Threads doomed to obscurity and purgatory

Decided I needed to Rant about threads doomed to obscurity through the fast paced nature of ATS. Through a very quick search I see that this topic is nothing new and will probably come back up in the not too distant future.

From this rant, I hope to gleam a little bit of a better understanding of how my fellow members find and participate in threads of interest.

My personal routine is as follows:

-Quick scan of home page
-Recent topics tab to review topics being discussed now
-Go into individual forums that most interest me.
-Check replies section of my mailbox

My concern is, as many others before me have stated, is that threads that have been created have been bypassed with worthwhile content. Now I am not so presumptuous that threads I have created have been bypassed for this reason, but I have seen a number of threads posted by quality contributors be over passed.

This is just a rant and I have no real solutions to this as it appears it has been present for years. It could just be inherent to Forums such as this.

I have noticed that some MODS have invisibly bumped worthwhile threads that got lost in the shuffle.

ATS appears to be the victim of its own success, with so many members posting sometimes quality threads are sentenced to a life in purgatory.

Disclaimer: Just a RANT, I in no way suggest my threads as quality content, might as well be a crayon picture your two year old drew

Although everything I posted in my threads is real and serious,

my answer to your thread would be this,

I always thought a good idea would be the removal by members of threads in the recent topics that they choose to over look. I tried this on a few occasions but it actually removes all threads in that forum.

Maybe they can work on that

Peace, NRE.

reply to post by MDDoxs

Your list of activities doesn't include the "Recent Posts" page.
That's a good place to pick up anything new that's going on.

reply to post by NoRegretsEver


I agree, i would love to see something that better enables members to keep track of worth while threads. What that something is i cannot say

reply to post by DISRAELI


I meant to include recent posts, but unfortunately that just adds to shuffling of threads. I find it a great resource to what is being discussed like you have stated, but it seems apparent to me that people rely on that feature the most to view threads and as a result if a thread goes quiet and does not appear on the recent posts list, the thread seems to die.

reply to post by diamondoftheworld


Lol, I never expected to come across BZN on this forum.

Palingsound FTW!

Well, not really.

reply to post by MarthaFocker

Lol, I never expected to come across BZN on this forum.

Some things may come when the least expect ...I mean the good ones.

It seems to me that many great threads get lost in the shuffle here. No agendas or secret powers making it happen. They are simply the victims of a fickle public. I've had and seen great threads fail because they had the bad luck of being posted five minutes before or after an "ZOMG. OBAMA IS AN ALIEN AND HE JUST ABDUCTED ME AND TOOK ME TO STONEHENGE TO PROBE ME!!!!!!!!! REAL STORY!!!" Thread popped up - and the members all fixated upon the shock thread instead of the important ones.

Thread titles that aren't shocking also fail - even when they are awesome threads under a boring title.

My .02 cents? Use this thread to post links to some great, under acknowledged threads from the past. Revive them and give them a bit of attention here.

~Heff

reply to post by Hefficide


Hey Heff, thank you for participating. That is a fantastic idea, to use this or a dedicated thread to compile threads that are full of great info.

I think this idea will definitely help, however i am almost inclined to think that people do not want to put the time into reading lengthy sources or large OP's.

There is defiantly distinct groups that operation here on ATS:
1. Group that reads the subject line and first sentence before posting
2. Group that reads the OP and a portion of the source
3. Group that reads entire OP and reads entire source, including spin off articles that are related

I have afraid to say group #3 has quite a small population.

But thanks for posting again.