+1 for captiva, S&F.

It's not just this forum. I frequent three other similar communities and the very same is unfolding. You have two flavors of skeptics. Those who never put their own theories on the line (they simply come here to ego-stroke) and the shills. Anyone whose bright enough will spot the shill a mile off. Their posting history is far too linear.

My advise to you simple, captiva. If you hang around long enough, you'll lose fate in fellow 'conspiracy theorists' after witnessing enough egocentric, juvenile and petty bickering. The shills will break you down and burn you out. You will become self-defeatist, apathetic and begin convincing yourself that you shouldn't be committing yourself to caring about the world and it's people in the first place.

Don't allow this to happen. The time for reasoning and calm conversation has long since passed. You need to begin networking with people OFFLINE who ALREADY share you view instead of engaging online communities, as you are now, in an attempt to win them over to your outlook.

Ask yourself the following question: Is it more important that I reassure myself by getting others to publicly agree with me or is it more important that I act?

My advise is to frequent ATS less and begin acting. Stop looking for a sign in the sky. You are knee-deep in the fray and all you're doing is talking about it. YOU NEED TO GET OFFLINE! TRUST ME! THE INTERNET AS YOU KNOW IT WILL NOT BE AROUND WHEN THINGS BEGIN TO GET A LITTLE MORE CRITICAL TOWARDS THE END OF NEXT YEAR!

Feel free to PM me. You have my empathy, my brother and friend.

I am new to ATS. When I post, I try to keep civil, even though I am a very passionate person. I have noticed, too, since the few months I have been here, that when breaking stories come out, there are a few members that seem to band together, put out a story, and stick to it, no matter the facts. I saw this happen on the Norway Spiral and the latest spiral as well. I posted several video links showing that the spirals were actually more common that we thought, and that there seemed to be a progression in the quality of the spiral. I admitted the chemicals were probably placed there by a rocket or missile, but that the function was one of purpose, not of mistake. This evidence was ignored, outright, and I decided to mark many of them who blantly kept up a party line that it was just missile errors as foes. Why did I do this? Because their behavior was suspicious.

These reasonable people ignored growing evidence of actual sightings going back years of these things being, well, practiced. And I believe that as time goes on, that if these spirals are used for holographic purposes, you will see these ATS threads disappear entirely. You may even see ATS disappear.

I am still civil to the foes who I believe are government agents, or work for them in some capacity. Maybe our good will and common sense will turn them to our side? We can hope.

I agree with you, there are so many debunker than I can count here, It true I only joined here a feww week ago, but the way I look at it, a new member or "secret" member post rarely always post in someplace that was serious and shocking such as norway spiral

The norway spiral cannot be cause by a failed rocket, there was so many failed rocket in decades, how come the norway spiral DO NOT match any of the past rocket failed? The debunker was quick to said it a rocket failed, case cloased and move on

I am begining to worried if there are paid "debunker" agent to keep the truth in the lids

The truth is: there is no truth in government. Like that movie The Bank Job

Yes replies consisting of OMG, LOL and alot of are unnessecary. Quite childish really. If you dissagree with something simply explain why and move on.
I think its got to do with more people coming to the site who are used to the more 'lawless' forums where personal attacks are common place.

I havnt been on the site for too long but ive noticed that alot of people here seem to have the mentality that they are more 'enlightened' then those who are not familiar with the site or 'awake', and those that dissagree with them must be ignorent or unenlightened or 'asleep'.

Really alot of ATS members are just sheep with a different color, in a different herd.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
I highly encourage everyone when they have a little spare time to go to "member tools" > "member list" and read trough some of the history of ATS as it has unfolded through the years by checking on threads from its inception.

Absolutely (and you'll find people being plenty rude to one another in the past too).

I mostly visit ATS when a major "alternative" event happens (the recent Norway spiral has brought me back in). I just don't have time to be active in threads any longer. The reason that ATS is still at least a weekly visit for me is because eventually the BS gets sorted out.

The fact that people are allowed to question the questionable is something you aren't allowed to do on most similar themed websites. If it weren't for skeptics, which I prefer to the term "debunker", this place wouldn't have grown as large as it is today.

The more people that are attracted to something the more likely undesirables are going to be attracted to it too. But in turn, the more you delve into conspiracies/alternative topics the better you're bull$#!@ filter gets. Here's a BIG hint: if someone has to be a snarky jerk to prove their point, they probably don't have a very good point!

I've been on financial message boards where I KNOW the members are adult, educated, professionals yet they act like children towards each other. Completely civil discourse on the internet is virtually impossible without heavy-handedness or a very small user base.

As the OP stated, use the ignore button. It prevents a lot of headaches.

I think if one makes a extraordinary claim on ATS, it is wise to back it up with extraordinary evidence and or proof to back up the claim. If one feels very strongly on their topic of choice, it is important to prove and argue your threads case.

If somebody claimed there was a poke-a-dotted elephant eating a steak right beside them while levitating in the air, it is important for people to ask for evidence and or proof. That is the point. For the OP to reinforce their ideas.

De-bunkers / skeptics are the people who are trying to sort the trash from the treasure. They are not trying to degrade you and embarrass you. Bombard them with evidence and solid logical ideas to convince them otherwise, or it is just a report of a poke-a-dotted elephant eating steak while levitating right beside the OP with no data to back up the claim.

Apparently this Member wishes to "Debate" the nature of this post.

I assured him that we shall...




**Mod Edit**

[edit on 12/12/2009 by semperfortis]

Last time I checked,

it's the internet.

It's serious business .