It is time for ATS to vet its members

I have been a member here since 2009. I am sure those members before me will not argue the fact that ATS has significantly increased in membership traffic of what we dub as “tolls”.

ATS can easily be argued as the #1 site for alternative news / conspiracy information forum on the web.

We as a collective group are facing challenges that have global consequences.

Those members here that seek the truth behind the tyranny of governments and its propaganda spin through MSM are fighting a battle here on ATS that should not exist.

The members here on ATS are a family, one who has awakened to a consciousness of our true reality.

Many of us on ATS are friends with like ideas and open minds. Some of us become foes through different opinions. But when you close your day out here on ATS as friend or foe, you log off as a family member with a commonality shared by all………………….seeking the truth!

Security here on ATS has been breached! And it has been for some time.

Not in the sense of your personal information being stolen, but for your ideas and information that all “true” ATS members here seek.

It has been well documented that TPTB have infiltrated the social networks and alternative forums to monitor and to muddy the waters redirecting our collective thoughts into an abyss of no return.

We all know excellent contributors that have left ATS due to this invasion.

Threads have been closed as “Real” members become frustrated and often become banned for violating T&C’s.

Our time is short. We have entered an era to where everything will be monitored. The walls of the internet are closing in very fast.

Our family is threatened to the likes of our “freedom of speech” will be no more.

The information and ideas that flow through ATS is important. And it should be treated as such.

You and I are ATS. Sure Skeptic owns the site but without us there is no ATS. Trolls don’t click on the money ads here on ATS. Real members generate the revenue.

It is time ATS vets its members.

What we face on a global level is no longer a conspiracy. Information that flows through ATS may soon have to go underground.

Distractions that create the abyss can be controlled to some degree through a better vetting process. I would say 80% of the trolls could be eliminated through a personal verification process.

I know that would create concerns of “who” has that data as well as those who would want to be on ATS anonymously. But would it really matter? We are being monitored for all of our actions on the net. If "they" want more information about you due to your comments, they get it...........

As I have stated our time is short. Either we come together as a “family” and we vet out the trolls so our collective thoughts can gather and inform others so that maybe one day that the tyranny of suppression that we face can be stopped before the internet and sites like ATS fall into the abyss of no return.

Vet me first…….

I volunteer……..

And, when they're done with you, I'll go next.
If 'deny ignorance' is truly the motto, then how can the operators here be so blind? If the matter wasn't so important, I would have walked away years ago. After all this time, how can anyone who refers to the NIST report, be considered real? And yet, they still do it here vitually every day.

I've been here since 2005 and my trick? I read more and post less. I spell check my work. I don't post unless I think I can further the topic. I don't react, I respond.
I make my post count, if at all possible.
I worry about MY postings, not others. This is a user-generated site. I read what others have to say and unless it's on-topic and comprehensive, I don't respond.

It's worked for 7 years now.
The trolls would starve if they depended on me.

Cuhail

We are engaged in net centric warfare just by signing up and posting ideas that are contrary to MSM- Government approved information.

Those of us that engage others we deem as supporters of the status quo, usually do so from an adversarial point of view. We don't consider shills our family, though after so much time debating and arguing with them we may have developed some relationships with them we actually value.

Dis-info agents have taught me more than any of my like minded friends. They motivate us to search harder and express our ideas more clearly.

They are also an invaluable source of insight into the oppositions mind.

ATS has grown yes, I wonder how much we can attribute to the honest and lively debates these paid liars tax us with.

I would like to thank them actually. Net centric warfare wouldn't be half of what it is now if they had not been there to fuel our curiosity and desire to overcome. Thank you. We couldn't have done it without you! Keep trolling, we will keep feeding of your effort.

1

i think we recieve at most, a cursory check every now and then. think about it, if you yourself, were planning something harmful or knew someone that was....would you come on ATS to discuss it? this is a money-making conspirecy site that is well-run, and heads above, most of the others. that's it in a nutshell.

Originally posted by Cuhail


. This is a user-generated site. I read what others have to say and unless it's on-topic and comprehensive, I don't respond.

It's worked for 7 years now.
The trolls would starve if they depended on me.

Cuhail

I've been here nearly 8 years.I do not post much, I read a lot. almost daily

reply to post by Cloudsinthesky


I am a *brand new* member, and I don't mind being vetted?

But did I miss the process of vetting?

How would you/ATS potentially go about doing this vetting?

Very curious and interesting. Or, is it above top secret?

The mebers here show up with a mindset already in place or in the infant stages of development... and one element is a little bit of paranoia.... one of the main ingredients to any good conspiracy.

With that in mind, we are going to allow someone or some group to gather information about us and then decide if we are worthy of membership?....Really?

Frankly, they have all they need to know about me...the main bit of info is I come here on a regular basis... this is what drives there advertising income....

The trolls would not exist if we did not feed them... when we see an OP or Thread that is inflammatory and in your face controversial... it's probably a troll.

You know the type..." God is a lesbian" or some other crap like that...OK, whatever.

The coolest idea I have seen here that is old school conspiracy theory was the G8 and NATO summits synchronized with the recent eclipse and "ring of fire." Mr Hoagland would have been proud.

I think the most simple way to vet members is some kind of mechanism which allows a thumbs up, thumbs down vote on content posted. Once a post gets to a certain level of disapproval it gets removed. Once a poster has had a specified number of posts removed they get suspended. The next time banned.

For instance, a response was posted the other day which concerned something along the lines of the OP should kill someone. Instead of the volley of posts condemning the person posting, the voting process would have removed the post quite quickly. It would be the communities way of telling posters that they are acting inappropriately. I could see much of the off topic bickering being sent to the trash bin as well.

The role of the moderator would then to ensure that posts aren't being removed for the wrong reasons.

What would the critera be for the vetting process?

Who would establish said criteria?

And would we have to get shots?

Originally posted by sligtlyskeptical
I think the most simple way to vet members is some kind of mechanism which allows a thumbs up, thumbs down vote on content posted. Once a post gets to a certain level of disapproval it gets removed. Once a poster has had a specified number of posts removed they get suspended. The next time banned.

For instance, a response was posted the other day which concerned something along the lines of the OP should kill someone. Instead of the volley of posts condemning the person posting, the voting process would have removed the post quite quickly. It would be the communities way of telling posters that they are acting inappropriately. I could see much of the off topic bickering being sent to the trash bin as well.

The role of the moderator would then to ensure that posts aren't being removed for the wrong reasons.

Say though, a poster says "Impeach Obama!"

And the fans of Obama give the thumbs down.

??????????

reply to post by sligtlyskeptical


If you take issue with a post report it to a moderator. Letting ATS members vote is a horrible idea. There's already a problem with members respecting dissenting opinions. Turning ATS into one big pot of agreement would ruin the site.

Sorry but it isn't going to happen.

ATS takes the members privacy very seriously and there are clauses in our T&C that prevent just this sort of thing.

Thread closed.

Ah, the old specter of "vetting" appears once again.

So how must we go about this with the level of transparency that would satisfy yet remain with the terms and conditions? Dunk them in water to see if they float? Of course if they drown then they were not a witch at least, right?

The point of having a privacy policy and actioning members that wish to circumvent it is to allow privacy to all members who wish it. ATS has (and had) a number of "celebrities" (for lack of a better word) as regular members. Do their words hold more weight? Not from my point of view. Myself, as a member, I consider what is said and then determine if their words are worth remembering or believing. As a moderator, I discuss it with other staff to determine if an action is warranted.

All a matter of personal responsibility and self awareness in my book. Because it instant someone of authority is established then problems begin with those that disagree. See also "cop haters".

Technically, the membership vets itself continuously every day. Not from a background perspective, but that's never going to happen.

Once upon a time, this was a dark little backwater of the Internet, usually discovered by someone who had been referred here. It was like a little private club in someone's basement. You even had to submit a few lines of text about why you wanted to join and then be approved for membership.

We've grown way past that concept. Now, we're more like an open mic in a public park. Anyone can step up and speak, providing they register with an email address.

As with anything, there's good and bad associated with that. Yes, it means there's more volume which means more dreck. I honestly think the volume of gold to dross is about the same as it ever was. And there's no doubt everyone suffers from some "site fatigue" after they've been here for awhile. It all starts to look overly familiar.

Our challenge as a site is to keep things as civil as we can to encourage participation from everyone who joins. The more we can do that, the more everyone benefits.

My personal opinion is that the concept of TPTB somehow being involved in manipulating the content is way, way overblown. I have yet to see a situation where it wasn't more a contrary opinion that someone voiced labelled as "shill".

There's no doubt we have people who come here and attempt to create havoc for their own amusement, but they're more akin to common vandals than organized official attempts at disinfo. Believe what you will, but after 7 years here and 5 of them on staff, I can state unequivocally that I've seen nothing that would lead me to believe the government(s) give a single whit what we do here.

We're a discussion forum. We provide a venue for discourse. The membership in aggregate does a pretty good job of vetting the info. At the end of the day, it's the information that's important not who delivers it.

The only time we'll get involved in any sort of vetting is if someone registers claiming to be a person of notoriety. The ownership will get involved to assure the person is who they claim to be.

Sure Skeptic owns the site but without us there is no ATS. Trolls don’t click on the money ads here on ATS. Real members generate the revenue.

As far as revenue, yes the content drives it. The fact is, non-registered lurkers generate far and away more ad revenue than participating members. There are a lot more lurkers, and they see more ads, and that's what makes the money. The stats don't differentiate between registered vs lurker. It's views, in which members are far outnumbered by lurkers following a link.

Without content there's nothing to see, so we certainly are dependent upon the content providing members. But a registered non-participant doesn't make much revenue for the site.

By the way, SkepticOverlord is the top tech guy, but he has equal partners.

From the Forum Page

Founder: SimonGray
CEO & Community Director: Bill (SkepticOverlord)
COO & Marketing Director: Mark (Springer)
CFO Stephen (Crakeur)

[Edit to add]

And now I see two other staffers chimed in while I was composing this post. This was a coincidence, not a designed staff pile on. And that's just how organized we are.