To discredit ATS or Crackpots you decide?

Originally posted by zerotime
The more popular the site becomes the worse it will get.

Exactely!
These kind of users are, oftenly, 14 years old kids that don't have anything to do but piss people off with hoaxes. And sometimes organized groups do it too.
It's their fun, what can we do?

There's this large Portuguese social network that I make part (in fact it's really large, like 5kk+ users) where there are some sort of communities and forums to discuss stuff (like ATS), and every large community there's at least 1 annoying person and a vast amount of topics with bogus information, we know these people as "Semeadores de Discordia", which means Discord Seeders.

So it's pretty much the same here, you can see HOAX waves from time to time, they enjoy doing it, enjoy seeing people's reactions and feed minds with their fantasies.

We can ignore it or fight it forever.

With the paranoid delusionals of the 911 cult, the "My best mates a Reptillian" UFO Alien forum and the totally barnpot Paranormal forum does ATS really need any help being discredited?

AlBeMet

ok, yeah so i made the mistake of clicking your link there and id like youre name and mailing address so i can send you the bill for the bit of my life i lost in there. jk

ya know...im on enough pain meds to make rush limbaugh drool and not even MY posts are that disjointed and whimsical...at least in my world, others may disagree but i havnt had anyone point out where i was totally in another world yet...but this guy (not you albemet the OP of that thread) is either a certifiable whackjob...or has more free time than i do. which is sad really.

im thinking its the whole spring breakitis thing. morons with nothing to do and no friends posting bs on a forum where people are trying to have actual discussions.

Originally posted by T Trubballshoota
With the paranoid delusionals of the 911 cult, the "My best mates a Reptillian" UFO Alien forum and the totally barnpot Paranormal forum does ATS really need any help being discredited?

Ummm-- thanks "T" for telling us why you are here.

Just what we needed, a few more Knee-jerk Reactionaries to post needless/pointless "answers" to the Crackpot/Troll threads. Better just to shake yer head and leave such threads to die on their own by natural causes. It's funny, tho, how so many of these Threads end up with 700 replies in 24 hours; the various "crews" pouncing on them like Barn Cats after a Mouse; hungry for an argument. (We had a name for such actions in 'Nam. We called such a "Cluster-[INSERT_'F'-WORD_HERE]" ).

T/G we have the Mod staff we do---it could be a lot worse. Truly, ATS has those who will Deny Ignorance---and, unfortunately, just as many who will Deny Intelligence. All-in-all, tho, ATS is a great place to study the Human State, Human Nature, and Human Behavior, all at once and in Real-time.
(Careful--you, too, can be a Lab Rat).




[edit on 16-3-2007 by Ed Littlefox]

I tend to agree with the above posters who state that as ATS grows in popularity, the more undesirable members we have to deal with. You have to realize that we are dealing with people all over the world and that there are multitudes of different personalities. Some people may want to fit in and feel that outlandish stories are the best way to do so. Some people may actually have some of these things happening to them but because it sounds farfetched, we discredit them. Remember that this is a CONSPIRACY site. Whatever the case, as long as we keep the genuine, intelligent and dedicated members posting, I think that we have nothing to worry about. I know that it doesn't bother me any.

Come to think of it. T Trubballshoota is a duplicate account. You were banned and you are back. You should be banned again.

Originally posted by Damocles
AlBeMet

ok, yeah so i made the mistake of clicking your link there and id like youre name and mailing address so i can send you the bill for the bit of my life i lost in there. jk

Write it off as a loss on your next years taxes

AlBeMeT

Originally posted by tunin

Originally posted by zerotime
The more popular the site becomes the worse it will get.

Exactely!
These kind of users are, oftenly, 14 years old kids that don't have anything to do but piss people off with hoaxes. And sometimes organized groups do it too.
It's their fun, what can we do?

I disagree with what both of you guys have said. Quantity can exist with quality.



16.2% of our membership consists of those under the age of 18. And I can list countless members, who are under 18, who are some of our best contributors.

More on the demographics of ATS can be found here.

We are talking about the squeaky wheel here. And what are we doing? Giving him the grease. Rather than talking about the countless members who work endlessly to contribute, we prefer to talk about the "troll" who wants to stir trouble. If there were more trolls on ATS than contributing members, none of us would be here. If we were ridden with trolls and the quality of our board was diminishing, would we really be seeing the success that we are?

This is nothing more than giving the squeaky wheel the grease.

I read that trolls post also albemet and others(the princess diana turned into vampire was classic).unfortunatly theres really no way of pre-screening newbies until they strike.im sure the mods are doing their best though.keep it up mods!

Originally posted by chissler

Originally posted by tunin

Originally posted by zerotime
The more popular the site becomes the worse it will get.

Exactely!
These kind of users are, oftenly, 14 years old kids that don't have anything to do but piss people off with hoaxes. And sometimes organized groups do it too.
It's their fun, what can we do?

I disagree with what both of you guys have said. Quantity can exist with quality.

16.2% of our membership consists of those under the age of 18. And I can list countless members, who are under 18, who are some of our best contributors.

We are talking about the squeaky wheel here. And what are we doing? Giving him the grease. Rather than talking about the countless members who work endlessly to contribute, we prefer to talk about the "troll" who wants to stir trouble. If there were more trolls on ATS than contributing members, none of us would be here. If we were ridden with trolls and the quality of our board was diminishing, would we really be seeing the success that we are?

This is nothing more than giving the squeaky wheel the grease.

I'm confused. I do not see anything in your post that shows the more popular ATS has become the less trolls it has attracted. My statement was: "The more popular the site becomes the worse it will get," to which you said you disagreed unless I am confused. Do you have a graph that shows that since ATS poster numbers have increased troll threads have not increased?

I’m not sure talking about trolls creates more trolls though. Trolls are trolls and they will always be out there because the Internet is an anonymous source and they are bored. Trolls will naturally migrate to where the largest audience is located because there is a better opportunity to stir up trouble and draw attention to their actions in forums with large memberships.

It is a good to talk about trolls and the problems they cause on a website. Contrary to popular believe I do not think ignoring trolls (not feeding trolls) makes them go away. The trolls simply try harder. Again, no one is suggesting that there are not many good contributors to ATS. But it is natural to discuss problems. If you are driving a car and a wheel falls off are you going to talk about the wheel that fell off or the other three that didn’t fall off?

I can't really say much about how the forum "used to be" having only really taken notice of the place a few weeks before joining, but in any internet community of this size, you are bound to get trolls and attention seekers. In fact, I would say its incredible how little of this goes on compared to many other sites of comparable size. I also think the honest and enquiring scepticism of many of the members here is probably good in calling those less pleasant members to account.

The simple fact is that, regardless of statistics presented, there are a lot of people on the internet who think that can say ANYTHING anonymously. They can be IMPORTANT on the internet if they want. They see ATS as a place wher ethey might be accepted and they want validation and reinforcement of self-worth that they do not get in real life.

I think that accounts for 99% for the "I am an alien" and "I can speak with the greys" threads that we see popping up.

Chissler--

As much as I hate to, I have to disagree with you on this one, Bud. These pies and bars are good for a single purpose, and that is targeted advertising, period.
I mean, let's understand that this site wouldn't be "free" without it. And, while I'm at it, let me further state that this site, like all large sites on the Web, subscribe to the exact same philosophy as any paper publication, and that is that circulation sells ads, and the best, (most lucrative), ad contracts go to the sites with the highest "circulation"; a.k.a. "popularity". Currently, we are pushing 90K members, and if the trends I have seen since I have been a member continue, then that figure should increase to 100K+ before the end of the year.

Now, before anyone gets teste over what I have said above, let me just say that I have not a whit of a problem with the Three Amigos making money with this site, or any other that they may have, and neither should anyone else. They must, and I certainly hope it is a LOT of it. So, fine, they are making some (I hope) serious bread with ATS. The great part about that is HOW they chose to do that and why.

The biggest flaws I currently see with the demographics as a whole, and presently, is that the current figures represent less than 1% of the membership. Secondly, they in no way reflect "who" in all of the age-groups and interest categories, is doing most of the posting. I can pretty safely say that it isn't my own group; those over 55 with doctorates.

That being the case, and taking this post as a whole, considering the growth of ATS, etc., it is going to become necessary for the Membership of this site to become more Self-Policing.

The "policy" I would propose is a simple matter of common sense. We can support Chissler and Company simply by exercising Restraint by ignoring idiotic, psychotic, off-the-wall Threads and posts. IOW, don't give these dopes a chance to become Famous by acknowledging them. Arguing with obvious Nuts who make posts and threads just to get a reaction, ("baiting"), is a futile pursuit. Let it, and them, and the Thread, go. They just die off when not answered, and that is the policy each of us needs to encompass. There is, too, the built in "Ignore this Member" feature for the repetitive fools, and the "complain" button in "Member Center" when it gets bad enough to call to the attention a Mod.

JMHO and 2 cents