This site has sold out.

The thing that amuses me about this post, is the op has only been a member for a month..
Now I know you can lurk, but you never really get tue true sense of what is going on in the threads, because you can't see which user or mod is posting which threads, comment, replies etc..
So unless the op had a previous account (maybe banned and still bitter about it) I don't know how he can compare ats now and ats then, unless his opinion has been influenced by other posters comments..
Just my thoughts, no offense to anyone..

reply to post by Misterlondon


I was just going to say that! OP hasn't even been here a month ffs... The board is gorgeous nowadays, the only problem is that there's too much trash posted by new friends who really need to lurk more; making it damn near impossible for the mods to keep a lid on all the garbage threads.

Personally I think they need more mods.

There is too much crap posted daily and not enough mods, they are people too and don't spend their entire day on ATS modding the threads. They do it on their time, if you don't like something alert it.

I'm pretty much brand new here and even ....
I got some advice for you little buddy
before you point your finger you should know that I'm the man
if I'm the man, then you're the man, and he's the man as well so.....
luckily you can go somewhere else and not know the rest of the song


rock on!

Awwww boo hoo, I can't get my precious freedom of speech that allows me to be a dick to whoever I want.

Grow up

reply to

I used to be a mod on another site built from scratch, but fyi most site designers use basic forum software that they adapt. Forum software comes with automatic foul language deletion which they can turn on (like ATS) or off (like GLP). Strange as it might seem to some, there are people who read posts alongside their children. Regardless, when site developers and owners strive to make a gold standard site, even one that deals with CT, they try to attract and keep a descriminating, constructive and positive clientele, and they determine the standards.

Sounds like you have an axe to grind, but why not address the real problem and U2U the one that ticked you off? And if you are dissatisfied and have a need to break the T&C, then hey, the web is a big place. And there's always GLP

reply to post by Griffo



Think you are spot on,.. without the moderators this place would just be another site full of vindictive and hateful people throwing curses at anyone who didn't hold the same opinion!
Free speech without moderation would just be a free for all.. not good

This is not at all unusual, a weekly, even daily rant about the site POSTED ON THE SITE ITSELF, i.e.: Tolerated with amazing grace. Here this time we have a newbie of a month's duration telling us all how the site should be run, what the site is all about, ad nauseum. The very fact that this rant is still here should tell you something. So let's talk about a couple of the issues here: Free speech and the "deterioration of the site."

First, free speech. You don't have it in the venues you think you do. It is not your "right." The US Constitution, as well as various other works of literary art associated with governments around the world, enjoins said governments from placing barriers to your free speech. This basically means that you can get on your soapbox IN A PUBLIC VENUE, i.e.: a commons owned by the people, and say whatever you want. This doesn't mean you can disturb the peace. It doesn't mean you can yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater. It doesn't mean that other people must tolerate your obnoxious behavior, and it does not guarantee you an audience.

Needless to say, ATS is privately owned and privately funded. You do not contribute to its funding except insofar as you make the unlikely step of clicking on an ad and actually buying something that motivates the retailer to continue buying ads. Then you may feel a soft goal in knowing that you are "helping" ATS, though the amount of help has to be infinitesemal.

Given your near total lack of support, you do not have a say in how this site is run. Get over yourselves because the fact is, you're not that important. Personally I resent people who come on here and within days start ranting about the site and what they SHOULD be allowed to do and what everyione else, some of whom who have been here for years, SHOULD act.

Now let's talk about the 'deterioration of the site.' The only real reason it has deteriorated is because you are now here. Yes, really. The site has grown tremendously and with that have come growing pains. It used to be, several years ago, that you could actually have a serious and rational discussion on this site. Oh, it could become contentious, but if there was an objective issue out there, you could depend on people to bring some concerted effort to the table to try to figure it out. People would actually provide evidence, citations, and documentation.

Now what do we get. "I had this dream. Do you think I'm a prophet?" "I asked this girl out six times and on the seventh time I got arrested for stalking by this horrible police state!" "The reptilians ate my baby and stole my soul!" "I should be able to swear if I want to!" "Let's start a revolution!" In other words, the signal to noise ratio is higher than it used to be and this is a direct consequence of the growth of the site. Also, the overall maturity level has digressed.

My recommendations for this site include MORE moderators so that one could be on hand nearly all the time on every forum, and a STRICTER interpretation of T&C's. There's no reeason a "Let's start a revolution!" thread should be allowed to stand for more than a few minutes. I have in the oast been mildly critical of uneven moderation. It's inevitable, but once in awhile you have someone who is quite anal in his or her approach and crosses the boundaries, but I can't see that it happens often and it is certainly not policy.

My recommendation for people who believe this site has "sold out!" is for you to simply leave. You're obviously not happy here. Either start your own site or find one more to your liking. Frankly, I doubt that is possible because other sites have their own issues and they are usually closer to the surface than this one. Would that be so hard to just leave?

Bye bye.

I'm more worried about -

a) Really crap content, all the time, with comments to stoke it going on for endless pages.

b) Really crap content being 'instantly' rated and bumped up by some hidden gang who seem to rate each other's stuff all the time. Without access to the 'ratings gang', other posts die within an hour or so.

The rating system is broke, and breaks the site. Simple as that.

well ..you realized how many threads made here on 1 day?

well ..i can understand why there are so many mods here...

even if some of them seems a lil bit to touchy sometimes

If you don't like ATS because it's "too moderated" then you can go to another site the starts with a G and has an L and a P somewhere in the name too. People there can say anything they want no matter how nutty it sounds

Seriously, though, ATS is a very big forum and a lot of times people post garbage and the mods have to look through every single thread to make sure people stay civil and behave, delete off topic posts and close duplicate threads. (Like with Obama's birth certificate, Bin Laden's death, the Rapture, etc)

Without mods, ATS would be like a school playground with people calling one another names and getting good threads with a lot of information closed.

You should know any site with this many adverts is all about the cash flow. They will contend that they need to voer their costs and all, but fact is a site like this can easily run on a 6 dollar a month account without issues. I am sure the people here would each donate 25 cents to meet your costs.

Also, editing of posts and the inability to keep content fresh and relevant makes this site a real joke sometimes.

To me it's like the Star or the National Inquirer except you don't gotta pay, well you do pay by allowing their ads to steal your cookies and serve ads to you that they think matter to you...to me thats a privacy issue one i feel infringed on, but whatever.

Fact is, if you took the ads from this site you can be rest assured those running the asylum and get paid for it, would stop and go get a real job and ditch this site faster then Man vs Food downs a hamburger.

reply to post by NibiruWarrior


I'm newess, but must say that it was nicer when there were two stories at the mid-top of the main page and not just one followed by wolf people or vampires or whatever the moving ad wants to sell us. Seems like the second story there would be more valuable to the site. I wish upon a star and that Jeannie woman that someone comes along with deep pockets and an interest in the site and funds it so it could go ad-free. "Yes Master" Jeannie says. Well, maybe it worked!

Thanks for the kind words of appreciation
I'm not speaking for myself here but there are many other mods who work very, very hard to try to keep things going on an even keel. They have given thousands of hours of their own time to try to make this the best site on the net.
We're not perfect and sometimes people and their posts are not treated fairly so we would ask that you forgive us any mistakes made.

If civil discourse is not your thing there are plenty of sites out there where you can curse your heart out.
There are rules you agreed to as a member that control what goes on here.
If you cannot abide by them then ATS is not the place for you.

The wild west of web is out there somewhere, but not here.

Sorry that we cannot please everyone but that's life.

One thing you certainly don't lack is courage, I hope you use that for the betterment of something important. The world needs people who aren't afraid to challenge the status quo in all walks of life.

Kind words and constructive criticism will get you better results in anything you try to change, I've learned that much in 50 years of being a crank myself.

Cheers,
Asktheanimals

reply to post by MaxNormal

I agree...I was waiting for some thread where I could ask, a Teen Wolf ad...really?

reply to post by MaxNormal


I've been here since 2007 and I can say this site has only got better.
The only times I've had a posts deleted was when it was justified.

They manage to keep the place clean and free from too many idiots.

I have nothing at all to gain from my post I like this site the way it is.

It could so easily disintegrate into madness that's why we have all the moderators

And this site will cost thousands to keep up. It's either adverts or member fees.

Wow OP SO MANY LIES in your post that I do not know where to begin!

I know that when I rent my cars from "AVIS" car rentals with the new member discount referral that I NEVER have a problem getting to wherever I need to go.

Perhaps you should just relax and watch a movie rented on your computer from NETFLIX! Fast streaming and reliable NETFLIX is always there for all your movie streaming needs!

Also be sure to check out TEENWOLF airing tonight on MTV 8 local 7 central time!

Fathers day is coming up. Battle Los Angeles is coming to Blu-Ray be sure to bring it home and own the epic adventure of a lifetime!

In conclusion OP I just want you to imagine Michael Crichton crossbreeding "The Stand" and "Salems Lot" in that lab on "Jurassic Park" with infusions of "Swan Song" and "Battlestar Galactica" and even "The Road" THEN you would have this summers biggest blockbuster novel "The Passage" by Justin Cronin.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


I understand that. But really, I still don't get it. Keeping the peace through exceedingly strict methods is one thing, but moving threads and deleting threads (including rather good ones that really seemed like they were going somewhere) is just a bunch of goddamned rubbish. And why is it that Mods seem to be so evasive when it comes to explaining their actions? I've inquired about some important stuff, and I can't recall ever getting a decent answer.

Yes, I am (snip) pissed.

Our moderators here work for free as far as I know. They aren't compensated. And they have ALOT of work to do.
The most recent figures here are:

7,057 new posts in the past 24 hours
55,152 new posts in the past 7 days
240,786 new posts in the past 30 days
218 new topics in the past 24 hours
1,783 new topics in the past 7 days
7,715 new topics in the past 30 days

Now I don't know about you, but reading 55,000 posts in a weeks time and sorting through it all actually takes some thought and time. No mod does anything the others don't know about. Everything that is done is seen by all of them for staff review. So now they have to look at more than 55,000 threads. The super mods even have to monitor what the mods have done.
Like a posted earlier said, every time I have had a post removed, it was justified. I may not have liked it. I might have ranted to the particular mod at the time, but I know I was off topic. I would really like to know how many of those 55,000 replies in the last week we have made were really ON topic. My guess is a surprising number of them were not. So every off topic post we as users make just makes for even more work for the mods.

So if anything, we should be trying to stay on topic. Not trying to derail a thread. I do think that the mods each have certain areas they are responsible for, so if you're having a lot of posts removed by the same mod, they don't have something against you, you're just probably posting in their areas of responsibility.

Instead of pissing and moaning, we should be thanking the mods for doing their best to eliminate the trash that is put up here, and thanking the ATS PTB for finding a way to keep this site going for so long. Sorry if you have to view a stupid ad, but someone has to pay for the servers for this site.

I can see where OP is going with this. I've been lurking on this website for a long time and have also signed up an account to this site not to long ago and have found that the ads are getting stupid. I'm tired of seeing "Teen wolf" ads, I will never watch the show because I am not a homo-sex. Also, from the almost endless stupid topics that users post it seems that the mods are not regulating this site, they only care about how much traffic they pull in. I remember coming to this site and reading a good handful of topics that always made my day, now I find myself lucky if I am able to catch at least one good post a day. I think we need to remove all the douches that bring up "New age" bull!@#$.