Where did all the members go?

It seems our favorite place to hang out is slowly dying. What happened? Where did everyone go?

We are in the midst of some of the most dramatic times in history, but there is hardly any activity on this site. Has society become too ignorant or too sensitive to debate their opinions?

What put this place on it's deathbed? Will people return, are they all hiding in the Q thread, or will our beloved ATS continue to wither away to the point that the owners just pull the plug and the site falls into Oblivion?

Why did I even create this thread? There is hardly anyone left to reply?

a reply to: MRinder

I haven’t been around long enough so I didn’t really notice .

But people are getting sick of politics.

They’re turning off their TVs , avoiding the news and tuning out . The TV ratings for the impeachment “scandal” are a indicator . People are beginning to care less and less .

The left and right have been at each other‘s throat for three years . Some people said enough’s enough .


We’ve had this conversation on other sites.

The most revealing question was “where did our conspiracy site go” ?

I came here in 2010, if look at my intro thread you can see the deleted name...just forgot info...

Politics has killed ATS. Plain and simple.

There are great minds here...but we can't survive the polarisation. It sucks.

a reply to: MRinder

The site is infotainment and blogger's corner now. The twitterfication killed the conspiracy theorist.

I started looking within again for wonderment and deep thoughts.

I do see ATS as my frontline for alternative political news though; so it's morphed quite a bit but still useful.

a reply to: MRinder

There are plenty of folk still around. A lot are not posting, as the site is mostly political these days, and the site was founded for conspiracy and questionable subject matter (subjects to question).

With politics all over the world becoming hyper-partisan, folks are choosing not to engage or only engage where they are not challenged.

It's not that people are no longer around, it is because some people are no longer willing to respectfully exchange ideas with others who's opinions differ from their own.

That's my take on it, at least.

originally posted by: Fallingdown
a reply to: MRinder

We’ve had this conversation on other sites.

The most revealing question was “where did our conspiracy site go” ?

What other sites do you visit that are similar to ATS and my answer to your question is the whole world around appears to be nothing but endless conspiracies.

a reply to: randomtangentsrme

I think you are on to something. Did the mudpit put this place on life support? Have people become too sensitive and too weak to handle a few insults?

People are just sick and tired of all the 100s of "conspiracies" that have been debunked and proven false and fake 😦

The phony conspiracies only last a short time 😦

a reply to: MRinder

Everybody treats everyone like they're in the mudpit. It's impossible to post something about aliens, paranormal stuff, or anything without getting ridiculed for it. The is no decorum anymore.

Thread starters have gotten lazy, too. Like, hey watch this YouTube video lazy.

originally posted by: MRinder
a reply to: randomtangentsrme

I think you are on to something. Did the mudpit put this place on life support? Have people become too sensitive and too weak to handle a few insults?

Mud discussions are only allowed in the MudPit.

Most other forums are not political and rarely get over-run by political trolls 🙂

Isn't a bit of ridicule worth suffering through to find other people that share similar beliefs?

HD Cameras

No more Rod UFO videos

forums are kinda boomer tech.

a reply to: Lysergic

What replaced forums?

originally posted by: MRinder
a reply to: Lysergic

What replaced forums?

Tik Tok Thots

a reply to: MRinder

LOP and the Fringe but both of those are losing members too.

It’s hit both of them pretty hard .

There’s two or three other forums one shut down, one is a unmoderated hell hole and the last one is a trolling 101 hang out .

I agree the world is made of conspiracies.

The thing is we’re not talking about them we’re talking about politics .

And even though the current political situation will be the biggest conspiracy we ever see in our life.

In the end it will have the same resolution as a flat earth thread .

a reply to: xuenchen

Interesting. Maybe people no longer believe in UFOs, ghosts, nano thermite, FEMA camps, etc... Or maybe some government agency is locking them all up in an asylum.

originally posted by: DietWoke

originally posted by: MRinder
a reply to: Lysergic

What replaced forums?

Tik Tok Thots

What the hell is that lol?

a reply to: Fallingdown

Maybe everyone has just give up and decided we are all just SOL and just at the mercy of our crazy politicians.

originally posted by: MRinder
a reply to: randomtangentsrme

I think you are on to something. Did the mudpit put this place on life support? Have people become too sensitive and too weak to handle a few insults?

I do not think so.
I think a vocal minority have decided if a person disagrees with someone online, that means they hate them. Then the person responds with that thought in mind.

Respectful discourse was lost in 2016, but I do see it starting to return.

The admins really have to do something. Put all the political stuff in its own category. When I click on "new" or "recent" I don't want to see any political stuff that has to do with partisanship, trump, democrats, republicans, clinton, pelosi, etc etc etc. I don't live in the US and even if I did I wouldn't want to see that stuff. I want the interface to hide all that for me.

It should be in off-topic section or... what happened to below top secret ?