The ATS Conspiracy: Are controversial threads allowed to remain to drive traffic?

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


What you say makes sense to me actually. I dont claim to be the bearer of secret knowledge of what you and others are up to. I respect the hell out of you guys for developing the best conspiracy theory website on the planet. But lets be frank here. There is a reason certain threads remain active even when PROVEN to be hoaxes. And Im not talking opinion. The OP in that Obama thread is using a birth certificate in which the creator of those documents admitted it was a hoax three years ago. And I know the mods who follow the Obama craze here on ATS know this.

And while I understand bad press can equal loss of advertisers, no press is worse. Its sensationalism, and despite what the topic is, usually controversy creates cash.

Case in point, this time, a thread claiming there is a conspiracy that involves this site is moved within hours after the OP because it sheds a bad light on ATS. Now I can admit this is just my "hunch" and theory with no hard proof. Yet the Obama birth certificate thread....?

This isnt a rant. A rant would be me complaining about the t and c policies being too bias and unfair. Im outright saying they are ignored in some cases. And for this accusation, my thread is moved to the rants section, single handedly proving my point

reply to post by bknapple32


And I notified the mods about the Hoax Obama thread hours before it was moved...

...There's actually more evidence at this point for a pro-birther agenda on ATS than there is for all of birther-ism.

Admittedly that's a pretty low standard.

and its moot now. The thread is in the rant section and therefor deemed to not be legit enough to be a general conspiracy. While one can take a picture of an aquarium and say a rock and hand is actually a grey posing for a photo... amazing

Originally posted by redoubt
reply to post by bknapple32

 

It seems to me and a few others (quietly) that ATS, whether it be the mods, upper level staff, or both have been allowing the kind of threads that seem to be based on hunches, theories without much fact, or sometimes outright lies to go on and on. Why would this be? Why, if something is darn near proven to be HIGHLY HIGHLY speculative, does it not go to skunk works or "Highly speculative" sections. Im not calling for outright deletion of these threads. Obviously there will be those of you who disagree that a thread is speculative. But there is also some of you who will believe anything posted on here these days. ( and to be fair some of us who cry hoax at every turn) But why don't they go where ATS classifies where they should belong. If something doesn't have proof, its speculative.

Forgive me but... aside from yourself, of course, who will make up this judge and jury that decides what topics and posts are worthy enough? I mean, what we are saying here is that there is no equality of membership because obviously, some wish to be more equal than others; it will be their opinion that counts more than someone whom may disagree with their divine assessments.

I abhor the [HOAX] category as it is because it allows a select few the power to say what is and is not genuine... either in intent or in fact, or both. This is NOT my idea of denying ignorance.

But... don't fret. If and/or when ATS ever expands its elitist leanings, you can have it all for yourself and hold court over as may as choose to live under that kind of regime.

Have a nice day

When did I say I would make any decisions. Who is talking about worthy? Im talking about posts that have been PROVEN to be hoaxes. No opinions necessary. And in the event it isnt 100% a hoax, when something looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it should at least go to the highly speculative section. Im not calling for deletion of threads. They should just go where they belong until a case with evidence is made. Again, the mods do a good enough job with this when it comes to certain items. My point is, it seems the most controversial are left to remain in the lands of legitmacy on ATS because it garners more traffic to the site.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

But, even with topics that perhaps should be moved sooner that many would like, we still have topics like this getting noticed quickly, and receiving the attention it deserves.

Uh, SO?

Are you saying we should pay attention to that video (!!!)

Is it time to light our hair on fire and run around in circles?

I ignored that video; so please let me know.

X.

I think you are on to something. I have evidence and all the ATS PTB showed up to say nay.

My thread Jehovah Revealed www.abovetopsecret.com... was left in the "Controversy" slot until it ran its course. The thread was controversial thinking and took a lot of troll hits but there was some discussion on it. After the flow died down it was moved.

Glad to see this subject brought up.

reply to post by rebellender



Unfortunately, questioning the status quo has been stuffed. Throwing the thread in the rants forum is the perfect form of censorship. They don't have to outright delete the thread or ban me, that would be too obvious, just put it in a very low traffic forum. And they moved it twice mind you....

S+F . I have been thinking along these lines for awhile now and I have to agree. I've seen some horrible thread's that don't even seem to pass the qualifications to be called a thread let alone present any real evidence to back up claims.I've watched them get pushed to the front page quickly even a day after I have watched twenty pages of two camps fighting back and forth while the real topic of the thread basically blow's away in the wind and the OP is never seen again after the first few pages.But in the mean while the Op has racked up eighty stars and one hundred flags. I've watched informative well thought out and researched thread's go basically unnoticed.It's the way the star and flag system is set up I've said it before it encourages people to base their status on how many stars or flags they have.So you see a lot of threads based on pure shock value to create action.The mods know this and this is why they push them to keep things going.They need to keep busy doing what they do, so I think they do it to create action.Some people don't seem to care about "the truth", or fact's or research or learning.It's , what can I do to get a whack of stars and flags so I can become a mod one day?" I truly believe that a lot of peoples mentality is driven by this system. I'm not saying I know what other way they can do it , but I know in my mind I could never just create a thread for the sake of creating one. I know thats what we are supposed to do here but I think only in the context of providing real information and stories backed up with basic facts.I know we have sections for "controversial and speculative" threads but the rate at which I see these threads reaching front page seems to be increasing.
Right now though the big push again is the pro america pro war anti Iran threads. So we are going to have to ride that out for a bit before we get back to the channeling shape shifters who can use their minds to do harm to people threads.

reply to post by bknapple32


Yes.

This is the truth.

You could keep creating new threads so that they were forced to deal with you, but in the end they'd simply ban you...

Originally posted by bknapple32
reply to post by rebellender

 

Unfortunately, questioning the status quo has been stuffed. Throwing the thread in the rants forum is the perfect form of censorship. They don't have to outright delete the thread or ban me, that would be too obvious, just put it in a very low traffic forum. And they moved it twice mind you....

Your thread is where it belongs, imho. The status quo, as you call it, is the sole responsibility and choice of the owners of ATS. You posted your opinions on it, and the owner of ATS, plus a MOD responded with their explanations to you.

You weren't arbitrarily banned for asking, nor continuing to complain. What more do you want, really.

Des

Originally posted by Destinyone

Originally posted by bknapple32
reply to post by rebellender

 

Unfortunately, questioning the status quo has been stuffed. Throwing the thread in the rants forum is the perfect form of censorship. They don't have to outright delete the thread or ban me, that would be too obvious, just put it in a very low traffic forum. And they moved it twice mind you....

Your thread is where it belongs, imho. The status quo, as you call it, is the sole responsibility and choice of the owners of ATS. You posted your opinions on it, and the owner of ATS, plus a MOD responded with their explanations to you.

You weren't arbitrarily banned for asking, nor continuing to complain. What more do you want, really.

Des

There really wasnt an explanation as more of a deflection. SO raised some good points, and thats the idea of this thread. Discourse, civil, will provide as close to answers as we can get. But it is by no means a rant. It is the questioning of a possible conspiracy. A rant would easily be just complaining with no motive. I am clearly defining a motive behind actions that I think is kept under wrapped. What more in a conspiracy do you want? Not implying this is what youre thinking, but is this not worthy of general conspiracies because it doesnt involve the NWO, illuminati, 2012, aliens, ufos, or Obama?

reply to post by bknapple32

What the owners of any site choose to do with their *property*...is not your, nor my concern. It's not promoting child porn. It's a platform, a free one to the end-user, to play on their dime. They get to run it as they choose.

ETA: What if you logged in one day, and all you got was a notice that due to unforeseen circumstances, ATS is closed.

Who would you complain to then....

Des

reply to post by Destinyone


You're acting as if all I do is complain. I've given enough kuddos to ats on this thread alone for the good work it does. So because we are gracious users of this site means we shouldn't question the authority of it? The motto of the site asks us to deny ignorance; not questioning a trend that I and others have seen would be ignorance itself don't you think?

reply to post by bknapple32


If this was a typical ATS thread we'd now start calling detractors, "paid shills" and, "ATS disinfo agents".

Originally posted by captainnotsoobvious
reply to post by bknapple32

 

If this was a typical ATS thread we'd now start calling detractors, "paid shills" and, "ATS disinfo agents".

If you are implying expressing my own opinion, makes me a shill....you are wrong.

Des

Its worth sifting through the BS!


Things are going to get really really shady around ATS as we get closer too 2012.....



I suggest putting even more Mods on the Charter, because this website is heating up as we get closure to December.




2012 will be a year to remember for ATS we should archive every post for future humans, they'd probably find it all amusing

Thank you, ATS, for allowing threads that generate responses to continue on. If someone does not like said thread, they have the freedom not to read it or respond. And they have the freedom to whine about it (see OP).
And if you are generating profit based off the hits that come with a thread people are obviously interested in, great for you. It is the American way.
Continue and prosper...

Peace.
and Thanks Again

reply to post by bknapple32


Being the "ATSer" who has been standing on the side reading the different threads and digging deep over the years to see the good side of ATS I would like to weigh in after reading down through some of the discussion.

And it's intresting in that. almost everyone is hinting at seemingly strong points. I would like to suggest that a lot of these veiwpoints come because of the lack of an actual human interaction in the discussions. I think that the problems would be different if you even had video chats with multiple people although admittedly, some paranoia here would keep it from happening. But, the best would be to actually meet in person. Because this is a business advertisement is going to take place to make money for a lack of dues.

Look, people we all are a little "strange" in our own ways when we are alone. So since most of us are sitting at the computer alone when we are reading ATS we tend to express ourselves with a loss of filters that we use in our day to day interactions. And a lot of us our sectioning off our section here on "the rock" earth to call our own and make due for us and ours we tend to look at other people as something different. So we see arguements and bickering cause people hold to their "strangness" not matter what and keep it as their own.

And with the lack of meeting face to face we lose touch with the humanity of the person making the comments and then make mocking and and rude statements and out of ignorance of understanding of who or "where" their coming from.... I shouldn't be making my own rant, but the fact people like to argue on here is part of why those threads stay up. A lot of people feel the need to get the last word, and are right when their wrong in their mind. the adds are just part of the fromat thats been accepted in web business. If we the people were smart we would meet our neighbors and start linking person to person wirelessly and wired to create a private individualy owned by the user venture to share our speach. Or get out grow your garden and network more with your neighbors and experince more of what you think you have learned. Anyway I guss I ranted to a rant today.

It's obvious that A.T.S has it's faults, like it's motto of denying ignorance when there are certain topics not allowed to be discussed in any circumstance, lots of post censoring too, that's a pure contradiction to the motto. Despite this I do believe ''on the whole'' a great job is done by all, owners and mods alike (and I say that even with minus 2000 points, yeah, you know who you are you nazi.........I'm kidding of course...it was my own fault....I was trolling a troll whilst I should have left it alone)

This site is the best place on the net for conspiracy and more as far as I'm concerned. I don't know of any other place that offers such a wide variety of interesting forum sections, a meeting of so many minds and the passion that goes with it. I even find the trolls amusing (sorry to use the way overused word ''troll''.....errr..4 times now) whilst others make weekly threads in the rant section about wanting them banished, the place wouldn't be the same without a mix of good and bad.

So, to summarise, A.T.S has my support despite it's faults, even if that meant contro-threads staying open for economic reasons which I don't think happens at all anyhow.

reply to post by Destinyone


Yes, but it would be the ATS way.