A member crying out: why am I contributing to ATS?

reply to post by kinglizard


Friends will always star friends, regardless of the content of posts. I mean, that doesn't apply for everyone, but it's true in many cases. It means that the "Rating" of a post has no direct correlation to it's content. I mean, we have applauding by mods, we have flagging... Maybe if stars cost points, people would only use them where they really count? I'm not suggesting it, but I do think the starring is a little out of control. But if it's starring, it's everything (flagging, applauding). So aside from removing features, what can you do?

Originally posted by ravenshadow13
reply to post by kinglizard

 

Friends will always star friends, regardless of the content of posts. I mean, that

Maybe if stars cost points, people would only use them where they really count? I'm not suggesting it,

Yes do not suggest anything on this site because you will be attacked.

I disagree with you about the stars, I only star posts I either agree with or that have good content, not because they are my friend. Besides, I don't have many friends here on ATS.

Originally posted by TH3ON3
The ability to star single suggestions IS the way to find consensus on good suggestions.

Except that stars are not tracked in any way. They exist purely as a cosmetic indication of overall member opinion/acceptance of a particular post.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Originally posted by TH3ON3
The ability to star single suggestions IS the way to find consensus on good suggestions.

Except that stars are not tracked in any way. They exist purely as a cosmetic indication of overall member opinion/acceptance of a particular post.

Exactly my point! Why not allow them to be tracked sort of like a popular consensus vote. It would let you at least know what ideas deserve to be looked at.

Originally posted by TH3ON3
It would let you at least know what ideas deserve to be looked at.

It was never designed that way, as I've said. And we've been proactively pushing the "ATS ball" forward without any such system for over six years.

[edit on 2/24/09 by SantaClaus]

I have a very friendly question to ask of staff..

What of people who decide to give up their anonymity by choice? Like me!

That's my mug to the left.

Also, I saw a thread with I believe mem shock and jim marrs and someone else (sorry bad memory, no pun intended) who are going on a trip with each other. Not a lot of privacy there. It seems they know each other quite well.

What I mean is this... If there are people who actually wish to get together and discuss possibly organizing a little conspiracy-focused trip, how are we supposed to get something like that together?

I mean, this problem is with rhetoric, not actual content no?

For example.. This is wrong:
HEY GUYS JOIN MY MOVEMENT AND TURN YOUR FLAG UPSIDE DOWN!

This is perfectly fine:
HEY GUYS I HEARD PEOPLE ARE TURNING THEIR FLAGS UPSIDE DOWN! I FOR ONE, AGREE AND IF YOU DON'T I WILL ARGUE YOUR POINTS!

Same content, different rhetoric.

I guess I'm saying, what's the big deal in cases like that? I mean yes, we could all be T&C Nazis, but I see T&C violations every day here with nothing being done. Why is the content censored so selectively? And no, I'm not giving examples, because I have never had problems with T&C violations and I'm in the camp of "ban this dude who keeps posting scare-threads with no content or evidence."

Thank you
Jace

[edit on 2/24/09 by SantaClaus]

Originally posted by SantaClaus
What of people who decide to give up their anonymity by choice? Like me!

I strongly recommend against it, unless you're already a public figure.

If there are people who actually wish to get together and discuss possibly organizing a little conspiracy-focused trip, how are we supposed to get something like that together?

It's one thing to make a small circle of close friends on ATS and subsequently exchange information for offline conversations.

It's quite another thing to solicit random response from strangers for online or offline groups.

One is a natural extension of a social content community, the other has privacy hazards we do not want to tolerate.

...but I see T&C violations every day here with nothing being done. Why is the content censored so selectively?

Because our staff is human... this is their hobby activity... and even with our large staff, it's impossible to see all posts in all threads.

reply to post by TH3ON3


That's what the FLAGS are for.

Flags are used to indicate to everyone how well a particular thread is being received, get enough of them, and the thread is listed on the HomePage of ATS.

Stars are an indication of how well a particular individual post is recieved.

Originally posted by SantaClaus
Also, I saw a thread with I believe mem shock and jim marrs and someone else (sorry bad memory, no pun intended) who are going on a trip with each other. Not a lot of privacy there. It seems they know each other quite well.

To confirm what SO stated...Schro Dog, Ian McLean (not Jim Marrs) and I became friends through the debate forum and subsequently decided to interact further of our own accord...after much time spent here on ATS.

There is no soliciting of anything but general landmarks in the U.S. (untraceable as far as personal information is concerned) and only so that we can record the trip in a way that some of the members of ATS may find entertaining.

Originally posted by MoonMine

Originally posted by bodrul
reply to post by MoonMine

 

you did agree to them when you signed up
and like all of us here have to follow them,
even if it means you disagree with some of them

NOT GOOD ENOUGH

Wrong is still wrong.

[edit on 24-2-2009 by MoonMine]

What do you mean not good enough??? After you signed up and filled in those letters saying "Area 51" or what ever it said, you did that after being shown a contract you entered into because YOU want ATS, ATS Accepted you, in other words,

YOU Called THEM,

they didn't call you.

Wrong is still wrong?

That didn't stop you from becoming a member now did it.

No, and ATS was above board enough to have a policy where if it is good enough to put into words, it's good enough to put into writing and,,

THEY DID

Having said ALL THAT, tell me, do YOU know the time the effort the personal sacrifices made to make this the number 1 conspiracy hangout on the net? No I don't suppose you would. I once partnered in a Game Forum that took years to get it off the ground and it was one of the busiest of it's kind. We accepted donations and had sold advertising also. We did not allow anyone to do the same things ATS was wise enough to not allow.

Why not?

Well first we did not want anyone of our advertisers seeing that we had members hawking items, business opportunities or what ever you can promote you can also work it into a post.

This would be seen as a conflict of interest with many paying advertisers and cause for law suits. It would attract more like that too and cheapens the quality of the board being speckled with disengenuos postings that are sales pitches behind the guise of posts and you wouldn't believe how clever people can get with that.

Then their are those that would like to send the many members here to there own forum and what a place to steal members enmasse already profiled and without any of the sacrifices the amigos endured while getting ATS off the ground.

I understand you feel you are being stifled in some unique way however, when you consider the places I have been too or that you may attempt to try in a futile effort to replace this place, you will see that ATS offers much more benefit free of charge from hosting video content to having some of the most challenging opinions with a group of MODs more dedicated to unbiased impartiality then you will find anywhere else. Sure there are some that may be what you might consider prejudice but for a place with this much going on,, you would be hard pressed to find a team more professional fair and honest.

The rules you are appealing for redress are not uncommon and if you were an owner of an enterprise like this, you wouldn't be for very long allowing that kind of activity so give the guys here a break man, they really DO want the best for all of us here inspite of what we might think their are always mitigating circumstances to many things going on here and I would think that much of it is about issues you may not have considered until you do something like this yourself.

I remember after seeing our online visitors being around 60 people at any given time someone told me one of the members didn't like the way we were running OUR forum and was going to start his own.

I thought to myself, great, it would serve him right.

Think about it before you decide to judge them, I know from experience when someone is done wrong here I have talked to a Mod named JJ who spent a week trying to tget the problem resolved and I got a very nice personal apology from them. It was something I didn't expect and I have to say I was very impressed by it.

I didn't take my problem public as you are either so take that as a suggestion that perhaps this is not the best way of communicating your discontent. Also know that mine was also a final goodbye and that I thougt it best to tell them in a u2u just as I would have liked to know why people left the forum I managed.

I hope ATS also appreciates you making your feelings known so they can address them in a manner you can both live with.

Warm Regards and

Good luck.

Nice job Skeptic Overlord, for paying close attention to this thread, and responding! AND taking care of all the new things going on! APPLAUSE!

Me- I LOVE ATS! . . .change NOTHING; . . .change EVERYTHING; . . .either way, I won't mind, I'll keep coming back!

ATS has replaced that aweful television for me. ATS is MUCH more informative, without the commercial brain-washing of the boob-tube! Whenever cable or satellite TV calls me, asking me to subscribe, (about twice a day), I always respond the same way: "How much will you pay ME; for allowing you to pipe that crap into my house?"

I have no expectations when I log-on here or anywhere; that's one of the secrets to my happiness!

SO, thanks for the response. It makes sense, but you must understand if I see a very fine line in some cases.

I did want to ask you, just out of curiosity about this remark...

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Originally posted by SantaClaus
What of people who decide to give up their anonymity by choice? Like me!

I strongly recommend against it, unless you're already a public figure.

Haha, does this mean you truly believe that there are monitors out there that would eventually find me based on my beliefs and put me on some list? That would be quite the conspiracy, but it makes sense, this being a site revolving around that.

You might also just mean that some crazy fellow members might not like me and try to find me. I get it either way.

Mem.. Sorry about the name thing. To be honest, I don't know either man, just that they are involved in this site. And I really like your idea, I was only using it as an example. I've been trying to get a trip like that together for years. I am located pretty centrally in relation to a lot of places rife with CT. I hope ya'll have a blast.