Just ignore threads that you know are going to annoy you is the simple answer

Just because a thread or topic might seem ridiculous, irreverent, or uninteresting to a certain section of the forum does not mean that others might not find the opposite to be true.

What is being suggested (albeit in a very roundabout way) is censorship pure and simple.

Although I don't think it was created to specifically apply to this situation, a saying that I think is attributed to Noam Chomsky fits the bill here ' "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." .... Equally as valid for topics as it is for people.

One person's 'crap' is another one's 'tidbit' ... Rather than censor people's threads and limit the topics to those that certain members find reasonable, why not just ignore them

I agree wholeheartedly with the OP on this.

The GFL is a bunch of BS and it annoys me to no end how they get to post thier drivel without a shred of proof in any way while other posters making wild claims usually must provide some proof. it seems they have licence to post whatever they want irregardless of validity.

The other thing that gets me is noob posters who join and post blatant lies on thier first day and for some reason it is tolerated (once again without proof or documentaion to back it up) I have had posts deleted because I offered no proof so why do they get licence to post BS but not me ??

MODS !! it always up to a mod to allow or delete a post and if it tickles their fancy it stays....but if they have an issue with it then off it goes to either the trash bin or "skunk works". and heaven forbid if you are somehow percieved as "off topic" or "uncivil" for then you get "punished" with the removal of points, your reply deleted and a warning that you might get banned...which is total bs ! it's ok to come post utter nonsense but if you take issue with it then beware !

there needs to be ultra-mods watching regular mods IMO. and there needs to be some type of policing of ridiculous posts.






[edit on 6-8-2008 by Alpha Grey]

Honestly, the thing that bugs me just as much as the BS OPs is the posts following it.
I figure you can post whatever you feel is relevant, but, telling the OP that you think it's BS -just to voice your skepticism- is just as stupid as the stupid opening post.
Add to the post if you are going to respond. Rebut with documentation. Argue with facts that pertain to the OP. Or agree with it using supporting data. ADD TO THE CONVERSATION!

Posts like: "This is bullocks! Move along people!", "What a load of crap!", or, one of my least favorite- "What drugs are you on?" do NOTHING for the validity or investigations being done by the Original Poster nor the posters who have evidence either for or against the topic.

It's childish, wasteful, narcissistic and annoying and doesn't make you look any more serious or relevant that what you are replying to.

This, in my opinion, is why passing the chance and just not posting is more important than voicing your disbelief.
Hell, 7/10 of the replies in any BS thread are posts lambasting the OP without substance. It's just to "Look cool" or be "One of the gang" or, god help us, for points.
What a waste of time.

So, I understand that there are absolute trash threads. But, if you recognize it as BS, why on earth would you put your foot in it? I have been here since 2005 and have less than 2000 total posts. I don't post unless I feel I can advance the thread. Either for or against. If I can't agree, but, have nothing to argue my point, I just move along.

Am I wrong?
Cuhail

Given the OP a star !! I will be fair and give the GFL an open mind, after all one day we might just see something like that happen. God knows we need it to happen sooner rather than later. however i think the GFL thread should have been put in the predicitons thread as it speculation that ET is gonna land on X Day.

Then again if i feel an increase in my vibration range, start seeing lots of colours and an increase in my aura i'll let you know...

INTERNOS you have my word, that i will ignore or refrain from posting a reply to such ignorance.. to ackowledge is to prevent a truth that i could have attained somewhere else, so i will move on.

thanks OP for the thread and for creating a new feeling of accountability and responsibility for those who read this.

of course by replying to some rediculous thread i can acutally cause the thread to resurface near the top of the list bumping something that is more important to the bottom. this cannot be

i feel that the king of the mods needs to allow the mods to move and stash away threads that make the forum look NEGLECTED.. i have a birds eye view of the ET forum and it looks like my little brothers bedroom. eeeew.

ALL in all, i have been visiting ats nonstop since march 6th and i think it houses the greatest minds and discussions in the entire interworld.peace

the very point of the existence of these forums and this website is that we CAN post things like that. this is a hive of INFORMATION, and it is the reader who will decide what is true and what is false.

I will star and flag this.

I totally agree with what you say InfraRedMan and here is the reason.

This infection seems to have spread across ATS like wildfire, I log in everyday like I guess most of us do, but over this year certainly I find one thing happening more and more.

You see a new "hot topic" and go take a look, oh ok several pages already must be something good....................WRONG WRONG WRONG.

A good OP then the next three pages are infested with "where is the photo, where is the video, yeah mate if you ain't got no proof then (enter derogatory remark here) don't bother posting".

It has got to the point where I'm jumping from page 1 of a post to page 4 or 5, just to be sure I have missed most of the crap and the thread has got back online.

Listen people, if you have nothing constructive to say in a thread then keep your bile off ATS

Wolfie

I agree totally.

In my opinion it is completely pointless for people to just ignore threads that they think are stupid and I'll tell you why...

If I see a dumb thread and ignore it that's all very well for ME and to anyone else who does the same in an individual sense but we all know that the issue with these threads is that they harm the credibility of serious threads by the effect of association.

It is also true that a tiny percentage of people will act like they believe the silly posts, either that or the op themselves will keep replying and breathing life into the topic hence keeping it up near the top of the forum where it is most visible.

Surely the aim of this site and in particular relevance to this discussion the ufo forum is to get people to take the subject seriously and to try and spread awareness to the casual observer?

That is NEVER going to happen properly if the casual observer logs on and sees nonsense about the GFL etc.

You could have an amazing post reporting a sighting on here with stunning photos and a believable personal account but it will mean nothing to the average joe if it is flanked by a couple of daft, nonsensical and just plain stupid topics that can be easily dismissed by anyone with a few functioning brain cells.

The chances are if the first post someone reads is one of those stupid ones it will totally kill the credibility of anything else they read thereafter.

Can you imagine if nasa posted up a ufo story or something on their site and followed it up with a youtube video of someone channelling the GFL? it would kill the ufo story dead regardless of how genuine it was and that's the NASA website! I hate to be blunt but if the average joe is going to believe a ufo story from anywhere it's going to be from someone like nasa. So if a stupid story about the GFL could totally ruin the credibility of nasa surely it is doing even worse damage here?

Nasa is just an example, I mean the average person might well believe a UFO story in a respected newspaper more than he would elsewhere but if that same newspaper printed something dumb like we get on here the next day then everybody would instantly disregard the first story no matter how convincing it was.

Again I'm not trying to be derogatory but to the average person this site wont be very high up on their list of trusted news sources as it is so we have a hard job already but when you allow all these dumb people to make posts on here it's a miracle we manage to get any new serious members at all let alone convince one or two average people that just maybe there is such a thing as intelligent life on other planets.

Why should this site take itself any less seriously than one such as nasas?

It seems to be a fatal flaw that a community that desperately depends on being taken seriously has an open door policy for trolls and other people who only serve to kill the credibility of all the serious ones.