Why ATS is Awesome

The decision to make this thread, -not entirely sure where to post this though so please move if needed...came after having recently read a number of other threads whining and complaining about ATS, about the members here who participate and engage themselves in the forums..claiming there is no point or purpose in us doing this at all..that it solves nothing and helps nothing to discuss the matters ATS covers on a freaking discussion board of all places! how very of silly us.. Anyhow, i wanted to take the time to point out the reasons ATS does, in fact, rock!
I know emotions run high on various topics that arise here, but that can be a good thing.. no one has the same views, opinions, theories or beliefs, and no one sees things the same way as the next person.. what a boring world this would be if we all did think and act the same!.. ATS is a great place to share ones findings, curiousities, theories, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, opinions and so on.. especially for people who do not have a platform in their life in which to do so aside from this site.. and though we may not be changing the world, by doing the above mentioned, everyone contributes to getting others to think.. which is a very good thing, it helps give people different perspectives, helps them alter and/or reinforce their own personal belief systems.. by sharing what we may find through our own research, it in turn helps many others gain extra knowledge, insight and possibilities not previous thought of.. It is up to each individual alone to decide what they agree with, what they feel to be correct or what they feel isnt right.. again, not everyone holds the same view points and a site like ATS gives a great deal to chose from! Of course all we can do is speculate, to try to piece information and theories together to form a larger part of the picture for ourselves, TPTB hold back a great deal from the general public, but ATS lets us all shed some light on things they are hiding away for whatever reasons they may have. I am not at all saying that people should take anything said here or anywhere else for that matter as gospel.. thats silly in all kinds of ways.. but food for thought is not a negative, and i feel, is in fact needed in order to keep people thinking, alert and questioning their world and reality.. There arent many other places out there to converse on such matters as are generally accepted here.. this world is full of unknows and un answered questions, so of course people that have or have started to question things, will enjoy banter and enjoy the passing back and forth of ideas and theories.. where would our own civilization be now had no one thought out loud or exchanged thoughts amongst those in their lives..? No one holds all the answers, so all we have are pieces and there is nothing at all wrong with joining together in the effort to try to find answers and more pieces to this puzzle of a reality..
So yea, end of rant, i just wanted to point out that ATS is a great place to be and i am sick of people bitching that it isnt.. if you dont like the site, if you dont wish to take part, then dont, its that simple.. and if its stressing you out or affecting you negatively (stress, paranoia, whatever) then take a time out and chill.. but ATS should be respected for the place it is..
Just my opinion...
thanks for reading,
Tessa

Here! Here!

Extra line add to conform to the T & C's of this site!

Basically the only thing i don't like about this site is the censorship which contradicts the purpose of this site. I hate to click on a subject i find interesting and see that stupid 404 picture - happened to many times lately.
And i don't understand why, on most message boards topics that aren't allowed or whatever just get closed and a moderator at least says why he is closing it.
But here? "Deny ignorance, promoting censorship"?

Beside that i think ATS is a great site with a lots of interesting topics and quick news, nearly all other news sites are so slow compared to how fast the users post breaking news here.

reply to post by ShadowAngel85

Basically the only thing i don't like about this site is the censorship which contradicts the purpose of this site. I hate to click on a subject i find interesting and see that stupid 404 picture - happened to many times lately.

I was SO close to writing a thread on this exact topic the other day. I had the first paragraph written but decided it wasn't worth it....but I totally agree with you, that 404 message is God damn Hell on Earth...it always seems to happen with the most gripping headlines too...I'm so interested in reading it, then I see it has been removed, and I'm like, what the Hell man, why has this information been removed completely and absolutely, that is ludicrous, now I want to read what it said even more.

The drug topics annoy me just as much...I've seen countless legitimate threads with legitimate messages and information removed because they were apparently promoting illegal drug use...it's fair enough to remove a post where the poster is clearly promoting drug abuse and describing trips, when their only purpose is "getting high and partying"...but to say all illegal drugs are totally evil and should never be taken at any time for any reason is totally ignorant...and who decides what drugs are illegal anyway...seems to me all the legal drugs such as alcohol and cigarettes are more addictive and cause more damage to you than a drug such as marijuana could ever cause.

One second ATS will preach to you about having an open mind and denying ignorance...and the next they will remove entire threads, ones containing posts exactly like this post. Legitimate view points and topics will be wiped out forever. I remember this happened to one thread I put a lot of time into, and I was devastated when I lost everything I wrote, as I intended to save it for later use. ATS's motto is "deny ignorance", yet I see the mods and admins embracing ignorance constantly...and I don't doubt ATS will find this post so ignorant that they must deny it...but lets hope not.

Thanks for the replies Yeah i have noticed this pretty alarming habit of the site to delete threads often.. i am sure sometimes its truly called for, but there does seem to be a lot of censoring going on within a free thought/speech type of a site.. and also dont understand the issue with drug related topics, there are of course ways of approaching the topic and ways of not, but mind altering substances are a major part of human history, and is also an issue of daily life anymore in one way or another.. so to ignore/avoid and censor the topic, i dont personally understand..

One second ATS will preach to you about having an open mind and denying ignorance...and the next they will remove entire threads, ones containing posts exactly like this post. Legitimate view points and topics will be wiped out forever. I remember this happened to one thread I put a lot of time into, and I was devastated when I lost everything I wrote, as I intended to save it for later use. ATS's motto is "deny ignorance", yet I see the mods and admins embracing ignorance constantly...and I don't doubt ATS will find this post so ignorant that they must deny it...but lets hope not.

Typically, an offending post (not thread) may be removed, or censored for excessive profanity, member attacks, etc., but I'm not aware of cases where entire threads are trashed because of disruption. Such cases would be rare in the extreme. Usually, a thread would simply be locked, or moved to a different, more appropriate forum.

Did you utilize the Complaint Feature, so a mod or mods could help you out? I think I speak for all of us when I say that our only goal here is to help facilitate, NOT to censor anybody. We're volunteers, pure and simple. If you know the title of your thread, it's possible a mod or super could look for it, and copy/paste the material and U2U it to post again, assuming the content is within the T&C... I know I've done this in the past, on rare occasions.

reply to post by Gazrok
No doubt there are absolutely times i am sure removing threads and posts are needed here, and as i said in the OP, i really havent any complaints about ATS.. controls always have to be put into action in such settings.. it can be frustrating though, especially when its a headline you reallly want to read and it wont let you in.. i think that happened with a thread i was following for a little while, but got the same message mentioned in the above posts and couldnt get back into it.. but its understandable when its done because it breaks the rules and regulations to the site, which are rules everyone agrees to in setting up an account

HECK YES!

So tired of all this whining...I cannot remotely fathomwhy if peiple have so much issue they choose to stay and whine...why not just leave?

Why? because if the practice self-restraint and just walk away then they don't get to make their attention-seeking drama posts

Look I am a pretty hardcore skeptic...I think alot or most of these CT's are way off base...but I'll be darned if this isn't one of the best places to find a good conversation

The nice part if, if there is an area, say 9/11, that really ticks me off I can easily move to the 5 million other forums and view something different

but nope...we see a few bad things and make a whiny post instead

oh well

darn fine thread OP

-Kyo

[edit on 14-4-2010 by KyoZero]

reply to post by Gazrok

Typically, an offending post (not thread) may be removed, or censored for excessive profanity, member attacks, etc., but I'm not aware of cases where entire threads are trashed because of disruption. Such cases would be rare in the extreme.

I don't know about that...since I joined, I've seen at least 10 threads removed completely and absolutely, resulting in the 404 error when you try to view the thread. As you are a super mod, I can't understand how you think it's "rare in the extreme"...if basic members like me and ShadowAngel85 notice it to the point where it becomes annoying, surely you've seen it at least a couple of times. You seem like an honest guy, and a decent mod who wouldn't just remove a whole thread without a really good reason, but I don't think I can say the same for some of the other mods. I've also noticed a good percentage of the ATS staff seem to be religious, or am I wrong? I don't want to generalize people here, but I believe this is potentially a contributing factor to the harsh and reactionary judgments being made by some mods.

[edit on 14/4/10 by CHA0S]

Thank you to you all for replies! I just got tired of seeing the threads about how much ATS sucks.. ATS is a decent place imo, with some excellent and intelligent minds all working together on things..sure there are the jerks that you just know are trolls instantly, but its worth putting up with them, or rather ignoring them in order to enjoy the forums here..

As you are a super mod, I can't understand how you think it's "rare in the extreme"...if basic members like me and ShadowAngel85 notice it to the point where it becomes annoying, surely you've seen it at least a couple of times. You seem like an honest guy, and a decent mod who wouldn't just remove a whole thread without a really good reason, but I don't think I can say the same for some of the other mods.

Thanks for the compliment...

I should clarify...it isn't as rare in the more "heated" forums, and I think this is where you may be seeing it. If there are many posts in succession in a thread, that are simply member attacks and other violations, I can see where this may be more frequent. I don't see it as much, as I tend to not go to those forums as much, perhaps...

All of the mods are different of course, I can't ever recall trashing a thread for anything really, in my years here (I'm sure I have a couple of times...but nothing I can recall)...(I even keep up dupe topics, I just close them)...but to each their own I guess. In the final analysis, we are all subject to the other staff members too, so if you do have a complaint, please use the complaint feature...so other mods can look at the issue. We're people too, so we are not infallible, but let us know if something is amiss....

ATS is awesome because of the great avatars. This means you KyoZero

reply to post by InvisibleAlbatross

Hell yeah!! there are some awesome ones around this place
Edited to add not to mention some down right disturbing ones! lol


[edit on 17-4-2010 by Full_Vision]