I am disappointed with the handling of this thread by ATS. Please explain.

First of all I would like to state that in the few months of my time on ATS, I have seen some "doozy" of threads by hoaxers. These threads were obviously hoaxes and it was found out relatively quickly.

With that being said, I was checking the new thread pipeline and came across this thread.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

This story was posted in the gray area of ATS. It was his experience and he had some seemingly serious concerns for his thread title. The responses from ats members were quite repugnant to say the least. If this is how we are going to start to meet people with their gray area stories, then why not take the gray area forum out?
I have read some seriously deranged stories in this forum and I thought what the op was claiming was not any more out there then the rest of the stories. He had pictures to back up the claim that he made. Did anybody even look at the pictures ID mark or whatever? I will not get into specifics, but some of the debunking claims were outright outragous in themselves.

Now if this is a known hoaxer or not I do not know. But I think that unless the Top Brass at ATS has a personal problem with this poster, or his IP is known to be used by hoaxers, then what is the deal here? He was replying to the posters comments and following the rules set forth by ATS managment. Are we going to start treating every story like this? Like I said if this guy is hoaxing then he will be taken care of, but I see no reason to doubt any of his claims enough to shut down his thread completly.

I did not want this in the rant section because I think that these are legitimate points that I am stating, not just an emotional rant. I expect this thread not to last long because of me questioning the intent of such moderator. But I feel this member's thread was unjustly shut down and going against the "Deny Ignorance " motto of ATS.

Just looking for some insight or clarification of what I see as double standards here on ATS.

reply to post by liejunkie01


best advice, relax, step back, turn off the computer, and read a book.. life isnt just the forum.. I'm sure ATS has a reason.. u2u someone and ask.. don't lose your cool

reply to post by liejunkie01


Reading the first few comments now and they don't seem bad at all. What exactly are you complaining about? They are saying there is a possibility of some sort of wound, maybe snakebite, instead of saying that it is an alien implant and encouraging creative thinking. Although not very grey, I don't see a problem, I think more rational things need to be checked first, from what I see, there is nothing special about the picture, I don't really see a long story either, so what type of replies were you hoping for?

Oh, ok, maybe I was a bit quick to judge, maybe we're getting somewhere on the second page.

reply to post by Myendica


I have been taking more time off of the computer. This just disappoints me a little because of all of the other threads with such questionable content this guy's gets shut down. He even added more info to back up his situation than most.

Really, alien implant or not, the dude should've been at the doctors rather than on the internet.

I agree some people probably went overboard but yeh, his priorities were wrong.

I'd say that's why he got that reaction from people.

Don't know why your getting so worked up about it.. It wasn't your thread.. I'm sure there is a valid reason for it.
Hoaxes and such have to be moved, because if they didn't this site would be seriously discredited and no one would believe a word written on this site.
Would you bother to log on or read anything in here?

Anyway, the thread you talk about, had no evidence of alien abduction, just a picture and a small bit of text, with literally no information.
So in reality without any of that to support the op's claim, it should have been moved in my opinion..

I mean.. Come on, think about this seriously for a minute, the guy wakes up and finds a mark on his daughters leg and automatically thinks she has been abducted and an implant is put in her leg.
There could be a million explanations for this to happen.. Alien abduction would be one of the last things I would think of.. It's actually ridiculous, when you think about..

reply to post by iamaperson


For example, The poster claiming it was a hoax because the picture of the leg was not from a child. I dont know about the rest of the members here but I can take a picture of my childrens feet to compare. Did anyone else try this? This was a pretty aweful attempt to debunk a photo because my kids feet are different then his. Are all kids feet the same? By the tone of the poster, he was attempting to shut down the thread on this premise alone.

This whole debunking thing(my story is better than yours,so therefore it is right attitude is wrong).. I could not even post my thoughts on this because of the mod thought it was necessary to shut the converstion down.

This is the problem I have.

Originally posted by GobbledokTChipeater
Really, alien implant or not, the dude should've been at the doctors rather than on the internet.

I agree some people probably went overboard but yeh, his priorities were wrong.

I'd say that's why he got that reaction from people.

edit on 7/3/11 by GobbledokTChipeater because: (no reason given)

Do you have kids? I personally do not think that this wound(just from the pic) was in serious need of a doctor. I believe that this is part of the reason that doctor and health insurance is so expensive. There was no frature of the bone(again from the pic) or serious deep tissue damage.

Whether it came from an alien implant is up for debate.( I personally agree with the insect bite theory). This is what this site is about, isn't it? Debate the possibilities. Not just say your wrong and were shutting you down.

reply to post by liejunkie01


Haven't seen the one about the feet, but I think that the OPs story was lacking, and the image to me does not look alien-like at all. To me at least it is a good idea to throw a few possibilities out, just in-case this person is being serious.

PS. I can't really tell how old that feet is, sort of looks older than a baby, sort of could be, I don't know.

PPS. I think that the OP should have gone to the doctors. What type of a dad goes on ATS to post about the fact that his "baby" woke up screaming with an injury like that instead of going to the doctors or the hospital. To me its a bit like the other hoaxes, like McCann case (oh, that might not be a hoax), but at least the balloon boy one, where the parents phone the news companies before the emergency services, to me that signals there's something fishy going on. Also, with that kind of proof (just a photo of a normal looking injury, no story), is not adequate. I agree debate is good, but I agree that OP was not being very reliable. Maybe he was being serious, in which case I still think he should have gone to the doctors, but still the debate should be allowed.

Originally posted by Misterlondon
Don't know why your getting so worked up about it.. It wasn't your thread.. I'm sure there is a valid reason for it.
Hoaxes and such have to be moved, because if they didn't this site would be seriously discredited and no one would believe a word written on this site.
Would you bother to log on or read anything in here?

Anyway, the thread you talk about, had no evidence of alien abduction, just a picture and a small bit of text, with literally no information.
So in reality without any of that to support the op's claim, it should have been moved in my opinion..

Lets take a look at what the gray area is about. Quoted from moderator.

The Gray Area is a discussion forum that provides a dedicated area for members to post their confessions, disclosures, and related extraordinary personal experiences. Like the highly speculative Skunk Works forum, The Gray Area will tolerate topics that may be unusually hypothetical or unproven for the purpose of vetting the stories of thread-starters by the ATS membership at large.
By nature, The Gray Area tends to involve unproven claims and anecdotal testimony that may arouse skepticism in some members.

www.abovetopsecret.com...


Is this not classified as an "extrordinary personal experience"?
It is hypothetical and unproven.

Originally posted by liejunkie01

Do you have kids? I personally do not think that this wound(just from the pic) was in serious need of a doctor. I believe that this is part of the reason that doctor and health insurance is so expensive. There was no frature of the bone(again from the pic) or serious deep tissue damage.

Whether it came from an alien implant is up for debate.( I personally agree with the insect bite theory). This is what this site is about, isn't it? Debate the possibilities. Not just say your wrong and were shutting you down.

The reason I say take it to the doctor is because it could be a bite from various spiders, some of which the full effects could take time to show.

Of course it doesn't look fractured or any deep tissue damage or such, mr obvious

Also, there was no reason whatsoever for the OP to come up with the possibility of an alien implant, other than imagination. I would assume that's why people said he's wrong

reply to post by GobbledokTChipeater


But it is the gray area(I hate to be mr obvious again), he deserves his right to believe what he wants. Even if it is way out there.

Originally posted by liejunkie01
reply to post by GobbledokTChipeater

 

But it is the gray area(I hate to be mr obvious again), he deserves his right to believe what he wants. Even if it is way out there.

He should at least explain what he believes in some detail. That way we know he actually believes it. Rather than showing a picture of a regular wound and stating that it is of alien origin, maybe give some sort of background and story to what you are saying, and tell us what you did, eg. go to the doctor, show it to the post man, rush to the hospital, dial 000 and tell them about your child being abducted by aliens invading your house from a big ufo...

reply to post by iamaperson


I agree with you.

But is this enough to shut down the thread? Between all of the attacking and mockery of the op he could not even explain his situation. Just over one hour to try to explain why, this is not enough time with all of the BS replies to his thread.

reply to post by liejunkie01


Maybe he can provide some evidence to the mod to get his rights back? Really I agree with the mod, that thread is going no-where, until he provides some sort of proof/evidence/story all he is going to get is mockery. I think the OP is allowed to appeal to the decision of mods, right?

I think its really interesting that that thread is at the top of the NEW-HOT threads, Newest topics getting replies, in real-time. You would think that the threads closed by mods are excluded from those HOT threads, or that mods can't remove HOT threads.

Originally posted by liejunkie01
reply to post by GobbledokTChipeater

 

But it is the gray area(I hate to be mr obvious again), he deserves his right to believe what he wants. Even if it is way out there.

Yes he can believe what he wants.

The thread was closed because it was turning into a circus, rather than a lack of evidence, I would suggest.

reply to post by GobbledokTChipeater


Well I can agree with that.

I had to shut down and take care of some secutrity issues that I encounter only on ATS. This crap has me wondering what the hell is going on with this site anymore. Question authority and get sent to the debugging station. I am outa here. It is my sons birthday(no I will not upload a copy of his birth certificate for verification...lol) and the recent attempt to attack my computer has put a damper on my willingness to explore more on ATS right now. I know that you all will laugh, but quite frankly, laugh.

I will vistit later tonight and read up to reply to comments.

Thank you for reading my concerns. With this recent sorry attempt to disrupt my knowledge seeking wishes, all I will say is, it worked.

the op, and the first response following it, pretty much sums up the ats experience these days...

I examined the thread. The mod who closed it stated why it was closed. The OP was making the claim, and then stated he was taking the girl/s to the Dr. (which would then provide more info), so it was closed pending those results. However, as I'm not sure if any arrangement was made between the OP and the mod to give an update, I'll reopen the thread, though another mod may close again, but I'll state my reasons for doing so.

For future reference, (and faster action), I'd recommend either using the Complaint feature, or U2U'ing the mod who closed a thread, etc. I just happened to be in here and saw this thread, otherwise, may not have popped up on our radar.

Originally posted by liejunkie01
reply to post by GobbledokTChipeater

 

But it is the gray area(I hate to be mr obvious again), he deserves his right to believe what he wants. Even if it is way out there.

Stop going on about it being in the Grey Area! A Mod moved it from the Aliens/UFO area INTO Grey!!

I would very much like to know what posts you found so "repugnant". I hope you don't have a firm grasp on what that word means, because if you do, you are being very much the drama Queen. IN fact, I think this whole thread was devised for drama.