dont have a great deal of interest in secret societys so I will trust your judgement on this one.
Cheers Xpert11.

Jamuhn

I have been posting here for quite a while now. Lets look at an example is this conspiracy or just a Mason bashing excercise.

As far as I can tell there have been 7 threads on the first page out of 45, started by Freemasons. All have been locked.

Senrak looses his temper and is banned. He has been here for some time also, why was he not banned before ? if his continued conduct was unacceptable.

I must agree that attacks on individuals are not acceptable , no matter who is doing the attacking. I have been attacked personally here on a number of occasions, but no one was disciplined. I take it as part and parcel of heated debate. So we must accept that senrak has never been personally attacked by any other poster.

You say “but these freemasons are doing what they are to manipulate people.” But is that not what an open forum is for, to try and impress your opinion on to others, because you think your opinion is right and theirs is wrong ?

Masons are no different to any other group , they are full of mistakes and weakness. Trust me I am one. The question is should they be treated differently from all other groups.

Can anyone tell me if any other group of people have been singled out in this way at ATS in the past.


Riwka
You said “You are trying a reversal of roles. That won't work.”

I give you an honest opinion, if you don’t agree or like it thats fine.
But the opinion is mine and can not be taken away from me.

Of course it could be said that this is a conspiracy against Freemasonry and therefore is a legitimate subject for this forum. ( Just in case – That is a joke )


[edit on 5-12-2005 by billmcelligott]

xpert, I really doesn't float my boat, either, as I am personally more interested in the NWO.

However, I do understand how the boards are supposed to work. Well, ATS forums, anyway.

I know the masons on here just attacked the crap out of me from the first time I posted to Secret Societies. There was a thread asking why Freemasonry was constantly being associated with Luciferianism, and when I stated my opinion from personal experiences, they jumped all over me, pretty much called me a liar, right down to picking on my spelling and grammar. The funniest part was one of the things that they accused me of lying over was something that they admitted was true in another thread.

The point was not whether what I said was true or not, it was simply an attack on my character to discredit everything I said. Their smugness about the way they would do this was sickening, and you couldn’t cut through the sarcasm with a machete. I know that I have read here that some had even gone so far as to do background research on one poster to use it against them, which so far exceeds the bounds of ethics as to turn my stomach.

They like to bury any post that contains facts by pushing it down the thread with a bunch of inane posts, so fewer people see what is written there. By way of example you would post something, then all of the sudden, some totally new accounted member would come in and start asking a bunch of questions on Freemasonry that would then be answered in the nicest of terms by the other masons. The question asker would eventually be sold on the idea of masonry and would state that they were convinced it was for them and were going to join (yeah right). Like it was really hard to figure out that the guy asking was a sockpuppet.

Basically a bunch of inappropriate forum activities. I know that I used to wonder if they had computers set up in the lodge and had members logged on to sit in the forums all the time.

All I can say is that the behavior of many of those that consider themselves to be enlightened brothers, certainly does nothing to convince me that anything I have ever said about them is in anyway incorrect. This goes along with my belief which is that regardless of whether Freemasonry is a religion or not, it is not compatible with Christianity.




[edit on 12/5/2005 by defcon5]

I whole heartedly agree that personal attacks have no place on this board. They add nothing to any discussion.

While it does appear from reading as many of the threads as I have been able to so far, that masons work in a co-ordinated manor I do not see how it would be possible. While I happily admit my masonic membership, I feel that the way some of the masonic members post is not in anyones best interests. I do feel that being able to offer a masonic responce to a anti-masonic thread would be a positive thing.

When there is information posted from one side only it ceases to be a discussion.

I feel that banning an entire "group" for the actions of a few would be detrimental to the entire community. Of course my opinion should be suspect as I am part of this "group". Since TC posted the change I and many masons on this board have tried to follow his directive, not only because he is andministrator but because it is the correct position and should be followed.

I sincerely hope to continue to read these threads, not only in ATS SS forum but others too, but occassionly be able to post when I am able to contribute to the discussion at hand.

Originally posted by Masonic Student
I whole heartedly agree that personal attacks have no place on this board. They add nothing to any discussion.

While it does appear from reading as many of the threads as I have been able to so far, that masons work in a co-ordinated manor I do not see how it would be possible. While I happily admit my masonic membership, I feel that the way some of the masonic members post is not in anyones best interests. I do feel that being able to offer a masonic responce to a anti-masonic thread would be a positive thing.

When there is information posted from one side only it ceases to be a discussion.

I feel that banning an entire "group" for the actions of a few would be detrimental to the entire community. Of course my opinion should be suspect as I am part of this "group". Since TC posted the change I and many masons on this board have tried to follow his directive, not only because he is andministrator but because it is the correct position and should be followed.

I sincerely hope to continue to read these threads, not only in ATS SS forum but others too, but occassionly be able to post when I am able to contribute to the discussion at hand.

I don't think they mean that they would ban ALL masons for the actions of a few of them.

The groups they are talking about are the lil packs of masons that you always see acting as one in a thread. You used to have a group that had The Axeman and another member that got banned as the 2 main attack dogs and several others having their back.

Its those kinds of groups that you always see attacking and trolling threads in unison that this rule is constructed against.

Its not masons as a whole.

billmcelligott and JustMe74 seem to be misunderstanding the original post, either on purpose to refocus the problem, or through some other knee-jerk reason.

The issues caused by "ganging up" of Freemasons in the Secret Societies forum has been the cause for this policy. Thanks to the impolite actions of a few "guests in our house" we've had to create a policy that prevents all future "ganging up" by other groups of members lacking common civility.

This now applies to all of ATS, not just Masons, and not just in the Secret Societies forum.

We welcome and embrace all sides of an argument IF they are able to engage our members in discussions that follow our repeatedly discussed requirements of polite and courteous behavior.

I think this was something that was bound to happen eventually as there is far to much talk about freemasonry on the SS forum and I agree absolutely that it is skewing the discussions and obscuring other topics. The forum is for all its members, not just those who want to discuss or defend freemasonry, and this MUST be respected.

For mine own part my posts tend to address what I see as incorrect information posted about freemasonry. I have been known to make light-hearted posts but I guess I need to be more careful about that.

I hope not all freemasons are blanket-banned from ATS as I enjoy the forum, and its personal time constraints that stop me getting more involved in other areas.

i will surely miss their ability to drag the discussion in circles for 25 pages...

great skillz

Thnx Admins.

I lost all interest in posting on SS forum because every member who even scratched the surface received a bonified gang-rape from the "inner circle".

And the fruitcake and troll picture routine anoyed me very much.

Originally posted by Valhall
nor do I care what you guys do while you're wearing your cute little aprons.

That may be under-estimating you, but it's based on the fact that the few professed masons I've met in life looked like they just got through divorcing their sisters.

...I have to say that if you intended some kind of "representation" for your apparently beloved order, you just flunked with honors!

Way to represent.

What's up with this? Is this a "yay the masons are gone, let's hurl insults" party? Pardon me if I don't join in. I don't know much about masons, but can't imagine what any of them have done to deserve this.

Originally posted by saint4God


What's up with this? Is this a "yay the masons are gone, let's hurl insults" party? Pardon me if I don't join in. I don't know much about masons, but can't imagine what any of them have done to deserve this.

Oh get a life... and while you're at it give me a break. That member was extremely hostile to Mayet and attempted to denegrate her in a petty and condascending manner. I don't owe you any explanation.

And if you're talking about the fact that the only Masons I've met in real life looked and acted like products of in-breeding, I can't do anything about that fact. I'm personally of the assumption they can't possibly be representative of the whole order, but then we have the crass behavior in this thread and I start wondering.