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I think this is a very good point. I don't post a lot in this forum, but I do visit it quite often. I've seen several posts by people who report various alien encounters. I think that's perfectly fine to say "I saw a Grey last night in my backyard" or something like that, as long as the poster believes it's true.
What bugs me is when people post something totally baseless and silly like "It is a well-known fact that Draconians from Zeta Reticuli have antigravity technology that they power with a hybrid fuel source of zero point energy and cold fusion." It is very important in all forums, but especially in a controversial one such as this, to stick solely to the facts. Stick to what can be proven, stick to what you saw. And stick to real science.
One other thing I think I should mention. Sometimes I see people who post something like "I saw a UFO last night in XYZ location," and then people will start making fun of the post, or turn it into a giant joke, or say, "you dummy, that was the planet Venus!" or that kind of thing. Honest reports of sightings sometimes turn into giant jokes or insult mudpits, and I don't really like that, either. Sometimes it goes the other way, too. Sometimes responders will ask honest, constructive questions, that may be skeptical, like "maybe you could have seen a plane or a satellite, not a UFO?" or something in a respectful tone, and the poster will get all defensive and angry; that isn't nice, either.
Anyhow, thank you to all who are genuinely striving to make sense of a difficult topic, and please continue to post your sightings. And please, please, please remember the Terms & Conditions, especially the one about not posting anything you know to be false, as well as all the ones about being courteous and nice.
I want to point out that ATS is still very much into the collaborative
search/research concept as a COMMUNITY. 
