ATS Needs Quality Control

Originally posted by Jepic
reply to post by mblahnikluver

 

Oh I'm sorry! Are people not allowed to post what they think about a certain subject unless they have evidence? Well, if it's like that then ATS shouldn't even exist as 90% of this site is about things for which we have zero credible evidence of.

Um yeah when you post something on here you are suppose to back it up with sources...not saying that means it is evidence but back up what you are saying and why you feel that way.

There are some crazy threads and ideas but at least they have posted why they came to this conclusion even if it is nuts...

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by johngtr

 

In my opinion, the saddest part is how many ATSers take the troll bait and help to move those threads to the front page.

Don't take the bait!

Agreed...I ignore those threads, although one in particular I shall not name I just had to respond to..

If something is out there or sensational in nature in the title I don't even click it and if I do click one that is nuts I dont even reply. I get out asap

I am going to start that I like chocolate thread.

Let's see what kind of response we get!

(Sincerely though, there used to be a LOT more in-depth info, have the most knowledgable contributors died? Been driven off? Maybe that is a conspiracy in itself!)

Now, off to make the chocolate thread!

reply to post by randyvs


I agree with you, but I also understand the people that make those type of threads. Sometimes you just really have nothing more to say other than what's already in the link. Those type of threads aren't really meant to be informative. They are meant to just show you stuff that you may have never seen or come across. It's not nice when mods just decide that the thread isn't post worthy. Not post worthy!? Along this path if you don't control your authority you may find yourself suppressing something more than just low quality threads.

It feels good to be able to choose your threads and decide which ones are worthy of your contribution. That is your call.

Randyvs, here ya go: I love chocolate!

If that thread actually gets responses, all hope is lost!

reply to post by mblahnikluver


But if something is good enough of a topic then I'm sure those sources will come into the discussion as the thread evolves. It's not a problem. And newcomers such as myself shall I say, will as time progresses learn how to make their threads more effective and knowledgeable if you wanna call it that.

Do you know what I do agree with? Coming up with an automatic thread deleter. This means that all low quality threads that remain inactive for more than a set timeframe are automatically deleted from the site as to not to congest it. That would be cool with me.

Originally posted by YourPopRock
Randyvs, here ya go: I love chocolate!

If that thread actually gets responses, all hope is lost!

You can bet someone will. I bet I know who the first ding dong is too.

Jepic

It feels good to be able to choose your threads and decide which ones are worthy of your contribution. That is your call.

Very true. Did I foget to mention the par aboutt why I'm kind a bent ? Is because I got held to that standard. That I see others stomping on harder than Carmen Miranda do'in the mexican hat dance on cinco de mayo?
Well I'm mentioning it now !

Just to say, in the OP it is stated that it is nonsense to read that someone was contacted by Aliens from space without a dish... And that is a proof of stupidity...

Then tell me why we have been working on telepathic computers since at least the 80's???

Surely a cosmic travelling race could, from a distance, transmit info into a brain, or read from it, seeing that WE can...

I agree there can be bull sometimes, but things I thought to be hoax at first glance have turned out to be true, so...

reply to post by Scope and a Beam


I think all this madnes is a conspiracy by tptb to discredit the truth about nibiru, aliens, the lizard people, and the fact that it was the whales and dolphins who caused the earthquake in Japan!

Err.. actually, hold on a minute... No, sorry, my mistake. LOL

In fact I agree with you totally, this place needs a sanity filter! There is a lot a healthy speculation, unfortunatley some of that turns into unhealty obsession. Then there are the usual arguments about it all. I have to admit to having been sucked in myslef, but I have tried recently to be very much more descriminating about what I read and reply on.

It is a shame that this site threatens to become another crazy conspiracy site to be laughed at, but that does not remove the truth which lies hiden in so many threads here, it just - perhaps - makes it a little more difficult to find.

It would be nice to have a sanity filter, but untill then, I am sticking to my story about the professor, the black sheep and the explosion in the clinic.

I noticed a downhill quality shift that began around the same time that ATS went live on Facebook and prettied up the website to correspond with the new push. The focus now seems to be on the numbers vs. quality thread creation and thread postings. One liners and flippant comments abound. Its starting to read like the YouTube comments minus the foul language (mostly).

No offense to the Mods. you certainly have been tasked with the 12 labors of Hercules.

Maybe it just growing pains and a loss of a core focus.

reply to post by Shamatt


All of this madness does not have to be a conspiracy by TPTB it naturally happens to us, we are inquisitive.
So when there is a question we all try to answer it, and we do not always come up with the same answer as we all do not think alike.
That is why all information is or can be valuable.
The troll posts that get put up that are actually "Troll Bait" just serve to show us who....err whom the trolls are.
If you see something you don't like, alert the mods and they will singularly or via panel close or allow the thread/ reply to continue.
We learn at least something from all information.

lol, op you put one thread of a woman scratching her leg as b.s. and everything has become useless info on ats too! maybe you should have stayed on your fiesta as post's such as the scratch and YOUR's are very similiar NO

Wouldn't have wasted my time, but had to let you know: the pot calling the kettle black are two in the same

I sure can appreciate people have different standards, and different levels of experience with the site, and different intellects and different life experiences and well different focal points of interests too.

If ATS was a paid subscription service I think I would feel comfortable demanding a certain level of quality since I would be making a purchasing decision where value has to exceed cost.

Since it's essentially a free service that means it is more or less a public service.

Believe it or not I consider my participation on the site a public/community based service since I don't get paid to post on or author threads, and or read them.

Usually the people who make these kind of generic complaint threads are looking to be served more than they are looking to interact.

In other words they want quality information of a type and a setting that is pleasing to them to more or less sit back and read. They want to be informed, they want to be served in the process.

I approach ATS much differently, I am not just here to learn but to share and teach as well.

That's part of the public service, and some of the things I do as a public service on ATS is to try to help others learn how to abide by the terms of service, how to get out of the left/right political divide, how to broaden their perspectives, how to author better posts and better threads, how to do better research, how to frame more quality oriented debates.

Why do I do that? In part because I can, in part because ATS itself doesn't seem to object to concerned members taking an active and helpful role along those lines when it's within TOS and in part because I care about other people and helping them grow and not just what is pleasing, informative or entertaining to me.

In part because I have some of the skills and experience to do so.

I know it's an ongoing thing, that next month, or next crisis there will be a new bus load of green pea rookie members along who haven't read the terms of service, who probably are used to angry debates on other sites, who probably have little exposure to conspiracies, who probably are stuck in the left/right divide and who probably have never written a piece for public consumption that is meant to be intelligent, well researched and considered and structured coherently and progressively.

So rather than ask ATS what it can do for you (which many people seem to love too) while telling us of your high standards and previous experience on the site, why not put those to good and more practical and efficient use and utilize them to help other members up the learning curve.

It wasn't too long ago, a few years now that I think about it, that a similar complaint to this thread was posted. And one of the responses was that ATS is member generated content and that the best way to make a change in the quality is to be the change that you want to see.

So let's look at this from a different perspective. How many people listen to and/or enjoy the ATS Live shows? Currently there is a Politics show on Tuesdays, a Euro-centric one on Wednesdays, Friday has a music show, Saturday has the original Above Top Secret Live that is simulcast not just on the web but a satellite and two 50,000 Watt AM Radio stations that reach about 1/3 of the Continental US. There is even a show on Sundays that is part games show and part comedy of errors. There is even a second music show on Fridays and a show on Thursdays that isn't directly affiliated with ATS and the ATS Live brand.

One year ago today, how many of these 7 shows were aired? zero. That is being the change that you want to become. And that is just one example.

Personally, few people read the threads that I write and fewer still respond to them. I still make threads. And they still have a standard of quality to them. The only way that I would ever post a "Hey check this out" with a link is if I needed to get a quick word out and get back to doing what I was doing. Which would probably be rather involved and the link was a quick youtube vid that I uploaded as to what was going on.

More than likely, I would wait until the story was complete or more in depth. Compile and edit the footage that I had. And then write about what happened. A tornado wiping out half the town for example, I'd more than likely not try to post and seek shelter but you get the idea.

All a matter of cursing the darkness or lighting a candle when it comes down to it.

IMO its better to have an under-moderated site than an over-moderated site. Of course there are limits to everything, but I think the members can decide for themselves what is thread worthy and what isn't.

If you don't like sensational threads then why do you participate in them? If you don't like getting insulted then why don't you alert the mods to those posts or simply "insult" them back without breaking the T&C?

ATS is an alternative site, so naturally opinions may vary substantially from mainstream sites. That should be a given when you register as a member, yet I see lots of suspicious bashing coming from people who think they already know everything, thus making it difficult for those who oppose the status quo getting their point across in a meaningful way.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Agreed, and thank you for your community service.
(My favorite bit being your sig.)
These green peas you speak of sometimes sprout into worthwhile plants that produce their own fruit!
Or was i thinking we're all fruits...err summertin i dunno.

Originally posted by g146541
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

Agreed, and thank you for your community service.
(My favorite bit being your sig.)
These green peas you speak of sometimes sprout into worthwhile plants that produce their own fruit!
Or was i thinking we're all fruits...err summertin i dunno.

In my couple years on the site I have seen some posters grow by leaps and bounds, in their politics, world view, religious attitudes, writing and posting skills, social skills, etc.

Is everyone going to? Of course not, but if you put the seeds out there they do grow when the ground is fertile and the conditions right.

I think the great temptation many frustrated members have is to confront head on and it just backs the worst offenders into a corner that they come out fighting with the only skills that they have.

I have an awsome little thread going in Secret Societies right now about geometric shapes in musical scales that I thought the Masons on the site might be able to shed some light on.

They sure have been too, (so have some other very knowledgable members) and they seem really delighted to have a chance to answer some questions politiely and cordially put to them with respect instead of the usual accusations of being involved in some sinister conspiracy that puts them on the defense.

Debates and discussions get pretty passionate, rivalries are sometimes born, but I think if we try not to stray to far from the odd and somewhat insane nation that we are people, and all people who can help one another learn from one another, that participation in the site just gets more and more worthwhile.

There are always going to be those self centered people with high and exacting standards who are going to be overly critical, there are always going to be those posters too who appear to have been dropped on their heads time and time again as infants, but that's no real reason why the rest of us can't make a ongoing honest and sincere attempt to try to reach out and help them reconsider or better consider things even while at the same time doing our level best to consider what they have to say.

You never know where you are going to encounter that Diamond in the rough, but with an open mind and open eyes you sure have a better chance of finding one than with them shut and closed.

Thanks my friend.

reply to post by Scope and a Beam


We, the members, are the quality control.

That is why each person who feels that they see things that do not "deny ignorance" should join in and research the situation and prove the premise invalid.

Cheers.

reply to post by Scope and a Beam

I have to agree with the basics of the OP.

One thing I have noticed is that some long term members are no longer posting, or participating. Or even logging on to the site. A couple of the mod's are no longer posting or starting threads as well, don't know if that's because they are too busy trying to keep the site focused or they got fed up with the situation.

One of the other members and I were talking and she said she wasn't even lurking anymore, her opinion was the site had taken a huge down turn when it decided to go Facebook.

I feel like those stories might push off real stories that might actually be a worthwhile read, that no one will see.