Above Top Secret is “the Internet's most popular destination for news, discussion, and debate on government conspiracies, cover-ups, UFO's, and other alternative topics.” All of us, members and staff alike have contributed to this site to make it what it is today. ATS has always been about quality but there is a tread lately that has crept onto the board, the one line thread.

A one line thread is one that starts like this, “Aliens have feet”, or, “Do aliens have feet”? It can be a topic for discussion but there is little to base any thought on. Some further information as to why this topic is brought up will enable the membership to pause to give this topic some consideration. Many time members will just blow it off. As always, links help.

We have a tool called the One-Line Warn, members that have been here for a while are familiar with it:

A member of the forum staff, has noticed your one-line or less post in the thread...........

We want to encourage meaningful responses to threads, and discourage simplistic posts. It can become discouraging for new members or guests to wade through too many short responses, just to get to content that continues the flow of thought.

A token penalty of 20 points has been deducted from your account for this action. Please, in the future, make an attempt to provide more to the flow of conversation than a simple one-line or less comment.

Sorry for this slight slap-on-the-wrist. Hopefully you take this in the tone intended, as a reminder to make an effort to ensure our content is easy to read, access, and use by anyone who finds it.

Thank you.

This tool is in place to ensure the quality of material is easy and attractive for all members and visitors. If this is in place for posts, does it not make sense that there is a greater onus on the author of a thread to provide more information to it to encourage thoughtful discussion?

ATS is a wonderful site and members working together can only make it better.

Intrepid I agree with you. More thought and a little time into what one does is always a good thing.

I could write more but Im sure others wouldnt want me to ramble on!

Im a newbie so heres to ats

Thanks for working on this.

The whole topic is a bit like battling Br'er Rabbit for me. I just cannot let it go.

I swear a lot of the activity is either:

a) posting threads in order to achieve high points, and/or
b) trolling, in an attempt to make this site less interesting.

I guess I just don't want to admit how little effort some folks put into thier work.

i agree with intrepid i think that people should put more meaning into what you want to get to everyone else instead of just trying to earn points and look like the hot shot with five hundred thou. somethin points

In regards to one line posts.

I think it is too easy to post. I understand that you want to ensure that everyone gets heard but clearly some people abuse it. I know I have a few times. I think a good way to control it would be to make it more more like ATSNN. ATSNN is great because it provides structure for your post.

Proposed new way:
New Post
Summary
Evidence
Opinion

I think it is a good way to prevent this or at least tone down. Plus providing a more structured conversation. You could also change the reply format too.

I hope my suggestions can help out. I really appreciate this site. What do you think?


[edit on 18-3-2005 by Event Horizon]

Not everything fits into the ATSNN format, though. Some posts lack a rigid structure, but still have a valid argument or point. Not all need to contain an oppinion, but perhaps a statement of fact or a question posed to members. Over-regulating structure will just lead to frustration and we'll lose some of the messy-but-valid posts. I can appreciate the rigidity for ATSNN but not for the general board.

I still think signatures disrupt the "flow of thought" of topics and make things far more difficult to read than one line posts do. If the goal is ease of use and attractiveness for all visitors, then we should ditch those sigs! I often scroll down and read a quote only to discover its a quote from another post included in a signature. Signatures themselves are often one line - isn't that just as disruptive as a post? How about shading the signature area differently so they can be easily scanned over when reading a post?

I am a woman of few words and sometimes I post with just one sentence. To me I have stated my beliefs in few words and are awaiting a response. Not every response need be a 10 paragraph page.

I think it is not fair.

Thanks for bringing this up Intrepid. Timely indeed.

The issue is not the number of lines. More it is the lack of content and some sort, nay any sort of structure.

"Do aliens have feet?
Maybe they can flie or levitayt? My sister says they can.
Whaddya think?"

A post like this is just as bad, even though it has three lines.

You don't have to have fantastic composition skills, nor does a conspiracy-related topic necessarily need the formal structure of an ATSNN article, but at the very least it should contain three things:

1. An introduction.
2. A theory, a claim or a question.
3. Reasoning or evidence to support your theory, prove your claim, or provide some basis for discussion of your question.

Simple. And you could probably even still accomplish all of that in under 8 lines in some cases, while still getting the thread of to a good start.

0.02


edit: still dyslexic

[edit on 2005/3/19 by wecomeinpeace]

I haven't posted one line threads, I've always tried writing as much as I can.
But now I realise I can't send u2u's so I'm trying to get above 20 posts.
Maybe thats what those people are trying to do also.

Diehard
I've never in my life seen a more ridiculous waste of space. It's like social hour at the chimpanzee habitat on that thread.



Was it really worth it, for everyone to make an ass out of themselves? Did anything change? Of course not. Flinging poo is fun, but the effectiveness is unquestionably reduced in a digital environment.

I noticed, incidentally and with no small amount of pride, that the ringleader of that moronathon occupied a place of honor on my ignore list for a few months.

The mods are puppets? Protest ATS? Emoticons in bulk substituting for rational discussion and the exchange of ideas?

So..incredibly..freakin' lame.

I got 20 points zapped for just posting a link that was relevant to the thread, but not making a comment about it. I add what I can to the threads that interest me, and one line may be all I have to add.

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft

Thanks for working on this.

The whole topic is a bit like battling Br'er Rabbit for me. I just cannot let it go.

I'm the same way about caps in titles...and it too, is in the rules and regulations....but is not followed for some reason. I get a lot of flack because of it....hope you don't get the same for the one you can't let go.......oh the tribulations of peeves! LOL

Originally posted by wecomeinpeace
"Do aliens have feet?
Maybe they can flie or levitayt? My sister says they can.
Whaddya think?"

I've seen so many threads in the aliens forum that are almost exactly the same as this wecomeinpeace! Surprising, they seem to garner more interest than many more serious threads...

LadyV, the mods do their best to curb behavior that goes against Terms, including one-liners and ALL CAPS.
Each and every instance will not be noticed by mods. ATS is a very busy forum.

You can remind members to post appropriately, and most do.
SOMETIMES, all caps is what the member had in mind. Sometimes, a few words in all caps stresses what the member wants to say. Granted, it might be BETTER to do this, but being flexible is a healthy characteristic, no?
I really think the spirit of the rule is for admonishing entire posts and sentences in all-caps, not words here and there.

I don't know why people are stressing over this. I got a pile of exessive quote, 1 liners, etc from a certain mod, you know who you are. It made me a better poster. I appreciate it.

One-liners leave a lot to the imagination.

I'm kind of new , but it starting to seem like every little infraction is taken way to seriously. I try to follow the rules but its either


1.to long of a post with no link
2.one liners with a link

3 .were deleting your post
4.this thread is boring to me so im deleting it

Maybe its me but im learning (slowly).Give us newbies a chance.
This is a great site lets not turn it into the way the us government runs things

Originally posted by timoothy
3 .were deleting your post
4.this thread is boring to me so im deleting it

I don't know where this came from because it isn't true. It isn't the policy of ATS to even consider that.

#3- Posts aren't deleted unless they are extremely abusive.

#4- C'mon man, if a Mod did that there would be serious questions to answer to.

Yes, I have been one who's felt that moderator whak! I suggest that though one-liners exist sometimes you may consider what meat of the subject matter is replied?, with a few words.

Some people get right to the point while at the other end there are long drawn out things that bored areader fast and they don't read the whole post(s).

Dallas