The ATS Issues Thread

Im wondering if I could ask a question in here about an ATS thread called Al Gore is a Fake.
I went to my ATS this morning to check on some of the threads I post in.
And it has been closed.
Im just wondering if that will be re-opened sometime?

And as you mods know I am not one to stir the pot here, and I mind my own biz. But I just dont understand what was said on that thread to get it closed down! Now Im not asking for a repeat on what was said, but more or less wondering what happened?

Does that thread cross the line on one of the new rules that SO made about the whole baiting threads stuff?

Thanks for your time.

Thank you for the quick work on the chat feature, it seems to be working much better

Ill be back when I find somthing else to whine about

Originally posted by 27jd

Originally posted by Crakeur
he was responding to some of the previously posted issues that surrounded his being a member.

Right, and so was I (can't speak for others). The key words you mentioned are "previously posted issues", on the ATS issues thread. I guess now I have an issue, lol. How exactly can his post have been off topic?? Normally, I would have u2u'd the member and expressed my support, however we know that cannot be done in this case. So, how can we as members give our input on this issue?

This was my point exactly,but I got my post deleted!
This is my issue with ATS.....why are some posts that are totally not on topic left on some threads,but others get removed..seems a bit unfair to me..if its off topic its off topic as simple as that...

Originally posted by special

This was my point exactly,but I got my post deleted!
This is my issue with ATS.....why are some posts that are totally not on topic left on some threads,but others get removed..seems a bit unfair to me..if its off topic its off topic as simple as that...

Because its difficult monitoring 3000 posts a day. If you see anything you think is off-topic, do a post-alert.

Originally posted by special
This was my point exactly,but I got my post deleted!
This is my issue with ATS.....why are some posts that are totally not on topic left on some threads,but others get removed..seems a bit unfair to me..if its off topic its off topic as simple as that...

Yeah, this whole argument is a catch 22. It must be tad hard to balance freedom of expression with sanity/credibility. I understand that. I just kinda felt like a few of us got "cyber-bounced" like some teenie bopper fans when we tried to respond positively to a member that seemed to feel unwanted by the other members. I wasn't responding to him as a pop star, and that was kinda lame, IMO. But whatever, I'm over it. I kinda woke up in a bad mood this morning, but I just found my pet hognose snake safe and sound (kids left her cage open), so I'm in a good mood now, lol.

reply to post by special


chrisonabike's post was mildly on topic. the responses to him were even less on topic.

I just want to add that I have had some serious issues getting my account set up and the admins have been great helping me. Give them a chance, they may be busy but they are helpful

I thought that the purpose of the "Alternative News" forum was to post & discuss news on news with a conspiracy oriented slant.

What I keep on seeing though, are news stories that are nothing but political propaganda pieces. No conspiracy angle - nothing related to "alternative news" just an article bashing Bush/Obama/McCain whoever with political propaganda. I tried reporting a thread that was nothing but an overt political propaganda piece and asked it moved to its appropriate place - the other political forum - but it was ignored.

What is the purpose of having a alternative news forum when people are just using it as a propaganda mouth piece? Its so obvious - the DailyKos (there are other ones from the opposite side I'm sure, I just haven't seen them yet) is not a conspiracy site, its a propaganda machine.

I've been looking at the UFO report with Robbie Williams at the Gillard Ranch and I wasn't very impressed. Obviously all the night-time footage were satellites. The only posters allowed to post seem to be people saying 'great report' or can 'we join your team'. I slated it for being an amateur attempt. My post got removed as 'off-topic', yet everybody saying it was great was allowed to stay on. Most of the posters (people with no background in UFO area, celebrity seekers) think it's great just because they see some lights in the sky and Robbie William's was there. By promoting satellites as 'amazing footage' ATS makes UFO enthusiasts look like monkeys. Calling it 'amazing' does not make it 'amazing', the Emperors New Clothes comment at the start of this thread certainly comes to mind.

I got a reply from moderators saying my post was 'off-topic' because it was notPOSITIVE. That's very Orwellian sounding. So much for free speech. Then I replied saying I wasn't happy my post was deleted because it wasn't uniformly positive and that got deleted also and same message in my U2U inbox again. Bizzare.

Either there is free speech or no free speech. You can't have it both ways. I did not criticise other posters or any member of ATS directly either! I haven't completely freaked at ATS yet because I want to contact with some members here, otherwise I would be LONG gone.




[edit on 24-9-2008 by ManInAsia]

Originally posted by Crakeur
reply to post by special

 

chrisonabike's post was mildly on topic. the responses to him were even less on topic.

Yes I agree so if off topic then can you not please remove

Reply to ManInAsia

I think those were still in response to chrisonabike's post a while back, which was in response to some other peoples' posts about him even further back...

As far as your question goes, I'm curious: did the message you got when your posts were deleted as OT actually say that the reason they were OT was that they were not in support?

I'm sure that a lot of people are very excited that Robbie Williams joined ATS staff at the Gilliland Ranch. I'm mostly just excited that ATS staff got to go, and are starting, if you will, an active investigation which gives us reasonably high-quality footage. And I totally enjoy listening to people who I've gotten to know a little through reading posts talk about the experience.

It seems to me that they've been pretty clear that most of the lights they saw were probably satellites. It's just kind of nice to know that people you know and trust to be both open and rational are out there looking. Of course other members are excited. It's exciting stuff! It may not pan out to be anything, but so what?

If in fact your post just said, "I think that most of what you captured were satellites" I doubt if it would be considered OT. If it said "it's really pitiful the direction ATS is going", it would be totally OT for that thread, and would belong here, or on one of the other sites in the internet where they enjoy complaining about ATS.

If it really was on-topic, I encourage you to ask the mod who deleted it why it was deleted, specifically, and if no answer is forthcoming (in the next few days - mods have lives too), to complain.


[edit on 9/25/08 by americandingbat]

This is where I disagree. It's not about attacking ATS. I just want my opinion to be up there like everybody elses. The post was deleted because it wasn't 'positive' like all the other clone army allowed to post on the thread, that was the reason it was 'off topic'.

I said that the report was all satellites, birds and bats and I guess I am right to be honest. Later Johnny said wait for the next report. I just said that the report wasn't up to the quality a lot of ATS members would expect, especially if being so heavily promoted. They got embarrassed and deleted all my posts in the thread. What does 'off topic' mean anyway.

I am not a UFO skeptic or UFO enthusiast per se, but I identified those lights as satellites about a week before they actually admitted all the stuff they had on there at night were satellites. I just call a spade a spade.

THIS IS THE REPLY I GOT TWICE IN A ROW, THE SECOND ONE WAS THE REPLY GENERATED TO MY COMPLAINT ABOUT GETTING THE FIRST ONE>

We seek to promote discussion and debate in way that pushes the discussion in a positive way. Your post was so far off-topic, after our staff has announced that discussion must remain on-topic, that we had no choice but to remove it.






[edit on 25-9-2008 by ManInAsia]

Originally posted by LowLevelMason
I thought that the purpose of the "Alternative News" forum was to post & discuss news on news with a conspiracy oriented slant.

What I keep on seeing though, are news stories that are nothing but political propaganda pieces. No conspiracy angle - nothing related to "alternative news" just an article bashing Bush/Obama/McCain whoever with political propaganda. I tried reporting a thread that was nothing but an overt political propaganda piece and asked it moved to its appropriate place - the other political forum - but it was ignored.

What is the purpose of having a alternative news forum when people are just using it as a propaganda mouth piece? Its so obvious - the DailyKos (there are other ones from the opposite side I'm sure, I just haven't seen them yet) is not a conspiracy site, its a propaganda machine.

You´re absolutely correct. We dont catch all of them, but that shouldnt stop you from alerting us to them.

you said a moderator u2u'd telling you your post wasn't supportive so it was deleted?

Originally posted by ManInAsia
We seek to promote discussion and debate in way that pushes the discussion in a positive way. Your post was so far off-topic, after our staff has announced that discussion must remain on-topic, that we had no choice but to remove it.

sounds like your post was off topic.

Don't jump to the conclusion that a post was removed because it wasn't yay rahing ats. this whole thread you are now posting in is not yay rahing ats. there are plenty of posts in the gililand ranch thread that give rational explanations for what we saw. they're still there.

hey if this isnt the right place to post this please let me know.. every picture i click on at ats redirects to www.abovetopsecret.com...=, im not sure if its a forum issue or a firefox issue but i know othere people here this problem as well

for examle when i click on the image in this post www.abovetopsecret.com...

and also when adding a link to a post sometime only part of the link work the above link should be 'http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread353530/=' but for some reason it cuts of the '=' part

edit: to add example

[edit on 25-9-2008 by Kr0nZ]

reply to post by Kr0nZ


If I click on the Below top Secret tab at the top of the page and then any of the links on that page I get the same display??

Originally posted by Kr0nZ
hey if this isnt the right place to post this please let me know.. every picture i click on at ats redirects to www.abovetopsecret.com...=, im not sure if its a forum issue or a firefox issue but i know othere people here this problem as well


[edit on 25-9-2008 by Kr0nZ]

The pictures are hosted on an image-hosting website but have been made private by the owners of the image-hosting account so that you cant access their account.

reply to post by Skyfloating


thnx but in the thread www.abovetopsecret.com... the OP could not figure out how to get his images clickable cus ur suppose to be able to click on his first pic and get an enlarged version of it but u just get the 'page not exist' page

same thing with the iage in this post www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 25-9-2008 by Kr0nZ]

reply to post by Kr0nZ


yes. but thats also connected to how and with which parameters you HOST the pictures at the image-host.

In that thread internos posted the pictures correctly.

I'd really like some clarification on something.

While we have a 'rule' against knowingly posting things that are false, or lies, we also seem to have THIS:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

which was even recently bumped, stating that you cannot scoff or mock or otherwise dismiss something for being ridiculous.

How can you have one and the other? While they aren't mutually exclusive entirely, they send totally different messages.

I also am concerned that we turn ATS into some other forums of note, that is simply filled with what I would call a high Noise ratio. One of the reasons I enjoy these forums is that we seem to keep it to a minimum, in part because, we are critical thinkers here for the most part.