ATS is a Google Bomb! [HOAX], page 4

I understand ATS is a business, and is privately owned. It's their sandbox, they can do what they want in it.

What bothers some people, I think, is the attitude. This site is lauded as a place for open and free discussion on "controversial" topics. There are T&C that must be upheld, which is very understandable. But there is also censorship of posts, that I have seen first hand numerous times (and also been on the receiving end of) that are not actually violating the T&C.

For instance, a thread about a poll of what black voters thought of Obama's performance as president. That was the topic of the thread. My reply? I talked about Obama's performance as president, as well as how reliable polls are. I guess talking specifically about the topic at hand is somehow off-topic? My reply got removed for being off-topic, even though nobody in their right mind could possibly think so. And when I try to question this action, I get ignored, and basically told to shut up once actually replied to.

Content is USER generated. ATS would be nothing without its member base, this is a fact. For this reason, you would think the staff would have some respect for their members, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead it's "sit down, shut up, keep contributing, don't ask questions, and leave if you get tired of it"

I've been on internet forums for over 10 years, I've been a Staff-writer for 5 separate large forums, and a Moderator on two of those. I was also a paid content contributor (vendor credit), as well as a staff reviewer who received free products from vendors for review purposes.

I know how forums work, I've seen them from every angle, and I know it doesn't HAVE to be this way. One of the forums I still help moderate, which is only slightly smaller than this site, likes to work with their members. If a member has an issue, there is an OPEN discussion where staff will participate. Non-staff members are also able to contribute to these discussions. Moderators can, and do step out of line, and when this happens it's great to have such an open community. But ATS isn't like that. Even though it relies totally on it's members free contributions, those same members don't have a voice at all when it comes to how the site is being run.

Then comes the standard rebuttal, if you don't like it get out. Mature. I'll repeat again I know ATS is a business, but so are the other forums I'm involved with, and they don't have the same heavy handed, unapproachable, and NEVER wrong attitude.

Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should, or that it's the right thing to do. I just find it a little sad that member issues seem to be ignored and complaining members even ostracized for speaking up. You know, things don't improve because everyone goes along with the status quo. Things improve because people speak up about things that bother them, others put their $.02 in, and maybe some progress and changes are made. No, lets just bash, make fun, or ignore people that are unhappy with how things are run. That will work.

edit on 18-7-2011 by James1982 because: (no reason given)