content control and thread promotion on ATS : 100% distraction

reply to post by XmikaX


you guys read way into things. hes a scientist with a flu and is bored. why cant you ever accept things at face value? why does everything have to be a conspiracy or 'disinfo'. common guys...

reply to post by XmikaX


I agree in principle, but your grammar and spelling leaves something to be desired. Perhaps you should spell check yourself or up your game before you start hammering other members. What kind of successful scientist gets away with having such poor communication skills?
Yeah, I get tired of some of the IGNORANCE on the site at times, but there are ignorant people out there, and they have a right to be here also. It's part of being a member of our modern society.

I don't see anything more than a reasonably well funtioning algorism and the only occosional error (human) is by the mods.

Only one person answered the OP's question. And 30 other people insulted him. Just an observation.
On a side note. I would love to start a small community that wasn't in competition with ATS but only had experts in their respective feilds and extremely passionate users that enjoy the "boring" science stuff.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by XmikaX

 

So what is that thread distracting us from?

And what is this thread distracting us from??

If a thread is distracting, but there is no one there to be distracted, does it still distract?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/89f3895f9213.jpg[/atsimg]

I think ATS has it's own kind of "yellow" journalism which some people enjoy. I guess it's up to you to decide which threads to read or participate in..

reply to post by XmikaX


You are right. I am fed up with "best" threads instead of new threads.
However, You can always choose to go to specific area and see whats new there.

reply to post by XmikaX


You can either have user-based promotion, or company-based promotion of topis and subject-matter. Which do you choose? Democracy or dictatorship. Each has its pitfalls of course. Dictatorship, we get mainstream media. Democracy, we get to see what idiots we really are as a group.

Originally posted by XmikaX
the decent contributors of this space should take over the control of the content, over the owners, over the "mods", over the sock puppets, but it'd need a synchronization/collaboration that'd be a hell of a work and i believe we also have other things to do in our lives (as opposed to those owners/mods/sockpuppets)..

Who decides who is "decent" and who is not? Perhaps those who use capital letters to denote the beginning of sentences are more "decent" than those who do not use them? Maybe only those who do should control "content" here at ATS?

Is suggesting taking over ATS a suggestion that would be made by "decent contributors"? Although you do point out that it would require "synchronization/collaboration" which of course would be "hell of a work" and the decent contributors have far more important matters.

Odd considering your thread "the ultimate & most denied ever knowledge," where you point out we all need to accept that we "know nothing". Knowing "nothing" it would be very difficult for any of us to to determine who the "decent" posters are here on ATS.

Then we come to the fact that what is a "decent" post to you or I may be entirely different than what constitutes a "decent" post to others. But let's not worry about them since they do not matter, only what interests those you consider "decent" have merit.

Let's also ignore the fact this is a privately owned board, as well as the fact that if this board is not our cup of tea, we are all free to not only frequent other boards on the Internet, but we can start our own where we can make our own rules. Those facts do not matter since the self-proclaimed "decent" folk have a self-determined right to dictate to others what to post, that trumps all other considerations. The members of ATS who are not "decent" can not possibly be allowed to decide for themselves what to post or read, as their lack of decency negates any rights they may possess.

I believe I'll pass on your suggested coup out of common decency and a total lack of desire to be the type of control freak, who would suggest they should "take over the content" of a board owned by other people.

Meh.. slippery slope and all that.

For example.. a thread on the Alien and UFO forum about a stupid white umbrella on someone's back porch garnered I think DOZENS of pages. I thought it was pointless. There are solid cases and threads worth advocating.. but people focus on that ridiculous garbage instead.

If you start to make decisions about this sort of thread.. then a LOT of other threads could share the same fate. I think it's easier to ignore it and move on, otherwise we risk slicing the forums to ribbons with our decisions on what we feel is "worthwhile" or not.

Originally posted by WhiteDevil013

If a thread is distracting, but there is no one there to be distracted, does it still distract?

Sorry, I was distracted. What did you say?

Is this all based on your opinion of what a good thread is? Who cares?

I apologize in advance if I offend, but ATS is a 'distraction' in and of itself.

Don't get me wrong, I love it here, but we aren't busy fixing the world's problems, we're just posting threads and commenting on them.

The mods do the best they can do, and so do we.

Let's not get all egotistical.

We are merely typing at our collective desks, not solving world hunger.

Get just a bit of a grip.

If you don't like a thread, find a different one.

The mods are allowed to post whatever, whenever.

That's what mods do.

I don't know. Who cares? You're obviously an ignorant, blind atheist. Why is your post on the front page?

The fact that this thread has been pushed to the top of the most popular threads on the front page - most likely by sinister forces - speaks for itself. Something is very wrong at ATS !

Could it be that the OP is a disinformation agent pulling off some Cointelpro thingy to distract us from the Scientist thread ?

Did anyone ever think of that ?

Seriously.

Originally posted by XmikaX
the flag system is biased

Indeed it is!

There is no button to bury a post, just a button to flag it. Now a couple of idiots click flag on something and the rest of us with common sense can't do anything about it... What a silly system they have designed!

Originally posted by beezzer
There is that "minus" thingy next to the thread title on the recent posts page. Just click that and it all goes away.
You can even customize your own ATS page for your personal likes/dislikes and totally ignore all the fluff and bluster.

Beez

edit on 27-6-2011 by beezzer because: b

Man I wish I had known about this when that foreskin thread kept coming around! Grossed me out every time I saw it!

reply to post by XmikaX


When popularity is the driver, expect quality to go down. The masses are idiots, and always have been, and unless quality is preserved and protected deliberately, it will always deteriorate in contact with popular opinion.

Sorry for those whose feelings get hurt by the "masses are idiots and always have been" comment, but, its just the truth.

Plato commented on it, thousands of years ago.

classics.mit.edu...

The ancient and common custom of Hellas, which still prevails in Italy and Sicily, did certainly leave the judgment to the body of spectators, who determined the victor by show of hands. But this custom has been the destruction of the poets; for they are now in the habit of composing with a view to please the bad taste of their judges, and the result is that the spectators instruct themselves;-and also it has been the ruin of the theatre; they ought to be having characters put before them better than their own, and so receiving a higher pleasure, but now by their own act the opposite result follows.

Its not just ATS in which popularity drives quality down, but any media source in which popularity determines profitability. From general network programming to the news outlets. When "the people" are the determiners of content, the content will sink to the level of intelligence of the mass of people. Plato's argument was that this should not be allowed to happen. That forcing quality on the masses would educate them, their sensibilities, and improve their minds and their characters, and their taste as well. And he is right, in universities where people are forced to deal with material they would not choose, they are improved, if only marginally in some cases, by that exposure.

However, ATS is not school. It is a website that is funded by ads, and the more traffic it has, the more money it makes. You cannot force quality on people here without risking losing traffic, and profit, which could in theory cause the demise of ATS itself if the owners felt that it was no longer worth working for.

The popular but moronic content then is an economic necessity, and the lowered quality of threads and posts is an unfortunate but predictable consequence of ATS' growing popularity. However, ATS does not limit content to idiocy in any way. You and I, and anyone else, is free to create threads of the quality WE wish to see, on topics WE deem important and worthy, and those of like mind are able and welcome to see it and participate in it because, in part, of the low brow masses.

Use ATS as the excellent platform it is, and use your own judgment about which threads you spend time in. Rather than complain about the low quality of some threads, contribute quality to the good ones, or create excellent threads yourself.

Just dont expect them to be popular, for the reasons elaborated above.

reply to post by XmikaX


And now this thread has made the front page.

Wonderful representation of ATS, thanks OP.

It certainly does serve to disprove your point though, so for that I am thankful, and for all of those who flagged this thread...............

I agree.

I see many possible psy-op threads. I believe ATS is run by the CIA.

Not hard to imagine, even in a normal world.

reply to post by getreadyalready


It's all part of the conspiracy, man. TPTB got a grip on the forums, man!!!!

Sorry, I couldn't help it.
On a serious note though, perhaps it's more a reflection on the intellect and gullibility of the collective.