ATS – Too many forums, Too many double posts, Too subjective?

Here is an idea that may help the double posting, and help facilitate “better” discussions

All threads are in one huge master forum list.
When starting a new thread, author picks click boxes for all the forums the thread applies to.
New thread then shows up in all the forums that are clicked. Yes, we will see the same discussion in multiple forums, but, and here is the kicker, it will be the SAME discussion (← really wanted to make that all caps :-)

For example - Lake Vostok Blah blah blah is the title.
Click boxes for: Breaking News, Fragile Earth, Conspiracies, Aliens, Diseases & Pandemics, Science & Technology

Now people who follow Fragile Earth forum will see Lake Vostok thread. And people who skip Fragile Earth but looooove Aliens will ALSO see Lake Vosok thread. And they will see it in the forums they are interested in. And they will (hopefully) be less likely to post YET ANOTHER Lake Vostok thread.

Check this out:

Breaking Alternative News Russian scientists seeking Lake Vostok lost in frozen...

Fragile Earth Lake Vostok breakthrough imminent

Fragile Earth Lake Vostok scientific drilling team not responding (← this one claims to be about the “missing ppl” and the other is about “Expedition” No idea how to stop that kind of nonsense.)

Fragile Earth In Relation to Lake Vostok Thread!! Important (aaaand now this one. Straight up EGO because no one responded "enough" in the original thread??)

General Conspiracy The Lake Vostok conspiracy

Area 51 & Other Facilities Lake Vostok Magnetic Anomaly

Those last 2 are old, but help illustrate the point.

The double post issue seems to be worse when dealing with “News.”

AHHHH, Asteroid Headed For Earth! Does it go in Breaking News??? (me Me ME! I saw it first! I Want ALL the stars and flags!)

Or Fragile Earth? (I have “friends” in this forum and its familiar, so I’ll post here and hopefully people will be nice to me)

Or maybe Space Exploration? (Let’s only discuss this scientifically!)

Hey now, WHAT IF the story was posted in all 3 forums?? Remember, its ONE thread, but in Three Places.

More interesting discussions with a greater variety of people/interests/collective knowledge? Fewer double posts? Less fragmented discussions? Maybe. Imagine that!

We would still have ALL the forums, the stars and flags and favorites and subscriptions.

Thoughts??

One more thing….titles of threads are pretty subjective:

Lake Vostok Drilling Breakthrough vs. Lake Vostok Scientists Missing vs. Lake Vostok Magnetic Anomaly.

Strange Sound in GA vs Hum Sound Over Canada vs. Odd Sounds Heard Around The World

Unless a search function is built in to run before posting is approved, I don’t think this can be avoided.

But, ATS is pretty good with the double post SMACK DOWN, so if ONE thread shows up in lots of places, maybe the community will train these egos…..

It just seems to me, with my limited ATS experience (1 year-ish), that the most interesting and informative posts are those with many voices and viewpoints.

17 threads of the same general topic with only a few posts each…..less interesting.

btw I’ve totally double posted myself…..which is part of what got me thinking about this….

reply to post by ns9504


Japanese sneak attack: Pearl Harbor!!

reply to post by ns9504




God... someone posted this exact thread yesterday...


:shk:

ATS has a lot of work ahead of them.

I'm sure they see this ......as I can see this site is only getting bigger..

I don't think there are too many forums tho... that's just how it is... there is a lot of crap in this world and not enough forums to discuss them in.

Hey thanks for posting up your idea.

We/Staff read these, and do where possible take onboard ideas, suggestions and so forth...so again, thank you for taking the time to put forth your one.


Must say I find it quite intriguing and do see the benefit in it...

Will see what the techno-boffins of ATS think of it or how workable it may be within the current ATS format...I'm however not one of those techno-boffins...I'm still pleasantly surprised whenever I turn my laptop on and it actually goes!

Originally posted by dplum517
there is a lot of crap in this world and not enough forums to discuss them in.

if people would spend less time in forums discussing the crap and more time doing something about the crap...

there would be less crap that needs to be discussed

I think the mods already do a good job at monitoring the forums and closing threads with no distinction between the two; however interpretation and theories vary from user to user and it equals good discussion.!

reply to post by ns9504


You shoulda listed all the war-mongering Iran threads, but that would probably make your OP about four pages long.

I like the idea though.

I wonder what the average time between new threads is? 1 minute? Most are just plain nonsense. I long for the old days, when there wasn't so many frivolous threads.