ATS selling out: Membership quantity over quality

reply to post by Zenskeptical


Never said they all were.

Originally posted by FrankP
i remember when these boards weren't all "2012 planet x ascension indigo children lookatthisyoutubevideoofanalien/ufo mayan calandar end of the world"

then what was it like before that? what was the information that you were given that was the be all and end all of ATS?

ill admit i find alot of posts that comical at best and really should waist a persons time, but aside from all those, what were the "golden days" of ATS like, and what were the topics?

reply to post by Rasobasi420


I first joined ATS in 2001. It was more pure back then...It has grown into something beyopund its orginal scope or intention...therefor attracts some people who are a little off, however, I believe the essence remains. There is a core of people who do preserve the elan that I used to love here. The quality of the postshas gone down dramatically. Sometimes I am amazed that the threads with the stupidist titles have the most responses. And other threads that are genuinely thought provoking, like mine (!) are quickly relegated to obscurity.

Also, what's with all this Christian conservative crap?

Rarely do you find posts where someone actually does their research to back up any statements/theories they make.

Its more of a snowball effect now. Someone says something completely unproven and other people just absorb it as possible "facts" and incorporate them into their own theories.

Originally posted by Rasobasi420 There is the threat of other quality posters not wanting to be a part of ATS after seeing some of the extremely prejudiced posts being added to the forum. If you'd like to force them out, then enjoy.

I would not like to "force" anyone out, but if they choose to leave because this stuff has bothered them in the way it seems to be bothering you, then so be it. It seems a bit ridiculous for anyone leave over such things, but one thing that is for certain is that no one will have "forced" anyone to leave. One can only choose to leave. I believe that if one does not like the junk posts, then simply do not look.

Thank you!

Here's the way I see it. This is just my opinion, nothing more.

ATS is the premiere alternative site on the net. Alternative and conspiracy theory are becoming mainstream which means many many people that have a passing interest or little/no knowledge of CT's are going to end up here. A percentage of them are going to bring there prejudice, bias and/or racist views with them. Many of them may be familiar with other discussion boards were anything goes. You can say/type whatever you want and the only thing you can expect is some to call you racist/bigot/troll, etc...

The difference is that doesn't fly here. We have a very well defined set of rules that states quite clearly.

2) Behavior: You will not behave in an abusive, hateful and/or racist manner, and will not harass, threaten, nor attack anyone.

Now, we'll catch some of them but with the amount of posts that ATS gets in a day, we aren't going to catch all of them.

Thats were you come in.

If it's an opinion that is uninformed or ignorant, counter it with facts and reason. Maybe you have to do this more than once to get the point across.


See something that is blatantly racist/biggoted/hate speech. Alert on it. Believe it or not but we don't want that here as much as you do. We aren't going to stifle the free exchange of ideas but we aren't going to tolerate us members being attacked over race/religion/sexuality.


Is ATS selling out? Nope.

Are Simon, Bill and Mark trying to make a living off of their passion? Yep.

Is there anything wrong with that? Nope.

Am I glad that ATS is here? Hell ya!

Originally posted by Fett Pinkus
like all things that get popular you get quantity over quality

noway to change it really

I agree. Perhaps if members stopped creating threads with 2 badly mis-spelled lines and in the wrong forum it would stop.........

Newcomers will always bring forth their prejudiced beliefs until their reality is exposed to objective study and open minds.

How can ATS grow if every new member is expected to act, behave and debate like a seasoned 4+year member? Gotta give it time, think of them as your apprentices and teach them the way oh great mentors.

Originally posted by ObamaMomma

Originally posted by Anti-Tyrant
ObamaMomma, why don't you just butt out?

Your condescending attitude towards others is not appreciated.

I see, you must be the first ammendment police, sorry I didn't see your badge, it is all brown and stuck to your nose.

do you always try to deny free speach or only when you don't agree with it?

At this point I'm going to stop reading the thread because the quotes above are what I see as an immediate example to an overall issue the OP is talking about. I'm sure you can look at it from both sides, but from the amount of stars certain posts like this get, it's a perfect example of the type of person lurking now. That is NOT quality.

Quality vs Quantity has recently been thrown around and I agree with the concept that the quantity of less than quality posts ( such as the dribble I quoted above ) has escalated to the point where you do have to dig to get the quality.

I came to ATS last year because I was "opening my eyes" to a few things and the discussions I read were mostly well thought out, much shorter and most of the people involved in the prior to 2007 discussions were focused within a debate tone instead of the aptly described "soapbox" tone.

I'll refer to the above again now.. How is that tone in a thread going to be allowed to continue for the next year or two? Most of the people who actually wish to follow a mature course towards obtaining or trading knowledge will get sick of wasting their time wading through one line posts, racial content, intentionally uninformed posts, lack of the simple search function at the top of this page, generally rude and obnoxious attitudes and so on..

The "soul" I see being lost is positive and genuine effort towards enlightening discussion instead of a myriad of individuals rambling whatever comes to mind whenever it comes to mind.

If you've read some of the MANY MANY posts the owners have written, the overall intent of this site is to exchange information during discussion with RESPECT and MATURITY and SELF CONTROL and a WILLINGNESS to be wrong. the members were mainly behind this as well. Now that's being used as a false badge of righteousness.

There are still a good many people on here that will keep me coming back, but there are a good deal more now that have QUICKLY killed the amount of time I spend on here and I have started to spend time elsewhere where communication is "better".

I used to actually forward threads from ATS to people I know and even family members.
I'm embarrassed to now because of the amount of people spouting less than positive or immature thoughts. The you-tube generation is moving in with the comment section mentality right behind them.

Maybe one day I'll be able to forward threads again..

b

Elitism

Thats what the OP's post makes me think, if it was not for ATS then how would we uncover the gems once the chaff has be blown away.

For me ATS is the best education going and free to boot, like any gathering you will get the best and worst of people, take the good bits and learn, take the bad bits and thank yourself that you are a better person and at the same time try to educate or understand where that person is coming from.

Wolfie

Personally I think that all posters are welcome to come and contribute
having said that I have noticed a rise in verbally abusive posts and wars fought with unkind words instead of well placed facts , this isn't really a place for ego as you are eventually going to get proven wrong on something it happens to everyone here eventually..

I would just encourage new members to learn as much as they can from current and old posts but to sort through the information as just that information and not fact this is true not only on site but in all aspects of life it makes for a much more amicable exchange of ideas

I know I don't post nearly as much as I used to and the reasons I listed above contribute to that as well as I have a life and don't spend all my time in the virtual world...

I'd like to add that in the few hours since I've posted this thread I've had a good amount of sincere quality posts made that made me doubt my OP. Then, on the same page, I've had a fair amount of people chastising me as an individual, rather than my posts. I've been told to 'get a life' and that I'm 'crying mommy for someone being mean' and that I should leave to find another forum.

Of course the vast majority of posts are well written and appropriate, but it's those crude posts (entirely from members who have joined in the past 2 months mind you) that I'm speaking of, and go to prove my original point.

reply to post by Rasobasi420


no offense on the "get a life" comment.

It comes from eyes (lucid ones at that) who see a thread ABOUT ATS pop up on a weekly basis.

Its as if for some ATS itself has become the discussion topic, rather than the topics ATS offers to discuss.

You´ll know what I mean when next week someone starts a thread entitled "Is ATS Selling Out?". Then you´ll think "Oh no, not again".

I'm new here and I find it intimidating to post stuff- although I'm NOT out there spewing hate all willy-nilly to try and get attention either! The more people who know about ATS, the better. Even if you get some nutters...we're all on here educating each other. I think the members that start with a big splash and stir the pot just for the sake of it will probably get bored and move on quickly to go make trouble elsewhere- it's all about hearing themselves talk and listening to no one. I'm guessing they come and go but how would ATS stop them? What would the screening process be and would any of us make the cut? I'm pretty smart...but not all the time- if I were having a stupid day They'd NEVER let me in!

The very fact old subjects are being reintroduced by new members as "fact" or "reality" that was shunned upon a year ago and proven to be false is enough for my stomach to turn. It's natural for it to happen once or twice but the sheer amount of sub par nonsense that I've seen here in the past 3 months is just ridiculous. I've seen numerous threads like this now so I do believe there's a problem. This is the third thread I can recall that deals with essentially the same subject:

ATS (especially general/UFO conspiracy topics) going down the toilet. I'm not even familiar with the racists/bigots that are floating around because I refuse to read the topics that have "Obama" in them. They're usually a breeding ground for idiocy.

[edit on 24-6-2008 by no name needed]

Ras if no one else has said it to you, I will. I'd do it via u2u but there down at the moment.

I value you as a member here. You've always been one I enjoyed reading from the beginning of my time here. I'd be disappointed to see you go. But, you are the only one who decides if ATS isn't for you any more. I'd rather see you stay and contribute to the defence against the issues that you raised than lose you because of them. Again though, that's your choice.

If you do leave, good travels mate. Good luck with school and I hope it affords you every opportunity to become what you want and fight against these issues in the real world.

reply to post by Rasobasi420

Is ATS selling it's soul for profit? ... Sure for every quality poster who leaves we receive 10 new members, but it seems to me that as the exponential increase of membership grows, the exponential decrease in quality follows suit.

You have 120,000 points and have been around awhile. Maybe you've become an expert and haven't realized it, and the new posters can learn from your posts ... and you can ignore the naive posts or the posts from new young folks learning old information for the first time, and it's revolutionary for them.

ATS is obviously in it for the money. They've got to be, to survive. But, ATS management is different from ATS posters, and management supplies the forum -- at no small cost.

If you reach one new poster and give them info that can help them become what you, and hopefully, what I, have become from spending so much of our lives in research ... then, maybe you can spend more time on the networks you may like better or that offer more expertise and knowledge in posts, and still have time to help grow this one.

[edit on 24-6-2008 by counterterrorist]

reply to post by Rasobasi420


So, you really have two points in your post.

The first is about the level of racism on this board. It's huge, and I might add disgusting. But it is expected from consipiracy buffs, because they are at best suspicious by nature and at worse prejudiced by nature.


However, on your second point you discuss whether or not ATS is selling its soul now that there are more people. First off, I'd say, ATS is like a bar. The bar opens it's door and puts promotional beer lights (ads) on the wall. Now let's say 5 years later, the clientele has jumped to 20X what it was to begin with. Has it now sold its soul?

No, if you want to say that ATS sold its soul to ad revenue, then it happened the first day they put ads up. However, I would counter to say, that the ads simply paid for the cost of running this board (I know I don't pay for it, so someone has to). Now you might add, "Sure, but now with so many people, surely there is more money than required for the service!?) And I'd say, I bet there could be. Not necessarily though, but let's say that ATS is making $BANK$ off of this site.

Why shouldn't they? They built a faculty for us to come together and get our fix of fringe information, and THEY fronted the cost to do this for much longer than it has been profitable. They took the risk that it might be shut down at any time due to the conversations on it.

Hey.. point well made, but i am new, and i also dont post much. but that is because i dont want to weight in unless i have some valid points to make on said subject. i hope therefore i am not looked on in the same manner as the member u are talking about