too many 'what if' scenarios on ATS

i just sent my thoughts on this via the comments button, but would like some member input. has anyone else noticed that there have been a lot of 'what if' scenario questions on ATS? heck, i am a culprit to some of them, though only because i have not found another appropriate place to post them. i agree that they stir up good discussion, but dont always pertain to conspiracies. so i would like to know if a scenario/random thought forum would be in order for the stuff that doesnt quite fit in BTS, yet leans more towards ATS? thoughts? dfh out.

What is the alternative to "what if" scenarios? What is the ratio of "what if" posts compared to the number of your preferred type of posts?

Personally I think theories help to drive research. If a particular topic interests me, I have no qualms about entering into hypothesis generation. In the very least they generate discussion and create debate when refutations are presented. For example, Nerdling's recent thread on the hypothesis that Bush's jacket bulge in the 1st debate was actually a LifeVest, essentially a "What if"-style post, created an interesting debate and offered a previously ignored possibility for an observed phenomenon.

The other issue I see with creating an additional forum is how will you evaluate what goes into the forum? Will there be sub-forums within that forum to parse out the different themes (i.e. Secret Socities? Medical? Cryptozoology? Terror? Etc.)?

Perhaps this speaks more to the mindset of people who tend to be attracted to posting at a conspiracy theory discussion forum.

I suppose the ultimate question is: What if there were no what ifs?

MK

but what ifs are the bases of hypothesis a tried and true method of science that helps us learn more about things we dont know about to better cope with them and not be surprised when they do happen which again helps us to deal with them this principle is also taught to me repeatedly by FEMA under what they call midigation .....we learn by asking

[edit on 17/10/2004 by drbryankkruta]

MKULTRA, i am not anti what-if. just thought there might be another way of categorizing them, thats all. but you make some good points, it probably would make things all too much more complicated. oh well, i suppose its fine as it is. let's keep 'em coming then. dfh out.

What if there were no "what if's"? What would happen without presumption of the new? Where would we be without suspicion? What if there was silence? What if there is ignorance?

The whole point behind conspiracies, or thinking outside what society wants us to think, a what if?

What if the government knows about aliens (going from vaccuum tubes to resistors?!)?

What if there had been a highly advanced civilization on Earth thousands of years ago (all those OOPAs and skeleton oddities)?

What if the medical community IS purposefully spreading the flu (after all, they have the vaccine BEFORE the flu breaks out)?

You could go on and on... granted, alot of it is supjective, and takes coincidental information and rehashes it together to make something new (Antarctica civilization), but without grasping and thinking, reading between the lines, without seeing the big picture... we would all be mindless drones that believe everything we're told.

A what if is an essential tool, very much needed to learn.

What if people used the ATS Search function?

What if people used Google to search their subject before starting a thread?

What if people used a spell checker?

What if people could discern between a credible source and one that�s pure drivel?

What if people posted their own thoughts?

What if they used cogent syntax when expressing those thoughts?

Inquiring Monkeys, not just for "minds to know" anymore...

Yeah, a little too many what ifs going on lately.

Sometimes it is funny to hear those what ifs.

Alright, you got me, I get the point. After lots of rethinking, I have realised that a conspiracy itself is a what if scenario, so there's no need to go on about this, as I said before, I only was trying to find a way to categorize random ideas from studied sources relating to conspiracies on ATS, that's all. Lock this thread if need be. dfh out.