Invasion of the Twitter Mentality, is killing ATS

reply to post by TheLieWeLive


or some required fields.

Like location, url of orig, date,

That covers what, where, and when.

I think the OP is right about the "twitter" mentality. As an aside, if there is a medium called "twitter" and messages sent via twitter are called "tweets", is it logical to assume that the designers of the medium think of those who use twitter as "twits"?

Probably not. I couldn't resist.

Unfortunately, there are more problems than just the twitter mentality on ATS. I remember when the site owners started coming back to us with startling information from actuarial firms telling us just how well this site was doing.

That was the handwriting on the wall.

Numerous things have changed since then, and not all for the better. There have been site redesigns, the advent of the T&C, a reduction in tolerance for speculation on topics which are disapproved of by significant numbers of people (the "no planes" theory for example), repeated reminders of what "we're not going to put up with any more", and just a general sense that more and more, "appearance" matters.

Personally, I support a lot of this, particularly the T&C. I know that it has helped me as a writer and probably as a person to refrain from no holds barred verbal assaults on others.

When it all adds up though, I think the site has changed for the worse.

Some of the bannings of individuals were net losses for ATS I believe. Some of the bannings and the stuffing of the "no planes" theory into the hoax bin were hard to take.

Having said all that, it can not be easy to run a forum like this. It is very diverse in subject matter and even the form of it is something relatively new to the media world.

I think the most dangerous development that has occurred on ATS by far though, is the switch in focus to "video" presentations of "alternate" news. That's like an Alex Jones move. I can understand why it is happening but I think it really works against what made this site great to begin with, the bare bones, outlaw, "samizdat"-like quality of the written material on the site.

Guilty as charged.
I've done so in the past as I rush off to work then not nurtured the thread or just before I go to bed.Sorry Des.
You're still beautiful when you're angry

I fully agree... I am also guilty of it, but I think it is fine as long as it's done rarely.
Many people enjoy to constantly drive by and collect their little stars, rather than put any real input in.
Two cents used to mean something

A year ago, I was moderated for having a minimal post.
Is this no longer part of the T&Cs?
"We take pride in making every post count"

On the other hand, such a constant flow of traffic on ATS, that it must be very difficult to moderate it all.

reply to post by ThinkingCap

A year ago, I was moderated for having a minimal post. Is this no longer part of the T&Cs?

After joining ATS yesterday ,I made a minimal post.
After a few minutes I got a warning form a mod. I was told that 'minimal one-line post that contribute nothing to the conversation are not welcome.'

It was nice that I was warned right away and it also decreases the possibility of me doing it in the future.


PS:- I just noticed now that I also lost 20 points

reply to post by inj3ct0r


yeah, well we both know why that is



message got thru yet?

also, leave out on the over the top meme postings dude, go to cheezburger, 4chan or FB to do that

peace

REMINDER~~~

Let's please stick to the topic

Invasion of the Twitter Mentality, is killing ATS


You are responsible for your own posts.

--Off Topic, One Liners and General Back Scratching Posts--

I find myself skipping over a lot of elements of long posts. Perhaps it's also the huge influx of ADD in modern society. We want to be entertained, and we don't want to wait. It's not alright, I'm not justifying it, but rather trying to figure out why. Television and internet is now on demand, you rarely have to wait for anything. We can skip through commercials at rapid pace and even food is cooked in record speed thanks to the microwave. In the end we have a generation of impatient, almost illiterate beings with a whole lot of extra time on their hands due to the convenience of life. Sometimes, I think how wonderful it would be to have a simpler life back. Where we have to work for our food (in a non-conventional way), to go live off the land. I make my children go outside every single day, rain, cold, or shine. We have "away" days where we go out to a cabin in the woods. I see them complain about boredom when we do this, because they are used to entertainment on demand. How far does the rabbit hole go? Even with the internet, reading a thread that's too long becomes an inconvenience, how sad that is for me, but realization is the first step in fixing a problem. Perhaps we could all work on this(at least, I know I can).

reply to post by Violetshy


I think you have hit the nail on the head....

The trend that led up to my rant has been more visible to me, in the past 6 months on ATS. So many new members, that's a good thing in many ways. New ideas being brought to the table, old ones needing new data being added to them, resurfacing. All good.

But, is it plain old instant gratification desires driving a lot of new posters. Is it, they aren't being taught how to socialize better these days. Has socialization been taken over by technology...I just don't know.

What you said is so true...I see it everyday with my own eyes. Instead of conversations with the possibility of in-depth communication to a resolution. I see more scatter shot ideas being tossed out in rapid fire. Instant everything.

I have a Friend, age 42, she is a School Teacher. She can't sit for any period of time, even a half hour, without her smart phone in her hand. She is constantly looking at it, and also responding to whatever is coming across while trying to carry on a conversation. I know a few people who've stopped visiting with her because of this habit. Are we becoming a people that are so afraid of missing out on the newest tidbit of gossip or whatever grabs our attention for the moment, that we're losing the ability to...just sit. To form complete thoughts and express them.

One of the reasons I like ATS so much, is there are people here that do take the time, to try and get their point/idea across. They don't just go, oh well no one responded to that thread, I'll post 8 more and see if I get any bites there.

Thanks for your insight Violet....it made me think....

Des

reply to post by Destinyone


ReTweeting.

reply to post by Aleister


its bbs, not be back soon.

noobs

Agreed.

And when you see publicity for this TL-DR crap you see it's pretty much intended...
If you don't read something because it is "too long", then go back to school and don't bother trying to comprehend adult conversations...
Now, get off my lawn!!

Originally posted by Destinyone
This is my first rant.

Is is just me. I find every other thread I click open, has an opening post shorter than most of the titles of the thread. Sometimes, not even a complete sentence, with a link to an article or most times, a youtube video.

No descriptions of what has been presented by the OP, nor personal opinion of what, and why they posted it.

I've been wondering what has caused such an influx of such threads. The only thing I can think of, it's because of social media patterns established by places like twitter and farcebook.

People have been conditioned to present an idea in a minimal amount of words...twitter has killed more brain cells than alcohol, in my opinion.

I find myself not being motivated enough to participate in such threads. It's like getting news bites instructing me to tune in later for more of the story.

If you have something you find important, or interesting enough to you, to want to share it with us. Share more than a tweet and a link. Tell us what your link is about...a little bit to whet the mental appetite. Same with a video. Not everyone can view a video for various reasons. Not everyone has the time to view an hour plus video...But, if you give a good compilation of what is in your video, we have the option to view it later and add to your thread.

You may be missing out on some valid contributions to your thread, by knowledgeable people, who just don't feel inspired to build your OP for you, from the meager scraps presented.

What I'm seeing more and more are crumbs tossed out in the forums, that only get a couple of replies. Usually those replies are people requesting more information. A lot of the time the OP doesn't even respond to those questions. So, the thread dies.

There, I feel slightly better.....

Des

To be honest If there is a great ufo video and if is well done. I'm just appreciative that the person posted it. Of course a little explanation is helpful. It is almost like a great video is worth a thousand words. But it can go the other way as well. A terrible video is a waste of time and SHOULD be explained in depth.

I think even a great video should be explained though, to explain whey that person thought it was great, jaw dropping etc.

I remember when I first joined ATS - we were offered a gazilion points for joining Twitter, which was relatively unknown then and following ATS

Anyone else remember this?

reply to post by ironorchid


That was before my join date. Thanks for bringing this up. But, there is a big difference between following someone on twitter...and posting a thread like a tweet.

In the progression of twitter to what it is now, I think many people have grown to accept a sentence or two, as the complete story.....then rush to retweet whatever they got sent to them.

Nice to meet you ironorchid...

Des

reply to post by Destinyone


Des - I have to admit that I know practically nothing about twitter or facebook (is that a good thing? ), but yes, I see the results on here now.
Must admit I'm a bit anal about my posts and sometimes come across as a bit formal - in fact when I read them back I'm not always sure they're mine!

Nice to meet you to Des

reply to post by Destinyone

Hi Des,

You were one of the first people to welcome me in my introductory thread on 25-12-2012.
You have such a beautiful avatar, that I would never forget it.

Since then, I have made two cool threads, but I have not received any replies from you. How could you forget about me??

I tried to be original in my two threads. ...But I still wonder if I actually succeeded.

Please tell me what you think of my two threads:

Why our World is a Prison Planet ...(26 flags)

I Kill Insects ...(6 flags)

Regards
QMask

reply to post by QMask


You did an excellent presentation on both of your threads.......

Des

Is is just me. I find every other thread I click open, has an opening post shorter than most of the titles of the thread. Sometimes, not even a complete sentence, with a link to an article or most times, a youtube video.

No descriptions of what has been presented by the OP, nor personal opinion of what, and why they posted it.

This is why I sometimes think the rant section is the best part of ATS.

Curiously, people have attacked me for writing TOO MUCH - or tried to shame me because of it - you know, the whole TL;DR-phenomenon. Too Long, Didn't Read? What? Do you have more than two brain cells? If you can't read my relatively short post, how are you ever going to even open a book?

What stops people from reading something? Surely the length can't be it - even 8000 characters becomes pretty quick to read, at least, if written well and in an user-friendly way. At least if you compare to books.

I have to -force- myself to write shorter than I would like to, because of all this "don't write such long texts!"-phenomenon. If I write long texts, no one will probably read them.

I also wonder about the limits in the internet - why would anyone put limits to TEXT? Text takes almost no space at all. And yet, even ATS has the nerve to limit everyone's posts to approximately over 4000 characters (I didn't look how much the actual amount was, and I don't think it's worth checking out right now). Why is that? Why can't people as much as they want to?

Let alone those ridiculous 1600 char limitations, which I can NEVER fit my texts to conform to - especially, when there is no counter (thank goodness for at least -that- here).

Then the texts are also limited visually by the 'boxes' you are supposed to write them into. They are so narrow! Why can't _I_ decide what size the box is, by adjusting the window of the browser, for example? Oh, but nowadays everyone uses everything fullscreen anyway, and .. ssssigh.

It's like one moronic tendency of the masses created another tendency of how things work and how you are supposed to use things, which then created another moronic tendency of the masses, and so on, and soon the stupidity will have dictated a really uncomfortable discussion experience for us all!

I don't know what it is about reading these rants, but they seem to make me also change into a 'ranty mood'... well, I have so much to rant in this sick, completely awful world that we live in. And I am the minority in so many things - as far as all these mass-stupidities and 'taste' and such is concerned, that it's really irritating, because I know that I am not going to be able to convince anyone, because they still worship things and stupidities I can't stand.

Even if someone writes very intelligently about a certain conspiracy, for example, that we all suffer from, they might still wear completely black clothes and listen to heavy metal (or any of it's sub genres), without seeing anything wrong with it - they may even wear clothes with SKULLS and CROSSBONES on them, and think that's normal. And so on.

Someone here recommended the movie 'Zenith', and described how it's supposedly made by 'Anonymous'. But that movie glorifies sex and violence and masonic symbols (just look at the Eye of Horus-tattoo that one of the ugly hags in the movie has on her arm), shaky camerawork, useless, long-winded sex scenes, vulgarity, bleak and colorless 'cyberpunk' world, and pretty awful locations and lots of all that NWO symbolism, darkness, death, drugs, etc, etc, etc..

So how am I supposed to trust a movie that's supposed to critisize the NWO, but at the same time, completely buys into all that "horror" bullshít that the NWO is trying to impose on people (way too successfully, too). I mean, look at the 80's - sure, the symbols were still there (all over the place in TV shows and movies, sadly), but at least COLORS and BRIGHT SCENES were still appreciated! Even when there were darker scenes (night scenes), they were done in a 'normal' and even 'exciting' way, like in Back to the Future - you never get that horrible 'anxiety' feel from that movie, though it has a few night scenes in it.

But the modern movies and TV shows.. even the praised 'The Matrix' movie .. what's with all that bleakness and darkness and leather? What's with the 'hopelessness' vibe and the black clothing? If someone had dressed like that in the 80's, he would have been considered a real weirdo, a suicide candidate, mentally ill, depressed or someone just coming from a funeral (or going there). No one would have been considered "normal" if they wore black from head to toe in a 'regular situation' in the 80's.

I guess I am a fast typer and a fast reader. I don't use the word "typist", because it reminds me of a secretary of some kind, like someone doing business by typing. I don't do anything commercial. I just type.

And now, this message must end, because of the char limit.. which I HATE. I hate these artificial limitations. 543210

To Destinyone

Am I correct in thinking you are the same poster who suggested somebody drink more Kool-aid , just because he experienced something out of the ordinary ?
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Your thread smacks of hypocrisy and you should be ashamed of your behaviour , which was not at all in the spirit of ATS . So what right do you have posting a thread such as this ?

The sooner people like you , with your double standards , are barred from ATS , the better .