Recent tolerance for obvious hoaxers

It seems lately that ATS has had far too much tolerance for obvious hoaxers.

After being debunked clearly by intelligent members 1 or 2 pages in, their threads still thrive with hundreds of posts before mods finally decide to end the debacle.

Meanwhile, the front page of the website is plastering the thread all over the place as one of the most popular.

What would people say, who were looking for intelligent discussion of theories and oddities, who stumbled upon ATS at that very time and their first impression was some attention seeking kid who has blurry photos of a little computer part that he 'removed' from his forehead?

Pretty sure they'd be pretty turned off by the perceived level of discussion here and leave.

Yeah I know... the whole civility and decorum etc... but it seems so many members are being warned lately for pointing out the obvious.

When someone makes an extraordinary claim, refuses to provide more than a blurry photo (if anything) and then refuses to answer any questions or requests... you have to be suspicious. When the sheer lack of cooperation continues for a few pages, you can't help but be damn frustrated that this crap is allowed to go on without any sort of moderation.

It is obvious to anyone with a brain, believer or skeptic, when someone is that blatant a hoaxer. Yet it is allowed to clog up the boards until it gets to the point where every single post is by angry members wondering why the thread is still there and open.

The mods then graciously close it... but only after enough outcry to fill 2 or 3 pages.

C'mon, lets raise the bar.

We've been hoaxed that many times and it is still allowed to go on.

Oh, and no by weeding out hoaxers early we won't be stopping the presentation of any real stories or evidence. Someone with something real and true to share won't go out of their way to avoid questions, frustrate members with blurry photos (or no photos) and ignore the clear, damning posts by some intelligent members that tear their fantasies to shreds.

I consider one of my older posts to be good examples of how to post an outlandish story... with evidence to back it up.

I once awoke with a perfectTriangle burn on my ankle. I actually thought it could be paranormal-related... but I posted a well constructed post, with clear close up photo evidence. It eventually turned out to be a much more normal explanation, but the evidence to back up the crazy story was all there in the opening post. Plus I answered responses and questions.

Basically what I am saying is, that I think there is a pattern to posts.

Someone with a real story to share, that they didn't just make up with their school buddies, will be cooperative with posters, provide as much evidence as humanely possible and be happy to answer questions.

A hoaxer will do basically the opposite. Post a far flung story... provide little to no evidence and then either troll responses or give no answers at all. To me it is fairly obvious from the first page of a topic which category the OP falls into.

So members, staff, please. Get used to the posting style of genuine people wanting to tell their story and hoaxers trying to pull our collective legs.

Hopefully it becomes that obvious to you all that people simply won't post in hoaxers threads, not even the 'OMG FAKE LOLZ' crap that pushing their topics to the top of the page and gives them all the attention they were seeking in the first place.

And hopefully mods get a bit tougher with these sorts of posters. If something can be photographed or scanned etc... then the poster should be requested to do so. If they don't, or won't provide that evidence then they should be banned. Simple as that.

If their story cannot be backed up with any evidence, then there is no harm in that. However, if they attack members who question that story and demand everyone believes it to be 100% true, it is probably a sign that they are trolling.

Someone with a real experience will be happy enough to share it, regardless of what some members think.

/Rant.

i agree - i am getting sick of it, that is why i quit reading ATS a few years ago, i only recently came back but I am losing hope again.

The posts have a formula:

1) Some guy makes up something (one lazy hoaxer tried a renaming of the word "new" haha, he even talked about hoaxing people in previous posts, which I sourced into his thread, but nobody paid any heed)

2) Then he says hes scared to tell anyone, so he comes here, on the internet to tell EVERYONE

3) he/she proceeds to tell a poorly directed story involving lights, aliens, probes, etc

4) supposedly has some scars, and some "artifacts"

5) blurry photos, heavily vandalized mundane objects

6) always takes a few posts before he "figures out how to post pictures"

7) disapears after the first two pages, basking in his new score from all the replies of people arguing with each other

8) will sometimes post after 10 pages to keep it bumped, with "new" pictures of more random garbage, or info, or whatever.


My question to those people is:

if you have an alien artifact, why the F*** are you not on CNN with an accredited university science panel talking about this new material and synthesizing process developed from this alien artifact?

Why? I will tell you, because you (the lazy poster with the story) is a lying hoaxer, and just wants to make some anonymous friends on the internet by writing a random thought out.

of course, there is a 9th rule
that is for the book sellers, sometimes mysteriously in the thread (and sometimes boldly in the very first post), someone will just HAPPEN to post some information about a BOOK they are selling, on the topic of the thread; i'm willing to bet some creative log analysis by the site owner would reveal that the TC And the book seller are one and the same person.

please go to hahaha.sillyhoaxers.hoax to buy my new book called "hoaxing for dummies"

ok that was a joke

but you get the idea.

Right on foofstar. It doesnt take a genius to tell the difference between a hoax and the real thing.

People think they are so original with their hoax when they post it here, but its sort of one of those "if you have seen one you have seen them all" kind of things.

The thread you are reffering to about the guy who took a photo of a capacitor and tried to pass it off as a alien robot piece... It was obvious from the very first post that it was a hoax yet, as you said it went on for pages and pages.

On that thread, atleast the last time I checked into it. Nobody had fallen for it and that was nice, but what ticks me off is that a known hoax thread is allowed to continue way to long!

if its a known hoax the thread should be removed and the poster of the hoax should be banned immediatley.

I have NO tolerance for haoxers because they make us look bad. The majority of us here take this stuff seriously, and as you may know, the stuff that makes it into the MSM ends up either being a hoax or explained away as a star or a plane etc...

No wonder the MSM doesnt take this stuff seriously. All they see is hoaxes and other stuff get explained away.

For those of us who take this stuff serious, a hoaxer is equal to scum.

Their threads should not be allowed to go on as long as alot of them do.

At the very least they should be locked untill the OP can provide evidence to the mods and after the mods deem the evidence satisfactory.

Often when a hoaxer sees that we arent falling for it and the mods close the thread untill they can provide evidence the hoaxer just leaves anyway.

If they dont and they just create a new hoax thread. BAN THEM.

Hey I ended up having a nice rant of my own!

[edit on 28-2-2009 by gimme_some_truth]