*Revised* - Instructions for the Breaking News Forums

Instructions for the Breaking News Forums

* Make sure the story is not more than 48 hours old. Old news is not breaking news and more importantly, it's probably already posted.


* Make sure it is a news story and not just an op/ed or some blogger's opinion. Invalid news items will be moved, closed or deleted.


* Make sure you have a valid working permanent link to the story. If there is no link or the link ends up broken or "expired" your story may be moved, closed or deleted.


* If it's a widely reported story please try to included multiple sources in the fields provided. Also, please make use of the related ATS threads section to highlight background information or related discussions that may be ongoing. Just paste the ATS URL into the boxes and the title of the thread should show up automatically.


* Copy the exact headline of the story into the headline field, don't make one up or sensationalise it. Submissions with inaccurate, biased or otherwise deceptive headlines may be moved, closed or deleted. Obviously, some editorial latitude will be allowed if the original headline is too long (gets truncated) or too obscure.


* Use the comment field for your opinion, spin, or other commentary on the news article. One-line posts or short posts simply repeating the quoted snippet are not enough. We want to see what you think of the story or why you think it's important.


* Please note that there is a character limit of 500 characters for the copied story snippet. Exceeding this character limit may result in drastic editing or your thread will be closed, moved or deleted.


* As always, expectations of quality as well as civility within the news forum are higher than the regular forums. Conduct yourselves accordingly.


* Perhaps MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL for a "Breaking News" forum:

Check to see if the item has already been posted:

Breaking Alternative News – Today’s Posts

Breaking Political News – Today’s Posts

Breaking General News – Today’s Posts




In fact, if the story is more than a few hours old and something that would normally be discussed on ATS it's safe to assume it's already posted.

Repeat topics will be closed.

In the event two threads have evolved over time (overnight, or if there are no news mods around for example) the one with the lowest thread ID number (found in the URL) will be kept and the other closed or moved (assuming there is no existing thread on the regular forums).


Please refrain from posting such things as "I checked and didn't see this posted so..." or "I wasn't sure where this belonged so if the mods want to move it..." Such phrases are implied and detract from the story. Do not include them.

Finally, you will have to enter a "tag" for the thread. Please note that entering more than one word will make it appear as a single term in the tag system (even if separated by commas) so it's best to enter a single key word. A phrase will be truncated and therefore be useless to tagging purposes.


Now that you know it is safe to post...


Where Should It Go?

This is perhaps the most difficult concept for new members and infrequent news posters to understand. In addition to forums like Current Events and Other Global News where news can be discussed, we have three breaking news forums each concentrating on one major area of news.


Breaking Alternative News (or think of it as Breaking Conspiracy News):

"This form is for the submission of conspiracy themed or other "alternative topic" news and breaking current events that fit within the topical themes of AboveTopSecret.com." The forum also carries this description at the top of each thread: "Member news submissions and discussions covering alternative subjects such as UFO's, conspiracy theory, government secrets, and political scandals."

In other words this is for news that has a clear (i.e. not contrived) conspiracy angle. 'Ron Paul's campaign is being ignored by the mainstream meda!' belongs in this forum. 'Ron Paul raised some money' or 'Ron Paul lost again' belongs on the politics board.

We have also been lax in allowing major worldwide events of a non-conspiracy nature to exists on this forum. As always this is a judgement call by the staff. Don't be surprised when such a story gets moved to another news forum when it is no longer "breaking".



Breaking General News:

"This form is for the submission of general or other "off-topic" news and breaking current events that don't fit within the topical themes of AboveTopSecret.com and is better suited to BelowTopSecret.com"

In other words, any general type of news with no conspiracy or political angle gets put here. This includes missing persons, celebrity news, weird and wacky stories and even a "Columbine type event" etc...



Breaking Political News:

"This form is for the submission of political or other "politically inspired" news and breaking current events that fit within the topical theme of AbovePolitics.com."

In other words, any story without a clear conspiracy and revolving around the antics of our elected officials or Governmental organisations. Want to discuss news about gun control or gay rights? This is the forum to do it in. Any election news without a conspiracy angle also falls into this category. Any economic news that does not involve the Central Banks, NAU or NWO type of angles belongs on this forum.



Note that these are not black and white characterizations and like any classification system, sometimes there will be differences of opinion about which category something falls into. You should also note that in reality, ATS should be the least busy of the three news forums.

You will notice that each news submission form has the option of submitting news to the other forums:




Please select the correct forum where you think the story belongs and don't get too upset if it gets moved to one of the other forums. It's not 'censored', just moved.



Members should also remember that with the correct use of the "Favorites" feature on their myATS page along with the "Customise" feature on the recent posts page you can make sure the forums that really interest you from any of the three domains appear on one page for you.

Happy posting.

This is great. Thank you. But can you explain what a "Tag" is? I've only submitted one news story and didn't know what the tag line was for. What are we supposed to put there?

reply to post by AshleyD

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Look at the bottom of this page (and every thread page on ATS).

There is a Tag System where members can enter key words to help them classify and find things on the site.

For example if you go to this Tag Search Page you can find all threads tagged with a certain keyword.

You can enter more than one tag if separated by commas (character limit of 20 I think) on any thread (once) but in the news forum it has a quirk where the tag entered will be formatted as a single word.
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Great. Thanks again. When I posted my news story last time I think I said something like, "I have no idea what a tag is so hopefully a mod can update this for me" in the tag slot.

Now I know.

reply to post by Gools

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Wow, that's an old page, it still has all the old graphics...and it took foooorever to load.

That might be another coding problem for SO to consider, as soon as he gets the "posts" button thing worked out.

reply to post by goosdawg

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I think it takes forever to load because there's so many tags (not to mention variations of the same tag). When they first came up with the system you could earn points for tagging threads. So there was quite a competition to tag threads. Here's the old thread on that for the details:

Content Tagging is Here!

reply to post by Beachcoma

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Agreed.

Perhaps the page should just show a search field and a more manageable, limited, number of tag examples?

This loading vulnerability could be exploited, unfortunately.

Shouldn't this thread be posted in BBQ? Seems like a more appropriate forum...

But that's just my .02.

I think it's in the right place -- as a stickied thread in the Alternative News Forum. I think there should also be a link to it in the news submission form.

If i havn't heard it, its new to me!

keep up the good work ATS

reply to post by jsobecky

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lol, I was kinda wondering same...

But nevertheless, it's a good thread. Anything not conspiracy related is getting moved to AP or BTS. So if you want to talk politics, there you go.

Ok, this is bugging me.

Breaking news is breaking news. If you`re going to start monitoring it more heavily to make sure that it matches the correct classification, how about making it a little easier to browse the other websites? Like a global login, perhaps - so if I`m logged in at ATS I`m also on at the sister sites? A link on each page to breaking news on the other pages?

These sites are, in a way, separate entities. Not everyone who comes to ATS also browses the other sites as well.

reply to post by vox2442

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I'll quote myself:




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reply to post by vox2442

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Gools is correct and here is another way to enjoy the other boards..

It is easy to switch to the other boards, if you are on ATS recent posts page, near the top you should see this:

Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4 , ALL | today @ BelowTopSecret.com | today @ AbovePolitics.com

You can change pages on ATS, or you can hit the BTS link or AP link to take you to the recent posts page of the board you click.

You could also right click open in new window if you want to cruise between the three boards at the same time.

Hope this helps make moving from board to board easier for you.

reply to post by Gools

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Agreed!

But you still have to log into each separate site to be a part of the discussion.

Or view the wicked avatars.

Or avoid the extra ads, ad infinitum.

I've got a work around though, just bookmark the three login pages and save your entry data. (For Firefox users, I don't know how it works for users of Internet Exploder.)

When I arrive on site, I just run the three pages before I settle in, makes for a less disruptive session.

Correct!


SkpeticOverlord tried to integrate such a feature in the past but I think it kind of blew up. Had something to do with the three separate domain names

It's like asking for the right to log into the New York Times, The Globe and Mail and the Montreal Gazette sites all at the same time.

Of course that doesn't stop me from bugging SkepticOverlord about wanting such a feature.
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reply to post by Gools

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"This form is for the submission of conspiracy themed or other "alternative topic" news
I think this is the most confusing statement. Quick question. Why not call it breaking conspiracy news then instead breaking alt.news? Call it for what it is supposed to be. As has been stated before, people use this site for a news website. Are we to spin articles in our own words just to get them on this site? I thought we were to gain other opinions through discussion as to possible conspiracies about articles that we read. They don't all just say conspiracy in plain sight. It has to be looked at through a lot of angles sometimes. And touching on your statement of differing opinions, who is the final say. what if two mods have looked at the submitted article for two days and do nothing, then another mod decides to move it on the third day. That is something we have no control over but need to know the justification behind, IMO.
I guess it is hard when you have differing opinions on what may be important and what may be not so important.
It may take awhile for people to catch on, orrr.... maybe it's just me. Who knows.
Sorry turned out not to be such a quick question.

That`s kind of my point.

I check in here once or twice (or more) a day, often just to have a quick look at the headlines. I think I`ve only surfed through the other sites a few times, to be honest - it`s a different quality and style of discussion - similar to your newspaper analogy.

What it comes down to is this: this new rule, with a fairly arbitrary description of "conspiracy related", detracts from this site. I`m interested not only in the news story, but in what people here consider to be newsworthy. It`s a perspective on the news itself - and seemingly banal news stories take on a different frame with the editorial content and research of ATS - even as opposed to above politics.

That`s my take on it, for what it`s worth - and that`s probably not much.

reply to post by vox2442

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I agree vox. You just do not get the same disussion on the other sites as you do here. And as I stated, every article posted has a conspiracy content. Just not all may see it or agree with it. I am wondering why it is such a big deal that the forum is a very busy one. Isn't that the object of the website? Or is this being done to get even amount of visitors to each site? I just don't see the logic. Busy means better I thought. After having a few recent threads moved from the forum, the discussions have discontinued. There are mods who rarely visit the other sites. Sorry, but this strikes a cord with me in that I think people look to this forum for updates and relations to other threads. A quick example: because I post an article on the rise in flu visits to the ER doesn't mean it isn't conspiracy related. It shows how the big pharmas are giving false hope to people that their products will prevent them from getting sick. Now that, to me, is a conspiracy. You can't tell me that will get the same discussion on BTs as it would ATS. I just think the logic on choosing what is and isn't related is never going to be the same for everyone. How about this idea? If your post doesn't see signifigant reply, say 10 posts, within 48 hours, then the thread is closed or moved. This way there is no "my thread belongs and this guy's doesn't". Just a thought.

[edit on 2/14/2008 by palehorse23]

Some people seem to be having a very difficult time grasping a simple concept.

I've prepared a tutorial: Customization and Our Sister Boards
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