ATS Staff - What Do they know about trends in Conspiracies?

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum.

I wanna know.. in the many years of ATS's existence what (if anything) have the ATS Staff noticed about the trends in the types of conspiracies on ATS?

Is anyone noticing these things? I check the Recent Posts a lot and it seems to me there is a great potential by ATS for it's own data mining and analysis.

For instance:

Are certain conspiracy topics more alive now than they were in the past?
Can you actually point to years where certain conspiracies were more popular due to world events?
Are there say more government conspiracies now as opposed to UFO conspiracies?
Has the tone of attitudes toward conspiracies changed over time and how so?

I think you get the idea. Are these the kinds of things ScepticOverlord and Springer think about?

ATS is a store house of tons of information. It seems to me this is the best place on the planet to examine threads to find these trends and deduce from them information about how people are " waking up". I'd also bet in the Government had this info (and who's to say they don't) it could help shape policies laws, and our way of life.

I find it hard to believe in two and a half hours no one replied to this thread. I thought I asked some fascinating questions. LOL Whoever gave me the one flag, thanks.

So.. no one has noticed anything? ATS Owners, long term Mods? How about some of you long term members?

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
ATS for it's own data mining and analysis.

For instance:

Are certain conspiracy topics more alive now than they were in the past?
Can you actually point to years where certain conspiracies were more popular due to world events?
Are there say more government conspiracies now as opposed to UFO conspiracies?
Has the tone of attitudes toward conspiracies changed over time and how so?

I can't answer for ATS's data mining results and analysis. I can't answer but I'll give my 2 cents on the topic.
You can see that the trends now follow the MSN trends IE so called man made global warming- stories on BP spill changing gulf stream (ice age) the obvious lies about made up climate data.
So now days (with the internet) mainstream brings life to more conspiracy theories ( more people have first hand experience of the govt & have found out they have been lied to).

Much more govt conspiracies.

You get the same individuals with different tones Alex Jones meat and potatoes lower- middle class group.
The upper class always go for the scientist type with a great reputation and dispassionless(often boring) theory delivery.
As the online exposures by reputable sources continues the people are more receptive interested in conspiracy theories.Nowdays you are not certifiable you are just a conspiracy theorist.

Shhhhhhhh...... The Sound of Silence.....

It really conveys a lot if you listen up closely....

It has occurred to me that it would be possible for somebody at home to do this data mining exercise if they wished.

Each thread on ATS is made in numerical order.
Write a program that loads the webpage "http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/threadnnnnnn/pg1", where all those nnnn's are just a big number.
Load ALL the threads from the last few years in turn. (slowly, dont bash the servers)
Save the thread number, date, title and text in the first post to a big database.

Then at your leasure, you could do a keyword search for "comet elenin" (or whetever) and see a big spike in usage when it was trendy.

Not sure WHY anyone would want to though.

It would be interesting perhaps, but I imagine the type of community ATS is .... some persons might be upset at data being collated about them?

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


I'm quite interested in answers to your questions by the more experienced staff as well. Even merely their impressions.

My own gestalt impression is that the bar has been pushed incrementally into more and more horrific levels, degrees.

I hope the staff will comment with their own impressions.

I don't think there has to be any "data mining" vs staff giving their own personal impressions from their years of experience as staff on ATS.
.

I'm not a mod but I've been here for 9+ years and I do notice one trend that I'll share with you.

No surprise on this one ... whoever is in office is disliked intensely because they get exposed as corrupt liars. Be it Bush43 or Obama. Be it their minions like Cheney or Eric Holder. This site isn't left wing. This site isn't right wing. This site digs down and exposes politicians, WHOEVER THEY ARE. So when a republican is in the Oval Office, people call this site left wing because of all the negative threads against that republican. When a democrat is in the Oval Office, people call this site right wing because of all the negative threads against that democrat. But in truth, ATS is neither.

In US POTUS election years, there are more threads about politics and political conspiracies than about ghosts and UFOs, etc. Again .. no surprise.

When a 'big' UFO event happens, like the Chicago/O'hare event a few years back, the UFO threads pick up for a few months. I would imagine that traffic here would also pick up. But only the ATS folks that run the computer stuff would know.

And one more thing I've noticed over the years. This isn't really a trend, but more like a phenomenon. It's like certain groups will hit this place in waves and then disappear. We'll get a handful of new fundamentalist Christians on here all at once trying to convert people and they'll last a couple of weeks and disappear. Then nothing. Then we'll get a handful of new Iranian gov't agents on here all at once and they'll last a couple of weeks and then disappear (or get banned). Then nothing. That kind of thing. It's like every so often a group of people discover ATS and then get their same-agenda minded buddies or co-workers to rain down on ATS for a few weeks. This kind of thing comes and goes like waves ... arrive and disappear and then arrive and disappear again ... When it happens, it's obvious.

I don't know if that answers anything you are looking for ....
but that's what I've noticed.

reply to post by FlyersFan


I'll give you an "A" on your impressions of the political bit. You're exactly correct about the side in power becomes the target and thus makes it appear as though the site leans in the opposite direction to the uninitiated or those blinded by the propaganda of "their" side. It's always been that way and we've always said we know we're doing it pretty well when both sides of any issue complain and cry favoritism.

I'll also agree with your assertion about "groups" attempting to hold sway over the community from time to time. I would imagine it happens like you suspect as well. One person finds ATS and shoots a few dozen emails to his or her like minded associates and we're off to the races. It is obvious when it happens and it's also a pain in the rear for the staff.

Regarding the OP:

I'd say that ebb and flow of conspiracy theory popularity is in direct relationship to the amount of skulduggery the various governments get caught at. The ebbs come because the general population has a short attention span and. apparently, an even shorter memory. Without a doubt the "political/government/corporate" conspiracies have been way out performing the UFOs the past year or two.

UFOs have been quiet the past several quarters mostly, IMO, because there hasn't been a hoax that has gone viral by way of the goobers at CNN thinking it's real and splashing it all over the TV.

I'd also say that UFOs have been quiet in the genuine sightings arena too. We used to get several emails a week informing us of UFO sightings, granted lots of them were hoaxers trying to get some free publicity, but, there was usually several that were what I call "Honest Agents". The last one I recall was the Greece sighting here: www.abovetopsecret.com... and that was almost a year ago.

It's been my experience that it doesn't stay this quiet for more than a couple years, I expect this fall to have some fairly large UFO flaps, most will likely be misidentifications or, straight out hoaxes, but with any luck we may actually get a few worth digging into.

Speaking of hoaxes, I think ATS has been instrumental in squelching the popularity and initial amazement of CGI hoaxes. While the improvements to consumer grade CGI software between 2007 and 2012 were pretty stunning, our membership's ability and determination to debunk the hoaxes, the Haiti video being a prime example, seems to have reduced the number of attempts at hoaxing the world.

That said, when the next big generational upgrades come out for the big software suites you can bet we'll see a few really well done fake UFO videos, hopefully the Main Stream News folks have been paying attention to the ATS membership and won't be fooled so easily this time.

Springer...

reply to post by Springer


Thanks for showing up in my thread. Your views are much appreciated. I'd love to have ScepticOverlord's and Stephen's opinions too.

I won't hold my breath but I will keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks again for your insight.

Edit: Thanks to the rest of you that gave opinions. I know these is not really a conspiracy or a board question but I find the subject too fascinating to leave alone. Your comments are much appreciated folks.

I think it will be interesting to watch the fallout over the next few months. Are the whistle-blowers becoming emboldened by the fact that so many have come out with few legal consequences? Or will the government use the trend with its own planted whistle-blowers to spread disinformation? Will hoaxers try to piggyback on the trend, flooding sites like this with further disinfo? Interesting times...

This page shows some statistics. It will give you an idea about the rise and fall of ATS visitors over the past year. I'm sure with a tiny bit of effort you would be able to map the graph with events around the world. I'd say the biggest spike was after the Sandy Hook shootings. Also towards the end of the page you can see which sub-forums are the most popular.

Originally posted by Gemwolf
I'd say the biggest spike was after the Sandy Hook shootings.

Rather surprised to see that the Boston marathon bombings didnt create a bigger spike. I thought that while both events created conspiracy theories, the events in Boston were wider in scope and longer running.

Especially the "unique users" graph - Boston merely slowed a drop.

reply to post by alfa1


The data from Quantcast is inaccurate. The Quancast tags got screwed up shortly before the Boston incident and S.O. hasn't had the time deal with them. Boston caused a spike as would be expected, the number of daily unique visitors rose by about 20% for several days following the bombing and peaked on the Friday they captured the suspect.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
Sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum.
I wanna know.. in the many years of ATS's existence what (if anything) have the ATS Staff noticed about the trends in the types of conspiracies on ATS?

Seven years on the board and still going...here are my personal opinions of trends

Politically, my observations pretty much back up what has been said already;
When there is a Republican in office they are the root of all evil.
When there is a Democrat in office they are the root of all evil.
Both sides think they have all the answers, and both are ultimately disappointed in what follows when their guy gets in to power.

In terms of other subjects, 9/11 truth shot itself in the foot so badly with all the bickering, general nastiness and - in some cases - stupidity of the people in the movement, so much so that I'm not sure if it will ever recover in the mainstream.

UFOlogy has suffered at the hands of charlatans, frauds flooding Youtube, but also at the hands of ignorant people that probably would call a large bird the mothership because they simply have no idea about natural or man made aerial vehicles and natural phenomena. However, a decrease in sightings may be down to a couple of things such as the end of the cold war (so there are fewer experimental new man made airframes about, and also less of anything for a species who may be observing/passing by to be interested in)

The other "fringe" subjects like Cryptozoology, Ghosts, Telepathy etc seem to have gone out of fashion a little - and I don't know why as such stuff doesn't go away - its just not being talked about.

The most disturbing trend I've witnessed recently is the "everything is a false flag" nonsense that's been around this past 6 months or so which - like the 9/11 nastiness - has polluted the whole conspiracy genre and I can't help but think that such stuff has been deliberately manipulated along the way in the same manner that government used UFO's as a cover for testing secret aircraft back in the 50's and 60's. Someone decided to pollute the pool with vitriol and drown us in BS, while real stuff went on.

I do think that the recent PRISM admissions would have got MORE outrage had they broken recently without the net being subjected to the kind of stuff like "Obama picked his teeth, its a false flag to get Obamacare pushed out through dental hygiene " (I made that up) since Sandy Hook happened.

I will say this, there is a whole new level of Stupid out there on the net, born out of the mainstream media driven idea that self promotion is everything, meaning that there are a larger number of D-Ego's around than ever before - and with that comes massive ignorance. People don't want to learn or discuss. They want to dictate their stupidity and ram it down peoples throats. Thats scary.