New Topic Fire-hose censoring

I have noticed a disturbing trend lately with regards to the prioritizing of certain new threads. I am sure you are wondering what the hell i am talking about here! Well for some reason many of the newly created threads never make it on to the New Topic fire-hose page and some that do mysteriously disappear.

If you scrounge through the individual forums you will find these threads have not been deleted. Deleting them would obviously be viewed as blatant censorship, but it seems that ATS is able to get away with preventing certain threads form getting the full exposure that they deserve.

I would be interested to know how many of the members around here are happy with the mods deciding what you should and shouldn't be exposed to.

Below is a thread that seems to have been shifted about after UFO1414 makes a complaint

Fukushima update: 90℃ in reactor2. Emergency press conference,

reply to post by Utopian

I've noticed that threads in certain categories do not make the fire-hose.

Anything in the Japan or Social Issues and Civil Unrest forums do not appear. I've long wondered why that is.

Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation. Or maybe not?

I'll admit, iv noticed this too. There defiantly seems to be some people playing around with the threads.

While we're on this conversation of censoring too, I'd like to add that this site is overly modded - The amount of mods on here breeds a contradictory outcome of threads, I.E one mod giving an applause while another warns you, one reply's you your post & one deletes it.

Iv said this before, theres so many mods on here its a battle of interests and us users are the victims. I love this site and its opened my eyes to allot of things - Id like to stay a member too so dont be banning me for my opinion.

I'm going to click reply now, hoping this page isnt the usual 404 when addressing the behavior of the staff

reply to post by Utopian


its nothing new, i have seen it happen ever since i first came to this site, the only reason such an issue as that could persist for two years now that ive seen it is simply it is designed that way, they want to have control over what makes the firehose, even though it ought to be automaticly all new threads, it isnt, thats what it says it is, but it isnt, not all

dont trust anyone right? censorship happens even here, even had my own posts censored uploaded the incident to youtube to expose this hypocritical situation www.youtube.com...

hypocritical because the sites motto is deny ignorance yet the censor left and right which denies you the ability to decide for yourself ie denies you the ability to deny ignorance

also take into account they now have a witch hunt situation which they are rounding up a list of any source that is deemed untrustworthy and any time any article is posted from that source it is immediatly thrown into hoax bin or deleted simply due to the source having been placed on their witch hunt list. so the website is the one who deems what is worthy, not the members, we are not permited the ability to decide for ourselves in those situations.

the post they censored of mine said nothing more then "ats should never remove and censor a post or thread unless required by law, doing so when not neccessary is denying the members the ability to make up their own minds" it was only my opinion i was shareing, i said that twice before and had it removed by mod not only that but he also deducted points from me and placed a posting ban on my account for over two weeks until i complained enough times they finaly stoped ignoring me and removed the posting ban,

on top of that the mod sent me a reply to a u2u i sent him agreeing with me that "you did not break any specific T&C i removed your post cause it could stoke flames"

all this is in the youtube vid,

lets face it, no one is ever 100% happy with a service, best thing to do is to address issues with every effort to please the users, however thats not how these issues are handled on this site, instead every time this is brought up which has been many times in the past, the same thing occurs, the thread lives for a few pages before being either locked or removed, hardly gonna satisfy the complaints.

and on the topic of mods steping on other mods shoes, i totaly agree, i once was praised for posting the typical "this thread is already posted elsewhere (+ link to older thread on same topic)" then weeks later i did it again on another reposted thread and had my post removed as off topic, lol,

this is only my opinion i am trying to share on this discussion site, sad that doing so i still fell a fear of being censored..........again.

I was considering creating a thread entitled, " where have all the cowboys gone" the context of which was to find out what has happened to the master thread creators like Chadwicks and Protoplasmictraveler etc. But i am starting to wonder if they saw this coming and have abandoned this site.
It just seems sad that we no longer get those threads that would take hours to read, brimming with info and triggering 20 plus pages of debate.

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye


It wasn't always this way, ATS used to be mostly self censored and a thread would only be removed or edited if a significant number of members found it offensive. It would be nice if we could get a clear answer as to why there is and obvious change in policy around here, but unfortunately even SkepticOverlord doesn't seem to come out and play during the day anymore.

Originally posted by Utopian
I was considering creating a thread entitled, " where have all the cowboys gone" the context of which was to find out what has happened to the master thread creators like Chadwicks and Protoplasmictraveler etc. But i am starting to wonder if they saw this coming and have abandoned this site.
It just seems sad that we no longer get those threads that would take hours to read, brimming with info and triggering 20 plus pages of debate.

I wouldnt go into talking about banned members, that would reassure this threads own death, and maybe a ban for your self too.

I said it in a thread a few month ago, many people who are banned - like the said above are people who made me join this site. Iv been browsing this site since 2004 and joined in 08, many contributors have been banned for no specific reason - i know this because i have come across them on other sites on my interweb travels and have told me so.

I also know that many of the top contributors (saying no names) have been here for a while, but a good handful of them are pretty one sided on subjects like 9/11, Israel/Iran and all the real 'conspiracies' saying that they're not conspiracies and we're paranoid, while adding threads to subjects like UFO/Ancient Civilizations and such...It might just be me buts its a trend from high contributors that i dislike.

bump.. it would be nice of a mod or someone to enlighten us on this. I have noticed this before....

reply to post by purplemer


you know, as someone who runs a forum website of my own (for a video game) i cherish when a member brings an issue to my attention, it gives me the opportunity to IMPROVE the forums,

yet here they punish you, funny isnt it.

mad how fast mods can appear to tell you of a double post but when a real issue needs addressing i see nobody stepping up to the question at hand.

reply to post by n00bUK


well that isnt realy all that unusual, any mod can handle something obvious like a double post,

however the questions here im sure have mods defering to higher mods and waiting for them to handle it

reply to post by Utopian


I've had it happen as many others have as well when a Mod moves a thread from one forum to another. Why it doesn't still show up in the Firehose anymore is baffling to be truthful though. Could be a bit of oversight in the programming maybe?

But I would also like to know why a member has been banned. If anything, just so I know not to repeat their mistake. Maybe the Site owners (not the Mods) could at least post a list, somewhere along the lines of:

The following members have been banned for (insert reason here). It would be a good instant reminder to current members not to repeat others mistakes.

I'm sure some deserved it, but I am also sure that people have violated T&C innocently as well. The ATC T&C is quite extensive and even I have to review again from time to time.

reply to post by TDawgRex



Its weird that we cant talk about banned members. Again - they say deny ignorance but want us to be ignorant to the fact a member could of been banned for nothing, a dispute between a normal user and mod - a mod going ona power trip banning somebody just because they have the power to, we dont know - so we should at least be able to ask.

I see many people who were banned, i go onto their last posts and there is nothing that warrants a ban. I dont just look at the 2 or 3 posts, i look at a weeks worth of posting and can not see what warrants a ban - So yeah, we should be able to ask so that we dont go down the same path of the banned one, and get banned our selves

Originally posted by VariableConstant
I've noticed that threads in certain categories do not make the fire-hose.

An accident of growth and evolution. The code that generates the fire-hose page inadvertently wasn't updated with some of the new forums. It now is.

"...certain threads form getting the full exposure that they deserve." Your own words.

We have MODERATORS here that decide...much as you just did...what deserves what. Thats a good thing.

Interesting observation, I wouldnt doubt those who own the site want to keep some form of control over its content. One thing I do think is really lame is how some users post a topic, for example the Maine Caucus thread, and they'll post it in the morning and the poster disappears all day and they thread will seem pretty useless. Then someone else starts one up and they close it because there already is a thread, even though its much better and the other thread bombed.

And I also think its lame how some users reply "Star and flag, will watch later". How do you know its worth a star and flag if you havent even seen the material yet? It reminds me of the "First!" posts on youtube. Anyways rant over, hopefully we can get some Mods perspectives on this? Im sure one has had to have read this thread so far.

Seeing how an explanation has been given by one of the owners, the code been fixed; there is no need for additional discussion and wild baseless speculation.

Thread closed.