[edit on 1/5/2010 by jkrog08]

Another necessary bump to perserve this thread and to remind new and old members alike. This woul definately help new and old members and keep the Quality of the UFO/ALien boards improving and progressing.

Star and Flag, OP. Thank you for a wonderful post. I think you have proposed an excellent guideline which, if followed, would greatly help to reduce clutter. Each forum has a specific purpose and I think you have well defined them. Job well done!

Maybe mentioned here and I missed it - there's an ongoing game, presumably with younger members, to play this board like a videogame. See how many points, stars, flags, you can run up.

The actual content is secondary. MY MOM RUNS A BROTHEL FOR ALIENS, EX-NAZIS, MOSSAD AGENTS, PROOF...

You get the attention an numbers pretty quick. A little more restraint making it appear as if you've got something credible can extend it for pages.

Tabloid journalists have been engaged in this kind of stuff for decades.

Here you can whip up something from your computer in a college dorm in minutes, and have people from all over the world scurrying to catch the latest scoop.

It would be good if there were a filtration mechanism in place, but it's tough to police.

Actual interest in the UFO phenomenon recedes on a yearly basis.

Grown men with families and jobs drive or fly to conventions, check into hotels, pay admission to listen to a guy in a suit talk about his last meeting with the aliens and what messages they have to convey.

With no substantiation of alien visitations despite tens of thousands actively searching for over half a century, fiction fills the entertainment and sense of wonder requirement to satisfy an undiscriminating audience.

The phenomenon is a fascinating one in itself, but only serves the purpose of driving away intelligent discourse on an already marginalized area of investigation.

Mike





[edit on 14-8-2009 by mmiichael]

Originally posted by jkrog08

I agree, there is WAY TOO MUCH CRAP on ATS, in the UFO forum. But what really can we do? As you said, it is hard (well actually near impossible to police and filter) to police. Although I believe the core members quickly spot out and stop these bogus threads in their tracks, the staff is decent at it as well, but they have more than just one forum to look after. There have been A LOT of bs or pointless threads recently and for the most part they have been rightly ignored, some more colorful authors manage to get them to slip past the 'nets' somewhat, but really in the long run the members of this site, and especially the ones who frequent this particular forum know who is real and who is counterfeit in my humble opinion. It is sad to see some of the much more questionable UFO/alien related threads get like 150 flags, when decent and much more legit ones may go unnoticed completely.

It's natural and easy to bitch and moan. This is a freely hosted site and there are many astute thoughtful people contributing, like yourself.

It almost warrants a division for "Kids" and "Adults" with the influx of novices and tourists. I have been alerted to new threads by people onboard with shared interests quite often. These are low level ones without much activity but the focus and level of discourse in good.

Unfortunately UFOs have become popular culture now and they attract the inevitable whack jobs and easily fooled. The new spin on governments suppression of information is also appealing to the parental authority rebellion and paranoid elements who seem to spend a lot of time online.

Buried in the debris of misreportings and manufactured nonsense that has been passing for UFO sightings are some really confounding cases that need even closer examination with our improved understanding of phenomenology, technology, and the human susceptibility to self-deception.

There is something important happening in our environment and interfacing with us. It's not magic or alien intervention as much as yet to be understood science. We have indicators that should help us push the boundaries of our knowledge further. We really should be sharing our insights to this end.

Mike

Bumping up this thread. Hopefully some newer members will see this. It does seem that we are all starting to cut down the "crap" cases and such on here, so maybe we are on the right track.

BUMPING this thread as I feel it is much needed to remind all of us members some proper guidelines and etiquette when posting in the flagship UFO forum. It may help make this forum less chaotic.

[edit on 11/4/2009 by jkrog08]

Originally posted by Janitor From Mars
1. The thread is full of skeptics
2. They will tear apart what you have to say
3. You will be accused of being a disinfo agent
4. Your mental health will be attacked
5. If you're unlucky enough, they'll ban you

Some skeptics = Old Empire agents working to keep the truth hidden.