Dear site owners... US politics...?

It's inevitable that people will attempt to derail discussions, Trump or not.

You can post a topic about trout fishing in New Zealand, and it's inevitable some twit will blame it on some US invasion, Trump, the Masons, or the Zionists.

It's because some people have nothing to add and have time on their hands. They may even think they are being clever and intellectual.

It's just something to live with on public discussion boards. It's everyone's responsibility to keep to topic and not to rise to the bait. If you ignore people, then they will go away.

originally posted by: scubagravy
a reply to: Reverbs

Thanks for the B.S man,

Certainly on topic.

yes sometimes a wild reverbs plays a game to show what it is being said.

cheers

originally posted by: paraphi
It's inevitable that people will attempt to derail discussions, Trump or not.

It's just something to live with on public discussion boards. It's everyone's responsibility to keep to topic and not to rise to the bait. If you ignore people, then they will go away.

best point made so far.

but

this is why we can't have nice things.



so until our focus as a group changes, this is it..

I did notice in America that EVERYONE was watching. It was never like that in the past. I bet TV stations got amazing ratings..

I guess the collective mind has this like a bad song that's catchy. Just stuck in our heads. Someone should release a new hit single, or god please an entire album..

If people are still here this is another great read , sadly the poster did not get around to the 3rd instalment .

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff


Hahahahaha

Dude that was awesome

Any other forum (especially the UFO ones) and u would have broken the interwebz coz of all the stars it got

I had my self cracking up..

oh man

a reply to: Reverbs

Oh, short bus games.....sorry, i should have known, but it wasn't in the OP, silly me.

I'm really baffled by the thought process of the OP. You cannot change what the majority of posters clearly think of as discussion worthy subjects. You can choose not to participate in them - it's really quite simple. Only open the sub-forums that you're interested in, and voila! If in some rare cases someone posts something off-topic in one of those threads, alert an admin - as it has been and will continue to be ATS policy for off-topic posts to be removed. And from my experience this policy has been sufficiently and consistently enforced - so no worries there.

Sounds to me though that you're more interested in trying to push your agenda and dictate upon others what you deem worthy of discussion. ATS doesn't work like that mate, and you will find no joy trying to change it here on ATS. If you don't like it go join another forum or better yet, make your own.

a reply to: Lagomorphe

Look....

No one likes the amount of political debate that is happening here at the moment, because lets face it, its largely speaking two groups of deluded morons, one group deluded into thinking that Trump has any business being in politics at all, and the other deluded into believing that arguing the points is going to actually make a dent in the nearly religious fervour with which Trumps fans and supporters treat him.

But there ARE things that can be done about the state of the site, without stopping new Trump related threads from being posted, without corralling them somehow, or in any way restricting them. One of the issues highlighted in this thread, is that conversations which have nothing to do with Trump, can be derailed into yet another partisan crapfest after just three posts. There is a way to prevent this. It is not new, it is not special, it is not flashy or in anyway unique. All that one must do when a post is clearly off topic, is actually bother to report the post, by alerting a mod to it, using the same methods as we already were for bad language, other off topic posts, and so on.

The moderators literally cannot do a damned thing, unless we tell them what the problem is, where it is, show them the problem. Use the alert feature, spend a whole day if you have to, doing nothing but trawling for off topic posts, derailing attempts, baiting posts and so on, and alert every single one you see. Do not get drawn in yourself, just make the moderators aware of what is happening, by alerting every post which violates the the requirement to stay on topic.

Post threads which have no mention of or involvement with Trump, create threads which can only be legitimately interacted with, if no mention of his name is being made during that interaction. Alert all posts which fail to stay on topic, at all times.

This is the only way to get what you want out of the site, and it is the only way to ensure that the standards we expect on this site are enforced. Put another way, the police rarely turn up unless you call them, and the moderators are not gods. They need our input to make this site work for us. Give them what they need to do their jobs, because unless we do that, we have only ourselves to blame for the shoddy state of discourse on this site.

a reply to: Lagomorphe

I did at least three rants on the same topic, I've seen maybe two dozen of the same rants by other memebers. Now you politely handle the issue in the board section of the forums. However I think it is for the survival section - brains HAVE BEEN EXTERMINATED from ATS. Its proven and undebunkable.


my latest joke on this ---> www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Lagomorphe

Look....

No one likes the amount of political debate that is happening here at the moment, because lets face it, its largely speaking two groups of deluded morons, one group deluded into thinking that Trump has any business being in politics at all, and the other deluded into believing that arguing the points is going to actually make a dent in the nearly religious fervour with which Trumps fans and supporters treat him.

But there ARE things that can be done about the state of the site, without stopping new Trump related threads from being posted, without corralling them somehow, or in any way restricting them. One of the issues highlighted in this thread, is that conversations which have nothing to do with Trump, can be derailed into yet another partisan crapfest after just three posts. There is a way to prevent this. It is not new, it is not special, it is not flashy or in anyway unique. All that one must do when a post is clearly off topic, is actually bother to report the post, by alerting a mod to it, using the same methods as we already were for bad language, other off topic posts, and so on.

The moderators literally cannot do a damned thing, unless we tell them what the problem is, where it is, show them the problem. Use the alert feature, spend a whole day if you have to, doing nothing but trawling for off topic posts, derailing attempts, baiting posts and so on, and alert every single one you see. Do not get drawn in yourself, just make the moderators aware of what is happening, by alerting every post which violates the the requirement to stay on topic.

Post threads which have no mention of or involvement with Trump, create threads which can only be legitimately interacted with, if no mention of his name is being made during that interaction. Alert all posts which fail to stay on topic, at all times.

This is the only way to get what you want out of the site, and it is the only way to ensure that the standards we expect on this site are enforced. Put another way, the police rarely turn up unless you call them, and the moderators are not gods. They need our input to make this site work for us. Give them what they need to do their jobs, because unless we do that, we have only ourselves to blame for the shoddy state of discourse on this site.

Look at what?

What you have written above has been discussed here on the following thread and many people have said exactly the same thing as you...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Your words have also been repeated time and time again by others in other threads relating to this same subject.

We are not all blind or wear blinkers.

I am asking a simple question to the site owners. as per my OP

Warmest

Lags

a reply to: Lagomorphe

But the site owners are not in control of what gets posted, they are not in control of whether posts which ought to be alerted, are actually alerted. They are in charge of keeping the damned thing running at all!

Its OUR job to keep the place tidy.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Lagomorphe

But the site owners are not in control of what gets posted, they are not in control of whether posts which ought to be alerted, are actually alerted. They are in charge of keeping the damned thing running at all!

Its OUR job to keep the place tidy.

Did you see where I posted this and the question I asked?

You don't need to hammer the fact in that we are all responsable for our actions, the large majority of us already know this... but a kind reminder anyways...

And yes, the site owners are in control here and there alot of behind the scenes discussions between site owners and staff as to what actually happens here.

Believe me, I help run a similar site too and owners and staff communicate about everything.

Warmest

lags

The answer is easy, just report the malcontent post with an alert to the MODS. easy peasy. I have no problem reporting errant sh!te. If they agree the posts will be removed and if flagrant, a post ban will be in effect. The mods have repeatedly told us this, they need to be informed to take action, they can not be everywhere at once.

Plus you get a cookie for your efforts.

a reply to: jappee

Tis true.

The fabled ATS cookie is moreish and delightful. You need to watch the crumbs though, because they play havoc with a keyboard!

a reply to: Lagomorphe

I've found another forum that doesn't depend on ad revenue and allows us to discuss actual conspiracies.

Lately I visit ATS to catch up on mainstream news, if I'm lucky i might stumble upon a good ufo or ancient civilization thread but it looks like those authors jumped ship too.

I still like the site and am not here to bash the owners but they let it become what it is now.

About Trump Stuff = ATS

Just started a thread to get ATS back on track , nothing . Go figure .

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Dont whine on on this thread , go to the thread a make changes happen , there is a lot of great stuff on here .

More threads about topics people are interested about creates more traffic (in theory), more traffic creates more ad revenue which lines their pockets with gold!

Always about money. Always.

As it's been said, but it looks like it needs repeating over and over: if anyone sees posts in a thread that are off topic and derailing a thread, the best thing to do is to alert the moderators about it.

They can't be everywhere or see everything right away. Responding to the offending posts most likely only makes things worse. I've seen threads where whole pages go down the tubes because of off topic comments.

In case anyone may have forgotten how or doesn't know how to alert the moderators about it, here is a thread explaining how:

How To Properly Alert Posts and Threads

If you are in a UFO thread and see someone wanting to start posting about Trump....alert it.

Even if we tripled the staff size, we wouldn't see every post. So rely on alerts from members. If you see it and don't alert it, then there is nothing that will likely happen.

Side note: what did we think would happen when we started cutting NASA funding? The trickle of "woo bait" has slowed. And save for the random new member, we are all mostly tired of looking at Mars/Moon rocks.

a reply to: Lagomorphe

No, a simple question would have been in a private message.

This is shouting to the owners in the lobby of their building in the most public way that can be mustered. Maybe not a huge difference in approach...but there is a difference.