Can ATS help save the world?

I have been thinkng about this for a while and thought best to put it out there for some debate.

We on ATS have some very bright people who hold/share specialist information on a huge spectrum of philosophy, research etc. Indeed it is a place where people who need guidance or want to help with a particular subject will come and do just that.

I have seen many threads rolling on, making progress until someone comes along and says 'hold on guys this is old news' or 'this has already been debated here' etc. This could be seen as a waste of time.

My point is that ATS could move forward by creating a form of an intellectual commons. Where groups of established subject experts create lines of research for others to follow. So an aspiring researcher or seeker or whatever you wish to call them would be able to access focused, unbiased and structured information in a set format to bring them up to speed with what our most able members know at present.

What I mean is, it would be like saying
'This is what is true, if you look at this, this and this you will probably reach the same conclusion' You then have one more person who is at the same point as yourself and can help to take things forward.

This would have a number of knock on benefits:

1.It would allow people to easily broaden their knowledge base outside of their original interest areas.
2. It would make ATS even more of legend in contemporary thought and move it's vision forward,
3. As we will not be discussing old information,it will potentially allow discussions/research to be more effective and move in a more structured manor.

Of course we will have to be careful. What gets included and what doesn't?
This would be the job of a pre-selected group of cubject experts.
I do not propose that we do away with other areas of ATS to accomadate this but use it as another tool.

I hope this makes sense.

Not sure this should be in politics

Sounds like a great idea to me!
Mods? All movements have to start somewhere, and perhaps we CAN save the world, or least minimize the damage.

The world is already safe.

The will ppl have is already set eternal. This world will do what it would do, and will not do what it would not do come to points arisen for the eternal will set.

The world and this world are two different.

Those who will is set for bettering this world can not so as along as those whose will is set for worsening this world are here too. This world must go away into destruction since we, who are for bettering things, really are better off apart from this world.

Trust me, nothing better will get done here in this world, unless you remove those who are worsening this world.

Just my 2 cent. You can only pretend this world will get better since you must know it will not actually. Most of my threads in Meltdown section would actually better this world, but no one else is willing to see to it. Why? Because their will is set eternal.

reply to post by Mabus


Ok I see your point but I dont see it as being so simplistic. To move away from the main thrust of the thread for a minute.

i see that you obviously believe in fate and that people have a pre-destined belief matrix if you like. I would say that this does not allow for people's capacity to change and to learn from their own and other people's actions.

As we speak now we have every possibility of changing the world around us as we speak. We can see the growth in understanding of the state the world is in coupled with a real maturing in the way the masses view the government and it's discourse. With other key figures pushing this movement forward who knows what we could accomplish. This is why I think ATS could help.

A great idea!! I am just getting in to all this stuff at the moment and am struggling to find where to start.looking. There is so much 'disinformation' available at the moment, I was looking through random things on reptilians and stumbled across this site, would love to get some expert information on this topic.

Firstly, I agree that this is not listed in the correct subject area.

Secondly, I think the title of the thread is slightly misleading.

Thirdly, it is in fact quite a good idea,one of the flaws being, how would we agree on the parts that make up the threads of knowledge?

Cedik, I'd like to compliment you for a well thought out, and well intentioned concept. Unfortunately, I have seen far too many abuses of censorship by "people put positions of responsibility" here at ATS, that I sadly fear it would do more harm than good.

Here is why:
They have created and abused their powers so badly, that now they push and "move" any thread they don't like onto an old stale thread with more than 1000 posts that no one will read. I have personally witnessed this first hand.

I, like you, do love what ATS stands for, but unfortunately, many of the middle "leadership" just don't get it, or worse, actively sabotage it.

I will star and flag your post though.
Best regards.


[edit on 18-10-2008 by ATS4dummies]

reply to post by annakus


to answer your points.

1. please would a MOD move this to another forum if applicable only politics doesnt seem suitable,

2. i tried to call it something catchy

3. This would be agreed through group debate or by the population of the board as a whole. As with all things there will be disagreements but with debate we -they- should be able to reach majority decisions.

reply to post by ATS4dummies


I have had to think long and hard about responding to your comment. 48 hours ago I think I would have agreed with you without even thinking about it. Now I will say that I agree with you in part as some of what you say is true and disagree with you at the same time,.

To explain. wow where to start? True, some threads do get moved into these threads that you describe and this has happened to me here and I moaned like holy hell about it. I had a few things pointed out to be which again I agreed with in part so I decided to try and read between the lines.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Through research I can also see that this has happened to you on a number of occasions and you were -understandably- not too happy about it. I think that at this point you need to consider why this has happened;
Firstly, as the population of ATS grows, the number of mods needs to grow to. I dont know if this is happening but the site is definately becoming unwieldy and (multi-threading)this provides a way of dealing with what must appear -to them- to be a full frontal assault. I think this can also be seen by the love in thread about how they did against the 'attack' of the 14th.
Secondly, there are generally very good reasons for threads being sensored. If you read the complaints thread you should begin to see my point. Though I do not agree with some of the more 'please let me stick my tongue up your bumhole' members this board is CERTAINLY heading in the right direction, it just took me a while to work out.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

If you wush to continue using ATS, which I do, I think you have to get used to the above phenomenon.

apart from that, thanks. back to the thrust of the topic,

This has been brought up countless times on ATS and T&C implies activism is forbidden on the Above network.

We do not recruit or support third parties either.

I'm not discrediting the power and passion of your heart, but ATS does not support activism.

reply to post by infinite


Ok I see your point but I think you have ignored the finer points of the thread.

The title itself would suggest activism but I have already dealt with that criticism and would like it to be changed to something less controversial,

With regards to the post itself, all I suggest is that all people come here for a reason generally to discuss or realise a query. Putting into place the suggestions that I make would allow them to do this far more quickly. I mean, your post says it all.

Haven't read all the responses. Just replying to the question posed in the thread title.

And in one word, the answer is "no."

Originally posted by annakus
Firstly, I agree that this is not listed in the correct subject area.

Secondly, I think the title of the thread is slightly misleading.

Thirdly, it is in fact quite a good idea,one of the flaws being, how would we agree on the parts that make up the threads of knowledge?

...And fourthly, there's an already-established Research Forum where topics are selected & volunteers for scholars can be assigned to research various aspects of the topic.

Of course, there's also all of the other various topics all over the place (choosing the right topic for a new thread is a pain, especially since the Search function is down--Too much leeway for repeating older threads). The point here is that the Research Forum is basically just a more formally-structured outlet for intensifying the research effort.

I think that, for ATS to save the world, we'd need to get everybody in the world (or at least a sizable majority) to come in here, post, research & figure out what's really going on, then step up to do something about it...But then again, ATS T&C's strictly forbid organizing or recruiting for any form of actual activism...That part would have to be done somewhere else.

ATS can help save the world......yeah right. No offense guys, the site's great and all, but how could a group of people who can't even agree on who's right and who's wrong with various topics, dealing with trolls and the like POSSIBLY save the world?

You're asking enough with saying "save the net", look at Blossom Goodchild, ATS's existance didn't stop her from going on about whatever it was she was on about. Sorry, but no...ATS can't save anything...it's got enough troubles saving itself (and I mean that in the best possible way.)

There are a couple of places where something like what I think you have in mind has been started.

The first is www.TinWiki.org which is the ATS-sponsored wiki encyclopedia for all things alternative. What doesn't belong there is opinion, but they are always glad to get well-researched pieces (and William_One_Sac pays in points, generously).

The other place, and I admit I'm not real familiar with it, is the Research Forum.

From what I can tell, that's really what you're looking for. I think you have to contact ADVISER, the moderator who seems to be in charge over there, to get Scholar status. But I'm not sure. It's probably worth browsing through some of the projects they have going on to see what's what.

Hope this information is helpful. You're right, ATS is a big and often unwieldy place; it can be annoying to be told that what you think belongs one place actually belongs somewhere else, but there's usually a reason behind the madness.

EDIT: serves me right for taking a break in the middle of writing a post – I see MidnightDStroyer beat me to the punch.

[edit on 10/19/08 by americandingbat]

reply to post by Cedik


I haven't ignored anything.
You are not the first new member to call for constitutional change to the operation of the Above Network.

Sadly, You've decided to change the fundamental principles of ATS and you haven't raised anything new either. Subject matter experts already exist and there is a research forum too.

My advice: read the T&C's.

reply to post by MidnightDStroyer


The research forum that you mention appears to be in need of a serious overhaul. I mean there are a number of important issues debated everyday on ATS that dont even get a mention on this forum.

The fact that the research thread is down is a real stinker.

Although I mentioned earlier that in fact the title is misleading I do agree that ATS on its own could not save the world. I do think though that it is in fact already helping to save it.

To emphasise my point. I do not think that ATS should encourage activism, rather it should allow structured, democratically agreed education routes to enable the progression of research for the populace.

reply to post by americandingbat


I have had a look at Tinwiki.org. This is exactly what I am talking about. Thanks for the info. I will have a good look through this.

reply to post by infinite


I am sorry but i think you are ignoring a great deal

I am not calling for constitutional change. Rather an add-on to the current system.

I am not trying to change the fundamental principles of ATS. They actually fall within the idea.

I have not found a thread like this anywhere on ATS. Maybe because the search engine is down.

This thread is about using the subject matter experts that do exist in a new way.

The research forum is different to the main idea of the thread.

My advice, re-read this thread if you have read it at all.