CHANGES: ATS & PTS Shown in the ATS New Posts page...

Over the past several years, political bickering has been an inevitable and inescapable attribute of many ATS discussions involving current events. Given the highly charged and stoked anti-liberal versus anti-conservative rhetoric saturating news, media, and even entertainment, it's no surprise that we struggle with an invasion of political sniping during speculation of modern-day conspiracies.

One question in our recent poll sheds some interesting light on this subject, the question is: "Do you agree with this statement: A conspiracy exists in which the U.S. two-party political system has been systematically manipulated to create an environment of automated attacks of "the other side" over mundane issues as a means to deflect serious discussion away from important topics?"
With over 1,300 responses so far, 65% indicated they agree with that statement... I expected a statistical toss-up.

Given this new information, combined with Majic's efforts to bring improved decorum and intelligence to our Political forum, I've made a singular unilateral decision that may either prove popular, or send me running form an angry mob! select Politics @ ATS forums are now included in the ATS "New Posts" page.

It's clear that the condition of the liberal-versus-conservative environment is a high candidate for serious conspiracy speculation... and we can't consider valid conspiracy theories by ignoring the nature of "debate".

Also, the increasingly incendiary situation in the Middle-East is covered in greater depth on PTS. It makes sense to bring those active threads into the realm of ATS "New Posts" for our members who are active in those topics.

That being said, we're not without compassion for those who wish to avoid even the titles of political threads. A new feature has appeared in the Member Center, ATS Customizations. With the new controls, members can specify what they would like displayed on the ATS New Posts page...
- You can limit threads to ATS-only
- You can display both ATS and PTS threads (default)
- You can even specify a limit to only your myATS subscribed forums


We live in troubling times. And in many cases, the knowledge available on ATS only results in an increase in our collective anxiety. No discussion board can influence any degree of change in global events, however, through our collaborative exchange of information, ideas, and theories we all learn a bit more. With that new learning, we can make informed decisions.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

- You can limit threads to ATS-only

I seem to have lost that option in the last couple of hours.

- You can even specify a limit to only your myATS subscribed forums

Isn't that a bit redundant? myNEW already covers that.

Oh for the record, I'm on the don't like side of things. To me it seems like it's bringing general non-conspiracy political talk back into ATS.

Originally posted by Cug
Isn't that a bit redundant? myNEW already covers that.

We're continuing to consolidate legacy features into the new approach, and that page will soon me discontinued (after a few more changes).

I like the ability to switch it on and off. Just out of curiousity, why wasn't BTS incorporated in that as well? I know the quick answer is that there's already a page for a full listing, but if that's the answer, then why do this with PTS? Why not just replace the new posts page with the full results page?

It's pretty much a non-issue with me though--I'm not terribly crazy about having all of the political threads thrown out there (which is why I don't go to PTS much, just not my thing), but as long as I can turn it off, have at it.

OK I know i,m probably gonna look like a dodo but when i get diverted to bts or pts threads..when i hit the HOME button or new posts it just keeps me in the present forum

Is there a way to get back to ATS Without the back button or opening ''my favourites''

I used to hit ONLY ''new posts''

It seems if you click on the member name of the last post on that page that's not ATS, it doesn't go to the last post, it goes to the first one. The link does still work with ATS posts.

Well-done, SO. I love it! Our own custom set-up.

Though I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to see what's going on in Politics. It's grown up so much lately!

djohnsto77, it works now, right? It works for me.

Originally posted by AGENT_T
OK I know i,m probably gonna look like a dodo but when i get diverted to bts or pts threads..when i hit the HOME button or new posts it just keeps me in the present forum

Use the customization, so you don't get 'diverted'. That makes things just like they used to be.

A new addition showed up this morning that should prove fairly usefull. You can specify that your ATS "New Posts" page show all ATS forum, and also include all the forums you subscribed to via myATS, including both PTS and BTS.

I just want to remind people that not all of the PTS forums show on the New Posts page.

Come visit the lovely forum of Canadian Poliltics, available exclusively through the PTS page!

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[edit on 17-7-2006 by Duzey]

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
A new addition showed up this morning that should prove fairly usefull. You can specify that your ATS "New Posts" page show all ATS forum, and also include all the forums you subscribed to via myATS, including both PTS and BTS.

Very cool man. With all these options, everyone can customize ATS to what they want to see. Coolest place on the web, this.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
djohnsto77, it works now, right? It works for me.

I'm still having the same problem...the link says /pglastpost but somehow just gets redirected to the page but not the #pidxxxxxx whatever so I just go to the first post of the page.

I'm on the latest version of Safari and MacOS X which I think Skeptic uses too...maybe it's just some glitch on my computer?

[edit on 7/17/2006 by djohnsto77]

Ok, the link thing seems to be working now

But I've noticed something else...it doesn't look like all PTS forums are showing up. Is this a bug or by design? For example the Conservative Forum, I just made a new post there, but it's not showing up on the today.php although I see other PTS posts from different forums.

edit:

I don't see new Canadian Politics posts there either.

[edit on 7/18/2006 by djohnsto77]

Originally posted by djohnsto77

For example the Conservative Forum, I just made a new post there, but it's not showing up

I can see it. But that's because I don't use the "newPosts" button but use the today_all link instead and get BTS as well

I guess this problem might be similar to what causes the Fragile Earth threads to not show up on the members' authored threads list. There might be a couple of more forums missing but Fragile Earth is the one I noticed.

Nevermind...a more careful reading of Skeptic's original post makes it clear that only selected forums from PTS are being displayed on the today.php page.