ENOUGH! Manners in the Aliens/UFO Forum and those who habitually deride, insult, and just LOVE being

reply to post by ArMaP


thank you armap, thats more like it, great response.

thanks

rich

"Although, entertainment comes in many forms, so sometimes I get a giggle at the shenanigans of the vociferous from whatever side of the fence they're hollering all spittle-faced from."

Speaking of entertainment, I think ATS should change the name of the A&U forum to Entertainment and stick all the threads in some dark corner of the site where it does not interfere with the more pertinent discussions. This should take care of 99.9999999% of the video sightings which are obviously complete BS.


"I've been here since June, and I have yet to start a thread about ANYTHING"

Ditto! It's not worth dealing with the gallons of sewage which come flowing your way when you start a thread, regardless of how sensible your post may be. Dealing with constructive criticism is one thing. Dealing with brainless herd mentality agenda driven cowards who pile on to a thread for the purpose of hijacking it is something which most people thought they left behind when they graduated elementary school.

Originally posted by JohnnyAnonymous
For The Record

No one is getting a free ride. The civil posting in a diplomatic manner is expected out of everyone.


There should be no confusion now.

JA,

I don't know if I'm one of the people refered to in the original post. I might be, seeing as your Moderation team have deleted a couple of my "off-topic" posts recently. As far as I'm concerned they weren't "off-topic", they merely criticised your Mods for being biased. Posts deleted with no explanation.

Which posters have been guilty of breaching the T&Cs? Name and shame them. Explain to the greater membership what they did wrong and why they were sanctioned. Simply slapping someone down without telling people why is surely counter-productive.

Can we have an end to this atmosphere of secrecy. Isn't ATS supposed to be about openess and honesty?

Best Wishes,
Slippery Jim.

Originally posted by SphinxMontreal
" I think ATS should change the name of the A&U forum to Entertainment and stick all the threads in some dark corner of the site where it does not interfere with the more pertinent discussions. This should take care of 99.9999999% of the video sightings which are obviously complete BS.

You bring up an interesting conundrum. Who determines that "99.9999999% of the video sightings are obviously complete BS"?

Although that would be great, I'd love to hear somewhere in "another thread" (hopefully started by you), as to what your game plan might be to "filter out" the 'obvious BS' videos. And who would be on that panel of judges doing so? Would it be you alone, or a group of scientist, or perhaps someone from the military elite?

I think that the reason why ATS is successful is that we are doing exactly that, we are the filter.

reply to post by Slippery Jim


As far as I know ATS has never been the place to openly call out members.

That would just add to the problem.

Everytime I have a post removed, all I have to do is send a U2U to the moderator and ask why. Most of the time I get even before I ask why.

There's no reason to drag people through the mud.

~Keeper

This forum has become so unfriendly I have great respect for anyone that has the balls to post a video/picture.

It seems like the so called non believers cant debunk a thread without name calling....pretty sad really.

reply to post by Slippery Jim

Which posters have been guilty of breaching the T&Cs? Name and shame them. Explain to the greater membership what they did wrong and why they were sanctioned. Simply slapping someone down without telling people why is surely counter-productive.

Can we have an end to this atmosphere of secrecy. Isn't ATS supposed to be about openess and honesty?

That has come up several times in the years I have been here.. I believe it has even been tried, but don't hold me too it..

What we have found is that when someone is hit with a T&C violation, and it goes public, the resulting drama fest could fill it's own forum..

Many Many Many times, when someone gets a warning or some other serious infraction, we engage them in a long discussion in order to better understand where they are coming from and get them to understand that the T&C is our guide.. Off Topics are not generally considered a "punishment"..... We just remove those to faciltate the smooth flow of conversation on that particular thread..

Hope this answers you



Semper

Originally posted by semperfortis
reply to post by Slippery Jim

 

Which posters have been guilty of breaching the T&Cs? Name and shame them. Explain to the greater membership what they did wrong and why they were sanctioned. Simply slapping someone down without telling people why is surely counter-productive.

Can we have an end to this atmosphere of secrecy. Isn't ATS supposed to be about openess and honesty?

That has come up several times in the years I have been here.. I believe it has even been tried, but don't hold me too it..

What we have found is that when someone is hit with a T&C violation, and it goes public, the resulting drama fest could fill it's own forum..

Many Many Many times, when someone gets a warning or some other serious infraction, we engage them in a long discussion in order to better understand where they are coming from and get them to understand that the T&C is our guide.. Off Topics are not generally considered a "punishment"..... We just remove those to faciltate the smooth flow of conversation on that particular thread..

Hope this answers you

Semper

Thank you for that. I'm volunteering myself to have my deleted posts made public. Feel free to explain why they were.

I'm quite happy to be named and shamed.

Why So Serious?

Originally posted by CHRLZ
I'd take this seriously if the moderators simply banned the offenders (including me, if I'm guilty!) instead of posting multiple non-specific threads about alleged multiple non-specific incidents.

How you take this is up to you, of course, but for those who have devoted themselves to disrupting topical discussion in this forum, this can be considered fair (and in some cases, final) warning.

Wherever possible, we prefer to give our members every opportunity to redeem themselves before taking action, because it is all too easy to misunderstand or get the wrong idea about things.

For those who still don't get what this is about, the following link may prove helpful:

Trolling, And What To Do About It

All members are free to participate in this forum as long as they do so in accordance with the AboveTopSecret.com Terms And Conditions Of Use, and this thread really just reaffirms what have been the house rules for years.

The bottom line is that anyone who seeks to discourage discussion or bully other members for any reason does so in violation of the rules and in direct conflict with the purpose of this site. Members who wish to continue participating in these forums should avoid such behavior or risk the consequences.

That has been made clear enough, and anyone who's been around here for any length of time knows what comes next.

Meanwhile, thanks to everyone who understands what ATS is about and can tolerate differing points of view.

You are what makes ATS great.

Starred and Flagged.

Since I have joined I have only really and completely lost it once. Wasn't warned for it but it got the thread closed for staff review. This got me thinking.

I learned that that person was the age of my oldest son, from a different country and has very different opinions on a lot of things than I do. He is aloud to express them. He wasn't the problem, I was !

The thing with Internet is that we never know who we have on the other side of the screen. I have a friend on my friend's list whom I always thought as a man, just found out recently that she is a female. Another lesson learned.

Being civil isn't an impossibility. It's just a matter of choice.

reply to post by RICH-ENGLAND


You didn't READ my OP did you?

Seriously...

Springer...

reply to post by CHRLZ


Did you alert ANY of the staff that it had been debunked? Be part of the solution you keep asking for, with 6,000+ new posts a day we're lucky if the entire staff combined sees 5% of them.

Seriously...

Springer...

I for one look forward to the continued onslaught of "youtube lights in the sky videos", only now I am happy to see if the original posters of the videos not only just post the video, but also post reasons why they think it is real, significant and worth discussing. Anything like that would be a great place to start when trying to address civility regarding a youtube video. When a thread starts out with "OMG!!! Alien invasion above my house, on noes!!! Best video evidence EVER" and then all you get is a video link with the post saying "debunk this evil skeptics!" (I paraphrased of course)......when a thread starts out like that is can only go downhill fast.

But I will effort to keep my replies short, to the point and on topic from now on.

reply to post by Springer


any chance of a forum for utube videos to be posted on the ufo subject
so the main board is not spamed
that way anything that gets say 25 flags is then moved to the ufo forum
for open debate
no posts just the video the op and flags
when 25 flags then over to the ufo forum

i realize its a big ask but if you dont ask.......

xploder

reply to post by IgnoreTheFacts


A thread like you describe deserves you replying and keeping in the spotlight, WHY?

Seriously...

Springer...

Count me in on the "basic decency and politeness" group. That is how I live my life in the real world and it is also how I do things here in the online world. Regardless of whether I believe/agree/disbelieve/disagree with something, I see no reason to resort to such awful behavior as has been witnessed on here at times. Mutual respect and decency are paramount in dealing with other people...

This is a problem that does need to be addressed, for as has been stated previously, this is an active adult internet forum that holds it's standards above and requires posters to be above the schoolyard mentality. After all, we are all sitting behind of the keyboard of a computer, not in a life or death situation predicated by who gets to scream the loudest or first.

It also amazes me how some of our resident pseudo-skeptics can post 30 seconds after the OP in a thread that it is immediately and readily apparent that it is balderdash and question the sanity or personal habits of the OP.

The Mods and the admins here do a top notch job, but cannot be on top of every single post; all too often interesting threads deterioate into a pissing match instead of thoughtful, intelligent debate; it is too easy to sit back, take a deep breath, and calmly write a decent reply.

It also helps to read the post being replied to several times before jumping to conclusion.

Springer, I do hope new members here will take the time to read and learn; Thanks for all you do.

seeker

Springer,

Though I am sure it was completely unintentional by throwing all skeptics under the bus you've handed the keys of the forum over to the kooks, those who think any skepticism is a personal attack and rude. And again, though unintentional, I am shocked you cannot see how this is going to play-out in the Aliens & UFO forum. From this point forward, the kooks will use this thread as an edict that in regards to YouTube video, skepticism will not be allowed. Any skepticism will be accused of being a violation of this edict, any skeptic attacked as a troll and violating T&C. Just look at how this thread is already being used by everyone with a bone to pick with skeptics for being skeptical. You've contributed to what many skeptics here feel is a hostile environment.

reply to post by DoomsdayRex


If you read his OP, Springer considers, and even CALLS himself a skeptic. What I find most perplexing about this whole thread is the apparent friction with a call for everyone to be civil. Since when is it okay to berate people for simply posting a video? We don't know if they made it, or if they are just posting something that they found interesting, unless they specifically say so.

Why is it so hard for people to be civil anymore? Have we slid so far from common courtesy that we won't even afford members the benefit of the doubt? Sometimes, seeing this kind of retaliation to a simple request makes me wonder what hope the world has, if we're not even able to discuss topics civilly anymore.

Very concerning...

TheBorg

Originally posted by DoomsdayRex
Springer,

Though I am sure it was completely unintentional by throwing all skeptics under the bus you've handed the keys of the forum over to the kooks, those who think any skepticism is a personal attack and rude. And again, though unintentional, I am shocked you cannot see how this is going to play-out in the Aliens & UFO forum. From this point forward, the kooks will use this thread as an edict that in regards to YouTube video, skepticism will not be allowed. Any skepticism will be accused of being a violation of this edict, any skeptic attacked as a troll and violating T&C. Just look at how this thread is already being used by everyone with a bone to pick with skeptics for being skeptical. You've contributed to what many skeptics here feel is a hostile environment.

edit on 7-11-2010 by DoomsdayRex because: (no reason given)

It seems you are claiming all believers to be kooks. Are there just kooks and skeptics in your world? Seems a little hostile in and of itself.

I think the bone that is being picked here has more to do with the "how" its being said than with the "what" is being said.

Skeptical doesn't equal a-hole, jerk, or arrogant. Just not convinced. I can think of a million ways to say that nicely.