ATS Needs Quality Control

It's a fine line sometimes, and it is hard for staff to ensure Quality Control when so many threads can be made at the blink of an eye! Also, which threads are considered quality and which are not? Even so, I agree the content of some threads are ridiculous and are deteriorating from the overall quality of the forum.

Originally posted by The Sword
reply to post by redhorse

 

What point are you trying to make?

Your response is exactly what people are talking about in this thread!

Really? How so?

Wait, before you answer that please read the rest.

I'm usually pretty polite, but this growing tendency I see for people to attempt to police the site, and so-forge-it-in-their-own-image is getting ridiculous.

I think the moderators do a remarkable job of toeing that line between freedom of expression, and weeding out hoaxes , keeping things on topic, making sure things are somewhat civil, while still allowing for creative discussion.

You actually are perfectly illustrating MY point. So, (based on one post that you disagree with) I am now categorized in your mind as one of those loose no-accounts that you think should be clamped down on and only allowed to manifest certain opinions, (just the "right" ones, said in the "right" way mind you) because it is muddying up this place and therefor making it unworthy of you superior intellectual skillz; and I think that you are (likely) far too interested in controlling others for the sake of your own ego. So we have different approaches, and goals. So what?

The difference that is making me angry is that I'm not trying to raise the hew and cry and create a social atmosphere so that you cannot express an opinion. I think you should be allowed to speak as it were, and this idea that only certain opinions should (dangerous word there) be allowed to be expressed as defined by a minority is gaining steam. If this vision becomes manifest on ATS, I will no longer be here, and I think I would not be the only one.

To repeat, it's a very tricky thing to maintain civil, intellectual discourse and still allow for differing opinions. This site does a remarkable job at that already, which makes me think that most people in support of this proposed gestapo-esque crack down aren't really all that interested in discussion unless it agrees with them.

Also at the end of the day, there is a structure in place to oversee content. They are called moderators. You are not one. I would probably leave if you were. So there is a goal for you to work toward I suppose. On the other hand if you don't like the way the content is policed you could head somewhere else, or better yet, start your own site where only the (in your opinion) intellectual cream *cough* (those who think like you) are even allowed to have a say.

I must also say (and usual disclaimer... this is just my opinion) that I find the vehemence of the rebuttals to my response to be far shorter in content and far longer in pointless vitriol than my own contribution. I don't shy away from snarky, but at least there is some meat in there.

Best example:

Scope and a Beam

For god sake grow up.

Nice.

Short, ad hominem attack, with no content, and contributed to the discussion about as much as a fart to a tornado... and yet, it's still here. Great. He is entitled to his opinion, but funny thing... All of you calling for more decorum and civility didn't call him on it. Not. One. Word. Which I find interesting. The only reason I bring that up is because it lends credence to my theory that this is more about ego validation for a self-righteous few than actual civil discussion. It's okay indulge in attacks, but only for (those that think the "right" way) and to (those that disagree) certain people, and everyone else must agree, shut up or maybe... possibly... be allowed to express a differing opinion if it is done so with the appropriate humble demeanor. Although I doubt that last one. I've seen how that goes with this sort of mentality, and it's usually "with us or against us", and even the most minor nay-sayer gets blasted.

But he can say it. I personally don't see anything so wrong with that statement that it should be scratched. Like I said, we all need to separate the wheat from the chaff. We will all sooner or later react, and pop off and say something that has all the intellectual voracity and focus of a kitten in a feather-plucking shed. Folks is folks. What is being proposed here won't allow for that, and in those types of environments you don't get actual thought, you get conformity to the dominant ones on the pecking order and intellectual stagnation.

reply to post by Scope and a Beam


A website like this attracting people with weirdo and new age point of views? Say it isnt so.

I think a lot of what gets posted on this website should not come as a shock to anyone. Its a website that promotes discussion about Bigfoot, UFOs, ETs, the Illuminati, Shadow People and so on. So its only naturally that it'll attract mobs of kooks that believe in everything and anything under the sun.

And at times, some of it gets front page status.

But with a website like this, it should be expected to "come with the territory".

And also, people have different beliefs and opinions regardless. That wont change.

reply to post by Scope and a Beam


You hit a lot of nails right on the head there.

ATS only makes the problem worse too, by stamping offending posts that advertise (YES, advertise) what the problem is. They promote the exact behaviors they wish to avoid by replacing the posts with gigantic graphics of exactly what the person did wrong.

On a related note, "deny ignorance" is only going to promote it. You cannot have a word on a screen and try to say that you aren't promoting that. It is only attracting and bring out exactly what the word says. (This is exactly why the war on drugs doesn't work. Drug posters promote usage, etc.)

Aside from these annoyances I have with ATS, I agree completely with you. There are certain times that I find worthwhile content here, and say to myself that it'd be nice to share this site, but I'm too ashamed to share this site with anyone because if they saw the crap that is on here, they'd think I were much an idiot as some of the people on here are. Straight up, that is the truth. This site is becoming worse. More trash to dig through. More junk topics and threads. So difficult to try to "use" the site and get the few gems that are to be had.

And why the heck can't we star posts here? Some kind of mess policy to keep us from realizing what posts a lot of us agree with?

ATS staff will not "fix" the site to clean it up because it's a dang business. If most of what they have is a bunch of idiots here, as long as they stay, that's great. It would be against their profits to design the site such that they are banned or leave quickly.

Just another profit-driven corrupt system to deal with.

The one thing that really bothers me most here is the bickering and the arguing back and forth, back and forth. OF course it's "debating" to them. It's not. It's childish, and we will all see the day that another site comes along that takes away the good people of ATS to leave the trash here. A new site with tougher policies and more quality. It's only a matter of time.

Let the competition begin!

Originally posted by seagull
Quality control.

That's us. Us, as in the members of ATS. You want quality? Make it happen by serving as an example. Post quality discussion.

It's kind of like saying if you plant a flower in your garden, the weeds will disappear. Never. The weeds are still there.

What we are asking for, I believe, is something that ATS cannot offer, which is a migration of the serious members and the leaving here of the ones who want to troll or be live out delusional fantasies amongst themselves.

The serious members who do follow the rules are drowned out by the ones who don't, and we're going to eventually say we know what's best, and that is to leave and find another site or make one or whatever we have to.

It's completely out of control, is what we're saying, and it cannot be stopped. We don't have adequate filters to sort this out. We can't even block posts from specific users! It'd be great to be able to subscribe to filters of known violations. It could be a community thing. Users could share blacklists. I don't know if your website system would allow this or if it could be implemented, but it would be fantastic. Knowing that known 'violators' could be ignored would mean users would have control over what they see instead of just a bunch of threads being vomited onto the screen.