Question for the moderators?

regarding these annoying threads that say "mega important world shattering information to follow" in 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week etc etc

There is a new one on UFO's that says "disclosure to come in 1 Hour"

Couldnt these threads be locked immediately to save pages and pages of nothing whilst people are waiting for the alloted deadline? It would save these trolls that do it for the stars and flags (why anyone would star and flag a topic without any information on amazes me anyway!)

Lock the thread and if the OP is genuine, then they can u2u the mods to unlock the thread so the info can be posted when they have it

THEN they can get a credit that may be deserved, rather than the attention whores that this site sometimes attracts

Excellent suggestion Expat! I was thinking about this myself...

There is NO point what so ever in having these redundant posts from people who have nothing better to do than writing "I hope this is real" "Oh, let's hope this is better than last time". They only serve to keep a # thread at the top receiving more and more redundant posts.

Lock em down, and if possible the make it so only the OP can post. If not then hopefully the person in question has enough brain to contact a Mod and request it open again.

i have a better idea - just instant bann the obvious troll

come on - the thread you cite is pure trollery - such ` teasers ` serve no purpose other than attention whoreing

any one who has valid information to share should spend the hour quietly making sure that its laid out in an easy to read / understandable format - with no sudden leaps / breaks and glaring ommissions or areas where specialist a priori knowledge is demanded to even comprehend it

login on to say - i will release in 1 hour - then staying on the forum to monitor replys - AND even reply himself is just the hallmark of a troll who needs attention

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
i have a better idea - just instant bann the obvious troll

come on - the thread you cite is pure trollery - such ` teasers ` serve no purpose other than attention whoreing

any one who has valid information to share should spend the hour quietly making sure that its laid out in an easy to read / understandable format - with no sudden leaps / breaks and glaring ommissions or areas where specialist a priori knowledge is demanded to even comprehend it

login on to say - i will release in 1 hour - then staying on the forum to monitor replys - AND even reply himself is just the hallmark of a troll who needs attention

Fair points but some of them are less obvious. Look at that "genuine apollo tapes" thread that i and several others fell for. This went on for ages whilst whilst the OP was waiting for tapes to be converted In the meantime he ended up with thousands of points which he then used to make another post of his look more believeable ("Ive found a signal" or something similar)



I hate Trolls (insert axe weilding smiley) and i cant always spot them straight away

Should this happen it's a good idea to use the complaint function or send a u2u to a mod or super mod making us aware of the situation. Trust me, we do check out each and every complaint. We can't be everwhere at once.

Originally posted by gallopinghordes
Should this happen it's a good idea to use the complaint function or send a u2u to a mod or super mod making us aware of the situation. Trust me, we do check out each and every complaint. We can't be everwhere at once.

Please dont think it was a criticism, i appreciate its a big busy board and you guys cant spot everything. It was just a suggestion to maybe help stop the trolls and maybe save some posters blood pressure when they sit there posting "an hours gone and nothing yet" etc etc

As a member I agree with you. But as a Staff member: It's not that easy. Everyone deserves a fair chance. And what about the day (that one in a hundred thousand posts) that there's something substantial behind the (usually) empty promises? Every person deserves the right to post to his heart’s content. Should it fall outside the T&C he/she will have to live with the consequences. (Such as posting false information, etc.)

Perhaps people can just learn the discipline to ignore people that make empty promises and only respond when there is actually something to respond to. But that part's just my opinion.

I think its time that ATS make a new rule and that is

USERS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO POST CLAIMS WITHOUT SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO BACK UP OR WITHOUT CONTACTING MOD FIRST

(Block capitals used to show rule setting)

To the OP forgot to say your avatar is hilarious it makes me laugh everytime I see it.

[edit on 1-7-2008 by franspeakfree]

Just because full disclosure doesnt happen in your universe it doesnt mean that it doesnt in mine. When full disclosure is imminent, the world splits into two parallel universes...one where it happens (to those who believed), one where it doesnt happen and is debunked.

Closing threads because someone is too narrow to accept the reality of something is not what this place is about.

Hey there. I don't see it happening but it would be nice. There was a thread a few days ago in the Introduction forum where a newbie claimed to have evidence of a crashed UFO. He promised evidence in ten hours but of course that evidence was never provided. The thread went on for pages and pages (I never replied, starred, or flagged it but many others did) and was eventually closed by a mod.

Honestly, though, it is up to the members to handle these threads. Don't star it or flag it. Instead, just subscribe to it without replying so it won't keep bumping the thread. This will have it show up in your list of subscribed threads and you can keep tabs on the progress through myATS. The threads you have subscribed or replied to will show up on the right hand side of that page in the order of the last reply. It's a great feature. Then once you see the OP was pulling our chain, unsubscribe from it.

Problem solved. You didn't have to flag it to keep up with it because you are subscribed to it, you didn't have to reply to it to be subscribed to it therefore you didn't bump it, and the OP doesn't know he has your attention until he coughs up something to back up his claims. Trolls-be-gone!

reply to post by AshleyD


Ashley's GOT IT.

Springer...

reply to post by lucid eyes


we are not talking about closing threads because we disagree with them - but because they make a claim and FAIL to even present the evidence they claim they possess

this debarcle is a poster child for this phenonemon

I saw that thread that AshleyD referred to, and I completely agree with her. It kills me how some members get so worked up over such claims. If some members want to waste so much time and energy on threads such as that, and if they want to post five "anything yet?" posts then let 'em. I'm more of a sit back, relax, and see how it plays poster.

Gemwolf had a great point, I would hate to see ATS denied some fantastic piece of evidence because an OP is "ran-off" by very impatient and accusing members. And what is "sufficient evidence"? It not the same for everyone. What may be convincing to me may not be so convincing to someone else.


Rush

reply to post by Gemwolf

Perhaps people can just learn the discipline to ignore people that make empty promises and only respond when there is actually something to respond to.

I admire your optimism Gemwolf.

A couple of things here, people can only learn if they get the advice not to post but how many members will look at this thread especially new ones who come along everyday.


It is human nature for a lot of people to want to express their feelings in a post even if they know the consequences, they just can not resist especially, when other people have already done so, it is a kind of group empathy once the ball is rolling.....well it keeps on rolling.

Personally I too feel that there is no point in prepping the crowd with "I will post details later", if there is something to be presented then let it be in the first post, everytime I see one of these posts I see a shoddy attempt at psychology, but then again that is just my opinion.

edit for wrong quote bracket

[edit on 1-7-2008 by sherpa]

Originally posted by franspeakfree
I think its time that ATS make a new rule and that is

USERS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO POST CLAIMS WITHOUT SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO BACK UP OR WITHOUT CONTACTING MOD FIRST

So I could never tell the story of the night I saw a Bigfoot with my own eyes. I was alone in a car and driving down the highway when it happened. If your rule was in place my actual experience could not be published here.

I have a friend who swears he watched a triangle UFO over his barn for ten minutes. I asked why he didn't grab a camera and take pics and his reply was he didn't own a camera at the time. He couldn't post his story here as well.

This site deals with extraordinary claims. Some have proof, some do not. All should be examined so that the reader can make up their own mind.

I think your new rule should be rejected. It has no place in a forum that explores the unknown and far reaching.

I've noticed recently that massively old threads have been mysteriously popping up in the "recent posts" area Is there a why ?

One (not the oldest) was from circa 2007 seeing this old thread pop up made me laugh. So I found an old site circa 2007 and posted the link to it in there and all hades has erupted in there again. The thread has great significants to ATS

I myself believe it should be locked.

sorry .. I'm evil sometimes