[HOAX] The real ATS conspiracy. [HOAX]

I want to start off this thread by saying I am not jumping to any conclusions, I'm not making any accusations, I'm merely submitting some interesting information I ran across for discussion...because after all, isn't ATS for the discussion of conspiracy theories? Well this seems like a worthy one to me. It seems as conspiracy theorists, our inquiring minds must question everything, and so we must be able to question the one very thing we need to be able to trust most of all. This "ATS conspiracy" isn't all that uncommon, though it's not usually presented like I'll be doing here.

I've been a member here for a while now, and it's only in the last few hours I've become aware of the information I'm about to present, I post this at the risk of my account being deleted, though I hope it's obvious by my post record I had in no way planned this or known about it before today. I stumbled across some interesting information whilst doing research for the new ATS Wikipedia page which I've been helping to edit. Whether any of it is true or not is up to you to decide, I wont make any conclusions, and to be honest I'm not sure what to believe at the moment - but I know one thing, the deletion of this thread would only confirm the following information. If there's nothing of significance, why does it need to be hidden? That's a motto I've always believed in.


I first stumbled across this blog post in which a supposed Author was discussing how he was censored on ATS, he believed he was hitting "too close to home" with the things he would talk about. I can see why this might be a taboo subject on ATS, accusing the very staff that help support and nurture an environment of transparency where substance and truth matters, of secretly scheming to censor those greatest truths we seek. Perhaps there was a legitimate reason to remove his thread, but there are some things I find rather coincidental. The blogger states some staff members are actually masons, and they have openly stated so, is that true?

In the thread where he was supposedly censored, it hasn't been closed, but the opening post, and a few subsequent posts have been removed due to "Meta-tag Spamming"? As a web developer, I know what I meta tag is, and what I don't understand is how making a post could modify the meta tags, surely you don't think it was some sort of hacking attempt, if so why does he continue replying to the thread? The posters in the thread don't seem to think what he posted was spamming? Anyhow, I probably would have just left it alone at this point if I hadn't already had previous concerns over censorship and moderation methods, and if the very last words of response to his thread weren't the following:

Also I would like to point out the following:
www.atlanteanconspiracy.com...

...what about this ATS? It actually shocked me a bit...

[PERSONAL INFORMATION REMOVED]

Soon the term COINTELPRO became part of my vocabulary. It means Counter Intelligence Professionals, and some people were accusing ATS of being a COINTELPRO operation. I can imagine ATS was going through a very rough time during 07-08 by the looks of what I've been reading. Many people were claiming ATS was some sort of shadowy agency with ulterior motives at the time. SkepticOverlord made the following thread in response to the criticism: AboveTopSecret.com is a Government COINTELPRO Disinformation Operation. Obviously the title isn't to be taken literally.

This all seemed to be happening around the time that ATS was really expanding, and commercializing. As seen in this thread at Project Avalon, Ross Hemsworth seemed rather annoyed to have his show "evicted by ATS" in way for members such as Robbie Williams, as ATS struck deals with the William Morris Agency and others. In this ATS thread a still active member disputes the loss of such a respected member. Had the "three amigos" finally sold their souls as suggested by this poster? His thread was closed immediately.

That seemed to be the general frame of mind at the time for those who felt betrayed by ATS. The poster of this thread at RU seems to ask some very important questions in my opinion, questions I found myself asking at one time in the past. I've presented a fair few links so far, but in order to properly understand what I've been discussing, you need to read the threads and information I'm providing properly, it's all up for debate at this stage, I only just learned about this and might be missing key points from one or both sides.

I would like to note, there are many key questions which I pose throughout this post, which if answered properly can "debunk" these crazy stories about ATS, and ease my doubts about this website. Was this just a forum war, are these posters and supposedly censored members just making it all up? Perhaps we can have some interesting and civil discussion on it without anything being deleted...I know there are people here who may have some light to shed on the situation. Also, someone mentioned the last ATS Wikipedia page didn't work because of people who kept messing with it, it wouldn't happen to be these same people would it?




Edit to remove personal information.

[edit on 9-8-2010 by SkepticOverlord]

Wow my friend. You are bold. A lot of information in your post to go over, be back with my thoughts.

Fair play

Interested to see what becomes of this and what the top brass here have to say about it all

S&F

reply to post by CHA0S


After having read all that, I believe this topic deserves its own forum.
2nd line

Thanks for the support guys, we'll see where it goes. I figured this was a bold move, but in reality, I don't really want my account here if there is actually something to it. This whole thing really did just blow my mind.

I've looked through a lot of ANCIENT (2003-) threads on here about this. The conclusion generally reached (it seems) was that certain members believed ATS had ulterior motives contrary to evidence presented. Although I couldn't read the original threads, it was a former mod known as 'dragonrider'. Apparently he raised issues with the other staff and then when the answers didn't satisfy him made a 'public' thread. Eventually he was banned because he didn't believe anything they said, and just kept raising the same issues.
The thing that most concerns me about ATS at the moment is that google ads still appear.
As for most of your accusations (others I should say), I don't think they will be proved either way. How do you prove someone isn't working at Halliburton? Also, I think other sites like GLP are more likely to be government/intelligence run sites. Really, I've just decided to take the chance that ATS is not. Because you'll never really KNOW 100% anyway with any site. ATS seems as clean as any, and a lot of important things are discussed on here.

Makes you wonder what on the internet is safe. Is there any place you know of that exists in cyberspace that has not ties to something, or is infiltrated by said groups? The risk is that by mentioning it here could lend it to be exposed..

It seems a fair number of people take pleasure in concocting various fictions about the site and the management (Mark, Simon, myself, etc.). Sometimes, it's the result of people being banned for being irritating jerks on the site, then assuming (somehow) that it had to do with a "management" conflict over their chosen topical mix.

There is no conspiracy.

We created a business focused on promoting user-generated content. At no point have we ever done anything other than what is best for the vast majority of people posting to ATS who have the expectations that we will do our best to promote what they post.

GLP is government run. Trinity, the owner of GLP is 100% a shill.
ATS seems legit to me... that's just my two cents...

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Ok...well, there's the "official" explanation... sorry, I just couldn't help myself...seriously though, I don't know if that was enough to convince me of anything...

reply to post by CHA0S

I would like to note, there are many key questions which
I pose throughout this post, which if answered properly
can "debunk" these crazy stories about ATS

What questions?

Questions asking whether ATS management are freemasons or have elite connections are unlikely to be answerable by members. If you want to know if someone is a freemason, I suggest you ask them directly.

Rhetorical questions like "have the three amigos sold their souls" are similarly not likely to be answerable here.

What is it you want to know?

seriously though, I don't know if that was
enough to convince me of anything...

What is it you want to be convinced of? I've read through the material you've presented. On the whole it's rather less convincing than other material that's been posted before. Of course, those threads tend to get deleted, this one hasn't been.

Yes, people have been banned from ATS. Somemites under quetsionable circumstances. But these particular cases you've brought up seem unremarkable. In the blog post, the guy states very clearly in his own blog that after having been banned, he immediately created a new account to advertise his book. Granted, I don't know what was in the original post that was deleted., but the official explanation of deleting it because he was spamming meta tags seems consistent with his own claims of creating ATS accounts to advertise books.

Or, consider your Reality Uncovered thread, in which the mods there apparently renamed the thread because iskander claimed to have evidence, but never presented any.

I'm not saying there's no case to be made. There are plenty of curious "coincidences" and threads that discuss them do tend to get deleted. But I don't see anything terribly suspicious in this particular batch of evidence.

I suppose all the conspiacy sites to be goverment monitored(if not they are missing a good souce of information..)
The chances are they even have a cointelpro operation or two in the works.....
But the opportunity for communication with others who seem to realise the emperor has no clothes. is too apealing to me to resist.
How else would we ever get to discuss the topics we cover?
Theres very few people who will discuss any of this openly.
We are a lonely bunch and this is about the only way of meeting.....
ragrdless of manipulation....thats just another obstacle for truely involved seekers..............

I for one like ,support, and will be a member on ATS as long as i can, it is the best site i have found and yes you can speak your mind, and i would like to add, well put together thread op

[edit on 9-8-2010 by bekod]

Trust no one not even the Mods.
Be cautious of everyone, yes even me.
Do your own homework and find the truth somewhere in the middle.
We are all here because we are generally paranoid, amirite?
Nuff said.

reply to post by LordBucket

What is it you want to know?

I think that's rather obvious, I just want a reasonable explanation for all of this, if no one can supply me with that, than fine, so be it, no one will ever truly know will they. And I feel this would be better discussed openly and transparently where everyone has access to these answers, instead of directly communicating via U2U if that's what you were suggesting. If not, my questions don't need to be any more direct, that's just insulting to point out people like that when this is all speculative.

Or, consider your Reality Uncovered thread, in which the mods there apparently renamed the thread because iskander claimed to have evidence, but never presented any.

As I stated, the focus of that thread was the questions he/she was posing.

I'm not saying there's no case to be made. There are plenty of curious "coincidences" and threads that discuss them do tend to get deleted. But I don't see anything terribly suspicious in this particular batch of evidence.

Well, that's fine, but others may find some significance in this batch of evidence. If all others have been deleted as you state, this is all we have to go on, so lets go with it I say.

the guy states very clearly in his own blog that after having been banned, he immediately created a new account to advertise his book.

Yeah, but he does say it was a free book. His first post doesn't appear to be saved on Google cache before being deleted...dang...it would be like leaking previously classified "Above Top Secret" posts...

[edit on 9/8/10 by CHA0S]

Originally posted by CHA0S
but others may find some significance in this batch of evidence.

I have seen no "evidence" as you call it. Perhaps you might like to pick one or two items that concern you, and we could examine those?

I too found some unflattering info on ATS while searching for info to promote
the site on Wiki, but no substantiation.

And no true conspiracy theorist takes any site, or information, as truth without
diligent research.

Believe none of what you hear, 1/4 of what you read, and 17/32nds of what
you see. And don't believe that...do the math for yourself

Click here for more information.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Well, no, there isn't really any direct evidence, except maybe the connections to Haliburton, can that be explained, maybe we have the wrong person. There's no need for anyone to answer that question, but it's obviously going to be something that will come up. We also seem to have a fair amount of testimony from people that sound perfectly rational, and some residual evidence of censoring on certain posts to back these claims up.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


that was a deflection of what was be presented why was he banned? would be my only question
second

[edit on 9-8-2010 by truth_of_truth]