Should false prophets and claimants be removed from ATS?

I come to ATS to read educated opinion on subjects which I am interested in but find no development of, whilst talking to people outside of cyberspace.

Recently, as many people have mentioned there have been many topics discussed -at great length- which are based on nothing more than false prophecy. This, considering the fear prevalent in society at the moment, does nothing to further the members of ATS and could be seen as a real negative force. Posts of this type waste huge amounts of time and detract from more important threads.

If people are proved right on their prophecy, they should be respected. On the other hand, if someone is proved to be deliberately misleading members I believe they should be banned.

What do you think?

A friend of mine came up with a nice idea recently about this. His idea was to have a website/section of a forum for polls based on predictions, so for example, there would be a poll "Will GFL spaceships appear to the world on the 14th?", and after the event (or non-event), everybody who voted correctly would get +5 points, and everyone who voted wrong would get -5 points. If you ran a poll per week or something, over a year or so people would build up quite a nice 'Predictive Power' score that would be shown on their profile. That way you'd know who the members are that are most accurate at predicting things.

Of course the system/questions would have to be designed well so that there's not too much argument about which side was correct, and mostly they would have to be quite short term things, but I thought it was a nice idea.

More on the subject of your post, I agree with the general idea of banning people who deliberately mislead, but I think you have to be careful with that, as it's hard to prove, and on a site like ATS where it's very open, I think it would be best to assume people are sincere in their belief (doesn't mean you have to believe their story, just that they believe it)

I think ATS have generally got the balance correct, from my understanding of the rules, not just anyone can post a prediction, they have to be either from a well known person, or at least have their own blog/website, as that shows they are serious, or at least are putting effort into what they do (well, we could argue about that a little, but...).

I predict you will have people on the fence about this subject, as you will have proponents and opponents. Basically, there will be people that are passionate or indifferent in their respective positions.

I stay!

[edit on 14-10-2008 by pluckynoonez]

I say you're about to be moved to the rant section where my posts tend to get shuttled off to whenever I ask this or a similar question.

No one here likes being called out.
They like the traffic the idiots bring in.

It seems every day we have our own version of a weeping Virgin Mary to bring in the masses of ignorant believers.
Good luck with the fight, I'm with ya in spirit.

The short answer to your title question is , no. To expand: ATS is a pretty colorful place most of the time. With boards dedicated to such a wide berth of underground topics it's fairly easy to appreciate that ther are many very intriguing ideas floating around this web sight. Speaking for myself i like to make my own decisions and can say that the false prophets shouldnt be banned, or checked, or anyhting. Instead of looking at it as a prophecy and a hard core prediction of the future, try to look at is as a persons very open opinion. They aren't hurting any body by making a prediction.

If you start trying to control these things becasue what they predicted isn't coming true... well that just isnt right. It really dosnt make sense. We should be able to hold them accountable to their words but why ban them???

Any way, The oct 14 hubbub should be mellowing out because its here... and unless i see something radical in the next 11hours 20 minutes... I'm afraid the skeptics were right.

Wow when i said to you make a thread about this subject i didnt think you would actually go and make one

oh well and i dont think that members should banned if they aer proven to be a hoax i dont hink its fair to just completely ban members

sorry but i say let them stay

If you do not want to read someones thought s or threads, just ignore them. I do not think we can say it any easier than that.

Who cares who predicts stuff, if you do not read it, you will not know what they are saying. lol

reply to post by W3RLIED2


You've said everything I wanted to say.

reply to post by W3RLIED2


maybe i am being idealistic, maybe I am looking at ATS to be more than it is or can be. We are told to 'deny ignorance' what could be more ignorant than someone deliberately trying to mislead us, to do research into a false phenomenon,

You are right, there are many colourful theories on this site and there will always bne some which are speculative. You mentioned the already infamous October 14th, this could not be a better example of what I am trying to say. Many people started saying things on ATS that they had chanelled this and have seen that and to be honest I can see the draw. However, by leaving these people to continue their false claims after we have proven that they are telling pure lies is not denying ignorance. I personally saw people being removed from threads due to their ridiculous claims, why if they should be allowed to stay? That is why they should be banned.

Problem is you cant tell a prophet is false until the event they prophesised passes. I'm sure the owners would be gutted if they stopped a phrophecy only for it to come true.

reply to post by Sniper_Instructor


Yes I agree, it would be unfair to remove someone who was using real evidence to prophesise an event before it happened, this would inhibit free speech.

what I mean is that when someone tries to sell you a prophecy which they know to be false and they are found out using scientiffic means, they should be banned for good. e.g prophecy about 14th Oct, using no scientific proof, 'believe us it's true' waste huge amounts of time, BANNED

it makes me soooo angry. i come on here to search for the truth, maybe i have got things wrong, surely we all want this. What good can someone do for ATS once they have been shown up in this light? None.

reply to post by gormly


seems you are right,

it is like when you are at work and someone is a jobsworth, they are scared to attack the very thing that makes their life worse.

i have never had that problem

The grey area was developed so people would be able to share their stories without having to prove things or fight through an ocean of skeptics, and others who were interested could explore things in depth or add with their own experience. For skeptics to think they can use one fraudulent "channeler" to try and censor everyone, is to copy the same moves political leaders and secret service use all the time.

[edit on 15-10-2008 by mystiq]

Originally posted by Cedik
reply to post by W3RLIED2

 

maybe i am being idealistic, maybe I am looking at ATS to be more than it is or can be. We are told to 'deny ignorance' what could be more ignorant than someone deliberately trying to mislead us, to do research into a false phenomenon,

Just so you are aware... 'deny ignorance' on ATS means "deny and label 'ignorant' anyone who brings up any request for proof, reason, sanity or reality".

It doesn't actually mean fight ignorance.

Please address these concerns here:

The ATS Issues Thread

Thread closed.

Originally posted by W3RLIED2
They aren't hurting any body by making a prediction.

YES THEY ARE HURTING PEOPLE


How many people are stressed over 2012 right now?
How about the other 15000 predictions and prophecy crap on ATS?
How does it affect the weaker of us? Are they scared? Spending life savings on water purifyers, Army rations, duck tape.. shiny aluminum hats? Ruining marriges, relationships, their own health?


YES THEY ARE HURTING PEOPLE


Just like fake physhics (all of them) who take money to "channel" loved one's or some other bogus hocus pokus. Phony predictions are the same thing. Perpertrated by people who need to have attention.. who crave it and when their BS doesn't come to pass.. they move the bar and set a new date and DARE anyone to challenge them.


YES THEY ARE HURTING PEOPLE

Wake up. You're letting it happen by saying c'est la vie and moving on.