Imagine my surprise when I realized my first thread would involve the workings of ATS itself. This morning I checked the site's main page and scanned the headlines. If you act quick you may see what I see:

Click the 'Site Home' button in the leftmost of the nav bar at the top. Scroll down a little ways 'till you get to 'Important Current Topics(as flagged by members)' and in the lower-right quadrant I see:

'Run From The Cure - Cannabis Cure for Cancer' flags: 12, replies: 46 By: JesterTerrestrial on March 25 Run_From_The_Cure_-_Cannabis_Cure_for_Cancer I saw another post about cancer and added this link. I thought that it deserves enought attention to start a new thread... more

Sounds fascinating, right? How many times have I read a Fark headline that ends in 'still no cure for cancer...'? Too many. So of course I clicked on it and guess what? The thread no longer exists. It's gone. Made yesterday, flagged 12 times, but it's gone. Quick google on 'Run From The Cure' rendered:

EDIT: link removed to avoid bannination

Interesting story, totally ATS-worthy. Now I don't know whether there's anything to the 'cure' or whether it's placebo pure and simple, and that's really not the point of this posting. My question is how could this happen? Why would such a seemingly ripe topic for ATS be simply swept under the table? I couldn't find a competing thread that might have taken precedence, perhaps I didn't look in the right places or hard enough, but there it is. I was looking forward to reading what you marvelous people had to say about the topic. Who's driving this boat anyway?

z

[edited 3-26-08 by Zelun]

[edit on 26-3-2008 by Zelun]

Scary considering that most threads with even a hint of something 'illegal' or contains references of drugs (naturally occuring herbs) seem to be clamped down by the forces that be...

with nothing more than a quote saying 'if you would like to discuss this subject then go elsewhere'...

Hmm? How are we supposed to go elsewhere and discuss it? How would the majority of ATS'ers know where to go and discuss it?

Are we that controlled nowadays that even talking like adults is forbidden?



[edit on 26-3-2008 by mr-lizard]

It appears to be moved to RATS.
Come on in!

Did you read the terms and conditions when you signed up at ATS?

A moderator will probably be along soon to explain the issue of the removed thread to you. If not, then you may contact a the moderator and you will get an answer.

Dizzie

Make like one podcast and you may have enough to squeak by.
There are a slew of hemp articles in RATS. Once in, you can compile all the data you like and maybe even keep the old thread going. I believe it is at page 3 last I looked.

Thanks Crakeur. I retract my implication. Perhaps I can salvage the thread with the following question:

Does the pharmaceutical industry really WANT an outright cure for cancer? Could the industry be so disconnected from the suffering in the world that it would stifle a readily available cure for the purpose of buffering their profit margins? What recourse do we, the public, have if this is the case?

It is strange the things you are not allowed to talk about on here, i think?We can talk about genocide, war and even name individuals we beleive are corrupt or criminal and yet we can't talk about- Chald aboose, haching, drigs and sock fraud to name a few-why these in particular? Can any mods help us on this?

In this case, the thread was moved to a private section of the site for the protection of us, the users. I understand from Crakeur's reply that the thread had stayed in the public section for a while because it was tracking toward the question of why they dropped the hammer on the guy only after he raised a stink about the matter with the help of a reputable community organization. Eventually though, it devolved into the usual 'legalize it' discussion and it had to be moved. At least that's my understanding; I haven't yet been able to read it for myself.

I understand why it was moved and am in support of the decision. It's not like they're moving the good stuff to a paid section. Rather, it's moved to a more private area where only the most devoted ATS contributers can view it.

Think of this site as the German Autobahn. You can drive as fast as you want, but you get a ticket for reckless driving when you go into the ditch, (violate the T&C). And if you're pulled over and examined, and your load (your post) is deemed hazardous material, you're force you to take an alternate route (RATS).

Just the rules of the road.

[edit on 27-3-2008 by NGC2736]

I post on here once in a while, way too often for my liking, I try to be totally honest and not sound like im just writing for the sake of someone else reading it, but its a forum, and I know ATS is about information and not so much about ego, but when you need to have 5000 points to talk about illicit substances when erowid and the lycaeum provide such for free, it makes me wonder if ATS is just out to promote self indulgence. I mean I love this site, I cant find any other place where rationality is held so highly in a public forum, but it just seems a bit funky to exclude any particular subject.
It just seems weird, like, if I was completely against drugs, and I found out ATS's RATS section was full of drug posts, I would be very skeptical of ATS's motto, deny ignorance. Its not very denying of ignorance to ignore entire subjects. If the truth turns out to be that there are a lot of people on ATS who use illegal substances, and post in RATS about it, then ATS does not deny ignorance, really, it promotes it because it says you have to buy certain information. Thats not just plain denying it, its charging for what someone thinks is too much or too something for the rest of the site.
I understand that the rules are the way they are for the sake of school friendly search engines and whatnot, but seriously, lets just butter up the goat for everyone and present a false face of what ATS is made of just to get more popularity. I guess thats cool. But denying ignorance should not be the motto here if thats the way it is.

mods feel free to delete this post and ignore everything Ive said. just deem it as ignorance and deny it. or move it to RATS. lol

I guess thats the price of selling out. "but we have to do it, how else will more people be more aware of these subjects? We'll just hide the drug stuff so we can hook line and sinker everyone and not seem bias"

Its like being in church, and I can be totally honest with the pastor, until it comes to aliens or shamans.

The fact that drug subjects are put aside in their own forum really keeps people from being completely honest about how drug use plays into everyones everyday life.
Do you want to come to ATS and have people pretending they dont smoke weed just like at work or at church? No, you come to ATS to deny ignorance.

Just putting in my opinion. I dont know how much it matters not having like a thousand points or whatever, but thats what it is.

Im just concerned for the straight edger who actually learns a lot of great ways to be a better citizen and how to deny ignorance, to come to find ATS was filtering my experience by putting would be real life conversation content, into another forum due to its content, and that content containing the drug posts, I would wonder if my experience on ATS was truly genuine, or if ATS was trying to say something about drugs by keeping it hidden, and then I would wonder who the bad/good guy is all over again.