Cultural diversity within ATS

A long time lurker and short-term poster, I am getting the feeling that ATS needs to attract people from a number of other countries - especially those we all like to comment on. I have just finished watching African Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby and during the series he commented on the explosion of internet services now that connectivity has greatly improved.

This forum is both full of bull, but has a great number of open-minded people able to engage in the life experiences of others. One great aspect to ATS is the number of people who maintain good journalistic integrity when posting. It would be great to imagine a reality of bringing ATS to so many different markets of cultures to exchange opinions and for us all to learn something new.

reply to post by LarryLove


What makes you think that ATS is not culturally diversified? I think this is internet Utopia b/c no one is talking about race.

reply to post by packinupngoin


Looking at the demographics of this site, the vast majority of visitors come from the States, UK, India and Australia. There are other countries listed, but they are the usual western suspects. It's when you see a whole continent like Africa on the verge of a communication explosion that you realize there are so many other voices that need to be heard and engaged with.

This isn't a race/ATS thing.

Originally posted by packinupngoin
reply to post by LarryLove

 

What makes you think that ATS is not culturally diversified? I think this is internet Utopia b/c no one is talking about race.

There's a lot of talk of race and religion here on ATS, but from what I can tell the majority of users are white males living in western cultures.

Originally posted by woodwardjnr

Originally posted by packinupngoin
reply to post by LarryLove

 

What makes you think that ATS is not culturally diversified? I think this is internet Utopia b/c no one is talking about race.

There's a lot of talk of race and religion here on ATS, but from what I can tell the majority of users are white males living in western cultures.

It kind of feels like that. I have read a lot around this forum and I really want to be proven wrong, but I think this is the case.

I see lots of people from different countries posting here daily. Personally I think ATS is culturally diverse already. ATS is also politically diverse. That's why I like coming here, get to read all different opinions and get different perspectives from people of all different backgrounds from around the globe.

I'd like to hear from the Chinese and russian people more on how they see the world. As for Africans, in my experience the Africans I've talked to who have immigrated over to the west aren't really bothered by politics or a search for truth. In my experience they are a pretty naive bunch.....

White western male here ,sorry.I think there is a major language barrier with many places.I have also noticed that there are really many different internet factions , the anglosphere being one of them.I've always thought it would be interesting to talk to the Chinese about their culture and conspiracies do they get ATS there?

Originally posted by INQUISITION11
White western male here ,sorry.I think there is a major language barrier with many places.I have also noticed that there are really many different internet factions , the anglosphere being one of them.I've always thought it would be interesting to talk to the Chinese about their culture and conspiracies do they get ATS there?

Me too, white western male that is. I would like to see what countries ATS is being filtered in. Can anybody access that kind of information?

I think language is one problem, but marketing of said site also. Peddling the conspiracy wheel isn't attractive to all and this site has evolved into a very different animal from when it began.

reply to post by LarryLove


Look I doubt very seriously that ATS markets their site. I mean how did you learn about ATS?
I'll take a wild guess either through word of mouth or through a search. That is how I found ATS. I like the community here why should we advertise everything?

Originally posted by packinupngoin
reply to post by LarryLove

 

Look I doubt very seriously that ATS markets their site. I mean how did you learn about ATS?
I'll take a wild guess either through word of mouth or through a search. That is how I found ATS. I like the community here why should we advertise everything?

I like the community here too, but feel we could be allowing more voices to be heard. We should not become a closed community, but invite voices and opinions from places you or I have never been.

reply to post by LarryLove


I don't see how anyone at ATS is keeping it a closed community, people are here because the site talks about things that matter to them. Its all just a web search away for anyone on the planet who lives in the free world...

Originally posted by LarryLove
A long time lurker and short-term poster, I am getting the feeling that ATS needs to attract people from a number of other countries - especially those we all like to comment on. I have just finished watching African Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby and during the series he commented on the explosion of internet services now that connectivity has greatly improved.

This forum is both full of bull, but has a great number of open-minded people able to engage in the life experiences of others. One great aspect to ATS is the number of people who maintain good journalistic integrity when posting. It would be great to imagine a reality of bringing ATS to so many different markets of cultures to exchange opinions and for us all to learn something new.

ATS already is a huge international community. We are represented by members from literally all over the world - and if you visit the Gray Area forum, from other worlds too In fact, even our staff comes from many different countries too.

Many of our members speak English as a 2nd, 3rd, 4th language.

We require that everything is in English - because that is the only "universal" language that can be found in every country.



[edit on June 13th 2010 by greeneyedleo]

I notice you only registered a few months ago. It could be the membership here is more diverse than you realize.

It does mostly seem to be the US, Canada, UK, and Australia, but other countries are represented here as well.

reply to post by INQUISITION11


I seriously doubt they get ATS in China.
Too much freedom of expression.
Too much info period.

Originally posted by ladyinwaiting
I notice you only registered a few months ago. It could be the membership here is more diverse than you realize.

It does mostly seem to be the US, Canada, UK, and Australia, but other countries are represented here as well.

I had been lurking since 2003 believe it or not. I'm trying to remember what post inspired me to sign up, but something did. I have been on an ATS quest to search out Palestinian posters - if only to garner their side of the story. It just seems to me that the forum is potentially missing huge amounts of voices.

reply to post by Cosmic4life


I asked that question one time of a poster who identified himself
as being from and in China; that is that I was surprised to see that
China allowed access to this kind of site, unless he was a representative
of the government, etc. He did not respond.

[edit on 13-6-2010 by manta78]

I've seen a lot of diversity on ATS. I've developed an awesome friendship with a Canadian - I realize that's not very diverse from Indy but there are differences. Made a pal in England. Seen some peeps from Russia. Lots of Aussies who are very enlightened and give a lot to ATS. India is represented. The only corner I don't see much of is the East.

The most culturally eye opening experience I've had was doing some collaborative writing. There is a wonderful Italian lady I had the pleasure of meeting. We didn't make nice at first - turned out so much of the difficulty was our cultural differences and our *perceptions* which were vastly different. I thought I was an evolved and educated chic and this wonderful person woke me up to the fact that I had more room to grow and to truly see myself as a world citizen and not just a Midwestern, US woman.

I'm grateful to know her and I'm grateful for the global community of ATS.




[edit on 6/13/2010 by Whisper67]

There are a lot of fringe Black groups that have some pretty interesting conspiracy theories involving race and White society keeping Black people down, yet we do not see them here on ATS. It makes me thing that there are not a lot of Black people here.

reply to post by LarryLove


Islamism appears to be well represented here, however I'm not sure where they are located geographically.