Anyone Else Noticing This Trend With Many New Members?

I have noticed this as well.

In my case, I lurked for a long time, at least a year. I wasn't interested enough in joining until I actually had something I thought was important enough to say. My first thread was good enough to get me some applause from a couple of moderators. I had waited until I had something that was worthy of ATS as I had come to understand it when I lurked.

So lurking is good, maybe these new guys need to lurk for a while before joining. After joining, it would probably be good to just comment on other threads for a while before putting out their own. That would be my advice for new members.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

That is good advice, but have you ever read a majority of the introductions?

Every one of them have lurked here since Abe Lincoln was president. Every single one of them.



I couldn't resist.

I rarely look at join dates.
I have noticed some introduction threads lately are trying to be threads
I suppose they join because they've held something in for so long and need to get it off their chest?

I've been a member for a good while and have seen people come and go. It's not surprising with how big ATS has become in the past few years to attract all sorts. That's why I joined in the first place many many moons ago because of the diverse subjects discussed.

Nowadays I mainly frequent for the lulz and something to read to inspire my writing. Agreeing with you that there are a few 'fishy' posts as of late but someone earlier did mention a muddying of the waters.

I only remember samurai Lincoln though. Dunno who this Abe guy is...



-[initiate /lurk]-

a reply to: jude11
I notice one new member ( 2 weeks here) that just goes around debunking everything, contributes nothing but insults.

No avatar means nothing, but you said that.
I don't have one.

In many ways I am a 'newbie'. Only signed up this year and still have not contributed to many posts.

However, I have been a regular visitor to the site for about 9 years before I actually signed up. This kind of thread does spring up nearly every summer holidays and it has always been felt that so many teenagers and even college students bored during this period tends to manifest with a lot of new and uninformed newbies posting for kicks.... This usually dies down by the end of September.

The site has without a doubt become more mainstream in recent years, and this has changed the mood, tone and contents of debates significantly. When I first started reading I did not sign up and participate as I felt that the discourse between people was at such a high academic level that I would be completely out of my depth in arguing any points. Now I rarely post (unless I feel particularly passionate about a topic) as the discourse can be too sophomoric and opinion lead. Threads used to be started to discuss and debate - often with a piece of evidence presented to stimulate that debate. Now threads are stared more often than not based on pure opinion with the following responses all just counter opinions with little validity.

There were two points where I felt this significant shift.

1) Obama taking office - suddenly this board shifted from many left leaning member discontented with the Bush administration, to many more right leaning member who think Obama is a Muslim/un-American/Satan's spy (delete as required .) This of course led to a major change in the tone of the discourse and the more right winged voice is naturally more confrontational and unable to look at two sides of an argument. ( this also explains Fox News and Congress right?)

2) The pop star Robbie Williams giving the site world wide publicity by talking about it in interviews. I am not dissing Mr Williams here. It is great to see someone in the public eye willing to talk about alternative theories, however it did bring in a completely different audience to to the site that were much less informed. Hopefully quite a few of those people became well informed through using this site, but many just were here for kicks and still remain here to this day.


Right I'll go back to lurking for now..... Until I see another topic I feel I can actually make a worthwhile contribution to.

a reply to: jude11

I'm newish. I didn't do any of that stuff in your OP.

Does that mean I can't be a member anymore?

Do I have to start all over again? I'm going ghost hunting now so I can truly belong.

a reply to: jude11

Majority have no avatars, sigs. I know not important but so many!

Jude I have to disagree

Without an avatar it's just another grey box, there are so many avatars I see and think "That'll be worth a read" or "Here we go again" LOL

There are a few grey boxes from older members where the name sticks out, but that is a very few. OK I'm biased because I'm one of the avatar artists, but we love creating then, and it gives a sense of individuality IMHO.

Cody

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

My day of birth was April 14th.

The same date of Lincoln's assassination.

Except 125 years later.


Soo....
YOU DO THE MATH!

Muahahahaaaahaaaa!
*SCARY SPOOKY GHOST SOUNDS*

a reply to: Inarismessenger

I'm impressed with how low your post count is for how long you have been a member. That's some selective posting right there!

Discussing members is a no no on ATS.

Thread closed for staff review.