ATS not fullfilling my expectations. An effort to eliminate users?

Recently, there have been many attacks against Christians. Also, lots of debunkers and people who just post to prove you wrong or keep you quiet. Basically, many theories are discarded, Alien and UFO threads are irrelevant without any video or other proof. Others don't believe in demons or the cat people race. The problem with that? well, I came here to discuss these things and it has been fun. Heck, I tried to prove the existence of god and was shot down on the first day. I don't know what to think anymore, but I think there are some users out there who only sole purpose is to track your posts and prove you wrong. I don't know if they are people from the government or just regular people.
I think there is a movement to oppose everything. oppose the existence of mysterious topics. for example, All theories about 911 are debated to no end and after reading the thread, you start thinking the OP is a nut, based on the comments by other users. And whenever someone is close to the truth, they are soon labeled ANTI(something). Unamerican or whatever else. most people also concentrate on getting personal with a user and begin to use his past history to make him look like a nut. Now, I am not saying that I had that experience. I'm just saying that I have observed these relations between users in ATS. Today I was thinking. what the point of trying to prove something that you can't see? why all the back and forth talk if no one believes you anyway? it's like trying to break a coconut open with your toe.
Does anyone else believe that there are users who's only purpose is to attack and scare others away without adding anything good to the thread?

Because, like all communities, it's degenerated into a popularity contest. No one comes here to discuss they come here to argue. Debunkers run so wild that they chase away anybody with an interesting story.

I used to come here many years ago and there would actually be discussions about people's experiences and usually it would just grow from there. Nowadays however, like you said, no proof no discussion or anything. I don't even bother navigating the religion forums anymore. The Atheist Brigade is in full swing.

Nothing you can really do, except find the next ATS to pop up somewhere. Everything eventually evolves like that.

Recently, there have been many attacks against Christians.

Recently, there has been many attacks against, children, countries, animals, ateist, conspiracy theories etc.. etc.. I don’t see your point here..

Also, lots of debunkers and people who just post to prove you wrong or keep you quiet.

Also, a great deal of people do know that there is always to sides of a story. The true one and the made up one.. You seem to make up a lot of stories. You never seem to get your facts straight and you contradict yourself in almost all the post. You are both Christian, scientologist and Cat race religionist at the same time. You even believe in deamons, and claim on top of it all that Blue Ray is a cheap version of the old DVD format.

Basically, many theories are discarded, Alien and UFO threads are irrelevant without any video or other proof. Others don't believe in demons or the cat people race. The problem with that? well, I came here to discuss these things and it has been fun. Heck, I tried to prove the existence of god and was shot down on the first day.

And your point is? This is actually a great example of what I am talking about. You don’t follow any opinion as you write you just make them up while writing. In this example, you first complain about people not believing in you, then you say its fun.

I don't know what to think anymore, but I think there are some users out there who only sole purpose is to track your posts and prove you wrong. I don't know if they are people from the government or just regular people.

You don’t know what to think, but you think?
The closest I am to my government, is the online bank account when I Pay my taxes..

I think there is a movement to oppose everything. oppose the existence of mysterious topics. for example, All theories about 911 are debated to no end and after reading the thread, you start thinking the OP is a nut, based on the comments by other users.

It would be less opposing if there where threads with facts, and not just personal stories with dots and slow shutter images of planes at night.

And whenever someone is close to the truth, they are soon labeled ANTI(something). Unamerican or whatever else. most people also concentrate on getting personal with a user and begin to use his past history to make him look like a nut.

Since you are referring to your own posts here, but try to make us think this is about the majority of the threads it might get personal, yes .. Btw: it’s the debunkers who get the label ANTI(something). Not the other way around.

Now, I am not saying that I had that experience.

You are not saying it, but you experience it every time you post a single comment.

I'm just saying that I have observed these relations between users in ATS. Today I was thinking. what the point of trying to prove something that you can't see? why all the back and forth talk if no one believes you anyway? it's like trying to break a coconut open with your toe.

In this case I really believe that you have tried to break open a coconut with your toe, but to set you straight about the term “forum” and “discussion”, we are all in title to give our own opinion in any aspect of a thread. As long as we follow the TOC.

Does anyone else believe that there are users who's only purpose is to attack and scare others away without adding anything good to the thread?

Sometimes I feel that I give you to many ATS points just by replying on your threads. If I could have given you subtracting points, I would..

Jedi,

I can sympathise with where you are coming from to a certain extent but..

ATS is a general conspiracy board, and it draws people of all ages, with all beliefs, from all over the world.

It also draws people with all kinds of agenda's, right across the spectrum from open minded inqusitiveness to closed minded debunkers.

Its even possible (in my personal opinion) that some people get paid for putting their views across for various reasons, although its impossible to prove such things (this is a conspiracy board after all!)

The key to coping with such things is to have the power of your own convictions.

If you have a topic to discuss then go for it. You may get 50 negative responses but you may also find, in the middle of them, one gem of a response that sets you off on a different tac and opens up a whole different pathway for you to follow. You may even find you are just plain wrong about something, or had misinterpreted it.

Part of the fun of ATS is to filter out the signals from the background noise. I know it can get frustrating (there are subjects that drive me nuts!) so when it does, log out, go for a walk and let it go for a while.

If - as you've chosen to post this in General Conspiracy Discussion - you think certain subjects are "conspired against" I'm all for discussing the reasons why they would be, but lets not get into naming names and starting a witch hunt.

I'll pass on your comments above "upstairs" to the senior staff as well.

An effort to eliminate users? Like what, people who don't agree with you and attack things you believe in? I mean, come on, you are pretty much saying it is ok to post what YOU think, but no one else can if it doesn't agree with you. So it seems you are wanting to get rid of other members also.. pot, meet kettle.

Click here for more information.

Mod Edit - Attack the substance of the post and NOT the poster.
Courtesy is Mandatory - if people cannot comply with this idea then please do not post on this thread.






[edit on 12/0208/08 by neformore]

omg, the cat people have lightsabers!

Jedi, I do indeed sympathize, the skeptic crowd here is somewhat out-of-control; one has an imminent feeling of going to war when contemplating a post. But as neformore said, it's in the power of your convictions. I would suggest that if you feel you were moved to post about "God" then that mission is already accomplished. If God led you to start a thread, the eyes for whom it was written likely read it, or soon will.

One thing I remain curious about is the strong need ATS contributors seem to feel to respond to each and every attack the on-purpose debunkers come up with. I've watched whole threads derailed to the brink of devastation because some troll stomped into the room and demanded all the attention. I don't refer to the defending of one's position and subsequent debate towards solving a difference, but posts which are negative apparently just for negativity's sake.

Offline, I'm the kind of person who will literally not even respond to a verbal question if I find the attitude wrong of the inquisitor, and the same applies to my online communication. Too much energy can be exhausted on negative, non-contributive time-wasters (not true skeptics who are simply not on page with an OP, but those who attack and demean, offering not a sliver of counter-evidence, only loud opinions), and even if you manage to out-talk/yell them, so what? What's the prize?

Keep posting as you see fit, I would advise, you are just as qualified to speak your mind as a member of ATS as any one else.

thanks neformore. I'm glad you understand. Tep thinks i'm just doing this to gain points. the truth of the matter, I never used them and will probably never use them. I only been here for about 6 months. and every thread about God, mine or not is instantly intercepted by atheists. I mean i've seen so many people trying to disprove god and I really think they are just doing it to start up a negative conversation. What i'd like to see is people who believe in god in one thread, and people who do not believe in god in another. it would be nice to go into a thread and have ALL positive comments and everyone supporting you. but I sense the opposite. for example, my thread on God got so outta hand I stopped posting there. But, I am more upset about the anti-christian movement. some users made it their goal to post on every thread that had to deal with god and try to disprove him. still remains that most people dislike christians around here. I mean I get the sense that many look down on religion as if it was a bad thing. I've said i'm part christian and part scientologist..tep doesn't undestand how that could be. saying all this, I feel like sometimes it's a more of an effort to prove your theory than fun. I guess it's like politics.

if we could have a program..lets say if someone posts on the opposite side of the thread, they loose points. that would stop the opponents. So if there was a thread about lets say. "Aliens are real" and users who went to that thread and said, "no aliens aren't real" then those users should loose points for going to that thread and trying to disprove it. or if users went there and tried so hard to say that "aliens are not real" maybe they shouldn't be allowed to post in that thread. just an idea. other than that, I'm kinda turned down by all the opponents to christianity and such. I can't name any users in particular but there are those who make it their lives to prove you wrong. I for one still think the egyptian cat race was real.

reply to post by tep200377


Good post. Starred.

Jedi, I have to put you back on my ignore list. I knew the day would come that I would be baited into posting something I shouldn't. Today was that day.

FWIW, this is about the most open forum regarding far out theories and concepts. Good luck finding someplace that is more receptive.

reply to post by jedimiller


You say and I quote "so many people trying to disprove god"
Well when people post threads that say 100% proof of god, and then post that its because they have faith in god......do you expect atheists not to reply to that?

If you dont like it, there are plenty of christian forums on the internet wher you can talk to others like yourself and slag off atheists and other religions (cause only your god is the true god as much as you want. Keep posting here and expect conflict

[edit on 12/2/2008 by OzWeatherman]

[edit on 12/2/2008 by OzWeatherman]

Opposers, Debunkers, Derailers...

...help to push my threads to the top of the list
...help me to refine my theories and make them more airtight
...help to to offer a counter-balance to my views.

I love them. Without them we´d be lost. Without them we´d only be circling around in our own little soplistic world.

The purpose of ATS is not to make others conform to "one view". Conformity leads to stagnation and ultimately to death of progress. The purpose is to embrace limitless diversity.

reply to post by jedimiller



I agree, its a pattern I have seen ever since forums were started, it a battle of ego and nowadays those who seem to be the forum god are nothing but people that support their information from facts picked up from a google search or wikipedia, like some experts in Area 51 I am certain are just that, they have never been there and yet they have supporters on the internet forums believing every morsel of information that anyone can easily get from google earth google search or wikipedia.

I am not turned on here much at ATS, I am definitely interested but some forums are just too far out in left field for my taste.

reply to post by jedimiller


So what would fill your expectations?

Tell me what you would do if I told you the world is ending on Feb 13 but offered no proof? Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, but just because I said that, you will not do anything out of the ordinary. What if the pope revealed that Feb 13 is the end of the world? I think in that case you would spend Feb 12 praying or trying to be as happy as possible.

Why is it that one would believe the pope's word but not mine?
Because, to a lot of people, the pope is a person that can be trusted.

That said, you need to build a lot of trust before you expect people to believe that what you said is true, specially when there is no proof to offer.

Have you gained the trust of anyone on this forum?
If the answer is no, then the most you can expect is the support of people who already believe in your theory. And if the number of people who don't believe is greater than the number of people that do believe, and you offer no proof other than your words, what do you think will happen?

Once you know what to really expect, then you will be able to formulate something that beats those expectations. For example, if you want to write about how good God is, then start with a disclaimer like 'this thread is based on the assumption that God is real, so if you want to discuss about whether that's true or not, then please do so in another thread', that way you will ensure that only those that already believe post in your thread. But if you want to prove that God is real(meaning you are also addressing those that don't believe, because what would be the point of creating a 'God is real' thread if you are only addressing those who already believe?), then you are going to need a heck of a lot more than just words.


[edit on 12-2-2008 by daniel_g]

Originally posted by tep200377


Sometimes I feel that I give you to many ATS points just by replying on your threads. If I could have given you subtracting points, I would..

Wow guy,, you proved every point he was trying to make which are the same you say you didn't understand. I suggest that was his point. You are right about one thing though and I am sure Jedi would agree,,,

your post really was a waste of time.

Nothing but more of the same

"ad hom city"

- Con

[edit on 12-2-2008 by Conspiriology]

reply to post by daniel_g


I have been using forums like this for so long I can't remember how many years 10 at least. They haven't changed that much to me and even though we may not always agree sometimes someone makes a very good point without adding insult to injury or getting personal.

Your post is well thougt out and you have given some great analogies for Jedi to consider.

Good Post

- Con

Conspiriology, good to see you're not here for the ATS points, well-done.

jedimiller,

ATS not fullfilling my expectations.

Well, it seems there is no pleasing you. I have many expectations too.



...however I am left wanting daily.

ATS is what it is. We make it what it is. Just because you may find yourself in the minority on a particular viewpoint doesn't mean it's time to leave. What's a debate with one empty podium?

Jedi, I have enjoyed your postings and have agreed with some and not others. You have added spice to our mix of people. My first thread was shot down like a fat rat. Did I get upset???? No. I did realize that when you post what is a fact to you you must also back what you say up with all the facts you can muster.

ATS would be a very boring place if all posters agreed with every post. This is a discussion board. We discuss and dissect each others posts. Thankfully it is the most civilized board I've ever joined. Even though I am a Christian I find most Christian discussion board to be filled with self righteous snobs.

I'm sorry you've gotten your feelings hurt and are disappointed with us here at ATS. If you find it difficult to get along and be happy on this board I suggest you lock yourself in your room and never mingle with the people in the real world.

You are not going to change ATS and for that I'm thankful. If we all agreed with everything we all posted there would be no reason to be here. Mutual admiration societies are soulless and dull.

Wish you would stay around and open your mind, continue to post your opinions and enjoy your time here.

Dizziedame

Hi,

I dont think its wise to keep creating threads of this nature, we already have a thread "The problem with ATS" why do we need another one like it.

It might be an idea to voice your opinions there, if you havent already, rather than start a thread similar to that one.

I think if we continue down this road, it could only lead to our own downfall, dont get me wrong im all for freedom of speech but in a constructive way.

I also do agree with you on some of the points you made which is why you will find my opinions / post in the other thread.

Regards,

JQ.

After discussion with the other staff I'm going to close this thread now.

Please direct your thoughts to the existing The problem with ATS thread which is in a similar vein, but was started a few days earlier than this one.

Nef.