Its time ATS made Official threads for fanatical topics - Such as the Zimmerman case.

Dear ATS members,
This is becoming a common thing. Something kicks off, captures the imagination of half of the community and suddenly we have a 1,000 threads on it. Each of less and less quality - Not very well thought out, no evidence, no new train of thought to debate, just a new thread on the same topic discussing the same thing. Some things got to be done.

It would be unwise for ATS to "cap" the number of threads allowed on certain issues, so i would propose that members have to petition the site to open up certain threads with certain views on the topic which can therefore be discussed by all members.

As a British person i have not been swept up in the whole zimmerman thing because its always struck me as just a normal news story - Terrible things things, every day, in every corner of the world. I think its strange how many American members of this board have become hypnotized by the whole event. Do you even realize how irrational you sound when you're foaming at the mouth and proclaiming this and that without any actual evidence to support your claim?

Anyway, Im gonna log off ATS for a week or so until this pathetic circus pisses off.

The last thing to take over these boards was the Boston Marathon Bombing, wasnt that back in may? How long are other ATS members going to have to keep suffering so many poor threads regarding one subject?

Agreed.

From this point on, there is:
- not a single original thought that somebody could come up with that is so NEW that it requires a new thread to express it, and
- not a single thought that could be stated that could not be found a place in the vast number of existing threads.

It is blatantly clear that the ONLY reason that people create new threads at this point is the "look at me! look at me!" factor that comes with a new thread, and not (as it should be) the novel and hitherto unexpressed idea that a new thread should be based on.

If I was dictator of this place, any users who post a new Trayvon thread would get a 4 day ban. But hey, thats just me, also one of the many NON-American users who quite frankly dont care a tot about that topic.

reply to post by alfa1


Dont get me wrong, if im not interested in a certain topic i dont click into that thread. However, it just feels in times like these that many threads on one subject detracts from the current quality of of the boards in general. People begin to act like angry zombies determined to be heard 3 times over!

I hope ATS is working on some sort of solution!

You don't have to open them you know...ATS goes through cycles of topics...a few weeks back Gay marriage, a few months ago Sandy Hook threads.
Funny we always get rants saying enough already...maybe I should ask for a board with rants against these

Zimmerman, Zimmerman, Zimmerman, Zimmerman.

Coming from Australia I haven't had any interest in the Zimmerman debate at all either. I don't feel I have enough knowledge or experience in American race issues to be able to comment. But when it is a subject in interested in that dominates the boards I find Ats to be at its best and most interesting.

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


Welcome to ATS, apparently you are new here as this happens with every new story, the lions share of the users are Americans, there are American political forums, that should be an indication.

I agree and disagree. I agree that certain topics basically flood the forum. I disagree about a cap. When it comes to stories, there should be a SINGLE thread, not 50. The mods can only keep up for so long closing down dupes.

General discussion of a story should be relegated to a single coherent thread, easier to mod, easier to read and take part. Tangent stories and ideas should still get their own thread, but 500 threads all about the same story, none of which really doing anything other than bickering back and forth.

But, that's ATS. Just wait til we're closer to the next US election, that's when it tends to get rather heated.

reply to post by phishyblankwaters


Ugh, I dread the next election. Now that obama is out, god only knows what two showclowns will be dragged out in front of us to pick the lesser of two idiots, and slug it out down the party line :/

There always seems to be some topic that drags on forever, then the next topic comes up and the last dead horse will sink into obscurity.

Hey look on the bright side? It has been a while we had some meteors right? I mean judging by the topics made about them there has been no sighting of meteors past 3 months or so!

Our awaken ones at this forum fall prey to the same brainwash as everyone else. Its called "oooh Shiny".

If only they knew the shiny wears of pretty quick.

To be honest, for anybody interested in U.S. domestic matters, the post Zimmerman trial debacle is generating a fair amount of new and relevant discussion material beyond the scope of the trial.

Quite a bit of the rhetoric from the Judicial branch of the Federal Government is worth paying close attention.

don't like it don't read it?

make threads you want to talk about thats the name of the game

They get everyone to incessantly argue about one peripheral social "issue" after another, and then they get us arguing about the manner in which we argue about it.

The ubiquitous distraction and resultant social manipulation is so plainly apparent that I'm simply dumbfounded at how people continue to fall for it as hard as they do.

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


The issue with the Zimmerman trial is not the same with me as it is with most people.

I see the Zimmerman trial the same way I see the Arizona immigration law. In both cases it shows the massive over reach of the federal government. In America the states are supposed to have the final say in what laws are imposed within their state.

In the Zimmerman trial the D.O.J. involved themselves in something that was none of their business in the first place. They tried to make it about race when it wasn't. In Arizona they passed an immigration law that was no different than the federal immigration laws on the books. The ones the federal government refuses to enforce.

So there you have a couple of examples of the over reach of the U.S. government in this country.

Then along come Snowden and he exposes the massive over reach of the U.S. government in international affairs. If I were the rest of the world I would bring this administration up on some kind of charges. Obama should be tried in The Hague

So meanwhile back in America we are sitting here in shock wondering how the hell we allowed this to happen. We really don't mean to ramble on. We're just trying to make sense of it all.

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc
Dear ATS members,

*Blushes*

This is becoming a common thing. Something kicks off, captures the imagination of half of the community and suddenly we have a 1,000 threads on it. Each of less and less quality - Not very well thought out, no evidence, no new train of thought to debate, just a new thread on the same topic discussing the same thing. Some things got to be done.

I see you've only been here since 2011....

You aint seen nothing yet

It would be unwise for ATS to "cap" the number of threads allowed on certain issues, so i would propose that members have to petition the site to open up certain threads with certain views on the topic which can therefore be discussed by all members.

We do and they have.

As a British person

Not going to hold that against you...

i have not been swept up in the whole zimmerman thing because its always struck me as just a normal news story - Terrible things things, every day, in every corner of the world. I think its strange how many American members of this board have become hypnotized by the whole event. Do you even realize how irrational you sound when you're foaming at the mouth and proclaiming this and that without any actual evidence to support your claim?

This is a conspiracy site ya know...

Anyway, Im gonna log off ATS for a week or so until this pathetic circus pisses off.

The last thing to take over these boards was the Boston Marathon Bombing, wasnt that back in may? How long are other ATS members going to have to keep suffering so many poor threads regarding one subject?

You can edit what shows up in "Recent Forum" I'll just let that revelation kinda sit there for you.

I agree. I recently took the plunge into membership and after a month I'm pretty tired of this website, so much so this is my first check in a week. I a m sick of reading 49 threads about the same topics over and over, tired of breaking alternative news being used by point whores to repost every single mainstream news story that is published, tired of being censored by a website that claims to be about everything to the contrary of censorship. It got old fast. spend some time fixing things that matter, instead of the color of the background and font size. This forum and community leave a lot to be desired once you finally sign up and find out it's not what you thought it was going to be from years of reading Google results about your favorite alternative topics on ats.

I ignore such threads.

It is a tad annoying though to open ATS perhaps with the inclination of some decent topics to find a wall of ''Zimmerman'' or ''Obama'' but I guess it's par for the course.

It is even worse come election time, that is major wall to wall 'same old same old'.

reply to post by SearchLightsInc

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Agreed. we do do our level best to keep things as organized as we can, in lieu of breaking events, news, other current events and the like... though, there are times where it's near impossible for us or, likely, anyone to contain, sort or file the many, varied, near myriad ways ATS Members can approach a given story or topic.



It's Then that we look to you, The Members, as a means to Help The Staff Help do what we try and oft achieve - A more organized board for The Members. !


I've always liked/ been a fan of the whole 'Help Us Help You' approach by and for Members, as that's what we're basically here for, in the end and 'grand scheme of things' anyway. .

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


THANK YOU!

I could give you a hug right now.

Couldn't care less about Zimmerman or Trayvon. To the rest of the world is seems like an everyday event.

This happens often, remember during the elections? Gazillion threads on the same topic.

Hope they put a cap on threads like these.

My 2 cents.

My personal take on the Zimmerman case : As a non-American, it grabbed my curiosity, in the sense it shred a lot of light on issues such as race relations and media manipulation.

But regarding multiple threads on the same case, threads would have to emphasize a unique aspect of the case or at least offer a unique perspective. Having one monolithic thread to discuss a complicated issue (as the Zimmerman) would be impractical.