Option to prevent disagreers from replying to certain threads.

Originally posted by simone50m
reply to post by balon0

 

yours is a really good idea, the noisy negativist trolls can make their own d**n threads ***bashing*** whoever whatever they want. there is your freedom of speech.

 

Mod Note: All Caps – Please Review This Link.

edit on Sun Feb 20 2011 by Jbird because: (no reason given)

Thank you, someone that understands my point.

reply to post by balon0


Oh no, we get your point.

Now hopefully you'll get mine:

1. Let me get this out of the way now, this will NEVER happen on ATS.

2. This is a Discussion board that is world wide. Our motto is to Deny Ignorance and you can't very well do that by shutting out opinions you may not wanna see.

3. You want people to stop disagreeing with you? Make a concise argument that will shut them up.

This is a terrible idea, as it has been rightly pointed out by many in this thread.
I suggest you go and make yourself a blog, you can say and control anything you feel like then.
Plus we can bring the info back here and tear it to shreds.

reply to post by InvisibleAlbatross


there is no free speech rights on ATS...read your rules and regulations.

it is however too bad that some trolls are relentless in their quest to gather points and tie up threadication

It's been said 5,000,000,000 times here at ATS.

If you have someone disrupting your thread, you hit the ALERT! button. It brings the matter to the attention of the Moderators and they can decide if you are being assailed, or, you are a mamby-pamby that can't handle criticism.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Cuhail

Originally posted by balon0
*snip*

You DO realize you just trolled your own thread?

(sigh)
Cuhail



Mod edit: removed off topic quote.

reply to post by balon0


Balon0 the whole point of this site, is to produce threads within which the issues are DEBATED. The method you propose would result in nothing but backslapping, and would over time reduce the over all quality of threads, but more importantly the quality of the OPs being produced. If everyone here knew they could write any old tosh and expect respectful silence or overwhelming brown nosing from the responding posters, then this site would be utterly crap, and everyone would leave.
The great thing about this site is the fact that the OP sets the parametres of the discussion by posing a theory , or presenting information, and then the posters on the site can offer thier two cents, thats how things are done here, and theres a very good reason for presenting both the initial information, and the responding posts in the same thread... that would be, that it is the best and most easily followed format for any debate or discussion on ANY topic.
The method you suggest would produce the following scenario :

Someone posts a thread title " Up is down, black is white, and theres nothing you can say to detract from that position" .

Several random people post up in agreement, and then the thread dies before getting off page one.

However, that same title could currently fuel a massive philosophical debate which rages up to fifty pages , and actualy shows the accute sense of the abstract, and excersizes the minds of, this websites brightest and most mentaly agile posters.
Segregating the websites contributors in ANY way , into seperate camps of thought would be the biggest, and most thorough error of judgement ever enacted , were the ownership to do it. It would kill this site as sure as a bullet to the head, or a small explosive device planted and detonated in a disc in a persons spine.

No, I haven't read the posts.

But I will say this. If the T&C's were edited to include not being permitted to disagree -- and I notice you specifically designate "disagreeing", not trolling, spamming, being hateful and rude, just disagreement, I'm certain I would log out of here for my final time. Otherwise I would be faced with the prospect of dying from boredom.

Tip: Sometimes in your OP you might include a request to have a discussion with people who are like-minded, and request others politely to cooperate. I've seen others do that, and it seems to work. A little. Sometimes. It wouldn't hurt to ask. But don't bet on it.

I have seen more than my fair share of posts that offer neither dissent or rebuttal of any recognizable sensible form on many threads in my time on ATS. I agree that these postings to impede the quest to deny ignorance. That being said I must point out that I have often times seen posts which offer a valid, scientific, rational, contradicting opinion to the OP and these posts to indeed help to deny ignorance.

It is rather easy for any person to label a dissenter as a troll even though that description is not always valid. If someone contradicts your hypothesis/thread/OP with information that you cannot refute with facts and figures then they haven't trolled your thread; they have helped it. The purpose of ATS is to deny ignorance and science based logical reasoning is not trolling, it is denying ignorance.

The alert button is a very effective tool available to us for alerting the staff to possibly TOS unfriendly behavior. If you use this tool then you are taking the best step to address the potential issue; if you don't see mod action being taken it probably means that your perception of the "offensive" material is somewhat baseless.

As for the notion of offering a blanket ability to toss people out of threads or censor this is beyond outlandish. I cannot tell you of the times that I have seen threads composed of nothing but disinformation and opinion be set right by those whom offer truth in the form of science, logic, and reason. To think that someone that would post such disinfo would be able to also control whom responds to them sends a chill down my spine.

Goodness look what happened here www.abovetopsecret.com...
A thread about starting a section in ATS dedicated to chemtriails bashed by people who don''t believe in chemtrails. At the moment, 5 out of 8 pages are just people demanding evidence of chemtrails or how it doesn't exist.

reply to post by balon0


Good,then it is up to believers of the chemtrail conspiracy to come up with some evidence, just like the non-believers have to come up with theirs.

reply to post by balon0


Sure, but look what happened here?
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Rather than curling up in a ball , and demanding that someone take away all the silly detractors, in this thread I decided to use intelligence and critical thinking to build my case, and argue it. Sense showed through, in that my ideas were not summarily ignored or savaged by trolls. The reason for this is that I pretty much nailed the logic behind my thinking, and didnt make the error of leaving massive aching gaps in my argument.
Whats happening here isnt that you are being victimised, or that alternative thinking is being oppressed. What is happening is that people who arent any damned GOOD at it, are getting butthurt when people make reasonable requests for information and background.
If you dont want to be open to that, make better arguments!

reply to post by balon0


That's one of the situations in which a complaint (either about a specific post or a generic complaint about the way the thread was being diverted from their intended topic) or a message to a moderator would have been the best choice.

If someone is derailing a thread, complain about it, blocking someone from posting because they disagree is not the way of solving the problem, it just creates a whole new problem on itself.