Why are distinguished members who have contributed alot to this site over the last 5 years leaving?

reply to post by neformore


*flys the Jolly Roger*

It's a conspiracy!

For the record, the removal of your girls aloud avatar is one of the reasons I hardly visit ATS anymore...

reply to post by CHA0S


Both yesterday and earlier today he had 'BANNED' on his Members Profile.

Something has changed!

Originally posted by infinite
For the record, the removal of your girls aloud avatar is one of the reasons I hardly visit ATS anymore...

You missed the 2010 Nic Roberts Avatar revisited tour?

She made an appearance mid-summer...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a2c743f29378.jpg[/atsimg]

Was one of them.

See. You go away and you miss these things....

[edit on 1/9/10 by neformore]

reply to post by schrodingers dog

I understand what you are saying C, but please reread what I said on that thread. I wasn't trying to suggest suppressing anything but I don't think you quite appreciate the toll that event, and others it triggered, took on ATS.

Yes, I did read that post, and it did actually give me a greater respect for the whole situation. I even noted what you said when I was discussing a reopening with SO. I'll quote something I said before:

the reason my thread was probably closed, was partially my fault, I can admit where I went wrong. I can understand why that last quote I made was probably a bit much, I wont describe what I quoted, but lets just say it was unfair on my part to directly quote something so confrontational and harsh, however, not being allowed to link to the quote, I decided to quote it - the sharing of information comes above emotions
----
I simply wanted to discuss a very interesting aspect of ATS's history, as I'm sure a lot of members did, and do. It really didn't help IMO to shut it down like that. It was clear by the quick rise in flags and stars people found it most interesting. I understand the events brought pain for everyone, but I really thought it was no longer a taboo subject, SkepticOverlord himself made a thread on this aspect of ATS history with a humorous comic. If it really was just a hacker, can we get past the emotions and finally look back at this as a historical and unerasable aspect of ATS?
---
I've done nothing but support this website since day one, but I can't restrict my scope of conspiracies to one spectrum...either it's all ok or none is ok...

It's not about suppression because as I said the other threads are still open for comment. Think of it this way, if a family suffers a personal tragedy, sometimes they just don't want it discussed in their home.

Yes...but instead of having a new thread covering all the key pieces of information, what we have now is the one years old with some vauge comics.

[edit on 1/9/10 by CHA0S]

reply to post by neformore


Oh. My. God.

Speechless. Simply speechless.

Originally posted by Freeborn
reply to post by CHA0S

 

Both yesterday and earlier today he had 'BANNED' on his Members Profile.

Something has changed!

It's called there was a problem between the member and the administration. That problem has been worked out via email between the parties who are RELEVANT to the situation. You can confirm that with the member himself if you'd like.

Yet another reason why half the posts here are simply "attack the evil moderators" without any basis whatsoever.

Not one person participating in this thread had a clue what went on with IRM or that his situation was being worked on between HIM and the staff. Yet, so many of you jumped to accuse the staff of doing something awful.

But yes... genuine concern right?

Perhaps some of the problems are because we have a growing number of members who have a preconceived notion that every single VOLUNTEER staff member of ATS is a rotten bastard who is up to no good and does nothing except sit at the desk and figure out ways to piss off the members for the fun of it. Because after all, that's what we want right? A site with no members! Wouldn't that be an interesting read.

Ask questions, make comments, suggestions, sure... but enough of these absolutely baseless attacks on our staff for no reason, especially when it's something you don't know anything about.

We keep "disciplinary" issues between the member and the staff, not for public consumption. That would be inappropriate and it would violate everything we stand for regarding privacy. We're not changing that policy because some people sit and look for reasons to attack the staff. It's repulsive already.

EDIT to add, it looks like my post is being unjustly rude to freeborn specifically. I apologize to freeborn for that, that was not my intention, but rather to address a significantly larger problem of people attacking before knowing any facts at all.

[edit on Sep 1st 2010 by Djarums]

Originally posted by Djarums
Perhaps some of the problems are because we have a growing number of members who have a preconceived notion that every single VOLUNTEER staff member of ATS is a rotten bastard who is up to no good and does nothing except sit at the desk and figure out ways to piss off the members for the fun of it.

...You mean the rumour about the temple, human sacrifice and moderators being shapeshifting reptilians are NOT TRUE?!?! After seven years, all my preconceptions and fantasies about cosmic have turned out to be false..

*sighs* I really hope you're happy, Djarums

reply to post by Djarums


I think you will find that I was the first to mention IRM's 'banning'.
Please show me at least one example of where I accused Mods/Admin of anything.
Quite the contrary.

In future perhaps it would be wiser to just temporarily disable a persons account rather than splashing 'banned' all across a members profile.
It would certain stop the rumour mill.

It is understandable that some people will assume the worst when such instances occur.

The important thing is that IRM and ATS have reconciled their differences.

If only the same could be said for some others.

Edit to add:
I have just read your edit Djarums, no problems...I have thick skin, broad shoulders and am far too long in the tooth to take offence at that.


[edit on 1/9/10 by Freeborn]

reply to post by Djarums


I dont remember anyone blaming the mods for anything? I remember people and myself asking WHY he was banned. Your above pose lets me know that its not public knowledge. Some of you Mods And SUperMods should really check yourselves when you are slamming a a member of this site. If freeborn didnt have such thick skin, your derrogatory comments might have upset him.

Edit cause i spell like a 1st grader


[edit on 1-9-2010 by MessOnTheFED!]

Originally posted by MessOnTheFED!

I dont remember anyone blaming the mods for anything?

Actually a good portion of this thread and the monthly ones like it are composed almost entirely of blaming the staff for pretty much everything.

I remember people and myself asking WHY he was banned.

But as a member here for quite some time you don't remember that it's been ATS policy from day one to attempt to avoid drama but not discussing bannings publicly?

Your above pose lets me know that its not public knowledge.

It absolutely never has been. That's a sound privacy policy. Any disciplinary action taken against a member is between that member and the staff alone. That includes warns, post removals, and bans as well. Sometimes there's nothing we can do about it (for example someone who intentionally hoaxes the community and is banned will obviously be known) but in most cases we do our best to keep such actions off the board. Most "disciplinary" action is conducted via u2u. If the member is banned, they know our contact information and reach out to is via email if so inclined.

Some of you Mods And SUperMods should really check yourselves when you are slamming a a member of this site.

But it's too much to ask for members not to "slam" fellow members who happen to occupy the volunteer position of moderator? It's too much to ask for members to be understanding of the fact that we're attempting to moderate a massive community for everyone's behalf and that shockingly each person who has a question about our actions might not know every single minute detail of the story? That each member might not know the weeks of u2us that were exchanged between a different "banned" member mentioned above before that decision was made? I am well aware that this is a conspiracy community, but is it too much to ask that people not always assume that every staff action has a secret insidious reason behind it?

If freeborn didnt have such thick skin, your derrogatory comments might have upset him.

If the staff didn't have such thick skin, the derogatory comments and accusations made without basis almost daily might upset them as well.

Every member of our staff comes from the ranks of our membership and was a member for years before becoming with staff - with the obvious exception of Simon. Just something to ponder I suppose.

First off, "a few months ago" = start of summer, which means an influx of newer, younger members whose posts may outnumber the more serious-minded ones. (not saying it's exclusive to this set, it isn't, but in statistical terms....)

Then, you've got the usual attrition of any online forum. Folks are passionate about some subject or topic, learn what they can, and move on, etc. as that topic becomes less important than other things in their life.

Also, the general membership increases, making it harder to find some posts by any particular members (as threads are constantly being updated, changing in pages, etc.).

For all of these though, there are tools in place to help you find threads by your favorite members...just utilize them, versus only looking at the front page.

There's always this "downhill" idea tossed about each summer, and yet years later, we're seeing the same idea once again get raised. Forums are cyclical....

And to any complaining of content, by all means, as a member, you can change it (by posting the kind of content you are looking for!)...

Mods do take a lot of heat, and most of it is displaced.

There are people who get a new job, and immediately in their heads place the "boss" in an adversarial position. Go to school, place the teachers and staff in that light. It's the whole adversity to authority thingie.

It's just the way some people are wired.

These folks are alive and well on ATS, but I don't think it speaks for the majority of us.

Seriously....most of us appreciate the Mods.
What would we do without you guys?
I personally appreciate you guys more than you know.
Many of us....I might say...*most* of us, do, and surely you know that.
So there.

I've lurked ever since I signed up and I'll continue to monitor, observe and watch. Naturally over time users leave and new ones come in.

reply to post by Djarums


You are correct sir or Ma'am. Sometimes we regular members forget that the mods are people too, sometimes people throw accusation as if they were birdseed. I completely understand that. But some of the members (myself included) look to the MODS to set an example for the community. Kind of like the police are supposed to be when they arent bashing someone for something outrageous. Its hard to type the words that i would like to say, but hopefully you get what im trying to say.

As for the Banning, i know that is supposed to be behind closed doors and whatnot, but from what "we" can see some guy is banned one day and not the next. I dont know about others but this screams to me "conform to our will or your gone". As if someone was made to bow down. And that i do not like.

Sorry for the rant, and i know that you mods put up with BS on a daily basis, but just try to set a good exapmle for us peons.

On a side note Im kinda liking BTS..... :bash::bnghd:

I like the dancing bananna the best i believe.

MessOnTheFED!

I have not read every post in this thread, but I will post my thoughts on the topic.
When I first came hear I found this to be a great site for finding information on most anything that would not be otherwise reported in the public media. As the site matured boards were separated, such as Tin Wiki. On Tin Wiki there was an easy to navigate, encyclopedia type board that had very good, edited information on most anything that had been discussed or researched on ATS. That unfortunately is no more.
I just don't see the same good information on the same topics that you did five years ago around here.
I really do hope the site owners will correct this problem. Because if not I fear sites like Wiki Leaks will over take ATS.

I Don't come in BTS very often (4 times in my nearly 4yrs here) I had to search for it. I was reading this thread last night before it was moved.

I had not been aware of the WITD episode until I saw it on another website As I read about it, I thought that at least ATS might have some "open" discusion about it ....not much...And It is very clear that Admin does not want to talk about it anymore. But it was an interesting and brief read.

Is Internos still around?

I know that question was not asked of me, and was probably rhetorical. But No, he is no longer with us. I am not clear as to why.It don't really matter, He was one of the absolute best contributors that ATS ever had.I think we have lost a lot of good contributors in the last year or so. Good to see Karl and Blub in here. BlackOps719...that post will be removed I suspect but it was factually funny!


Another strong contributor,
ValHall told everyone on her profile page that
she was "out of here" Go look for yourself as to her reasons. It just strikes me as odd and shocking.:shk: She was the first member to respond to my first thread.I always enjoyed her posts and her stories. She tackled some of the most difficult subjects about very emotional topics.And she always did it well.

The list goes on...and the usual reasons are rehashed. One thing is very clear. If the reasons were honestly tackled by open discussion we could not only deny ignorance but help deny apathy.
At least among some veterans of ATS( of which I am not).The key question that needs an honest answer is, Do the Owners really care?
Or are they content with asking "whats with the anger" without generally pontificating or worse ignoring and censoring the discussion.
Oh well,

Damn Internos is banned also. I dont want to know the reason but i would like to request someone, in the position to do so, email him and ask him to come back. He did have some of the greatest threads ive seen on here. It must have been something very bad, the dude had like 150k+ ats points if that can speak for his work around here.

MOTF!

ok my bad i just couldnt help it.


edit to add another dancing bananna...

[edit on 1-9-2010 by MessOnTheFED!]

I joined ATS way back in the days of dialup. And I come and go from ATS like the tide, my absences from here mean nothing apart from the fact I like to take a break occasionally or I get disenchanted with subjects that dominate the forum (US politics in particular).

Thing is though I can never remember my profile password. So I just set up a new profile and start again, drop the moderator a note to get them to terminate the old profile, I've done that so often now I've lost count.

I did an experiment once and came back as a woman, that lasted about a week. It's weird, guys do post differently when woman make an appearance in a thread. They totally ignore the women altogether or suggest they go play with kittens and leave the real work to the men (I paraphrase slightly)(but it's true).

For some reason known only to the empty vessel that is my brain, I actually thought Nef was female until I heard his voice on ATS Live a few weeks back ... and that's after reading "his" posts for longer than I care to remember. I do so humbly apologise.

Anyways, all I'm saying is that there's a hundred reasons why people come and go, it's known only unto them, you just can't second guess their reasoning in their absence. But if they're anything like me they'll be back soon enough.

Originally posted by Djarums

It's called there was a problem between the member and the administration. That problem has been worked out via email between the parties who are RELEVANT to the situation. You can confirm that with the member himself if you'd like.

Yet another reason why half the posts here are simply "attack the evil moderators" without any basis whatsoever.

Not one person participating in this thread had a clue what went on with IRM or that his situation was being worked on between HIM and the staff. Yet, so many of you jumped to accuse the staff of doing something awful.

Thank you for clarifying Djarums

It was actually due to great staff and management that we worked things through in a timely fashion... and of course, some very supportive members too

Great to be back!

IRM