Whats happened to ATS?

That is the way of the world. What people don't understand, or have not experienced, it is not real to them. Not everyone though, many will believe you and the rest will call you names.
I have talked to so many people over time that have seen some really unusual things and I made notes on these sightings. The really strange thing is some of these people don't know each other and are seeing the same things. People come to me because others called me odd, strange, loony, weird and so on. So these people feel comfortable talking to me about their experiences. (90% have nothing to do with aliens. The very word Aliens conjures up skepticism.) Why some people see these things and other people don't is a mystery to me.
So if you see things and others don't, then consider yourself among the unique, for it is a gift that most people don't have.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by NadaCambia

 

16e.) Illicit Activity: Discussion of illicit activities, specifically the use of mind-altering drugs & substances, engaging in computer hacking, promoting criminal hate, discussing sexual relations with minors, and furtherance of financial schemes and scams are strictly forbidden. You will also not link to sites or online content that contains discussion or advocacy of such material. Any Post mentioning or advocating personal use of illicit mind-altering drugs will result in immediate account termination.

i) Narcotics and illicit mind-altering substances: Due to abuse of the subject matter by some (promoting various aspects of personal use, and discussing actual personal use), no new topics on this subject are allowed in any form.

Neither naive nor misinformed. But I did read what I signed up for, when I signed up for it.

There are plenty of other sites where drug conversations are not only allowed, they are encouraged. ATS just happens to not be one of them. We have members of all ages, from all cultures, and we do our best to respect that. My kids are both old enough to know better. But I'd hardly want my child visiting a site where they might come across a thread about the great hallucinations to be had from any given chemical. This is a major reason why such subjects are not discussed here.

I wasn't involved with the circumcision thread, that I can recall, as a member or as staff - so I cannot comment upon it.

And, yes, ATS is a business. People tend to bandy that around as some proof of nefariousness. The reality is that every website on the Internet that gets more than a few hits is a business. Why single ATS out in that regard? To do so seems a bit misleading and vapid. No?

As to the quality of the remaining content? 100% member generated. So pointing 'blame" at staff isn't quite accurate. The "blame" lay in all our of mirrors if content is suffering. Be the change you want to see.

~Heff

I've read it, and the point stands. ATS admins talk about the need to respect the culture of others, but only do this for certain issues, for the most part they have no respect for the culture of others.

That part of the TOS is exactly what I'm talking about. It's hypocrisy.

And it's absolutely a personal decision taken by Stringer. Speaking myself as a webmaster of many a website. He's not bound by any law to prohibit such discussion.

It's an American-centric website and if you stray too far from accepted paramaters of discussion you'll be banned. Weed, Circumcision and Zionism are 3 subjects you shouldn't go near. Give me a year and I'll have 10 more subjects ATS are actively trying to get rid of.

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
reply to post by NadaCambia

 

Have you read the T&C? If you read them you should understand everything you just mentioned and why they do it.

Also the whole CGI thing, that isn't bad it's true. There are people from all over the world posting and no you shouldn't laugh at another person because they arent' familiar with something. I didn't see anything wrong with that thread by Springer.

The things you point out there are reasons why they do what they do.

Drug talk it allowed as long as personal use isn't mentioned and there is a forum for that as well.

Also when a thread gets out of control like the circumcision one they will close it esp after they have to warn people. If people are going to act like children they will be treated like one. I don't like it when a thread gets closed because some idiot can't follow rules but they are ATS' rules and if you can't abide by them then you should probably go elsewhere or just deal with it.

I dont like somethings on here but I respect the owners and their rules.

But the thread wasn't closed because it got out of hand, it was closed because of the topic at hand.

I'll find you any number of wild, offensive and abuse posts and threads. They still stand. If the thread in question was about female circumcision, it wouldn't have been closed.

And why can't we talking about smoking marijuana? But we can talk about abusing alcohol. What's the difference?

I can hear the mods raising their hammers as we speak. These questions aren't allowed to be asked. It's just "how it is", and we should blindly accept it.

I'm a member who has been posting on and off for a few months, but I was lurking for a few years before joining up. In fact, I only signed up in order to rebut some of the nonsense I was seeing posted, or to offer a different view in threads that were very one sided.

Like many people I found the site while researching legitimate concerns/conspiracies and it does seem that the content a few years ago was of a much higher standard.

I think the star system could be improved - for example, I think we should be able to downvote, in a similar way to reddit

Originally posted by NadaCambia

And why can't we talking about smoking marijuana? But we can talk about abusing alcohol. What's the difference?

That's a good question.I would be offended by that if i were Rastafarian since that is a part of their culture and religion.It's not allowed, yet people can sit around here and quote from that useless bible all day long.I see a lot of it in the disaster threads.

"My payers are with the Japanese" blah blah blah.

It isn't prayers they need right now i assure you.They need homes,clean food & water, etc.

reply to post by Hefficide


lol if I were cheekier I'd post a bunch of applauding gif's & emoticons now but instead I'll just say that was a very interesting & inspiring post Heff, especially written after a trip to the docs!

I'm willing to believe your stat's are plausible & even outright correct & I look forward to watching where this phenomena (all that is ats) goes & participating in the sharing of knowledge & the opportunity to become aware of breaking news in a more frank, real & often more honest way that the msm can deliver or any other source for that matter & usually days ahead of the msm also.

After reading your reply I would have to agree that although I am finding sometimes these potentially great & informative threads can be flooded with self fulfilling posts about nothing, the information is still in there to be found eventually & as long as it is then they're still worth their salt; which might not be exactly how you worded it but I'm more or less on the same wavelength with that one now.

It will also be interesting for me to see how net trends + inundation of members (2manydickssonthedancefloor) will affect each other & how the community balances out in the future...which was another one of many interesting aspect you mentioned I had not considered or known of before...

Thank you for such a well thought out & meaningful reply to my question, it's much appreciated

P.L.U.R.I
-B.M

reply to post by NadaCambia

I have a few thoughts on the issue you raise there. I respect the decisions of ATS staff with regards to "drugs". Discussion of drug use does not bother me, but neither does a lack of it.

What does bother me however is the lack of a distinction between "drugs" and "shamanistic cultures + the evolution of consciousness" due to their zero tolerance approach.

If there isn't room for talk of the toolkit of the shaman including substances illegal in the U.S then there is no room for presenting respectful & complete information about some very important cultures & practices in the world.

A whole independent forum is not necessary; just a willingness to acknowledge the conspiracies or historical relevance of those few genuine cases that deserve their rightful place on this site.

There should be room for some of the tribes, etc in the 'ancients' forum for e.g.

But again we should be able to talk about every aspect, especially when the substances they consume are key/central/integral to their entire belief system, way of living & knowledge. In other words if we remove the substance from the discussion the topic no longer makes any sense.

People who scratch things up to "just a bunch idiots hallucinating" are just plain ignorant; when we're talking about something that would never otherwise occur without said substance & you haven't experienced it yourself you cannot make an informed judgement.

There are many allowances that ATS could make for such cases but doesn't.

Zero tolerance is the wrong approach, if there was a willingness to be even-handed & not let personal bias taint peoples decisions they would see how obvious it is that some things should be up for discussion.

Here's one such clear & obvious example.

Discussion prevented by T&C - Global tribes & Ayahuasca.
Conspiracy link 1 -> Flouride & the pineal gland.
Conspiracy link 2 -> Proposed legislation to ban 10,000 native AU plants containing '___'
Conspiracy link 3 -> Inter dimensional travel & contact with alien life forms & gods - aya/dmt

Here's another -

Discussion prevented by T&C - Government sponsored '___' rehabilitation program for ex-convicts
Conspiracy link 1 -> Leary had a phenomenal success rate with the program & the government shut it down. What are the intentions of a person who would study the effectiveness of something only to shut down the study if indeed successful? obviously the intent is not the successful rehabilitation of ex-convicts into society. What is maintained if ex-convicts cannot be successfully rehabilitated? more convicts to keep the prison system running. You can't have a jail without repeat offenders.
Conspiracy link 2 ->'___' cannot be legal if it makes people desire peace or concoct revolutionary thought or be cause to revolutionary actions.

Peace,
-B.M

It's not that hard for crying out loud.
Make a good point
Support it as much as possible
Respectfully disagree with your detractors.
Treat others as human beings with feelings and a possible different point of view.

Read the TnC's

Do unto others.
Don't be a cry baby.
And this...Which is stricky my Own opinion, and not officially supported by the boards.
When I start seeing tit-for-tat comaplints by the same people over and over, I am tempted to impose a mutual time-out for both. But thats just me

ATS suffered from 90% AUTOBOT replies, LOTS of stuff we read here are supplanted by some group.

check this first thread i started to diagnose those BOTS.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

and eventually closed by SkepticOverlord

Closing this pointless thread.

The introductions forum is for introducing yourself to the ATS membership, not presenting silly ideas that promote meaningless responses.

meaningless responses

reply to post by spacedoubt


My points exactly. I've seen excellent threads turn to crap all because of mindless bantering and bickering. Thats where I take issue amongst all else.

Then you get morons who purposely dive in to legit threads to attempt railroading credible sources, just because either they choose to not believe anything or just want attention down there in that cold, lonely basement at mommy's house.

I also have to add to this, ATS seems to be full of idiots who do nothing but post uneducated flames when they either A.) Choose not to believe something thats true or B.) Get offended by intelligence higher than their own.

And the big one... C.) When they THINK they know whats right, and they just happen to be 100% wrong.

its the government bots. causing dumb threads disinfo and slower sites.

reply to post by MadDogtheHunter


Just when I was beginning to lose hope, I saw your thread. Not that this changes anything...I still hold to my beliefs. I remember ATS back in 2008-2009. Hell, it used to be my favorite website. I'd go on ATS and instantly have 10 tabs open with 10 fascinating new articles. And it wasn't just the original posts which were great in every article, people who replied would always add something to the research, and I'd be just as interested in the replies as in the article itself.

Recently, the replies are generally one line of text saying 'S+F! Thanks OP! ". And if it's not that, it's something completely immature and childish, or some lame joke which is painful to read.

Today, going on ATS, it's like walking around a beach with a metal detector and sifting through all of the threads dealing with Japan, homosexuality, Libya, bashing political figures whilst giving no substantial factual evidence of their standpoint, I can go on and on...but you know what I mean. It takes me hours to find a good thread.

I used to get on ATS and click 'RECENT POSTS' and man, I think it was the best moment of every day. Now we just have mediocre social issues, mainstream news that I can find on any other website...I just looked at 'RECENT POSTS' and I saw this article:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

How is this Medical Issues & Conspiracies?

And I've also noticed how threads a la 2008 which actually have substance and deal with conspiracy theories either get ignored or moved to RANT or something similar - along with also being extremely rare, of course. It's because of all the new traffic this website receives. Everybody's too lazy and nobody wants to waste the time using correct grammar or to do research, they just want earn stars and flags, make their post count go up, so they can boast about being popular on this website. I wouldn't be surprised if they spend more time designing their avatar than doing actual research, and perhaps now and then submit a news article which has nothing to do with fighting or denying ignorance.

What has become of ATS? The Internet? The world? We didn't even need disinfo agents to kill this website, all they had to do was make it more popular and flood it with new members.

And where have the 2008-2009 era ATSers gone? Surely they notice this too, what's become of them?

(S+F)

In just the past 2 weeks alone, I have lost count of the number of new threads claiming proven false news reports and just pure sensationalism. People, leave that sensationalism to MSM. ATS is SUPPOSED to be about truth and denying popular ignorance. At least the ATS of the past, was all about that.

The reason the "good" threads fall to the bottom.....

Its simple. Newbie Trolls run right in to new threads and spout off with uneducated nonsense and childish name calling. When they do this, real contributors simply stop participating in the threads, leaving them to be ripped down by bored, basement-dwelling Trolls.

Ever notice how many of the older ATS members just don't post or post very little today? Well, we're sick and tired of the Newbie Trollers being allowed to run amok.

And....

For those who don't like what I have to say in MY thread here.....walk away, I don't have and won't make the time for, your childishness.

reply to post by MadDogtheHunter
I totally know what you mean. A guy came on your thread yesterday, he just joined the 19 March, it was his very first post, all he did was go on about how all ATS members are a bunch of loosers, that most of the women are fat and everyone on ATS was dumb want-to-bes. Love the compass thread but just when one attacker stops another jumps on. People interested stopped posting. The first 20 posts should also be a probation period to see if they are just here to have their fun messing with people.

reply to post by MadDogtheHunter


ATS was never a website for research rigor. It was never a website for claims that actually had any evidence or supporting facts. It has always been a website of conjecture and inaction. I personally started out on here trying to learn about UFOs...or at least maybe Area 51...I was disappointed by the reaction.

One of my earliest posts, way back in my first year on this site suggested organizing a march, covered by the media, up to the gates of Area 51 in an effort to gain some disclosure. Nobody even bothered caring. Why? Because that would take effort. People don't want effort and truth, they want to feel like they're keyed into something other people don't know about. People want to feel like they know the truth even if they don't have evidence for it. It's nicer to have a conspiracy theory that you can't prove than a conspiracy theory which you disprove while you're trying to find evidence for it.

Mad.. you know I like you my friend, but dont look at sign up dates. I was here in late 07 or early 08 the first time and this is my 3rd account after moving all over the place.

I will agree that the quality has went downhill. Its not nostalgia or whatever nonsense someone wants to claim. I believe that with things no longer being a "hidden agenda" that folks are starting to question and come on here green. They then get into it and see conspiracies climbing out of the cereal box. Younger folks are attracted to this now with it all in your face concerning the US and the world. Add to that people are just generally idiots when they are anonymous, and the intertubes become tedious. I think the average non conspiracy joe is starting to wake up to things abruptly and theyre flailing around trying to make sense of it and getting caught up in the more fringe stuff. You have to admit that things are coming fast and hard at us all.... Ive not seen the world like this before and Im a bit older.
Saying that... if there were NO stars and flags MUCH of this would go away. Its like the star system on ebay.. people are crazy about kudos and pats on the head. I feel that if the star and flag stuff was eliminated we'd all be more happy with ATS again. I understand the why of SPringer and the others thinking this is a good idea.. it HAS worked.. but you have to take the good with the bad. I just gripe about the bad because it gets old wading through thread whoring and fearmongering for stars and flags.

If you see these threads youre speaking of, dont respond to them. I sure dont! Let them die on the vine with their little stars and flags. No one serious minded visit these threads anyway really. We need to try ot maintain the integrity of the site with our own threads regardless of the folks who want to come on t he thread and give us props. If the information reaches one person and gets through to them.. thats what counts. Id become disillusioned myself and swore off making threads because no one reads them... I bought into the start/flag thing for a bit.. I judged my information presentation by kudos.. well.. I woke up finally Screw the flags and the whiner trolls.. make a good informative thread.. never know who is lurking that it might touch.




As far as what Springer allows on his own site.. LMFAO!! Hey, if you want something else.. make your own site. Im totally fine following the rules Springer et al have worked out for this site that they provide to us FREE.You have no say in it unless you decide to pay some of his bills. I read what I agree to... I agreed to abide by the T&C/TOS and am okay with it. If you arent, there are plenty of other sites out there. Be sure and get back to us when you build your internet utopia and see how you get along trying to please everyone who signs up.



HEFF.. my dear.. you mentioned your headache. Must I remind you that you are a baconaholic. Bacon contains headache producing stuff. If youd cut back from 3 bacon meals a day and bacon snacks.. I wont mention your bacon toothpaste and hair gel... youd probably cut down on the headaches and not die from a bacon induced stroke.