Why did i get a U2U to Digg the Alex Jones hoax story?

I'm not really buying the story from SO that the intentions were to correct misinformation, the forum is pretty good at doing that by itself especially when it's a polarized issue like Jones.

But do I care if they just latched onto it as something to get some promotion, seeing that maybe there was a chance to get an article on Digg? Not really. It's just a U2U, they don't seem to send out too much 'spam', and it's pretty easy to just read the title/first few sentences and delete it if not interested.

They gotta make their money to keep the servers up for all us leechers and earn a few dollars for themselves, so I can put up with a bit of self-promotion/spam/advertising/etc.

There's always a hidden cost with something 'free' like this forum, and if it's just a few spam U2Us and some adverts, I think I got a pretty good deal in the end.

Originally posted by Beefcake
reply to post by boaby_phet

 

Whether you agree or not you can't possibly think that its the most important story of the year because its the only U2U i have ever received to digg a story.

Smells of agenda.

Agreed...

reply to post by harpsounds


There is no problem with people making money. The issue is that it was a mass u2u to digg an article saying Alex jones conducted a hoax.

All this despite recent posts by Skeptic Overlord that he has been sending emails to people close to Alex to clear up exactly what happened.

If anything the u2u should not have been sent until this info was attained otherwise why even bother trying to get it if you have already disseminated that it was a Hoax story.

What if they contact Alex and he explains it how can they correct the damage of disseminating the hoax story.

It should never had been sent. Unless it was a smear attempt and i am leaning towards that but i will reserve judgment on that.

I'm surpised people actually believed it happened.. it reads like a story out of the onion or something.

For the record even though I said I wouldn't dig it I'm glad ATS confirmed it was a hoax.



[edit on 9-9-2009 by riley]

Click here for more information.

It is not a HOAX, it was Charlie Sheen's idea.
Sheen wanted the 9/11 to hit the MSM and maybe Sheen can get a meeting with Obama..

Not a hoax by Alex, but an PR stunt by Sheen..

Mr. Sheen has ALOT riding on this, so rather than bashing Alex J. support Mr.Sheen..

Unless you are anti-9/11 truth.....

[edit on 9/9/2009 by ChemBreather]

Originally posted by ChemBreather
It is not a HOAX, it was Charlie Sheen's idea.
Sheen wanted the 9/11 to hit the MSM and maybe Sheen can get a meeting with Obama..

Not a hoax by Alex, but an PR stunt by Sheen..

Do you have an actual source to prove this?
Has Charlie released a media statement or something?

[edit on 9-9-2009 by riley]

Originally posted by riley

Originally posted by ChemBreather
It is not a HOAX, it was Charlie Sheen's idea.
Sheen wanted the 9/11 to hit the MSM and maybe Sheen can get a meeting with Obama..

Not a hoax by Alex, but an PR stunt by Sheen..

Do you have an actual source to prove this?
Has Charlie released a media statement or something?

[edit on 9-9-2009 by riley]

? prove this, Alex say so him self on i radio or podcast on his web site..
Mr. Sheen him self is going to be on the show on wednesday and thursday..

Just go to InfoWars and check it !!!

Originally posted by ChemBreather

Originally posted by riley

Originally posted by ChemBreather
It is not a HOAX, it was Charlie Sheen's idea.
Sheen wanted the 9/11 to hit the MSM and maybe Sheen can get a meeting with Obama..

Not a hoax by Alex, but an PR stunt by Sheen..

Do you have an actual source to prove this?
Has Charlie released a media statement or something?

[edit on 9-9-2009 by riley]

? prove this, Alex say so him self on i radio or podcast on his web site..

Alex.. as in the same guy that reported this "interview" in the first place..? How can he be blameless when he's the one that reported it and then admitted it was bs?

Mr. Sheen him self is going to be on the show on wednesday and thursday..

So in other words no he hasn't released a media statement saying it was all his doing. and there is no way I'm going to listen to his show if he has to pull stunts and hoaxes to get listeners.

Just go to InfoWars and check it !!!

no. by the sounds of it it's just one guy blaming another guy damage control back peddling.

besides which if it was not a hoax by Alex Jones.. wtf would Mr Sheen be going on his show unless it was a mutual collaboration? Obviously he KNEW about this "pr stunt" so he's not innocent.

btw calling it a "PR stunt" does NOT suddenly make it a non-hoax.

[edit on 9-9-2009 by riley]

I'm pretty sure everybody received the U2U, as the U2U says that some 11,000 or so users got it.

The thing that is kinda silly about the reason the "ATS Admin" gave for sending the U2U is that the Alex Jones "hoax" has the potential to harm the credibility of many 9/11 truthers and websites.

ORLY?

The silly part (and ironic) is that anyone who takes what Alex Jones says/reports/supplies at face value and sends it out to all friends/family and/or posts it on their website as "truth", those people have credibility issues anyways.

So exactly who was ATS trying to protect? Those people? The people who saw the video, said to themselves "ZOMG!! i must send this to EVERYONE!!!!", and then they proceeded to send it to everyone they know? Is that who ATS is trying to protect?

Well, I got news for you ATS Admin, those fools are beyond your help.

Chances are those people have forwarded on all kinds of incredulous information over the years and have long since lost credibility anyways.

Furthermore, "hoaxes" of all shapes and sizes occur on ATS every single day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

So again, what's the deal? If you want to protect people from spreading hoaxes, then you should probably just shut down ATS all together.

My 2 cents.

i) You will not use your membership at The Above Network, LLC site(s) for any type of recruitment to any causes whatsoever. You will not post, use the chat feature, use videos, or use the private message system to disseminate advertisements, chain letters, petitions, pyramid schemes, or any kind of solicitation for political action, social action, letter campaigns, or related online and/or offline coordinated actions of any kind.

It seems I infer from reading that, that this forum isn't to be used for calling members to coordinated actions, and yet I find a U2U today from the staff here asking for members to do just that by Digging a thread that arguably violates some other rules like...

You will not post, use the chat feature or use the private message system to solicit members of The Above Network, LLC on behalf of another message board, online community or competitor

Obviously it's your site, we're just the worker bees, but what's going on here? I'm not defending Alex Jones and his apparent lax in journalist ethics here, but I'm questioning why ATS was so worked up over this issue that we were asked to actively and collectively propogate the Hoax Label within a few hours of it's inception. I've never been asked to 'Digg' anything by the Admins here, and it seems unusual considering we as members are expressly forbidden to do so otherwise. Why was this not treated soley as an internal affairs kind of thing here, rather than some kind of call to action to help discredit something outside of ATS?
Regardless of what you think of Alex Jones, this seems unprofessional and premature, and all the haste and emphasis seems well, agenda-ish.

Whose idea was this whole 'hoax label' thing anyway, that's a dangerous precept and I've seen a few threads that certainly don't deserve being labeled as such... Frankly it's a bit insulting to be handed a predisposition to anything on a site that boasts being an open discussion forum, and with some measure of collective pride on behalf of the membership here, we have a long distinguished history, indeed a knack, for outing hoaxes without a big shiny, and IMO, juvenile warning label. That Hoax Label needs to go, I can think for myself and I'm perfectly capable of making my own informed decisions about what I read.

This whole thing seems in bad form and sets a really dangerous precedent.

It does seem like 2 different things have happened since this went public.

1st: People are reading WAY too much into this. I have read the term 'Blatant' at least 3 times in this thread. But folks don't seem to know what it means. I feel like Inigo Montoya, "I don't think that word means, what you think it means."

Blatant (ala Dictionary.com): brazenly obvious; flagrant: a blatant error in simple addition; a blatant lie.

Unless Alex Jones himself came onto his own website, or onto ATS, and said verbatim, that this was real, and left it at that, then people would be well within their rights to use the term Blatant to describe this issue. But that's not what happened is it? I have to agree with Beefcake in that this appears to be little more than an error on the part of the website. I think folks need to choose their words a bit wiser. Without evidence that this was in fact a 'blatant hoax', folks shouldn't call it that.

2nd. I have seen the before and after images and have to say, "So what?" At best it was an error that was quickly corrected, and at worst, it was a poorly done publicity stunt, and when the people over there at PP.com realized it was blowing up in their faces, they put up the disclaimer. I find it very interesting how quite a few people immediately jump on the thought that this was a deliberate hoax, when it makes more logical sense to assume (and we are all simply assuming here) that this was a mistake, that was rectified.

I am not a fan of Jones. Probably never will be. But there is an extremely slanted bias against Jones on this website, and today's events really showed that. For people who are supposedly the smartest Alt experts on the net, I would say that you aren't showing it very well ATM, IMHO. I'd like to hold the bias, and add a side of common sense to my ATS sandwich please.

Chrono

Edited for spelling

[edit on 9-9-2009 by Chronogoblin]

I took the U2U as ATS trying to get the mesage out there about this being a hoax....therefore this site is helping the CTer's image rather than damage it.

So in that context, i didn't see a problem with the U2U.

We might not get requests to Digg information very often, but we do get U2U's about other threads very often. What we do with them is up to us.

Sometimes i read them, sometimes i don't, sometimes they get deleted without a second thought. Sometimes they don't.

I can't see what difference there is with this U2U? No-one forced us to Digg it, we are all big boys and girls here and will hopefully act accordingly.

It's just another message asking us to either do something or look at something....not a major issue IMO.

I think it was a good thing to jump on this straight away and dissaociate ourselves with it. MSM and many others are just waiting for an excuse to put down CTer's, and once again ATS stepped in to limilt this as best as possible.

That's the way i saw it anyway. Maybe i'm wrong, maybe not.

CX.




[edit on 9/9/09 by CX]

Seriously? You get a U2U that asks you to "DIGG" something and the hubbub about the U2U almost dwarfs the actual Hoax?

It never seizes to amaze me how ATSers won't hesitate to attack the administration of the board. If they (the owners) asked you little favours on a daily basis then I could understand why you'd get PO'ed. But once in a blue moon they ask you a favour, and you gather the torches and pitchforks? Simply astounding!

I can recall a similar request about the Chinese routers or something - and this was MONTHS ago.

If you didn't want to DIGG the article, fine, don't. You were asked a favour. If you believe Alex Jones is "innocent" or you understand what he tried to do, then go say it in the thread about this whole circus. But to accuse ATS owners of ulterior motives simply because they have strong feelings about the topic or felt that this require special attention; that's just childish.

There is a HUGE difference between Spam, and the one or two U2Us we get each month giving us an update or highlighting an issue.

Seriously. Relax. It's really not that bad. And if you feel it's that bad, then I understand there is a forum over there that will welcome you with open arms (or so I've heard).

ATS going so low that we have to break up the floor for ATS to go even deeper on that low.

This is the most dirty thing I have seen ATS pull, just because some frantic man do a PR stunt on his site. Do it have something to do with infowars and ATS are mining the same ore mayby?

ATS you should act like a gentleman and dont sink to the others lowest levels, using U2U for commercial things like this is just ignorant and ATS just lost a great deal of credibility...

What branch did ATS come from again??? these kinds of tricks is used by shadowy governments normally...

.:.

Originally posted by Gaspode
It never seizes to amaze me how ATSers won't hesitate to attack the administration of the board. If they (the owners) asked you little favours on a daily basis then I could understand why you'd get PO'ed. But once in a blue moon they ask you a favour, and you gather the torches and pitchforks?

What an ignorant statement from your side. You are saying we are comming out with pitcforks and torches, and saying its only ATS asking for a "small" favour.
No its not it is ATS who are bringing out the pitchforks and torches on AJ, properly in my opinion because as stated in my answered above this reply, they are mining the same ore..

.:.

Wow, this is getting bad on both sides. Maybe everyone should back off and take a chill pill then just let things settle down. This slamming each other needs to stop before it tears ATS apart.

reply to post by FiatLux

You are right that there is bad things on both sides, but ATS lost its "virginity" when they started a crusade on AJ(even thou i do not like AJ it is a crusade) and dragged AJ and ATS through the mud which is not a way to go in my opinion.

Uptil this moment my "trust" in ATS was high and it still is, but not that high as before since this made ATS look like a republican fierced attack on Dems. in my world, nothing more and nothing less.

Best regards

Loke .:.

Originally posted by Loke.
reply to post by FiatLux

 

You are right that there is bad things on both sides, but ATS lost its "virginity" when they started a crusade on AJ(even thou i do not like AJ it is a crusade) and dragged AJ and ATS through the mud which is not a way to go in my opinion.

Uptil this moment my "trust" in ATS was high and it still is, but not that high as before since this made ATS look like a republican fierced attack on Dems. in my world, nothing more and nothing less.

Best regards

Loke .:.

Maybe I missed that part, but how did ATS get dragged through the mud?
Wouldn`t it be better to wait and see what the other side has to say in responce to this before pointing fingers?

[edit on 9-9-2009 by FiatLux]

Yeah I dont use digg at all. I thought the U2U was odd to. I have received other U2Us asking to digg stories but this one? I didnt really get it. I mean like you said there are other stories out there that IMO are more important unless I missed something with this whole story.