New Policies for Political Bickering on ATS ## MAKE IT STOP! ##

Generally, I really don't have much of a problem with vigorous political back-and-forth.

What drives me absolutely bonkers is:

1. Thread titles of an inflammatory nature, which are quite often just rhetoric

2. Pesonal attacks against members who take a political position

3. Members who join ATS, whose only motivation is to spread their vile propaganda, and have little or nothing to offer in terms of conspiricy theory

I hope this new effort is successful.

Originally posted by Odium
It's actually really easy.

I agree. If you're tempted to 'blame' the right or left, the democrats or the republicans, the liberals or conservatives... If, in a conversation about car paint that withstands the weather, someone brings up the liberal loonies and their global warming myth... That's injecting political agenda where it has no place.

Once you get used to NOT making subjects political, it's really easy and fun, too!

Computer problems. Intermittant connections. -BH

Edit: Oh, and Yay! to SO and others for this! It's badly needed.

[edit on 5-7-2006 by Benevolent Heretic]

1. Can we have a tighter control on threads such as 'country X: we have this new missle which can counter country Y'. It is so annoying because the situation will never be resolved due to the high amount of biased views. I don't mind if it was relevant to the site but more often than not it is a swipe at a country.

So in short, can we put a limit on things?

2. Another thing (as mentioned in a thread on this site already) is the use of repeating the news to gain points. Fair enough if something was due to happen or an earthquake struck i'm interested, it just seems like people are hitchin' an easy ride by repeating the news.

3. (Similar to number 1), the amount of extremism seems to be out of control with death and destruction, openly wanting to nuke another and the like. Pretty offensive and more often than not it gets nasty.

......Anyway i'll stop ranting!

Well done, amigos. Another side benefit of enforcing these rules is that people like me who have no interest in debating red vs. blue will post more due to the relevancy of threads' directions (for example, the NYT thread that turned into a big red v. blue bash rather than discussing the issue of the article itself). I spend alot of time lurking/reading on here but when it comes to alot of conspiracy issues, it seems a non-political post gets lost in the mix after a page or two. I have no desire to post something that no one will pay attention to because they are busy debating if the donkeys or the elephants busted out of the zoo.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Especially when people read politics, into things that are not meant to be political.

Precisely..

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
Sadly, AboveTopSecret.com has again become infected with the dreaded disease of political side-taking and in-fighting. We're beginning to take new steps to manage this outbreak in an effort to ensure that our core domain, AboveTopSecret.com, remain focused on the primary mission of the collaborative discussion and speculation on conspiracy theories and alternative topics. This is the reason the logo is upside down.

------ snipped------

Sorry it's come to this...

In reality, we've discussed this issue in our moderator-only forum for months. We had hoped that some increased attention to the nature of the "political divide" and the futility of the intense divisiveness would have some effect. It seems that the political bickering has only intensified.

I hope that our members realize our intention to keep our core ATS board focused on conspiracy theory and alternative topics, and that we never need to use these new methods to weed out political bickering. But our experience indicates otherwise.


Thanks in advance for your efforts to help with these issues... and let's get that logo turned up the right way again.

That's the best move you 3 have made in a while

Let the political diatribes and drama play out over on PTS. Keep ATS pure!


I'd give the 3 amigos and all staff way aboves if I could.

Thank you

X

[edit on 5-7-2006 by Xatnys]

I am so glad this action is being taken. I was disturbed and appalled when I noticed that someone had "tagged" the JFK: The Ultimate Explanation thread as a "farleft" and "left wing hoax". I have to say I considered this site doomed when I thought how a murder of a sitting president could be tagged as "left wing" anything.

These steps are definitely in the right direction but I fear I hear the faint toll of the bells of fate here on our beloved site.

Peace,
Deluded


::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Left, Right, Left Right....Are you distracted yet?

I haven't been a member here very long,but from day one I noticed how political arguments always pop up in the middle of threads on certain subjects (and also on some that have absolutely nothing to do with politics).As some people have already stated,we should discuss the topic at hand without turning a thread into a political soapbox to promote our own political views.Also,I have to say that this does have many grey areas,and hopefully,there will be some more in depth discussion as to how to deal with those.All in all though,great job mods.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
In addition, nearly all of our staff is currently convinced there are a few "paid political posters" among us ......

Oh? If almost all the staff is in agreement then ya'll must have a few of
them picked out. Let us know who they are. I'd like to contact them and
get some extra pocket money for posting at this site I can't
believe I've been posting here two years without receiving any payment
while others are getting paid for posting!

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
There are plenty of ways to speculate about, or talk about, potential
conspiracies and scandals within any government without reverting to
political side-taking and name calling.

No political name calling? Great! That means that when people use political
bad-names they'll get a two day time out?

When people with an opinion that leans to the right get called - neocons
.. brown shirts ... bu#s ... etc. with all the negative emotion behind
those words

When people with an opinion that leans to the left get called - commies
... pinkos ... etc. with all the negative emotion behind those words too

We can look forward to those people doing the name calling to get warnings?

See the fighting happens in all forums not just ATS

Two things cause people to fight religeon and politics and you will never be able to avoid this unless you ban talking about these two things. But I doubt that would ever happen here.

Whether people like to realize it or not I sincerely doubt doubt there are government agents here. But what does come here is opposition to the conspiracy theories on this board. Some conspiracies are quite true while others are so far out there it is hard not to call someone and idiot or a hoaxer etc. I oppose the government cover up of ET and ufo's for example simply because of a lack of evidence they have procured. I will continue to question the theory until it is prooven otherwise.

All sides are guilty of causing fights even me. For example look at the recent 9/11 thread that called for the supression of speech simply because they didn't like what the other side was saying about the conspiracy. so some members of the 9/11 truth movement are guilty as well.

Both sides are using propaganda the conspiracy side uses for example 'were smarter then the sheeple' and the skeptics use 'proove it' since neither side can proove the other wrong people begin to attack not the conspiracy or the views of the skeptics. They begin to attack other members. As much as I hate to say it some people here have made such ridiculus posts it's hard not calling them and idiot or a moron.

The mods in some cases are the problem letting threads they find interesting yet insulting to others continue perhaps it is not just some of the members it is some of the staff as well.

Originally posted by The_Doctor
The mods in some cases are the problem letting threads they find interesting yet insulting to others continue perhaps it is not just some of the members it is some of the staff as well.

If you think a staff member is creating problems you have the ability to let us know by filing a complaint.

Finally some starting to do something.

what does it actually take to be a mod?

"If you think a staff member is creating problems you have the ability to let us know by filing a complaint."

I was just voicing my opinion...

Originally posted by The_Doctor
"If you think a staff member is creating problems you have the ability to let us know by filing a complaint."

I was just voicing my opinion...

Seems you are very defensive....not sure why. I was just letting you know that you have a voice on ATS as does every other member.

[edit on 5-7-2006 by kinglizard]

Originally posted by kinglizard

Originally posted by The_Doctor
"If you think a staff member is creating problems you have the ability to let us know by filing a complaint."

I was just voicing my opinion...

Seems you are very defensive....not sure why. I was just letting you know that you have a voice on ATS as does every other member.

[edit on 5-7-2006 by kinglizard]

Not so sure on this. I've seen threads moved to the garbage by Mods for voicing opinion. Troubleshoota today just saw what happens w/ opinions....


[edit on 5-7-2006 by Anon4this1]

this is all well and good but dont politics and consperies go hand and hand? its allways seamed to me that you cant have one with out the other. just my opinion.

Garbage

Originally posted by Anon4this1
Not so sure on this. I've seen threads moved to the garbage by Mods for voicing opinion. Troubleshoota today just saw what happens w/ opinions....

Strange. I move threads and discuss these matters all the time with members and other mods, and I've never seen anyone give "voicing opinion" as a reason.

On the other hand, it is easy for members to make false assumptions about moderator actions.

May I suggest asking us if you suspect we've done something inappropriate?

We go out of our way to be reasonable; I see no reason why you can't do the same.

The tired chorus of baseless accusations against the staff is becoming increasingly tedious.

The topic of this thread is:

New Policies for Political Bickering on ATS ## MAKE IT STOP! ##

Let's please focus on that, and avoid straying into the realm of posting false and misleading speculation about moderator actions.

Originally posted by The_Doctor
"If you think a staff member is creating problems you have the ability to let us know by filing a complaint."

I was just voicing my opinion...

So what's the problem then? Ie.....

Kinglizard gave you an honest, fair answer to your post and you come back with attitude?

Seems to me you just want to bitch about the staff. I don't get paid enough, oh, wait, I get paid NOTHING, to deal with crap like this.