In this day and age of mass information one needs to realize that information is money. We can find out what the majority thinks on certain subjects and also find out what the minority thinks. Companies pay big bucks for this type of information, and so do advertisers. They like to advertise to the "swarm" as dances so aptly put it.

So by improving a site or making it the best it can be, everyone benefits. The owners grow wealthy off of the advertising dollars, The swarm gets to know what the best ideas are, the researcher gets to know what the majority/minority thinks and it explodes and suddenly becomes a site for much more than discourse on a myriad of strange subjects, but also on current events and paranormal happenings. It could become huge if done right, and yes it would mean a lot of hard work and changing around, but it would be worth it to advance the "colony".

The site has much room for improvement, and all big companies should try to improve as they grow larger and not knock down new and better ideas to be content with the status quo.

Very good points raised here and I sometimes feel the same way about the signal to noise ratio on ATS.

I was reading some threads today about the economy and realised I would probably never find them again with thread tags gone (yeah I'm one of those people who has a hard time finding something I know I saw on ATS).

That was a system ATS attempted to implement to help people classify material themselves and make it easy to find. It failed miserably as people made a mess of it. Of course that's the problem right? We're dealing with people and no man in an island unto himself. You have to put up with people.

The way I see it (or rationalize it) is that this is a discussion board and not a library and I'm not sure it is the place to find "truth" (or somebody's version of it anyways) but I sympathize with the points raised.

ATS is more of a process whereby spending lots of time here helps you grow and learn and get a grip on the world as opposed to finding ready made answers all pre-packaged and approved by ??someone?? (doesn't religion do that?).

Much like life, everybody on ATS has a different experience and arrives at their version of the 'truth". Besides, does objective truth really exist? I think some dudes called Plato and Socrates started that argument a long time ago but I don't recall the outcome.
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I totally concur with the OP.. There is alot of really good threads that get buried over time, and threads get really long a convoluted beyond belief. This is more or less a data mining exercise for ATS or *someone* to solve. The typical board model is kind of awkward for the volume of data posted here, and I'd say there needs to be some alternate interface (or query method) to rank the data, so the cream rises to the surface.

I hesitated posting this because it may sound odd, but here goes.

I believe my mind to be a filtering-device which is only able to perceive those things or is only drawn to those things or only attracted to those things which match my current mindset/attitude/belief-system.

In other words, "the truth" could be right in front of my nose, but I wouldnt notice it if Im not in the mindset/mood for it. Likewise, when logging-on in a different state-of-mind I will be attracted to and find different type of information.

In this sense, everyone will find the type of information that matches his/her mindset...that doesnt over- or underwhelm it. I think each and every reader will get what he/she "deserves", so to speak.

Intuition goes a long way in finding gems here. Ive spent a significant amount of time in the ATS-Archives running soley on hunches...with very satisfying results. Of course...if finding info is not my prime intention and I instead wish to boost my ego, make friends or bash someone, I cant expect to find those gems.

One thing I sometimes do when looking for specific information: I start a thread on the topic, providing as much information as I can and know, and then let the thousands of other readers and writers fill in the blanks for me. Thats called collaboration.

Being extremely choosy of what topics to pursue is also helpful.

In any case, isnt this place just a reflection of the way the entire world works in these times? Having several million options teaches us to narrow down, focus, decide.

Wow, Gools got deleted?

Good thing some threads hang around so we can see who's been lost. What was the story there? U2U me if its heretical to discuss it out loud.

Anyway. Yeah.

Originally posted by smallpeeps
Wow, Gools got deleted?

Good thing some threads hang around so we can see who's been lost. What was the story there? U2U me if its heretical to discuss it out loud.

Anyway. Yeah.

edit on 8-2-2012 by smallpeeps because: RIP tinwiki

Looks like someone pulled it due to gools dumbassery. For a document archivist to be that insulting doesn't look good. Hopefully everyone with an ATS tag under their name isn't that ignorant.

Small peeps, this is a much needed topic. I have felt very much the same frustration almost to the point of being maddening! How many times are we going to remind people about the search function, and then low and behold a week later another repeat thread comes out? Not wanting to weed through a buch of BS and wanting someone else to do the work for you is very different. I wish the research forum was still active, but it seems most of the Scholars are no longer active with it. Something has to give.... ATS is getting pretty damn cluttered up lately.

EDIT!

My apologies, I was not referring to gools, I was referring to sensfan. Whose dumb post has not been removed from the first page of this thread.

Originally posted by W3RLIED2

Originally posted by smallpeeps
Wow, Gools got deleted?

Good thing some threads hang around so we can see who's been lost. What was the story there? U2U me if its heretical to discuss it out loud.

Anyway. Yeah.

edit on 8-2-2012 by smallpeeps because: RIP tinwiki

Looks like someone pulled it due to gools dumbassery. For a document archivist to be that insulting doesn't look good. Hopefully everyone with an ATS tag under their name isn't that ignorant.

Small peeps, this is a much needed topic. I have felt very much the same frustration almost to the point of being maddening! How many times are we going to remind people about the search function, and then low and behold a week later another repeat thread comes out? Not wanting to weed through a buch of BS and wanting someone else to do the work for you is very different. I wish the research forum was still active, but it seems most of the Scholars are no longer active with it. Something has to give.... ATS is getting pretty damn cluttered up lately.

EDIT!

My apologies, I was not referring to gools, I was referring to sensfan. Whose dumb post has not been removed from the first page of this thread.

edit on 8-2-2012 by W3RLIED2 because: Explained

Thanks W3RLIED2 I hear what you mean.

And a big thanks to Gools and anyone who disappears. Hope they get to come back and explain why all those replies and stars go ploop into the abyss.

Does ATS show up on the wayback machine? Well anyway, it's cool that they let the posts remain. ATS does value the sanctity of the thread. Other domains are not so good at it.

I miss tinwiki is the point of this thread. It was awesome. Tinwiki was the shovel with which we could have tried dig and create "superthreads" or whatever.

We really should identify the "superthreads" on the IP network. They need to be printed onto paper and filed in the libraries. As testaments to how stupid we were, or at least how stupid the automatic robot posters were. I mean if it's good software, probably it talks and replies like a human.

Can we at least identify the bots? That would require the domayzn to get together, because only they have the IP addresses and know the real from the fake, in the IP "battlespace", as they deem it. Only the owners can identify the bot-posters and they can't because this would end the age of fingerpuppets.

I for one, am all for free IP network I think tinwiki was a huge leap forward but I guess a mod could post as to why it got killed.