To discredit ATS or Crackpots you decide?

Is all the troll and Muppet post recently an act to discredit ATS. I know a lot of really good posters are walking away because of the resent increase of these crackpots.

It is a growing concern lately! IMO it’s a discredit attempt. Good people find this form think GREAT a place where I can relate the first post they read is this-www.abovetopsecret.com...' and never return! I have been here 4 years and this is both disheartening and concerning!


Am I alone on this
Thoughts
AlBeMeT


[edit on 16-3-2007 by AlBeMet]

I truly have not noticed any increase in the "Troll Factor" recently...

I have not been here as long as you, but all seems the same to me....

Semper

Someone came in, apparently tried to commit a hoax, and was in turn, banned for his/her actions. What else can be done? In a community this large, and growing as rapid as it is, members like this are inevitable. I think we need to be thankful for how quickly these "trolls" are handed their ass.

Is it a blatant attempt to discredit Above Top Secret?

I don't think so. I believe it is immaturity within the member, who is not accustomed to "alternative subjects", and thinks they can quickly draw some attention to themselves by concocting these stories. I think 99% of those new members who do register, underestimate our community. If you are going to hoax the board, and get away with it, you best do your homework.

So no, I don't think anyone is trying to discredit AboveTopSecret through disinformation tactics. It is immature members who need to "spice" up their day. Considering we have a few hundred people sign up every day, a few trolls needs to be expected.

Yes I understand the HOAX. But keep in mind a genuine HOAX is some what debatable. These recent post are just crazy to put it lightly, make no sense and leave you scratching your head wishing you had the time back it took you to read there garbage.



AlBeMeT

Whether it is garbage or not, that is solely your own opinion. If I did not believe in extraterrestrials, and someone came in claiming to have one in their bedroom, I would consider that to be utterly ridiculous. But who am I to say that he really doesn't? On the outside, it may seem absolutely absurd and a waste of time. But in the same breath, I feel quite comfortable that one of these times, someone might be serious. We could have thousands of people come through here and be full of you know what. But if just one of them are not, everything would change.

We all have different tastes, opinions, thoughts, etc.. What I enjoy, you may despise. So keeping that in mind, a diamond in the rough for me would be a waste of bandwidth for you. And this goes both ways. Something you may cherish, may not work for me. Now considering our membership is approaching 100,000 people, how can we possibly keep everyone happy?

Everyone can not like everything, all of the time. If certain posts, forums, etc., do not "tickle your fancy", ignore them. Find another forum and focus on the postings in that one. ATS may not be able to make everyone love everything all the time, but they've created enough forums and diversity here for everyone to at least find something they like, most of the time.

That's all we can ask, in my opinion.

[edit on 16-3-2007 by chissler]

I understand where your coming from, and that’s not what I am trying to get at or expose. I respect all topics that have Facts to back them up. I have a very open mind and find all ATS topics fascinating.
What I am talking about is people who have wild claims with nothing but “because I said so” backing them up. This is the kind of stuff that turns the information people away! They don’t want to be associated with that kind of mind set.

AlBeMeT

Well said Chiss...

I personally do not subscribe to the Aliens and Grays thingy/stuff..

I do however know members that do and feel very strongly about that..

As I am NOT the most wise man in the world, I can not say for certain they are incorrect. I for one, do NOT know everything...

It is all about the diversity and wonder that is ATS and what makes it so enjoyable...

Semper

Originally posted by AlBeMet
What I am talking about is people who have wild claims with nothing but “because I said so” backing them up. This is the kind of stuff that turns the information people away! They don’t want to be associated with that kind of mind set.

I see where you are coming from, and I agree that these members can be frustrating at times. But I just think that these nuisances are severely outnumbered, at least 50 to 1. For every post that wee see that is "way out there" with nothing to back it up, other than their own two cents, we have 50 that are well documented, well laid out, and very thought provoking. For me, it is a matter of surrounding myself with those who are here to discuss without an agenda.

Drawing attention to ourselves, which we see frequently, is an overt agenda that I tend to avoid from time to time.

I don't think they are people who want to discredit ATS and it's members.

I think they are just people, who instead of coming to ATS to learn new things and talking to intelligent people, have way too much time on their hands and think it'll be funny if they made up some crazy story. But it's not and the members realize it's a fake and they get banned. So they are just wasting their time really.


Once they realize that the members here at ATS can spot a fake in a second, hopefully they will come to the conclusion that they should find better things to do instead.

I have to agree with the lame-ass posts of late.

I find myself missing well presented posts of interest due to the fact of scrutinizing the titles too much.

Not spending the whole day on the computer, leaves valuable time possibly wasted.

I find I'm looking at the authors of the posts in question more now, and usually leaning towards the more long term members rather than unfamiliar names.

Seems to be helping though.

As already mentioned, I don't see anything that can really be done about it rather than deal with the individual posts swiftly.

This is just my opinion, but it IS spring break right? Some kids with time on their hands and a thirst for attention.

That being said there are some that try to smear ATS, their agenda is easily seen and even easier to dismiss.

I don’t think it’s to discredit ATS, its more out of boredom then anything else.
As for the forum that you put a link to at the beginning of this thread, that dude was insane he even admitted it.
Many times I’ve run across claims that the government starts fake threads to discredit or disrupt ATS. My question to those whom would make this claim is why? Who but people whom are already interested in these topics would bother reading them? Most people don’t have any interest in conspiracy theories unless their made into a snazzy movie. The majority would not want to sit and take the time to read about this stuff.
But that’s just MHO

Guys, I don't mean to burst any bubbles but there is nothing that special about ATS. It is an Internet forum and because of that it will be prone to hoaxes and trolls of all kinds. Gaming forums are 100 times worse than this forum. The more popular the site becomes the worse it will get. I have seen other forum posters joke about how fun and easy it is to fool people on other forums with their made-up tall tales and ATS was mentioned. This is just part of the anonymous Internet.

I believe the ridiculous troll posts are sort of both intentionally and un-intentionally bringing a part of ATS to a less serious state but that just depends on if it keeps up.

Just recently in a thread, a person who I wont name was out right lying left and right and supporting the official 911 reports with some very wild, yet typical claims. I counter those claims with good evidence against them, and I received a U2U from the guy.

He says:

"I am actually not for the governent version,I am simply playing debunkers games with absurdity at least ppl will feel sick from these debunkers".


Basically, he was mocking all the people who support the official story, by actually using their own senseless defense tactics and lies.

You guys should see the Secret Society group then. We have had a ton of first time posters coming in saying trash , causing problems then leaving.

The respect factor is becoming harder and harder to have.

Cory

You must remember, we are now a very large community of registered users.

The more people you have, the more "less desirable" posters you will have.

I believe the tremendous growth of ATS encourages even more to come here to post, for better or worse.

Just my 2 cents.

I've been reading ATS off and on for three years now, I recently joined because I was bedridden due to an injury, I think it's cyclical it comes and goes, I've made a few threads but some of them were already made before mine, as a New member I like that there are trolls here, it helps keep ya sharp, I'm not a skeptic about most things but then again my mind is no so open it falls out either, I have never told my personal stories nor do I think I ever will not because they are so fantastic, but because I have nothing to back them up, plus who wants to hear stories that happened 10 20 and even 30 years ago...

I like the ability to battle wits, but there are ( like in real life) a lot of unarmed people, the more popular a site is the more people of all types come and see, that is the double edged sword. you have to take the good with the bad, ( and I read some REALLY bad on here as well as some really good ) but how boring would it bee to have nothing at all? it rains some days and is sunny others, this IS life.

EDIT : Something strange is occuring - look at the movement on charts 5,6 and 7 here

There is a very simply solution to trolls but everyone MUST follow it.

Maybe make it a rule in HUGE text you see when you sign up :

DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS

Any animal without food will eventually go else where.

Perhaps make it so people who DO feed the trolls get 5 warnings then THEY get banned too...

Seriously, I can not emphasize this enough - DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS.

[edit on 16-3-2007 by NoobieDoobieDo]

I dont normally judge people based on age alone because I have read some very interesting and insightful posts from 15, 16 year old kids but there seems to be an over-abundance of immature people registered and posting on this site.