ABOUT ATS: (comments on the new info threads)

Originally posted by Wig
Here's an idea, apart from this being an outrageous overeaction, tell the person why they have been warned!

And if this isn't the right place to complain about warnings recieved, then you should put a link to the right place in the post about warnings which says that you should come here for further discussion.

Sorry for the double post guys, but Wig, there is a place that you can go to check. Usually, when you get a warn, the moderator that gave it to you will send you a U2U informing you as to why you're receiving one. If you look at the top of the screen, you should see a red tab that says "U2U's". Click it, and you'll go to a place that will have all of your private messages stored there. IT should be there. If not, then I'd definitely inquire as to the nature of the warn.

Hope this helps.

TheBorg

P.S. WOW!! Jak beat me to it. Good one man!!

[Edited for P.S.]

[edit on 18-8-2007 by TheBorg]

I got a U2U but it said nothing as to why I was warned - pretty useless really, to warn someone delete their post entirely and whack a 500 points reduction on them and the user doesn't know what they have done wrong. and is given no istructions on appealing the warning.

It would be far more sensible to edit the post in question, and send a U2U to the user to say "xyz is not the best way to do that" or "why did you do that?"

My point is what I did was trying to be helpful to other users here and I wkae up next day to find my post deleted and lost 500 points with no explanation!

I note JAK's suggestion about using complain/suggestion button ( I may do that). and I have U2U the moderator in question but they are away.

Originally posted by Wig It would be far more sensible to edit the post in question,

It would be far more sensible not to create a post with dozens of "SOLVED______" repeated over and over. You know what you posted and there should be no mystery as to why it was removed and you were warned for such pointless drek.

It was not pointless. I was trying to convey to people who didn't bother to read the final post that the thread was solved. Like the person above that post. If there was something that caught their eye, they would maybe read it before posting or after having posted without reading they might have seen it and edited there post accordingly.


Why is the title of both gold chip in mouth threads not been changed yet? The mystery is solved. Because none of the moderators have seen fit to say on the lead post and title that the mystery is solved.... I tried to do what I could to tell people. You still even have the gold chip in mouth thread as one of the leading threads on the home page encouraging more people to come to that thread not knowing it has been solved.

And you call this "A gross violation of the rules" ? That's a bit rediculous if you ask me.

"and you were warned for such pointless drek"

I've never heard of the word 'drek' but I can guess your meaning. That's precisely my point here (or 1 of them) I was not told what the warning was for.....the moderator did not bother to ask why I had done it.... just assumed (like you did) that I did it with malicious/mischievious intent.... like I said I did it for the benefit of the thread and the users of ATS.


[edit on 18/8/2007 by Wig]

Originally posted by Wig Why is the title of both gold chip in mouth threads not been changed yet?

Shifting attention does not diminish responsibility for your own posts. Regardless of what you think of other threads or posts, we anticipate our members are aware they are responsible for what they place into a post. A spam-like post of repetitive nonsense will be removed, and likely with a warning... regardless of the nature of the thread it's posted in... it's that simple.

You still even have the gold chip in mouth thread as one of the leading threads on the home page

We don't, our members do. The content and positioning of content on our home and forum summary pages are 100% reliant upon what our members do with flags and replies. It's automated.

I'm not shifting the attention. That's precisely why I did what I did. The question remains:

Do you think I did that with malicious intent? Yes or No?

Spam = malicious

My post was not spam it was done with good intentions because no-one had changed the title of the threads.

What your moderator did was out of order, s/he should have checked the reason why it was there in the first place. instead of overreacting and/or jumping to wrong conclusions.

And still after all this attention (and a further 2 - 3 hours) the two threads on gold chips have not had their titles edited.

And doesn't all of this point to the fact that you need a better system of identifying threads which have been solved?

[edit on 18/8/2007 by Wig]

Wig,

Are you suggesting to us that if you saw a thread that had "SOLVED" on it that you wouldn't check it? If that is so, then that's not a good idea at all. We want our members to see these things, solved or not. The point to coming here is to express opinions on things, while trying to find the truth. You cannot have one without the other. It just can't work.

What happened in that thread was that the truth was potentially discovered, and the debate rages on. Just because some people believe that they have the mystery solved doesn't mean anything. To me, it's the conversation around the actual debate that's more important sometimes than the debate itself. You must understand that we here hold ourselves to a higher standard. We're not all about pointing out if something has been solved already or not. We can mention it in passing, but generally, we won't make a big fuss about it.

You also have to be careful about HOW you say what you do. This is a private forum, and as such, is not subject to the 1st Amendment. If you don't like that, then there's plenty of forums that support free speech. This doesn't mean that you cannot say what you mean though; just be careful about how you say it.

I'm confident that you'll do fine here if you remember these things, and remember one other thing: We're here for you. If you need to pass something by someone about a post that you're getting ready to drop, U2U me, and I'll be more than happy to peruse it and tell you if it's ok or not. I'll help where I can man. Just save it as a draft until I respond, then make whatever corrections may need to be made, and drop it.

Again, use the U2U feature. It's there for a reason.

TheBorg

No, I would still check it but in the knowledge that it had been solved. I would read the opening post , which may have also been edited to include links to the posts which solved it.... but this would be too much work for the mods so would only be practical if you allowed the OP to do the editing if s/he wished.

I would read the first page (& read further if iinterested) I would then skip to the end of the thread (or search through it) to find out what the solution was.

This has to be a better system than expecting people to either

a) read the OP and post a suggestion without reading anything further in the thread as many, many people do.
b) read the thread thinking that the subject is still unsolved and be faced with sometimes 20 - 50 pages of threads. only to find out on page 25 out of 40 that the thing was solved, but that after page 30 the thread has reverted back into people wasting their time just posting solutions to what has already been solved.

What needs to be done is that people looking at a thread need to be told (in the title) that on the balance of probability the mystrery has been solved - they can then decide what action they want to take.

What *I* will do presently is if I see a long thread I will be put off from reading it all, but if I saw "solved" in the title that would spark my curiosity to find & look at the proposed solution - and then read further & comment if neccessary.

I'm no longer confident I will do fine here. This has brought home to me that I cannot 'trust' ATS to be objective and save me time, I cannot look at very long threads and feel I can devote time to them because i have no quick way of seeing if there has been a generally accepted solution brought forth. So there is a large chance I will skip a large thread all together.

And I just thought of another example, for UFO threads the title is sometimes edited to say [HOAX] [HOAX] I ask you what is the difference? The "HOAX" in the title is extremely useful, and it does not deter me from reading the thread, infact it positively encourages me to read the thread.

Thank you for your kind offer in your last para, but it would realistically be too time consuming, however, *if* I do stay here, there may come an occasion where I take you up on your offer.


The question still remains:

Did I do what I did with malevolence/malice did *I* think that what *I* was doing was posting "drek"? (I happen to think 'drek' is a particularly disgusting word to use to describe what I did)

If your answer is Yes - you are wrong
If your answer is No - did it deserve taking 500 points from me?

[edit on 19/8/2007 by Wig]

Well, I never got to see what you posted, so I can't judge what was said to be either way. The one thing that I do know is that the mods and admins are not out to get you. As a matter of fact, it takes time out of their days to do so. Why do you think they would want to waste time doing something like that if they didn't have to?

What I guess I'm trying to say is that the best way to handle issues like these is to try and elicit a more direct response from the mod that did this to you, via private channels. As the old saying goes, "Don't air you're dirty laundry for all the world to see."

To illustrate this, let me tell you a short story. When I first became a member, I didn't know the rules here, because I just skimmed the T&Cs as I set up my account. Well, I came on here and started using choice words that some mods felt were inappropriate, and in hindsight, I'd have to agree. I was banned from posting for three days, and even got a U2U telling me why. They pointed me to the T&Cs, which I then reread, a bit more clearly I might add, and then sent another U2U reply to the mod that fined and banned me, trying to plead my case. They understood that I was truly sorry for what I'd done, and they let me go after the 3 days and 500 pt loss. To this day, I've not had a single warning.

So, I would suggest that you stay, get comfortable, and find your niche. We could use another clear-headed thinker here, and besides, you're intelligent enough to contribute clear and concise ideas to the forums. I want to see you stay. Just be glad that all you got was a warn and a 500 pt loss. It could have been much MUCH worse.

If memory serves me correctly, I was too hard-headed to listen to the mods, and just racked up 3 flags inside of 2 days. That's what got me banned.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing you here in the future. I believe that everyone deserves a second chance, and so does ATS, otherwise the mods/admins would have permanently banned you. Take that for what it's worth, and stay...


Ever the diplomat....
TheBorg

So I had one of my posts edited for profanity, but to my knowledge I didn't do anything to circumvent the censors.

If I want to write the words "#ed up" what am I to do?

I mean, obviously the word # (the f word) will be censored out. But the "ed" part is left, and I think that's what I got in trouble for.

I don't mean to complain and I am sorry if I did something wrong, but if it's an issue why not add "#ed" to the list of censored words so that the whole word is censored out and not just the "#" part.

Why not, instead of using those words, don't you try something that equates to it, such as "screwed up"? Or maybe "fubarred". There's plenty of other ways to get your point across than to use profanity. Try it!! You'll be a better person for it.

TheBorg

You're right. I could tone the language down.

But...

There are some instances where curse words (swear words, whatever you want to call them) are the most eloquent way to express an idea or an emotion. Think about the last time you accidently hit your finger with a hammer or the last time you set yourself on fire. What was it you immediately said? Probably not "fudge" or "aw shucks."

Anyways, thanks for your insight. I'll consider your advice in the future.

True, it is sometimes more colorful to say things that are considered offensive to some. But the big thing to remember here is that there are all age groups here. Would you want to hear some 8 year old saying curse words on here? It presents a bad image for the website, and makes us all look a little less than stellar.

Quite honestly, it's not that hard to learn to not swear on here. I swear like a sailor when I'm not at work, but when I'm there, I refrain from it as much as I possibly can, out of respect for everyone. I extend that same courtesy to this site too. The people here are what makes this site so great. To be proud of the quality of people here is an even bigger boost. One of the main reasons that I'm so proud of everyone here is that we can all speak our peace without saying anything derogatory. Well, most of the time anyway.

NOTE:
MODS, please understand that what follows is only an example and nothing more.

Sometimes we get heated, and a piss, damn, or hell comes in. All of these are, as far as I can see, acceptable, as they aren't too bad. I call them tame words, for lack of a better term. Just try not to make it a habit of using them.
END NOTE

So, as you can probably guess by now, I have my reasons for being the way that I am. It's not for my sake, but for everyone else's; even your's.

I hope this helps some. If you have anymore questions, feel free to reply.

TheBorg

The idea that points are given for replies I disagree with. I think the last posts on a topic are the ones that resolve the question or lead to the conscensous that ends the conversation.

so if topic is what does 2 + 2 equal,

guy says it is 3
next post says it is 6
final post says 2 + 2 is 4 and this is why. conversation ends

I think the post that stays on topic and leads to an answer that is accepted and not challenged is the highest value.

It seems to me high replies are things that are easily refuted. "Cheney is very kind, prove me wrong" ding ding ding, replies galore.

Just musing on topic.

A sad day for me here on ATS,

I have been here since 2004,

I have enjoyed reading and participating and meeting the minds of many across the globe.

Some I agreed with,

Others I didn't.

But what good is a discussion of these topics if everyone agreed on every subject?

Boring,

And there would be no opportunity to grow or evolve,

Individually we are confined to the knowledge of one.

Combined we share the knowledge of thousands.

Because of this, I have never wanted to or ever used the feature I am requesting information on.

Originally posted by SimonGray
Ignore:
Sad but true, even the finest of discussion boards will experience the few idiot trolls that make our lives difficult. In the event someone is causing you grief, you can ignore them just by clicking on the IGNORE link in their mini profile (next to the VOTE button). From that point forward, you will no longer see their posts.

Yes the Ignore function.

Recently there have been some threads which insult my intelligence, what little I have.

I have been sucked into a few and provided my input at first to try and show where some conclusions drawn could have been easily explained and dismissed with little to no effort.

This did not work, so I started to post humorous quips in the threads, which might amuse me, but could insult others.

The next step in this downhill spiral would be to directly insult and belittle posts in these types of threads.

That leads me to the ignore function.

I really dislike this function, but until now I never thought it would be needed.

I know now, and though I am not comfortable in silencing the voice/s of other member/s, I must do so to prevent myself from traveling down a road I would rather not.

My question,

If you place a member/s on ignore,

Do threads created by the member/s disappear from my view, or only the posts themselves?


My apologies for the long post but I was hoping as I typed that I would have a change of heart.

Alas, I have not.

You'll see the thread title on the page, but not their post. It will just show the response

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Thanks SkepticOverlord! But as you know ATS is full of members who are willing to help out newbies and even older members who have questions! I stand proud knowing Im amoung the best the web has to offer! which is ATS..

reply to post by enjoies05


Thanks Enjoies for the quick answer!!

You're always a GREAT help to the members

It's great that you have a designated area away from prying eyes, but new members like me(who don't post often) will not have the ability to use RATS for a long time. How about giving us a chance to use RATS without waiting for years to get enough points to qualify?

reply to post by dakota1s2


If you join into the debates that are generated on threads, you will acquire points faster than you imagine possible. If your posts are occasionally of a well thought out and well written nature, you'll get applause from time to time, worth 500 points each, and a good feeling for having been noticed among all the high powered intellects here.

The RATS forum has no major secrets, but at least there your posts cannot be found through the use of googling. It is points well spent to join, IMO. And because of the price, new memebers that are trolls are less likely to have the wherewithall to last long enough to arrive.

And members that have posted and joined in the discussions to get enough points are usually aware of the T&C and of the manners one should have in an open forum, which makes for an area where civil discourse can flow along smoothly.

The acquisition of points to join RATS should be a goal to someone interested in all aspects of the ATS scene. But first get the needed experience out here. This is drivers ed, so to speak.I say that because I have seldom seen a warning sticker worn in RATS, so that must mean something.