Wars are not won and lost on ATS, they are discussed

The ATS staff have noticed an increased state of "tension" on the board following the recent actions in Israel/Gaza.

Inevitably, with such actions comes a degree of hard-nosed polarisation.

However, while you are batting for your particular "team", there is something else that you need to remember.

The person you are replying to has an opinion that is just as valid as yours and providing that opinion is within the ATS Terms and Conditions (and some opinions will be strong ones) then it is acceptable to be posted on ATS.

Anything that breaks the T&C will be actioned. If you see something that you believe breaks the T&C use the ALERT button on the post to bring it to the staffs attention.

It is possible to discuss the current actions in the Middle East with civility and courtesy.

WE are not fighting the actions over there. We are just commentators. We are in the priviledged position of being able to watch from afar without being in the line of fire, and that means that apart from a bruised ego we have almost nothing to lose.

That being said, there are some things that can be lost. One is respect from your fellow posters and yet another is - ultimately - your ability to post on ATS.

At all times, the first thing you should be thinking of when replying to a post is this

Debate the post and NOT the poster - Ad-hominem attacks are not necessarry and won't be tolerated. "Labels" applied to posters seem to be an increasing trend in arguments over this issue. If you cannot distinguish between political disagreement and race/religious hatred then maybe you should think again. If you - in any way - want to personally go after the poster of a thread or of an opinion then step away from the keyboard before you do something rash, consider your response and respond with facts and courtesy.

Courtesy is Mandatory at all times. Its not a negotiable thing.

Moving on, bluntly, hate speech is against the T&C and will not be tolerated

Well researched - good natured - opinions, posts and questions are most welcome.

Don't let the "fog of war" cloud your judgement and land you in hot water. ATS is a place for reasoned debate and discussion. Don't become a casualty of a war that you aren't actually fighting.

In short, chill out.

[edit on 4/1/09 by neformore]

Originally posted by neformore
In short, chill out.

Amen.

AND ... just how many threads do we have to have on this subject?

Every stink'n time a new bomb drops or a new tape surfaces someone posts a new thread and everyone jumps on that new thread saying the exact same things that were said on other threads.

Can there be one difinitive thread - like what happened with the Obama birth certificate subject? For a while there was just one thread and that cleaned up the board very well.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Yes, and the same thing happened when the aliens were suppose to land. It was one topic after another about the same thing. It does get tiring and it gets driven into the ground very fast. I do see much of it is because people do not check to see if the same things has been posted before. And others really don`t care if it has been posted or not, they just throw their repeat topic on the board just to see if they can get people to bite or not.

Hey neformore, nice avitar.


[edit on 4-1-2009 by FiatLux]

The staff will be doing their best to close duplicate threads and redirect the author to an existing thread via link to the original thread within the closing post.

PLEASE REMEMBER to use the "Alert Button to help the staff identify and deal with any duplicate or T.A.C. violating threads/posts.

I want to strongly support what neformore stated above and add a reminder (or an introduction if you've not read it yet) for everyone toDiscover "The Digital EGO".

There are some pretty explicit examples of what will get you in a fix and even better examples of how to avoid that fix all together.

Springer...

[edit on 1-4-2009 by Springer]

Originally posted by FiatLux
reply to post by FlyersFan

 

Yes, and the same thing happened when the aliens were suppose to land. It was one topic after another about the same thing. It does get tiring and it gets driven into the ground very fast. I do see much of it is because people do not check to see if the same things has been posted before. And others really don`t care if it has been posted or not, they just throw their repeat topic on the board just to see if they can get people to bite or not.

Hey neformore, nice avitar.

[edit on 4-1-2009 by FiatLux]

As a fairly new member (or user, I should say), I have to disagree with you. I do not believe anyone here is in a position to know another's motivation (to "get a bite"). Many people just deem some information newsworthy and post it. This is a useful tool for new members, which are the most important ones, or should be
I also find one point of the op disturbing. American public opinion is the most important in the world. Lives all over the world depend on it. A change in popular opinion could have shortly ended if not prevented the Iraq war altogether, just to name one example.
I agree that getting angry at somebody is unneccessary. However, I do see anger as a tool that can really focus a certain type of person, and that is many times a good thing, especially for people on this site, who "care" about something enough to become a member.
Having totally abandoned religious threads for similiar characteristics, I still believe they serve a purpose, even with all the misdirected anger....

all that being said it's all worth it if the option risks you turning into a youtube type comments forum....bleh

Originally posted by FiatLux

Hey neformore, nice avitar.

On a serious note!

New threads pop up faster than news on cable TV can report it.

Somebody farts in some foxhole over there and Bam a new thread




[edit on 5-1-2009 by SLAYER69]

Originally posted by SLAYER69

Originally posted by FiatLux

Hey neformore, nice avitar.

On a serious note!

New threads pop up faster than news on cable TV can report it.

Somebody farts in some foxhole over there and Bam a new thread




[edit on 5-1-2009 by SLAYER69]

That`s my point about all of this. What`s the problem if we add it to an existing thread? It`s still going to be read and talked about.

I like your take on it though SLAYER69, simple and to the point.

reply to post by heyo


Tell that story to the ones who have been banned from here for trying to get others "to bite" on their thread. There have been a few of them. And it`s those who don`t know when to stop doing it that get the boot.





[edit on 5-1-2009 by FiatLux]

I agree wars are not won on ATS but you have overlooked one import fact; there are no Palestinian voices on these boards as far as I know. While people like myself in the UK and US have a particularly determined intent to expose the injustices meted out to the Palestinians, the Israeli argument is the default position taken by most people. Case in point, when the average person thinks Palestinian or Hamas there is an automatic correlation with terrorism.

In WW2 on mainland Europe, there was an extensive network of resistance/partizans fighting the Nazis. These people where fighting for the right reason but as individuals, many were nasty and despicable and did terrible things. In Apartheid South Africa, the military wing of the ANC committed their own fair share of outrages including the ‘necklacing’ of traitors that amounted to alighting a victim with petrol and letting them burn with a rubber tyre around their neck. Similar outrages were committed by the Mau Mua of Kenya in their struggle for independence that included the chopping-up of British colonialists into small pieces with machetes.

The narrative of the Palestinian experience has, more or less, been transmitted in the West by Israelis and their apologists in the US. The same had been happening on ATS until I and a few others staked our pegs and consequently been subjected to a flood of personal abuse that included the allegations of being anti-Semitic when the irony is that the people dying by the hundreds are the Semitic Palestinians and for whom we are lending our support. How can one be described as a racist when he supports a peoples of another race?


[edit on 053131p://am3107 by masonwatcher]

reply to post by masonwatcher


Hammas has also been responsible for MANY rocket attacks. They are not completely at innocence for what they did. Although yes, it would be silly to say that Israel is not overstepping their bounds with their reaction to what Hammas has done. There are several people on here criticizing Israel. I see a lot of Palestinian voices here. I personally think both sides are at fault. Not one or the other. But to say that the people who Hammas Govern are completely innocent for their rocket attacks on Israel is silly.

[edit on 5-1-2009 by Frankidealist35]

Originally posted by SLAYER69
Somebody farts in some foxhole over there and Bam a new thread

Exactly.

And then the same people show up saying the same things and reposting the same facts and/or rhetoric over and over. And no one is listening anyways.

reply to post by FlyersFan


That's true. It's like they're mindless. That's why I avoid those threads.

Originally posted by Frankidealist35
reply to post by masonwatcher

 

Hammas has also been responsible for MANY rocket attacks. They are not completely at innocence for what they did. Although yes, it would be silly to say that Israel is not overstepping their bounds with their reaction to what Hammas has done. There are several people on here criticizing Israel. I see a lot of Palestinian voices here. I personally think both sides are at fault. Not one or the other. But to say that the people who Hammas Govern are completely innocent for their rocket attacks on Israel is silly.

[edit on 5-1-2009 by Frankidealist35]

Palestinian voices are not the same as pro-Palestinian people from elsewhere. Palestinians are too busy ducking DIME and DU munitions to post on ATS.

Sometimes wars aren't even allowed to be discussed on ATS, let alone fought. The staff systematically shut down every thread about that video supposedly showing a recent massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. All the threads that claimed it was a recent event were shut by a moderator and then the thread we were all directed to for discussion (the one with a liveleak source falsely claiming the video was from 2005) was also closed down. All the threads about it remain closed down with much still left to be discussed.

What [SNIP] is the deal with that?

EDIT: MY APOLOGIES TO THE STAFF AND TO NEFORMORE, I JUST FOUND A NEW THREAD ON IT!



Profanity removed.

From the
T&C's

1b.) Profanity: You will not use profanity in our forums, and will neither post with language or content that is obscene, sexually oriented, or sexually suggestive nor link to sites that contain such content.



[edit on 5-1-2009 by Cadbury]

[edit on 5/1/09 by masqua]

reply to post by Cadbury


The video you refer to is from 2005.

Maybe you missed JANUSfin's thread on the retraction of it, so have a look at this

Apologies: Video of Carnage in Gaza Market is a hoax

NO ONE is being supressed. The members and staff of ATS are some of the most thoughtful and capable people on the net. They are perfectly capable of doing their own research, and in this case, it was determined that the video was from 2005.

End of story.

Neformore just before you posted I edited my false accusations and have since continued my discussion in the thread you just linked to. I'd like to apologise again for my rashness.

I've been trying to say the exact same concept to people but they seem to ignore it.

In reality, this is not OUR war, although the U.S. government is behind it, this war is not between the average Joe and those struggling in the Middle East.

I have seen so many times when ATS members makes a "FINAL ULTIMATUM" to this or that.

We shouldn't talk about what side we are on, we need propose a solution whether it is taken into consideration or not by higher authorities.


I hate taking sides for anyone that's not related to me culturally. So I suggest that others do the same, discourage the war by not supporting a specific view, our very comments are feeding the war itself.

On a further notice mods should take action because this board is degenerating and it is becoming the usual place where everyone can slam on people making ATS look like a junk place.

well i just want to say i think people go overboard with the censorship sometimes. censorship is a slippery slope. i understand the no profanity thing, that makes sense but as an example a few years ago when i was not as enlightened as i am now i said something very stupid on ATS.

i said i thought neocon was just a label made up to make republicans look bad. someone on ATS said i was stupid. well i got my act together and researched it and found out that yes neoconism is a real political movement and label.

i felt really dumb but i learned something. im glad that person called me stupid too. it put a fire under me to learn more.

today i called someone stupid because they refused to aknowledge documented evidence that hamas was funded by mossad. i was censored for saying "idiot" and fined 1000 points.

a few posts later someone called me a terrorist. they wernt finded and their post wasnt censored.

so do you see the slippery slope?

i dont want the person who called me a terrorist to be censored, if thats their opinion fine. i would like my points back though hahah. im just saying we are all big kids here, and short of profanity we should be able to post our thoughts. if someone is acting ignorant you should be able to call them on it.

censorship isnt a road ATS needs to go down.

I've seen people call other people from words like pathetic to words that include a letter at the start, a few of this *** in the middle, and then a letter at the end.This degenerated because of the events in Gaza.Can't prevent flame then take a break.And there are some new users that I do not know where they came from but .....I don't know, this board is not what it used to be.Wish many were here to see this board 4 years ago, not saying it is a junk yard but it's about to become just that.