3 Months before new members can make a thread - Either this or the site dies

I really don't think this is either a crazy statement or asking too much, before I joined ATS I lurked for a good year and posted anonymously. On ATS there is a deluge of absolute BS hitting us on a daily basis, we have trolls by their hundreds and some generally insane people. I have noticed more and more established members leaving and am thinking of joining them. I love this site and try to be an addition to its content and membership but nowadays on the site there is at least 35 crackpot and trolling posts to every quality one.

I have been giving it thought as as per the title propose that is someone joins they can post however have to be active on the forums and if they do not get warning etc then after 3 months they get the privilege to make a thread. The 20 post rule or making it 100 posts wont work, these people are too obsessive and have too much time on their hands. Again due to this new members come on and add "S+F second line" to threads or just add brief snippets of abuse.

If you make a 3 month rule for threads then it would stop a lot of the trolls and crazies posting as they want attention and they want it now, it takes them minutes to set up new accounts in Libraries and come back on saying they are a Prophet of the Reptilian Stargate. it would make dedicated new people more likely to get a feel for the place and make their first threads more of a success.

I know this would have an effect on some members and would not be a popular with new members however if you don't act you will lose your established membership and have nothing left but some quality and a whole stable of trolls. I know you always tell members that complain that "ATS is what you make of it" which is correct however when the content is becoming so shoddy and crazy what is the point of creating some quality work when it will be over looked for the latest "OOHHH NOES A SOLAR FLARE" or "LOOK PROOF NIBIRU TOTALLY NOT A SUNDOG" threads.

Thanks for your time.

This site is a victim of its own success maybe? To be fair it is open to anyone so if its a quality issue regarding threads then maybe the mods should be stricter? Maybe try not looking at the posts below your level of intellect.

reply to post by markygee


Mark if it was just about some strange subjects then it wouldn`t bother me, I don`t discuss cryptozoology for example as does not interest me. This is a site wide issue with new members being disrespectful and trolling

reply to post by On the level


Everyone has their own idea of the perfect solution to the trash threads..

Personally I think "no one" should be allowed to post a thread directly to the boards.
ALL threads should be cleared through the mods/admin before they are posted..

But some would scream censorship..
You'll never please everyone..

reply to post by On the level


Fair enough regarding trolling its pointless but what can you do? I frequent this site every couple of days and I don't see enough crap flying around to impede the quality posts. the time wasters get bored easily anyway with all the intellectual topics here and end up going back to Facebook making daft comments on other peoples pics or whatever it is they do when they leave here.

reply to post by On the level


Hi On the Level,
You should start your own business and open up your own site where you can make all the rules you want. That way, you'll be in charge of all your own expectations and rules.

reply to post by queenofsheba


You should start up a web based sarcasm business you would be a billionaire by the end of the month

Indeed! I too been somewhat of a stalker of Bernard schnitzels new account's also agree that desperate times call for such measures of security against this threat, however I have full Confidence in the Admin of the site who are aware of the current issues and undoubtedly are working out a dastardly plan to electracute potential trolls before they even type www.abovetops... into the navigation bar

The site is fine the way it is, but minus the hoax forum. And a lot less ego, from some of the posters. And its not about what bothers YOU! What you consider relevant and anyone else is too different things altogether. If you don't like a thread, find another.

I dunno, I enjoy the anarchy that comes with a Schnitzel thread. I like to see how many people on here fall for the same snip over and over and over. Way too many of you give everyone the benefit of the doubt on here. If you guys are like that in real life then you must be easy pickings for con men, hucksters and Charlie Manson types.

reply to post by On the level


I understand your frustration with the quality of some of the threads being posted here but if we were to take your advice and impose a 3 month waiting period, I believe it could also have some detrimental effects. For instance, we would be the last to read the first hand testimony of a whistleblower who decided to spill his guts as he would be forced to post it somewhere else first.

Personally, I've found that the best policy is just to ignore the trolls and don't reward them with a response to their thread, when this happens they tend to die out pretty quick. Although I have to admit that I too have been suckered in a few times by them and it usually cost me a few points before it's over. I can't stand willful ignorance and there's plenty of it here to go around, so for me, the best policy has been to just ignore them.

I rarely take anything discussed on this site serious or fact.

I only come to this site for entertainment.

Yes some of the trolling that is done on here still annoys me but I just try and leave it alone.

I just hate it when people point out an obvious troll thread and get blamed for not having an open mind.

I just scroll down the topics and decide if it is worthy of my time. I can usually tell by the title if it is a troll thread.

I wish I knew how to fix the trolling that goes on here, guess its a price to pay for membership.

Originally posted by TedHodgson
Indeed! I too been somewhat of a stalker of Bernard schnitzels new account's

I admit to being guilty of that also

I don't know that a 3 month wait would help too awfully much; I've seen nonsense "threads" introduced as posts to an established topic. I've also seen where, in my opinion (after some detective work), the same person is conversing with themselves within a thread (think Bernie).

I love this site and joined because of the minds I saw at work here and the willingness to at least entertain topics and thoughts not generally accepted elsewhere. I haven't started a thread yet, and I have no plans to do so in the near future.

Frankly I would never bother with a board so elitist they deem themselves above noobs so highly they want to impose a three month thread ban on them from the getgo! That sounds like the way the NWO and the Catholic Church operate, guilty before your through the door, from Original Sin!

And frankly I would not bother with a board full of people who cannot control themselves to the point they must impose a three month thread ban on noobs, sounds like a bad idea all the way around.

This is the second thread I have noticed about this topic.

I have not noticed any higher level of trolling than normal.

Originally posted by topdog30
I rarely take anything discussed on this site serious or fact.

I only come to this site for entertainment.

Yes some of the trolling that is done on here still annoys me but I just try and leave it alone.

I just hate it when people point out an obvious troll thread and get blamed for not having an open mind.

I just scroll down the topics and decide if it is worthy of my time. I can usually tell by the title if it is a troll thread.

I wish I knew how to fix the trolling that goes on here, guess its a price to pay for membership.

I guess everyone is entitled to their "entertainment". I don't watch the news, I got to ATS, to see what new events are unfolding. And search around a bit. And on the forums, not just this one, there is real information, real research, real testimony, and experiencers, and the metaphysics is top notch, wonderful articles. So you might want to open your mind a bit. The only draw back is wading through a lot of counter intelligence deisgned to make the truth look infantile, and the a certain in group of skeptics that seem to run over whatever truths they want to, and its pretty obvious what stripes they're wearing, its not pro humanity and for freedom and the people either.

Neither is this thread.

Maybe create a sub forum that allows users to post if they are members under 3months and if it recieves enough flags it gets moved to the main forums

No, I think self appointed skeptics should have their own sub forum, that would be fair, then we wouldn't have to wade through all of those negative comments and not see good things hoaxed.

Other than that, this is rubbish.

How about members just alert staff to threads and posts that violate the T&C.

Originally posted by greeneyedleo
How about members just alert staff to threads and posts that violate the T&C.

Just so that we are clear about what should be happening when the membership runs into a troll or something that violates the T&C in any sort of way.

We don't mind the complaints folks, that's what we are here for. And every one of them will be reviewed and discussed at lenght before any decisions are made.

So please, as mentioned above the Complaint Feature IS your best option in any situation.

~Keeper

The three month ban will make it pretty hard for anyone to stay interested but I don't disagree with slowing down the tide of silliness.

Maybe a sliding scale where new members are allowed to make one or two threads a week and as their time on the site and contributions increase, their ability to add more threads increase.

If you don't use your alloted threads then they expire. This would prevent the never ending one or two sentence OPs that must be waded through. If you don't contribute you don't get to interfere with others who do contribute.

It's not really a perfect plan but it would slow down the torrents of mindless and thoughtless crap. Even the game players would have to stop and think. "Ok I can write one thread in the next four days...better make it count."