Its all gotta be from flouride in the water.
I have to keep myself from trolling some of those threads and i admit it's been hard. But i've been good this far.

I have started to notice a rather worrying trend on ATS the rant forum is being used more and more, it’s not staff or the website itself that is the target of the rants but fellow members. I keep saying this, I blame the newer members that have joined in say the past year or so I think it’s due in large part to the whole 2012 thing attracting people who are basically stupid. I have started to notice a lot more members (non-mods) posting more and more on the rant forum about the problems with the quality of threads and posts something I totally agree with.

A example could include a thread I came today across in the “political issues” forum, I saw a thread that consisted of only 5 words and a 2 minute long YouTube video that was a song about “Joe the communist”. That was it, now I have to give credit to the mods for taking it off but I was seriously left wondering why the OP bothered to even post such drivel. The mods I have to say are doing a good job but I would bet that their work load has been increasing recently.

To the OP, I totally get what you are saying about members who post these sensationalist threads then get surprised when someone actually replies who knows what they are talking about and exposes the original post as a joke. I can recall an example of a member who had written a thread about MI6, who are more correctly called SIS. When replying to the thread I referred to them as SIS the OP of said thread told me I was talking about a completely different group and didn’t know what I was talking about (OP did not realise SIS and MI6 are the same thing). It made me laugh but again wonder why creating a thread on a topic you know nothing about, I know very little about UFO’s so I don’t usually post other than to ask a question and to learn.

I find at times I now avoid discussing subject I would once discuss just because people on ATS don’t really same to care about truth anymore.

I completely agree with you, i've been on the sidelines for ages just watching this happen step by step, I think it's time for a reform to unite against these people, some people on here actually want to have an adult discussion and broaden their minds... but hey, it's the internet what can you do *sarcasm*

I missed the heyday of ATS, but have read some of the threads. No matter what occurs, the site adds knowledge every day, even though the amount of bickering, name calling, and shouting to the rooftops over nonsense UFO videos take some of the attention. But many threads rise above the twitterits into real discussion and discovery. Look at the threads on the recent earthquakes in the Soloman Islands, the data from the Mars rovers, in-depth discussions of programmed reality, all of these are new and yet add to the depth of information people share here. So it's not all going downhill, it just has a lot of people grabbing onto the public trolley that ATS provides.

I think we can only lead by example.

It is frustrating to work on a big thread.

Then it quickly disappears with threads full of a couple lines and a youtube link.

I was hoping the pope resigning might bring up some interesting debates combining St Malachy, 2012, the end of days, revelations, nostradamus

so...then...why didn't you just make that thread yourself and watch it grow to something to which you can contribute?

Used to come in here and find interesting threads about things all over the world that you didnt fins anywhere else.
Now you come to the site and have to doublecheck that you arent at Foxnews, CNN, MSNBC or any of the others.
What on earth is Top Secret about the daily news. let alone ABOVE it.
ATS is becoming nothing more than a boring news site with discussion.
Hope it changes back soon.