Is abovetopsecret a social experiment??

Hi everyone.

Just a thought....

Imagine that Abovetopsecret and other sites like this are a controlled experiment of some university or agency to see reaction of people over specific topics.

Maybe individuals are studied and tagged as leakers, mob leaders, etc.

I mean there are a lot of dumb and intelligent people on ats...
This is a major HOAX FACTORY.
So why not? Its like founding a new religion.

I would like to own a site like this.
Big money, lot of traffic, power, bla bla bla.

Whats your opinion on the matter?

ATS content is 100% user generated...there is no control over what's posted as long as it doesn't break the terms and conditions of use so a "controlled experiment" by some university of three letter agency is impossible. I should also mention that you don't need to own a free and public site to study one of it's members. If all content is visible and available to anyone then anyone with an internet connection can follow whoever they want...you don't need to be the owner of the site.

As far as a "hoax factory" we have very defined rules for posting that requires members to post accurate information. The result of posting knowingly false and misleading content is a banable offense here at ATS. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen buy if we are able to determine a member is purposely misleading the community they will be confronted and action taken by staff.

Originally posted by imthetruthz

Imagine that Abovetopsecret and other sites like this are a controlled experiment of some university or agency to see reaction of people over specific topics.

Maybe individuals are studied and tagged as leakers, mob leaders, etc.

I mean there are a lot of dumb and intelligent people on ats...
This is a major HOAX FACTORY.
So why not? Its like founding a new religion.

I would like to own a site like this.
Big money, lot of traffic, power, bla bla bla.

Whats your opinion on the matter?

In relation to the social experiment, there is nothing stopping anyone carrying out their own research on such a site. A guy recently conducted his masters or PHd in the study of human behaviour in Twitter, i.e how people communicated via online methods etc. I am sure the people on twitter knew nothing about it!

As for the hoax factory - you filter the crap and try to read between the lines. There is some valuable information on ATS that can be verified and used in real life scenarios for the betterment of the user.

As for the ''there's alot of dumb and intelligent people on ATS'' comment: that is a reflection of the society from which people derive. I do believe however, that those ''not intellectually up to it'' (my quote) are thee true disinformation artists that mislead based, not on their intention to mislead, but on their inability to see both sides of the coin (i.e. ignorance).

Threads about the ending of the world based on 2000 year old scripture, or spotting an alien that is in fact an albino yet claiming it to be an actual alien on the thread title - well, who needs gov. or university experts on here with crap like that? But, I am sure University research students will love it! I can see it now: ''hypothesis 101'' - ''conspiracy theorists are extremely paranoid individuals that can only operate as a pseudo team and trust no one. They also rely heavily on affirmations from other users yet cannot accept constructive criticism as an alternative to their (under-researched) theories''!!

Any Government that actually invests resources on 'spying' or 'infiltrating' such sites are completely wasting their efforts. True disinformation is talking crap because you don't know the truth - there's a lot of that on ATS.

To finish on a high - there is still that 20% of gold-dust on ATS that vastly outweighs the other 80% nonsense.

Sorry - its Friday and the weekly rant was due!!

Me so bad.

Everything is a social experiment to those that study sociology.

Doesn't mean that ATS is being used as a tool by any entity other than its members.

Exactly what is behind ATS I am not quite sure, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. Here are some inconsistancies, just to give people a notion:

1) The content is not 100% user generated when you have things like "Robbie Williams at the Gilliland ranch!", made by the site staff. I mean, c'mon. Adding some celebrity turns this site into The Sun.

2) On the front page is massive spread on Obama vrs McCain, supporting a left-right paradigm which many, many users have demonstrated false over the years and creating the idea that the elections will be relevant when any NWO theorist knows they will be not.

3) On a recent Chemtrail thread started by OzWeatherman there was a massive destruction of his debunk attempt, which all but proved Chemtrails to be real, yet the moderators chose to stay on the fence when it was obvious that people were spreading disinformation in the face of actual facts. Where is the deny ignorance?

I see ATS as a sort of flypaper for the intelligent non aligned people, who come here, debate, and indeed do learn things when the truth is obvious as it is these days, but I have a feeling the site is run to be, how shall I put this, to be shallow. To not have any real relevance. Because if some of the things discussed, and in the case of chemtrails and the political stuff, proved here, were to reach global consciousness, the world would change.

I am not so sure anymore the people running this site, whoever they may really be, want this.

However there is another, simpler explanation: this is just an independent site run by people that do the best they can, and who are really only interested in spreading information neutrally, with no real thought to consequence. ATS could simply exist as is, no agenda, no real goals other than to perpetuate itself. This is easily as good an explanation as the more conspiratorial one I put up in the previous phrase.

Either way, I don't expect much change because of ATS directly... but the social networks born here but supported by intepersonal relationships hold massive potential.

Hope I haven't offended people here, honesty makes me call it as I see it.

Peace.