Why are there so many rude people on ATS these days?

11 years ago we were all a little better off and had a little bit better job security etc and I think we are all nearly at breaking point and that comes across on ATS.
I have had a PM from a member saying that I have turned into a monster lol but I just thought "no I will speak my mind and will not hold back anymore".
To be honest If you don't like it don't respond or just move on.
ATS is still the best site on the net and like the mod said maybe grow a thicker skin.

reply to post by shauny


Well, I believe ATS is a distilled sample of people from all walks of life. As such, we are often in the presence of people who are very passionate about their beliefs, we are often strong willed individuals with hefty personalities, and open to discuss their positions. Most of the seemingly rude folks seem to focus on why other people are wrong, or they just stop by to drop a one liner and leave.

Maybe it's part of the nature of an Internet society? Maybe not. The rudeness does get tiresome but it's easier for me to get away from the page than to argue with people.

I'm a ham radio operator and there are some really rude people on the air. Best operating procedure to deal with them? Just don't acknowledge them. Eventually they get bored and move on. Maybe that will work here too!

It is what it is. Humans being rude to other humans online in an anonymous forum. Who would have thunk it!! I was'nt here 11 years ago, but I would imagine that if the site was the way it was 11 years, (now), you & Phage & Slayer would probally be the only members. Times change, people change, sites change. Change is like an avalanche coming down the mountain.....go with it or be buried alive. Rude people are like trees, their everywhere.

rangerdanger
I fully agree. Having only been a member since 2010 I haven't seen the decline like the OP has, but I've seen a decent chunk.
Now everytime I post anything I get called a shill.

You should laugh.

Hey hey hey,

Honestly, am I rude to any of you ?
Just wondering. Can point to the thread if possible.

Btw yeah, 911 is to be avoided here, unless your skin made from tungsten.

reply to post by NullVoid


I am of the opinion that if one believes in the official 9/11 story that they do not belong on this site. I think that is one of the only prerequisites that should exist. I do get slightly ruffled when I see people peddling the Mainstream version of the event here. It rustles my jimmies and misplaces my marbles so. I also get kind of angry when people support a party in America non-ironically...that gets my goat too. I think those topic really bring the worst of me out.

stargatetravels
reply to post by shauny

 

Because ATS wanted to get big and popular.
They decided against a community and keeping the special, friendly place we once had, and they pimped it out to anyone and everyone.
They did the facebook thing and decided a bigger, brasher, louder more diluted site where more people clicked on adverts was better than a good, different and individual site.

This place went down the pan the day advertising started, the day ATS started worrying about the numbers through the door rather than the feeling and identity of the site.
Profits before people.

We had a real community once, ATS was great once.
Most of the best old posters left when it happened and the rest left when they started modding and banning topics.
Now you have mostly egotistical, flag/star hungry loons who knock out thread after thread of MSM rubbish and barely post their opinions.

The site has no soul.

but....stars and flags means .... like customers to a store..... that the product is appreciated and the story was "purchased" over and over again.....

what store would stop selling a particular widget that is selling like crazy just because it is "cheap"? They wouldn't stop....people seem to want to read current political stories....so .... that's what you have to give them.

Bread and circuses .... bread and circuses

but I agree.....it used to be much....I don't know.....darker and more "underground" feeling.....which I miss.

TheOneElectric
reply to post by NullVoid

 

I am of the opinion that if one believes in the official 9/11 story that they do not belong on this site. I think that is one of the only prerequisites that should exist. I do get slightly ruffled when I see people peddling the Mainstream version of the event here. It rustles my jimmies and misplaces my marbles so. I also get kind of angry when people support a party in America non-ironically...that gets my goat too. I think those topic really bring the worst of me out.

reply to post by TheOneElectric


I agree with you regarding 911 thread.
911 thread is really dangerous water to thread on. I saw good thread with reliable points killed to HOAX and later entirely closed after pages of pages of worthy debate and information. It really test ones patience and this is where the revenge come in play in other thread. I understood that. However, now we have more of new young users. They are pretty naive to informational debating and lose a lot of info.

With these new users, I noticed ATS debate quality was lowered, hence why I'm now making stupid jokes no one would care about.

I'm hoping, if we can resurface the old 911 thread, so
1.Raise the debating mentality and information awareness to new user
2.For the 911 cause.
3.Fill up the thread with more real user contributed content.
4.Positive use of anger - reactivating the old thread maybe shed new life into the discussion.

Its just a thought. I miss the old ATS, now it felt like YouTube comments, maybe its me

NullVoid

TheOneElectric
reply to post by NullVoid

 

I am of the opinion that if one believes in the official 9/11 story that they do not belong on this site. I think that is one of the only prerequisites that should exist. I do get slightly ruffled when I see people peddling the Mainstream version of the event here. It rustles my jimmies and misplaces my marbles so. I also get kind of angry when people support a party in America non-ironically...that gets my goat too. I think those topic really bring the worst of me out.

reply to post by TheOneElectric

 

I agree with you regarding 911 thread.
911 thread is really dangerous water to thread on. I saw good thread with reliable points killed to HOAX and later entirely closed after pages of pages of worthy debate and information. It really test ones patience and this is where the revenge come in play in other thread. I understood that. However, now we have more of new young users. They are pretty naive to informational debating and lose a lot of info.

With these new users, I noticed ATS debate quality was lowered, hence why I'm now making stupid jokes no one would care about.

I'm hoping, if we can resurface the old 911 thread, so
1.Raise the debating mentality and information awareness to new user
2.For the 911 cause.
3.Fill up the thread with more real user contributed content.
4.Positive use of anger - reactivating the old thread maybe shed new life into the discussion.

Its just a thought. I miss the old ATS, now it felt like YouTube comments, maybe its me

edit on 10-3-2014 by NullVoid because: (no reason given)

No, you have some points made there, but I don't understand how you can be conclusive about 'new young users'' or how they are, 'naive to informational debate' it's a bit keywordy saying those expressions in a sentence.

If you stay with the simple logic, say in the case of 9/11, that the 'official story' is flawed the evidence there is incontrovertable. If you say the events that took place, and garnered by witness and multiple video that is less clear and muddied by the media, those are areas that are certainly up for debate, and those with bits before their names have voiced opinions, and have come into the same bracket as the rest of us plebs who may have dared to have a voice, as nutjobs and whacko's..or making money out of Google etc. as if.

There are a lot of people that are home and on the net that would rather be working and making a living, I know that would leave me a little beside my self.

Boredom is a hard mental state to deal with for those that are worker bee's.

reply to post by shauny

You can thank Simon Cowell and Dr. House for starting the asshole trend. Apparently there's a thirsty market that enjoys watching other people being treated like crap, so don't expect much of crackdown.

Bone75
reply to post by shauny

 

You can thank Simon Cowell and Dr. House for starting the asshole trend. Apparently there's a thirsty market that enjoys watching other people being treated like crap, so don't expect much of crackdown.

Cowell has sod all to do with it, his forte was making the money out of telephone calls. That he imposed himself as a big mouth critique of music, was done years ago.

I've been a member as long as you. 10+ years.

In my opinion it was quite different in the initial few years. It really was primarily about conspiracy theory. There wasn't a star system. It was simply people sharing their wild ideas, paranoia, or skepticism.

I disagree that it's gotten worse and worse. I think ATS has more or less been the same beast for many years now. I think its been consistent [outside of its early years]. Unfortunately that consistency has been a focus on politics. That said, I don't have a pessimistic outlook on ATS. I think it's a great forum, with great moderation, and I don't see that changing.

Rude and obnoxious people who know nothing about a proper debate have been among the memberbase for a long while now. Lead by example I guess.

reply to post by shauny


Really?

You dont remember how nutso it was back in 03 and 04? did you block all that out?

You use to be able to get away with murder on ATS way back compared to now, if anything its mellowed much since the wild west days.

Rose coloured glasses n all.

I remember all sorts of nasty-fun, that'd be definitely no-fly these days. Heck I remember a clique "take back ats" that hated all the noobs when i was noobin it, before I became Lys. haha.

reply to post by smurfy


reply to post by smurfy


My observation about these new user are youngsters are not based on 911 forum threads.
Its from other non critical threads. The user never even bother to read previous comments, re-asking whats previously answered, before got derailed and later on lost focus on the topic after 2 post.

But thats not what I'm based on. I'm basing on their questions, a basic simple question which a conspiracy theorist should already have in mind before even stumble on ATS. These are youngsters/new user who unlike you or me, who stand until we are corrected and admit we are wrong, these are the ones who "oh, ok, whatever and left". They are "fresh", still did'nt make up their mind about the subject.

Its not to lower their ways, its to introduce them fact finding, doing housework, deep research, to have a reasoning, to bring them deep into the subject and through discussion. To make them become new breed of skeptic/theorist. Now, we can barely find a thread that have the intensity like 911. Most thread died by itself, merely few pages. Its Ok if you dont know, but annoying if you dont want to learn.

In the end, I might see ATS just like another Youtube. The userbase are expanding, but the quality was lowered. Its getting harder for some posters to express what they meant, and with unfiltered words thrown here and there in between discussion, we get the swearing. All lost inbetween posts, much like Youtube.

With that, I resort to be like them, I adapt and forget the lengthy text we are used to. Why bother to explain, when the next page the same question asked again, let alone the need to debate the other guy.

Let me be the jester, at least I dont get frustrated, much. For those who cant, "patience" is advised. That is just what I think, feel free to make up your mind. I dont care anymore.

reply to post by shauny


Man do i hear what you a saying i love news before its mainstream so i visit this site all of the time. But it sure seems that everything you do is debated to death. Gotta take a poop then you get pics or it didnt happen etc like someone takes pride in knocking others down. Arken is one that takes alot of time to contribute and show people what he finds interesting and lots of people knock him down on every post its a rock give the man a break give everyone a break. Cant we all just get along lol.

The mods do pretty good a regulating but come on were all adults some need to start acting like that not like high school debate team for gods sake. Anyways nice post always like to see that some people do still care about the feeling in this site. I really dont care when i get dogged personally what can you do from behind a computer screen kill me lol not. Have a great day night whatever it may be where you are. Dont believe the hype. PE was great back in the day.

I agree things have changed here quite a bit. I was never a big poster and was coming here long before I joined. I have my own policy that if I can't be positive or make it plainly clear that my words are dripping with sarcasm, I don't post, hence the low number of posts. Usually someone else might reply with exactly what I wanted to post, so I don't, and I've never created my own thread here.

One thing I noticed when thinking about ATS is that many more here have the "fed up" attitude, and in my humble opinion it seems like it started around the time of the bank bailouts in 2008 and continued through the Obammy elections up until now. I bet if the membership were surveyed it would be found that a lot of our lives have changed with just those couple of events happening, not to mention illnesses, aging, worrying/changes with familes etc.

Personally, I have had quite a few emotional losses and medical issues over the past few years. None of them financial really, except the expected inflation and whatnot. For me, almost all of those losses seemed to begin in 2008.

Additionally there just seems to be more for people to be angry about and people who were once hopeful see things as doomed. It seems to be that way offline too! We want our peers to stop "drinking to koolaid", "wake up", be "enlightened" to see through the veil at what is really going on, and when they finally do...they get cranky!

Lysergic
reply to post by shauny

 

Really?

You dont remember how nutso it was back in 03 and 04? did you block all that out?

You use to be able to get away with murder on ATS way back compared to now, if anything its mellowed much since the wild west days.

Rose coloured glasses n all.

I remember all sorts of nasty-fun, that'd be definitely no-fly these days. Heck I remember a clique "take back ats" that hated all the noobs when i was noobin it, before I became Lys. haha.

edit on 10-3-2014 by Lysergic because: sla;dfl;skdfjlksdjfl;k

mikegrouchy
I've been reading ATS many a year,
even if not registered
and I think there are more than a few like me.

Because I too was upset at the dreamers not even understanding the topic they were talking over,
I started treating the dream threads with respect,
people have things to say and I want to hear them.
That way they don't tip over the other discussions.



I believe ats was originally manifest in the collective subconscious as the honeypot designed in this show



After "The Event" some agents investigating it create a "conspiracy" website hoping someone with knowledge will post there.

I think the time period the OP is referring too can be divide exactly at this moment.

Prior posting quality was borderline scholarly.

Suddenly conspiracy sites become one of the sounding boards of America as millions turned up here to see what people are saying.


The old timers commented on it.
The transition was about 2 years.
Only the cowboys remain.


One day in one heated discussion one veteran poster who was being trolled said "I'm tired of all these sheep"

I said "If your a cowboy ... and there are a lot of sheep ... quit talking about herding them ... and just start herding them."


I think you'll remember OP that it took us about 2 years to realize,
they weren't sheep. They were trolls.




The ones who remain I consider cowboy scholars.


But I treat every post I read like that.
So that anyone one day can lay it out
and I'll give their word the full faith and credit
as though they were a scholar from day one
and survived the troll stampede.

Unless shown otherwise.

Cause the smartest people I can find on the entire internet are right here.
And I certainly don't object to their high horse.

Oh and
I stopped typing like a scholar
and took Douglas Adams wiki advice and started writing like a radio transcript.
Even if I can't spell.


The internet is troll country.
Keep that six shooter oiled.



Mike Grouchy

reply to post by shauny


Oh man... I agree with you Shauny, and it has gotten worse in the past 6-8 months to a year. In my opinion, it has a direct correlation to intelligence. People who are intelligent are more likely to be open-minded and talk about interesting things without feeling threatened.

I think this is a very important observation, because I think that what is happening on ATS is part of a larger anti-intellectual movement that might even sweep the entire nation, if it hasn't already. Based on the rude comments (that in general signify an inability to argue intellectually), I foresee the possibility of a Republican-controlled Senate, House and Presidency.

I love conservative posters on here who post reasonable posts, but in general, Republicans are more inclined to gain their power through lies, peer pressure and intimidation.

In fact -

The Koch Brothers might be the real reason that people on ATS are less informed, and that, in turn, might be leading to them being rude.

For the past few decades or more, basically since World War II, due to population growth and economic growth, we have been experiencing a fortunate but rare Golden Age where truth is more valuable than stored wealth.

However, as the population growth and economic growth stagnate, there is likely to be a lot more importance placed on Power than Truth, and a lot more angry people.

mikegrouchy

The ones who remain I consider cowboy scholars.

Wow Grouchy - I certainly hope that quality posting hasn't left ATS... I have enough trouble finding intellectual conversation in real life. Although it has gotten a lot harder lately, as well...

boymonkey74
11 years ago we were all a little better off and had a little bit better job security etc and I think we are all nearly at breaking point and that comes across on ATS.

It is really scary, boymonkey, but I think you might be right - I don't have enough money for food and gas every month. I think we are all near a breaking point. As I've heard some economists say, we have all already shed the non-necessities - if any more economic hardship comes, we are going to have to shed necessities.

ed1320
reply to post by shauny

 

Man do i hear what you a saying i love news before its mainstream so i visit this site all of the time. But it sure seems that everything you do is debated to death. Gotta take a poop then you get pics or it didnt happen etc like someone takes pride in knocking others down. Arken is one that takes alot of time to contribute and show people what he finds interesting and lots of people knock him down on every post its a rock give the man a break give everyone a break. Cant we all just get along lol.

Wow, those sound like amazing days when all you have to worry about is someone asking for a picture or evidence to back up your argument - now, that would be amazing, compared to people who don't even pay attention to what the others are saying - and arguments based on shouting matches and make-believe.