A thread of yours has been moved to PTS

How many times has this happened to you: you start a thread in the War on Terrorism forum, it gets political, and sure enough, sooner or later, you get a message in your U2U inbox: A thread of yours has been moved

You look, and see that it was moved to one of the 24 PTS forums.

Horrors! That thread's a goner for sure now! Abandon thread! Abandon thread!

Yeah I know, I used to feel the same way.

And I won't lie to you. Things are still pretty quiet on PTS these days.

Why?

Because people are talking about politics on ATS, that's why.

PTS can't compete with ATS for political threads. ATS always wins.

I want this to change, and I'm doing something about it.

Gimme My Political Threads

The Three Amigos created PTS to give ATSers a place to discuss politics because they don't want us talking about politics in the conspiracy forums.

They went to a lot of trouble to set up PTS. I mean look at it: it's a clone of ATS but devoted to politics instead.

But change doesn't come easy, and we have some forums -- such as Political Conspiracies and the War on Terrorism (WoT) forums -- where many, maybe even most of the threads are about politics and don't even mention a conspiracy (illegal collusion to commit wrongdoing) anywhere in them!

My friends, that's just wrong. :shk:

Really, when you think about it, when we talk politics on ATS, we're stealing discussion from PTS.

And now that I'm the PTS Guy, I want what rightfully belongs to PTS: your political discussions.

So I'm coming for them.

It's Official

I have asked the moderator staff to examine the threads in their forums in the course of their duties and, if they see a thread which consists either mostly or entirely of political discussion, to move it to a suitable PTS forum.

Also, I will be patrolling the forums myself, and if I see a thread of this kind, I will move it personally.

That's because I want your political discussions.

There are many members -- and you know who you are -- who hang out in WoT and talk politics constantly. ATSers frown on this, the "p-troll" system was designed to combat this, and many drastic policies have been created to discourage this.

And I want you to do it!

On PTS.

If Your Thread Gets Moved

Please do not be angry with a moderator if your thread is moved.

The owners of this site have made it crystal clear that they don't want politics on ATS. Thus a mod who moves your political discussion to PTS is doing his or her duty.

Please don't argue about whether your thread was political or not. If it got moved, it was political enough.

I want your political discussion on PTS. ATS doesn't want it.

I hope you can see the obvious solution to this impasse.

Relax and unwind, and talk politics in a place where politics is not only welcome, but strongly encouraged.

Come to PTS.

I was going to start a thread on a very similar topic!

I t seems that many threads are being moved to PTS lately, in an effort to liven up that board, I assume.


I just had one moved yesterday.

DITTO that!

Plenty of ATSers are political. Whether your a crusader, have an idea, have a question, or just want to catch up on politics, take it to PTS.

There is an emphasis on the fact that ATS doesn't want it (and incidentally, that's VERY true) but there is an equal emphasis on the fact that PTS DOES want it. PTS is going to start getting the attention that your ideas deserve as enforcement of ATS' conspiracy-theorist identity becomes more stringent.

By the way, for those of you who haven't been around long enough to have points for eveything your heart desires, PTS points are worth just as much as ATS points and with the new policy, you can be sure that the only way to get applauded for a political post is to make it in PTS... infact making them in ATS carries a nasty warn.)


And PTS is bigger than you think!
"Politics" as represented by PTS is not just about stuffy old men in suits rambling endlessly on CSPAN.

How many threads have we seen about who has the best tank, the best special forces, etc? Those are discussions about the merits of differnt nation's military policies and they belong to PTS.

Wanna talk about how this or that nation is growing or declining- again PTS.

The North Korea thing to a certain extent too. If you haven't got a conspiracy angle, think about it carefully before you slap it in war on terror. Some of it will fly there, but "The US is dealing with it wrong"... sounds political to me.


We can have these conversations and we can enjoy them and you can get a great big pat on the back for them even... as long as they're in PTS.

How Do You Eat An Elephant?

One bite at a time.

I realize that some members may feel "picked on" when they see their thread moved, and yet see a bunch of other political threads left untouched.

Please don't feel unfairly singled out. These things take time, and this is a pretty major paradigm shift.

In the War on Terrorism forum particularly, political threads are dominant.

We aren't planning to move them all, or all at once.

Rather, I'll just take the fresh ones: freshly started or freshly replied to. And even among those, that's a lot of threads.

WoT is a hot forum!

Remember: political threads are considered off-topic on ATS.

But on PTS, we love them!

So don't be shy, follow those hot threads to PTS.

You'll be glad you did.

Majic,
In my VERY humble opinion, these could be moved to PTS.

www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Just a suggestion.

Semper


mod edit to fix links

[edit on 13-7-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

And the Political Humor thread?
I can't seem to find it over there in PTS land..
Where is it?

I think that the vast majority of WOT threads belong in PTS. There are very few true conspiracy threads there. Most of them are just current events or were current events, no hint of a conspiracy anywhere.

War Is An Extension Of Politics

Originally posted by pavil
I think that the vast majority of WOT threads belong in PTS. There are very few true conspiracy threads there. Most of them are just current events or were current events, no hint of a conspiracy anywhere.

I like the way you think.

I agree that much of what is discussed in WoT isn't "conspiratorial" in nature. However, as a legacy, discussion of facts -- even what might be thought of as political facts -- was part of the original WoT "package".

So when grabbing threads from WoT, I look for a clear preponderance of political disposition in the original post.

If the original post is focused on facts of the War on Terrorism and not political opinions, activism or intent, I tend to leave it in WoT, with some exceptions of course.

A Matter Of Perspective

I won't post my criteria here, because then some members will try to "lawyer" me to death about them. Even with guidelines, it's still a judgment call.

So some members may feel picked on, even though I promise that's not what I want to do.

Especially since I'm hard at work making sure PTS is the place to be. And without interested members, I have nothing to work with.

Hence my desire to steal you away.

And besides, it's not like PTS is on the other side of the world. I jump between ATS and PTS all the time.

Just bookmark Today All, see everything that's going on, and you'll soon see PTS as just another branch of ATS.

Which is precisely what it is.

So, is that a no?
No political humor and Satire?
I'll cross my fingers anyway.

Lighten Up!

Originally posted by spacedoubt
So, is that a no?
No political humor and Satire?
I'll cross my fingers anyway.

I tend to think of humor as a BTS thing -- as in BTS is pretty much all humor.

So I haven't really given much thought to a humor section on PTS.

However, I hope it's not surprising that I would love to see a lighthearted and pleasant tone throughout PTS, regardless of topic.

You know, to offset what a grouch I tend to be.




(And hey, maybe a political humor/satire section does make sense. Let's see if PTSers demand it.)

P.S. Zedd, that picture is just darling!

by golly, here is an example!
www.belowtopsecret.com...

That would be great..Politics and humor...One helps you survive the other..

Thanks, for at least considering it..