The Alternate Substances Forum—An Overview & Understanding

Hello ATS members, over the past few weeks there has been an increase in threads being posted in the wrong forums which end up in the Alternate Substances Forum. After these are moved, there are often complaints from some members regarding ATS censoring valuable information and sending threads to “die” in that particular forum.

Here is a breakdown of this forum, its uses and why we take such a hard stance when dealing with threads in this forum. Perhaps a little history is in order.

When I joined ATS in 2008, a big topic that we the membership wanted to discuss was Big Pharma’s drug industry, along with the war on drugs and multiple other “drug” related conspiracies.

After a long conversation, the membership were pleased that a new forum was announced.

Here is the original thread by Skeptic Overlord when the announcement was made.

This thread was VERY clear in its intentions. No talk of legalization or advocating legalization, no talk of personal usage of illicit drugs or advocacy either. It was to be a “member’s only” forum, dedicated to conspiracies.

Appearing at the top of EVERY thread is the following:

Alt. Sub. Conspiracies: This forum is for the discussion of conspiracies, scandals, and cover-ups related to the trade and trafficking of illicit drugs, and inequities in enforcement of drug-related laws. Personal use, advocacy of legalization, and related non-conspiratorial topics are not allowed. Members posting about personal recreational use of drugs and related mind-altering substances may be banned without warning. This forum is not intended for discussion of legalization advocacy or speculation of enlightenment or spiritual possibilities related to drug use.

*Emphasis mine.

Understand that before this forum was created there was a zero tolerance approach to any form of drug related threads.

There are thousands of other websites on the internet where you can go to discuss legalization of Marijuana and Hemp along with the actual conspiracy surrounding the fact that it is illegal. This is not a discussion ATS wants to be a part of.

There are multiple reasons why, the first being that a lot of places block out access to websites that have such information available. Limiting our pool of potential contributors and viewers is not something that is productive for our community.

The 2nd reason is that most of the time unfortunately, conversations about legalization of illegal drugs always devolve into talk about personal use. The proof is in the threads that already exist in this forum. T&C violations occur on almost every page of every thread in the Alternate Substances Forum.

Another point of concern is members who are consistently calling staff out with remarks such as “I know this will be deleted by the mods but...” That is self fullfilling prophecy and if you think it might get deleted by the staff because it violates the T&C, it probably will. Therefore we suggest not posting those remarks or that thread all together if you know it isn’t ATS material.

We ask that all members please understand these reasons and know that we are not attempting to censor any member or any particular information. Some of the content is simply not ATS material as listed within the T&C. No matter how relevant and important one might think that material is.

~Keeper

ATS Moderator

I hear this over and over, yet even the threads on conspiracies get locked and trashed. Mostly, with the excuse of troll replies to the thread, or if the thread even has the potential for trolling. If every thread on ATS was locked and trashed because it was too controversial, then ATS wouldn't be as successful of a forum as it is today.

Now, I realize that ATS doesn't need to be viewed as a "Stoner Hangout", but you can't keep punishing the entire group on the actions of a few trolls. This is the Internet. Drama always finds a way in.