Quality of Content of ATS is Diminishing Rapidly

reply to post by Freedom of Thought


I'm sorry, but I really think everything you've written is hogwash.

Show me examples.

Originally posted by Freedom of Thought

Originally posted by carlitomoore
It the mods moved this within minutes to the 'Rant' forum from the board business & questions forum, which I would maintain is the best place for this. Only now the thread will probably be buried in a board that 90% of users will not view.

I do not see this as a rant. This has illustrated to me however what many others have complained about in the past. Thanks for that.

It appears to me some of the 'mods' have their own agenda. If the thread personally offends them
1. They will jump in ad hoc and deliver their blasts
thus trying to imtimidate other posters or newbies from responding

because they have such great graphics and titles next to their 'name' that they must be important.

2. If there has been such a shift in the overal posting content of ats..............
perhaps it is reflective of the beliefs of the 'moderators'
and they close their eyes to it because it promotes their own personal 'feelings'
which is not indicative of good editorial oversight.

Absolutely 10000% untrue. First off, Mods are members too and we can very much contribute to posts as long as it is within the very same ATS Terms & Conditions Of Use that all must follow. Beliefs of Mods never ever come into moderating the board. We have a pretty extensive and transparent checks and balance system. Also, the staff comes from such a HUGE range of backgrounds, believes, religions, political stance and social stance. There is no way to moderate biased. There is no way for staff to have an agenda Impossible. Again, all actions taken by staff are transparent to all staff. And we discuss amongst each other before we act.

reply to post by Freedom of Thought

Originally posted by Freedom of Thought
...because they have such great graphics and titles next to their 'name' that they must be important...

Using your name, I put these together in under a few minutes.

If you would like something special, just ask. Perhaps someone with more skill than I could help you.





Try to stay fair.

reply to post by greeneyedleo


I don't agree with freedom of thought. I just think that the mods are very busy and the amount of users joining the site are doing so for other reasons than contributing good quality content.

I think a bashing and some warnings from staff and admin every now and then will improve things slightly.

My take on the issue is this: ATS is a victim of its own success, so it struggles with issues. It is probably the BEST organized "Super Forum" around, but it also comes across as rather heavy handed at times. I'm shocked at the actions of moderators at times, who will treat people twice as old as they are like children. Having said that, there are so many moderators that we have to understand keeping moderation "uniform" is a near impossible task. I know ATS management knows about these issues and I know they have tried to 'lighten up.' After all, "user generated content" means it is the posters who make the site.

Compared to 2007, when I left ATS until just recently, the site has grown tremendously. In my opinion, content has suffered. It's not really the subjects addressed. After all, you shouldn't be surprised to see weird stuff on a conspiracy site. But compared to a few years ago, there is a lot more 'credulity' here now. People will believe anything. Every light in the sky becomes aliens landing. There are a couple of threads here with upwards of 1,000 replies. They have zillions of flags and stars. The subjects are simplistic and innane at best. Yet people are fawning over this stuff. I just shake my head and say these guys must be nuts even giving this rot the time of day.

And that leads to another issue. How can anyone be heard on a subject that has 1,000 replies? Even if you wanted to make a contribution, people fly right on by as if they've never read it. It's pretty frustrating to spend an hour on a post trying to organize your issues in a straightforward manner, only to have someone say, "Your post was too long. I didn't read it." That's symptomatic of society as a whole. People want their sound bites in 15 seconds or less, but you surely lose nuance in that kind of situation. ATS started out as a discussion board, but now it's a big room with hundreds of people all talking at once. This is not a place for reasoned discussion; it's a big crowd on the verge of riot.

I think the bottom line is that if you expect anything to actually be accomplished here in terms of advancing the state of the art in any of the fields discussed here, you're going to be disappointed. You just need to take it for what it is and not get too wrapped up in it. Once in a great while you'll find a gem that will make it worthwhile.

Well, with the new layout and school once again starting so the children which makes up the majority of the "members" spending time on here things will change.

ATS has become very mundane recently.

I personally think the site owners should create a "Ask ATS members" section because there have been a marked increase in threads ending in a ? mark recently.

September always shows a marked decrease in traffic on this site.

As can be seen from these graphics from www.big-boards.com

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d477d55e6955.png[/atsimg]

Or the decrease in traffic to this site could just be a collective disenchantment with the way this site has evolved,

and the new lay out.

Some time more is not really better.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9e338e07edb6.png[/atsimg]

I do realize there is a thread discussing the fact that some members just do not come here as much any more and the thousands of new threads started each day pretty much eliminates important and interesting threads form even being read or responded to.

I'm thinking those statistics are way off. It may have something to do with the site re-design. Hundreds of pages must have changed their names. I wouldn't put too much credence in this drop off. I do not think it is real.

reply to post by Oneolddude


Thanks for the statistics. Can you post a link to the thread you are reffering to please?

Originally posted by loam
It seems often to be the case that when a great member becomes a mod, their substantive postings diminish very rapidly. Clearly, they become very busy with their administrative responsibilities, but I think the consequence is unfortunate.

Is promotion to 'modship' really a reason for a member not to put as much effort into their posting? If it were me (and I'm lazy, by the way), I would be tempted to use my time-stealing 'administrative responsibilities' as an excuse to lean back on my oars and watch everyone else do all the yammering.

reply to post by Silver Star


Perhaps.

But I imagine those guys are pretty busy.

And some still do post on occasion.

The last couple of days this has become worst than ever. Next time you log in and it informs you how many threads have been created, just ask yourself how many of them were worth making in the first place, then if they were in the right place or not.

The only way to stop this is my putting all new threds in one board in such a format which encourages links to be posted and some small quotes with your own commentary such as in the Breaking Alternative News Forum, then after a period of say 24 or 48 hours the mods then put it in the right place for further discussion, or something along those lines.

This wil lensure better researched content is posted first, all the mods can scrutinise the threads and then people can make sure that they will only be seeing quality content in their favourite forums.

Something like this could work and it is the best way I can see of filtering all the rubbish flowing into the site.

GENERAL CONSPIRACY: MOHAMMED IS THE UKs MOST COMMON NAME.

GENERAL CONSPIRACY: IS IT ILLEGAL FOR POLICE TO WALK INTO YOUR HOME.

BREAKING ALTERNATIVE NEWS: CAR THAT RUNS ON THIN AIR IS ABOUT TO BE RELEASED (FOUR YEAR OLD FOOTAGE)

MULTIPLE THREADS ON EACH TOPIC.

This is in the space of 5minutes.