Concerning ATS Regulations for Closing a Thread

this is a response to the recent closing of the thread titled Who Said Cannabis Is Bad?

Let's begin by understanding the original post.

This kid had a brain cancer and the docs could only remove 10% of it. He went through all types of leukemia treatment and would not eat at all. The docs kept telling the family he would not make it to see the next day, even resuscitating him at times. All hope was lost until the father said screw it! He took the kid off of all the docs medical procedures and started giving him medical cannabis oil. The kid started eating on his own and even got out of bed. He went back and got a check up and guess what.....HE HAS NO CANCER!!!! THE DOCS WOULD NOT EVEN COMMENT!

below the post was a video from the local news station that reported the story.

now the conspiracy here was obvious, the cover up of the medicinal value of a plant known as cannabis ( marijuana ). As far as the original post goes ( though the original post could have been lengthened or given better presentation for it's subject matter ) the original post does not go against any ATS rules or regulations concerning the discussion of alternative substances which is a perfectly legitimate topic as ATS ( hence the alternative substance forum's existence )


the Alternative Substance Forum - an Overview...

Alt. Sub. Conspiracies: This forum is for the discussion of conspiracies, scandals, and cover-ups related to the trade and trafficking of illicit drugs, and inequities in enforcement of drug-related laws.

check, this original post complies.

Personal use, advocacy of legalization, and related non-conspiratorial topics are not allowed. Members posting about personal recreational use of drugs and related mind-altering substances may be banned without warning. This forum is not intended for discussion of legalization advocacy or speculation of enlightenment or spiritual possibilities related to drug use.

Now, within alot of threads there are members who post 'cuss words', 'off topic posts' or somehow disregard rules and regulations. The result is simple - the comment or post is deleted and a big banner is placed to say the reason for it's removal.

In the Who Said Cannabis Is Bad? there are a few examples of that. There are some posts that mods felt had disregarded the rules and regulations and the posts were deleted. This is normal and also somewhat prevalent among the alternative substance forum because of the zero tolerance policy in the forum itself. Nothing wrong with that.

On page two of the thread the thread was closed, despite other members, including myself, posting legitimate replies, trying to follow the story and of course - following ATS rules and regulations. Why did this happen to this thread which originally followed all rules and regulations? I sent a message to the mod who closed it and their response was that the thread had been downgraded to talk of legalization. The mod who closed it was 'elevated one'.

Is that the case? Were all off topic remarks not deleted? There was a perfectly on topic discussion within that thread.

I pose the question: Can a poster on ATS post a thread within compliance with ATS rules and regulations, only to have it deleted because, out of their control and out of the control of other legitimate posters wanting to discuss the subject, a few 'bad eggs' don't follow the rules?

this is an important issue, not only for the alternative substance forum, for all of ATS

imagine if all it took to end a perfectly good conspiracy was to get one member, or a couple members to have enough off topic posts in the thread to get it closed!

that is the real issue here.

Sad to think that if the medical breakthroughs being sought and found were to hit the MSM big time and became mainstream....ATS would miss out because of their prehistoric rules firmly laid down by a certain someone when this was a HUGE issue a while back.

I personally think the closing of the thread in question was very wrong and should have only needed a mod reminder of ATS T&C. I'm sure it was debated behind the scenes but I still shake my head in sadness.

Maybe this place has big pharma connections we are unaware of or a personal tragedy involving one of our bosses that brings such abrupt ends to threads like these.

The closed thread was indeed a good story and I remember reading about a month or two back, "boingboing.net" I think. Truly inspiring and a brave father to tell the story. Good luck to the kid too.

Ho hum, ignorance prevails.

Thanks for bringing my/our attention to this though, cheers O.P.

reply to post by nerbot


what i meant to bring the attention to was that if this method of closing threads were extensively brought to ATS, all hell would break loose!

imagine if all you had to do in order to supress a topic, thread or conspiracy from being talked about was to post offtopic remarks in the thread ( regardless if it was your thread or what the original post was or not ) enough to get the thread closed! imagine that!

Originally posted by indigothefish
reply to post by nerbot

 

imagine if all you had to do in order to supress a topic, thread or conspiracy from being talked about was to post offtopic remarks in the thread

That's what happens most of the times. When trolls derail a thread or when two members engage in pointless banter and name-calling the thread gets closed.

Maybe the one you're referring to got closed so it won't look like ATS is telling people to come off treatment without a doctor's advice, but that's just my opinion.

are there no mods or members of the site administration coming to comment on this? i thought this was the Board Bussiness and Question forum? Did i post this in the wrong forum?

I remember during the oil spill's first months there were alot of threads about conspiracies concerning the oil spill, alot of people got worked up and there were many many cases in many threads of member posts being removed and banners put in place. regardless, the threads remained open because it was generally accepted as a legitimate topic to be debated.

this post is not so much concerning the specific thread mentioned, or it's subject matter, in my original post here, more so i'd like to know the ATS regulations or procedure for shutting a thread down.

Can a thread be closed simply because other members can't follow the rules, regardless if the original post and author, as well as other members contributing do?
i have follow up questions and discussion also.

reply to post by indigothefish


Have you tried sending a U2U to the mod who closed the thread? I'm not sure if they can tell you more, given that they already said why it was closed:

No Discussion of legalization

Thread Closed.

That's a violation of the T&C. But I couldn't really tell much from the thread itself because most of the replies are off-topic and have been removed.

But if you want more information, I think you should ask them in private. At least, that's why it's always suggested in threads similar to this one.

As was said already in several posts above - the T&Cs have ZERO tolerance for discussing personal use of illegal substances or advocacy to legalise.

There are several ways of handling threads that are derailed. Generally speaking staff remove off-topic posts and post a reminder to stay on topic. Additional actions would include closing or deleting the thread. An in thread reminder was posted in the thread in question BUT was ignored, thus the next step was implemented, i.e. the thread was closed.

These are not new procedures and are always done after an extensive staff discussion.

May I suggest that in the future you discuss staff actions with the staff - and not in a public forum.

Thank you.

Thread closed.