The ATS Issues Thread

reply to post by burdman30ott6


Click the "go dark" button in the top right corner.

reply to post by enjoies05


Thank you! Never knew that button existed nor do I know how I clicked it to begin with.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
This was a temporary thing until we modified some more complicated code. There were a few who had posted inappropriate comments in the profiles of banned members (more to do with insulting the banned member for being banned), as well as some other profile issues of those who were banned. The code has been refined and limited profiles of banned members are now available for review.

Thanks. I knew something was up, but the only responses I was getting were guesses. Like I said, my main interest was in being able to track old posts.

While I have your attention, is there an easy way to know if someone's been post-banned? I've guessed a few, based on their lack of recent posting, (and in one case, the person changing their mood-text). But it would be nice if there were a label either in their mini-profile, or on their profile page. Nothing like thinking you're engaged in dialog with someone only to realize the reason they haven't replied is because they can't.

Here's a fun little phenomenon I've just encountered: Imposters.

Why do we have people posing as other members and sending bizarre u2us? Do we really have people on here that determined to discredit other members? The imposter in question has already been banned, but what the F is the deal with people? Are we going to investigate people like this (ie IP bans) or what?

This is really disgusting, and for the record I'm not holding ATS or it's staff acountable, obviously they did the right thing, and very quickly I might add.

reply to post by Gigatronix


I already talked to two staff members about it on IM this morning (lots of us got spammed) and they are looking into it. A mass u2u was sent out and the mod said they will ban the person's main account too once they find out who it is. So I wouldn't worry about nothing being done because two staff members promised me SO would look into it. Hope that helps. I'm not flipping out over it but I am curious.

Question, though, Gig, and please, please don't take this the wrong way. I hate false accusations and do not want you to think I am falsely accusing you of anything. I am only curious. How could they have U2U'ed you? Don't you have to have something like 25-50 posts before you can U2U? I am not accusing you of being the spammer (I know you are above that!) but I don't see how that is possible you got a U2U from them. They have -10 or -11 posts so I am guessing that means they left some comments on the board that were later removed but that still wouldn't have been enough.

reply to post by AshleyD
Not sure Ash, to be honest, I think I know less about the mechanics than you do. ALl I know is that I got a u2u from someone posing as Asty. After doing a little digging, I realized the person was not actually Asty. I don't know why I'd get a u2u at all, I dont think I've ever had any convo with Asty.

All that aside, if I didn't really recieve a u2u, how would I know about it? Maybe there is a mention or thread about this already, but I haven't seen it. And you are the first person that has confirmed with me that something happened, so......?

Edit to remove the obnoxious use of "at all" like 3 times hehe.

[edit on 26-6-2008 by Gigatronix]

reply to post by Gigatronix


Hey, I believe you if you say you got a U2U. The spam we got was left on our profiles so I didn't know he was U2Uing people, too. It is possible he went on a posting spree so he could U2U those without opened comment sections. By the time I saw his profile I think he was already banned and had -10 posts so I don't know how he was able to U2U you unless he did that or hacked ATS somehow.

I'm sorry nobody talked to you about it yet- I was not accusing you! Many of us got a mass U2U to calm us down and were assured that the impostor would be caught. Since your profile was not spammed publicly, you might not have received the U2U if the mod didn't know you were a spam recipient, too.

Hope that helps. I am going to bow out of the drama now and let the staff take over. I already feel like I am being too nosy and meddlesome but I do love a good mystery and was curious about the U2U thing. I got a weird profile comment about a week ago, too, and it turned out the guy had several different proxy accounts so it could be the same member or just a coincidence.

Just wanted to clarify, the u2u I received from this Asty imposter was really a Foe'd notification. Ashley cleared that up for me, my mistake. I still got Foe'd though so YAY I'm still part of the conspiracy hehe.

One thing I noticed, this person was able to use the same profile pic as Asty, probably not too hard to do, but I also noticed he had 5k points. I'm guessing he did the twitter thing? Maybe you can find him that way.

Thanks to Gigatronix and all those who alerted me to this.

I guess he probably got my avatar by screen capture.

reply to post by Astyanax


You can also save/ download anyone avatars by right clicking and choosing save image.

In this thread springer said,

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by springerI was busy and forgot to add my "admin edit:" note that indicates I removed the promotion of a site that we don't allow to be linked from here.

Is there a list of Conspiracy forums that aren't allowed to be mentioned on ATS?

I notice that GLP wasn't edited out but another site was. Should members know what sites they can and can't mention without admins having to edit their posts?

I don't know where to post this (and do not know which moderators run that forum) but a thread has disappeared.

Can someone look into it? It was pretty active but now it says "page not found".

Title: My wife agreed, I will have to kill.
www.abovetopsecret.com...'

reply to post by Sonya610


You are right. I was looking at the thread also. It was a big one. I tried searching for it and I can't find it on ATS or BTS.

Hm. I searched for it too and it is showing up in the search results but the thread is missing once you click on it. I saw the member's name who started the thread in the search results so I checked out his profile to look at his threads to see if it was moved to RATS or something (which would result in an error page if you don't have a RATS membership). But, his thread was gone and he was banned so he might have done something in that thread to get it deleted and himself banned. Just a guess- I never replied to the thread but did see it on the 'Recent Posts' page pretty much every day. lol

I beleive it was removed due to T&C violations, give me a moment and I'll find out for sure.



***Update***

The thread was removed for T&C Violations.

Particularly

Illegal Activities -

2e.) Illegal Activity: Discussion of illegal activities; specifically mind-altering drugs, computer hacking, criminal hate, sexual relations with minors, and stock scams are strictly forbidden.

Murder cant be discussed.

[edit on 27-6-2008 by elevatedone]

Well if it was removed due to T&C violations surely that would be posted instead of "page not found".

Everyone that was posting on it will waste time trying to figure out where it went, searching etc... when it says page not found.

A minor suggestion here.

I often use the "search posts" option when trying to locate content on ATS. Within the field on that tab it is required to chose a particular forum to search (breaking news is the default selection).

All the forums are listed but they seem to be in a random order and it's time consuming to find the one you want (especially if you need to search multiple forums).

Would it be possible to make the forum list on the dropdown box to display in alphabetical order? This would make it MUCH more efficient to use.

Hope that makes any sense....

Not to sound too off topic here.. But something has been bothering me..

We all know that people matter here. Not so much in the sense of people in general exactly.. but especially people as individuals (i.e.. reputation).

But when I see a post as saying something like

GREAT POST! STARRED AND FLAGGED!

And then they get like 15 stars... That makes me scratch my head..

-ChriS

Seriously the site needs a handy up top link to "new posts". Recent posts is not the same, some "recent posts" have 1600 replies and were originally started 3 years ago.

Encourage new ideas, have a link to "new posts".

reply to post by Sonya610


I just wanted to chime in and say I like that idea. I like to see new posts sometimes instead of the old ones.