Why do the dumbest threads get the most replies?

I mean look at these topics

www.abovetopsecret.com...

many of you are actually aliens, 1,500 replies, 140 flags, around a hundred stars
1 of the dumbest topics I have ever seen on the entire internet, and I have a huge history of forums being a golden age LUEser(y helo thar)

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Real life super powers, 70 pages, 1,400 replies, 40 flags..

...that's dumb, lots of people listing straight from the comic super powers, and i am not even kidding about this, look it up

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by boaby_phet


So what DO you do if you've trapped a demon and wish to fight it..? Eh? Everyone KNOWS that the sword must be blessed for it to be effective. C'mon.

reply to post by Xtraeme


it was quite intresting, everyone on the forum knew each other before we hqad it, and all still do know each other, but during the maddness it kind of split into 3 factions , one was the group being ridiculed, one the gossip mongers and the others were just flaming everyone ... and a secret group of people from all groups were coming in with fake names and flaming like crazy ... it was actualy quite funny. needless to say it just went bad after a while and everyone got boared and moved on .

compared to my forum now, a different one with 300 members ... i cant start a fight or argument for trying (i know that sounds bad, but forums are only good if they have antagonists and protaganists, other wise they get quiet, which happens to every forum ever.. peaks n troughs..

(ive been hooked on forums as long as ive been online and thats about 10-11 years now ..! sick)

Originally posted by Deus Ex Machina 42
I mean look at these topics

www.abovetopsecret.com...

many of you are actually aliens, 1,500 replies, 140 flags, around a hundred stars
1 of the dumbest topics I have ever seen on the entire internet, and I have a huge history of forums being a golden age LUEser(y helo thar)

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Real life super powers, 70 pages, 1,400 replies, 40 flags..

...that's dumb, lots of people listing straight from the comic super powers, and i am not even kidding about this, look it up

en.wikipedia.org...

Oh yes, i totally agree with you here its is why i had opened a post www.abovetopsecret.com...
as you can see the relevant answers to my opening thread. But i assume that people live so much in a fantasy world that it is hard for them to distinguish stupidity and delusional posts from factual evidence. But hey who ever said that the human race was intelligent.

reply to post by Deus Ex Machina 42


But the whole point of the thread is to show that what is interesting and relevant to me maybe absolutely rubbish for you!

I agree that those threads are a little out there for me, but who am I to say what is the truth. It's all a matter of opinion.

Peace, kiwifoot

BUT, # like those topics are KEEPING us, ATS, from achieving the truth. Do you not understand? Dumb disinformation like that is keeping us from the REAL truth, for every decent truthful topic there seems to be 5 BS topics made on ATS at the same time.

Yes, the truth may be different then we are expecting, but I am NOT a god damn alien. I am a human being of the planet Earth and I know this for a #ing fact, how can some kid who's an x-files fan wanting to be special calling me an alien be declared the #ing truth? Are you kidding me?

I guess the term

"Above Top Secret" & "Below Top Secret" have no visible distinction, well thats what the evidence is pointing at.

I often wish there was a system of elimination for posts that don't really fit in, i.e are not genuine conspiracy, futurism, crypto paranormal... i.e. simply don't belong

I'm easily baited by things that irritate me lol

Can Jews smell better because of their noses?

or

Can Blacks carry bigger radios on their shoulder than whites?

or

Will the election make you vomit too?

or

John Mc Cain Smells his own Farts.

politics and race sucks me sometimes and i hate it... I just know one day i'll actually be summoned to the White House and to clear security and talk to Obama i'm going to have to explain some rant I got sucked into and some inflammatory poop I said in response top something like... "why Obama shouldn't eat chicken and watermelon"

seriously, this is the kind of luck I have in life... and there is no way, no matter what my intent or what place of good it comes from, anything normal can come out my mouth in response to some of this feces lol

to put it quick and too the point it has nothing to do about stupidity, it has everything to do with if a person can relate to the article or information. kinda like writing essays in college or high school. it was always easy to write and get involved if it was something i could relate too, but if not, i would of rather been out fishing! does that make sense?

Originally posted by tatersalad
to put it quick and too the point it has nothing to do about stupidity, it has everything to do with if a person can relate to the article or information. kinda like writing essays in college or high school. it was always easy to write and get involved if it was something i could relate too, but if not, i would of rather been out fishing! does that make sense?

I do see the logic of your answer but i just cannot see the logic behind certain post's who's quality is obviously questionable.

reply to post by kiwifoot


Gee, I wish my threads were as popular as this one! My threads always go pretty much ignored, except for a maximum of 5 replies if I'm lucky. So I would never waste much time writing.

I'm sure this post will also go unnoticed.

Actually I thought of writing a similar thread as this one today, after posting a thread about the Iran president winning the elections.

Too bad that my title was not as straight forward as another one that got stars and plenty of replies. Why? Because the title was simple enough for the ATS users to understand Keep it simple, stupid...lol

It is true that ATS gets the most replies for the dumbest threads, mostly dealing with aliens, as if that's the most important thing going on on this planet (or outside).

If that's the case, then why don't I just go and read all the books by Sitchin about the Annunaki. These are great theories, but as believable as the existence of our creator. Yes, Aliens exist, but did they create us? Are they coming back in 2012 for the apocalypse? Who knows.

But we do know what's going on in our world today, and that's what we should focus on more.

ATS feels like a website where the most important things in the world are ignored, such as the Bilderbergers, the Group of 30, the Lebanon elections, Iran elections, USACC, the future Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan oil pipeline and so on. Even 9/11, which now seems to be once again discussed from scratch. Thanks for any news on the 9/11 hoax by the way!!

These are important events going on at this moment in our lives. Affecting our lives! But very few people on ATS even seem to know who the Bilderbergers are by the looks of the Bilderberger threads.

Many people come on ATS to read for fun, which is fine, but fun stories also happen to be true. I read very few threads myself, because I'm not the kind of person who likes to spend much time on blogs, but ATS really gets boring at times.

Does anyone ever try to connect the events in our history and now? You'll discover a lot that way. Figure things out by yourself. Don't just listen to Alex Jones and David Icke. Do your own research!!

Ah, but this thread is a very good thread and is getting an okay amount of replies.

Someone once told me that the best threads have 3-5 pages of replies, not 20 or more.

Funny how the flags and replies system works, hm? It almost endorses the bad threads. People like shock factors. And things that probably aren't true.

But it's fine.

Originally posted by MightyAl
reply to post by kiwifoot

 

Gee, I wish my threads were as popular as this one! My threads always go pretty much ignored, except for a maximum of 5 replies if I'm lucky. So I would never waste much time writing.

I'm sure this post will also go unnoticed.

Mine too, I've had two that have had a few replies, this one and another on the Board Issues wondering where ATS was on a night it wnet down in the UK LOL!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not just interested in stars, flags and replies, but some acknowledgment for work is a good idea. But all I realy wanted to do was point out to everyone the varying beliefs of ATS'ers, damn I knew I should have used a less controversial title!

Well, isn't it obvious. We are all more dumb than we would like to admit sadly.

The most outrageous, pointless threads are read by more members on the shear idea of disbelief. There are many threads that I reply in that granted, I am helping a troll, or accomplishing nothing.

However, it's because when I look at the list of Recent Posts, and see all of the insane threads, it's entertaining. I enjoy knowing what others think about certain issues, no matter how far off the bat I think it is.

It's entertainment, the real kind as far as I am concerned. The debating back in forth of ideas, wether intelligent or not. Alot of our most favorite discoveries in philosophy or any other area really, were made while people were arguing about something else.

Stupid conversation breeds a good idea, most of the time.

I've seen alot of dumb threads, produce better threads once members who were writing in the previous one, came up with a good topic, which was worthy for the board.

I dunno, again I think it's entertainment, and there are some benefits. But I do agree that sometimes it's just too much. The very good threads, the ones researched to death and provide an intelligent, well spoken point of view, are often neglected.

It would be interesting to see the page views of these threads, instead of basing the popularity solely on replies, stars and flags.

~Keeper

Well over the past few weeks i found myself unsubscribing from sections as the content was delusional and it begun to insult my intelligence. But i guess that is expected due to the volume of threads being posted.

reply to post by Xtraeme


I am sure you have very interesting things to say.

BUT

I have never ever read any of your posts because I can't focus on the text because of your spinning cat.

Actually I can't read any post with animated avatars, I have even tried covering them up with my hand. I wish there was a way to pause animated gifs.

So I scroll down untill I can't see the animation, as my screen is set for 1680 x 1050 that can be quite a lot of posts.

Originally posted by Deus Ex Machina 42
BUT, # like those topics are KEEPING us, ATS, from achieving the truth. Do you not understand? Dumb disinformation like that is keeping us from the REAL truth, for every decent truthful topic there seems to be 5 BS topics made on ATS at the same time.

Yes, the truth may be different then we are expecting, but I am NOT a god damn alien. I am a human being of the planet Earth and I know this for a #ing fact, how can some kid who's an x-files fan wanting to be special calling me an alien be declared the #ing truth? Are you kidding me?

I do hear yo loud and clear friend!

I'm sorry but I'm having a bit of a laugh, I never really looked at it like this:

but I am NOT a god damn alien. I am a human being of the planet Earth and I know this for a #ing fact, how can some kid who's an x-files fan wanting to be special calling me an alien be declared the #ing truth?

We just need to seperate the bull from the actually possible I suppose. But everyone is entitled to their say( I know you haven't said anything contrary to that) but it is a bit annoying when threads like that are the most popular on ATS, maybe it means as a rule we are madder than we think?

[edit on 13-6-2009 by kiwifoot]

Originally posted by lightchild
reply to post by Xtraeme

 

Actually I can't read any post with animated avatars, I have even tried covering them up with my hand. I wish there was a way to pause animated gifs.

Heh, whenever I see a particularly dizzying gif animation I pull out my trusty sticky pad and adhere it to the side of the screen to occult the annoyance.

A more technical way to solve the problem is to use Ad Block Plus. You can manually put in this URL to hide my amusing, though I'll admit, distracting avatar.

files.abovetopsecret.com...

Or after the plugin is active right click on the image and select "Adblock Image ..."

The simplest way to address this problem is to log out and then reload the thread. Non-logged in users don't see avatars.

[edit on 13-6-2009 by Xtraeme]

one can assume that dumb threads attract dumb people. there are alot more dumb people then smart people. people who believe anything.

reply to post by Republican08


There I just put you in the 'plus' category on the stars...lol. Yes I completely agree with you on that, but really in the long run it doesn't matter because people ARE reading what you wrote no matter if it gets no stars or +100 stars. Also IMO a lot of things go into reasons why well deserved posts may not get stars, sometimes within a certain group of members there is not much staring and if it just so happens that you are in a thread with a lot of those faction of members then you might not get a star(lol sounds like we are in pre-school here), but that doesn't mean no one listened.



Reply to kiwifoot:

I know what you mean, sometimes really good threads slip through the cracks and hardly get the attention they deserve and fall into the great "ATS Void". Sometimes they get attention but not as much as you would expect. There are many reasons this can happen, timing of posting threads is crucial, because you only get so long on the "New Thread" board before you get bumped out and you only have that small window of opportunity to break way and make it to the next level, the 'active threads' and so on.

Some times, days, and certain times of the year (holidays for one) are thread killers and it is hard to come away with a recognized thread (I consider a 'mega thread', or highly recognized and attention getting thread one with at least 35 flags and at least in the plus category of stars). For example; If your post a thread at a time when there is less than 200 members online then odds dictate that unless your thread is something crazy like "PROOF: BILDERBURGER IS JESUS CHRIST, MY INTERVIEW WITH A GREY**MUST READ**" then you probably won't get too many flags and such, although sometimes that is not the case but it is best to post when more members are online. Also there is times when I had a thread that for the first 20 hours only had 17 flags, then within the next 6 or 7 it was up to 40, keeping in mind that top threads only stay in the headline part of the "My ATS" for 24 hours, the front page and side bars keep them 72 hours I believe.

So sometimes threads can take off later as people explore the individual forums. Also the AUTHOR of the thread is a HUGE factor IMHO, members will see a certain well known author and automatically go to the thread and star and flag it, most of the time it is well deserved though.I feel that the other main problem is that most on ATS are looking for that 'smoking gun' thread, or something highly provocative and/or entertaining.

So you will as a rule see the threads with "Undeniable NASA Footage" or "I am an alien and so are you" get a lot of attention, they are attracting. Of course some 9/11 "thermite" threads always do good, as does some political threads. In the UFO forum generally anything that claims "PROOF" gets a lot of attention, even though ultimately it is a hoax, something mundane, or no possible way to conclude the thread contains proof.

However, in saying that it does seem that if you take time to make a "masterpiece thread", lol I like to call them "Master Threads" IT WILL GET NOTICED, if on the rare occasion not by members with flags and stars it will get a lot of applauses' behind the scenes, the staff does not overlook anything, trust me on this. One more thing, just because a thread has 500 replies and 20 plus pages does not make it good, I have seen ones with over 700 replies that have less than 3 flags and stars, sometimes none.

To conclude, here is my opinion on the 'perfect threads', as I have heard them called, usually end up with less than 4 pages of replies, and most of those are public "thank yous" and "great job". Because with a perfect thread you get a neutral, empirical, lucid, and generally "all sides covered", or 'closed' piece of research. There is nothing to debate in these cases so you don't have many replies, even if you have A LOT of flags, stars, and applauses'. That is just my take on the whole "how to on threads" on ATS.~Justin




EDITED to rephrase last sentence.

[edit on 6/13/2009 by jkrog08]

[edit on 6/13/2009 by jkrog08]