Dealing With Hoaxers on the UFO and Aliens Forum

As a lurker on that Rendlesham forest thread I actually found the whole thing quite amusing, to me i't was quite obvious that this was the same repeat offender from the beginning,

Also with any thread we can all decide whether its content is of any interest to us and decide how to interact with it accordingly, I think the mods behavior was fine as these discussion's always come to a close rather swiftly with the perpetrator becoming ever more entangled in there web of deceit

Originally posted by Gixxer
i would like to add to this, how about the thread made by the member where he and his dad shot at the alien wich turned out to be a wild hoax, not only is he not banned at all but did not even recieve any kind of punishment , but i call someone an idiot and i get a 1000 point deduction, ya this is a great website...........

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It's madness if they have been allowed to get away with a hoax. However, my advice is to not even call an idiot an idiot on here - even when people flame your thread without reading your OP links properly

Civility and decorum are a must. I don't see what difference points make anyway tbh. They can't dock your wages or anything so don't worry about it so much

Originally posted by Unity_99
I consider this thread to be completely narrow minded, knee jerk skepticism ,which means its not true skepticism either, demeaning and censorship..

edit on 9-2-2011 by Unity_99 because: (no reason given)

Honestly, read the link in my OP. If then, you wish to apologise for what you just said, then great.

Originally posted by Pimander

Originally posted by Immortalgemini527
Thats what i said to myself ,he or she is acting like the ats has hoaxers,we get the videos and information from other places,and then we put them up in threads,how is it we are the hoaxers?

The member did NOT post a hoax youtube or something like that. That is NOT what I am referring to.

Please will you read the bloody link in the OP and you will see that it is (unless the video appears) obviously a hoax. That makes the member a hoaxer.

I tell you what,after reading what you just said,i ...really have nothing else to say about this thread.have a nice day,your right and your the winner.

whats wrong immortal?
hes been giving up all day?
hes lost it!
In a logical term of this matter, he gave up because, basically what the op is trying to say is, we might as well ban every one then, so he didn’t say it, because then they will change what they intestinally said again, and i think this is some personnel stuff ,not pertaining to the whole ats as a view. ?
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Who in the hell made him the spokes man for the immortal one.
I KNOW ..RIGHT !

Originally posted by rubbertramp
sorry, but i'm a tad bit confused here.
is the only real problem the fact that the op mentioned a video and never posted it, or that everyone thinks it's all false?
this is ats, wouldn't the latter mean that anyone proclaiming a religious experience or basically anything supernatural would automatically go to the hoax forum also?

The OP in that hoax was not claiming to have a religious experience. That would be fine if they were just describing an experience. I would have left it to those of you who are interested in that thread and got on with my life.

They were claiming to have a video of a tall grey alien taken at Rendlesham Forest standing near a 'craft'. The Rendlesham Incident is a case that some amateur UFOlogists (or whatever we are) have spent a lot of time studying. We were wasting our time (some of us are busy despite our hobby) reading an increasingly long thread full of debate about a video that will never appear. Because it doesn't exist. It was a hoax. A lie. Can you not see that simple fact?

All I was hoping to get from this thread was some good ideas of how to deal with what looks like it is likely to be a hoax (as most of us suspected but had to read in case it wasn't). I am not saying we shouldn't discuss visions, mystical experiences or beliefs, or even post videos that may be fakes. However they should be discussed in their proper place and blatant liars and hoaxers have no place if we really want to deny ignorance.

That thread was hilarious.

"They're breaking through the door! I can't st...!"

Can't finish typing the word, but he could do the ..., exclamation mark and hit reply.

Originally posted by alien
- A reviewing Staff Member might think that the thread needs to be tossed out into the main forums right then and there. Reasons for that are many. It might be a really interesting topic, it might be a very pertinent topic, it might be any number of things. The reviewing Staff Member makes a call whether the thread needs to be left, locked, lost or made live.


Ultimately while there are rules in place...they're applied with Staff discretion.
We don't always make the right call though in how we might apply them...but hopefully we can achieve a decent batting average in spite of a few foul balls...

Thanks alien. It explains how a new member got their thread onto the flag ship forum. Although it went pear shaped this time as it allowed a hoaxer to slip through the minimum posts rule, I'm glad you can be flexible.

I think you guys do a decent job. Go on, tell me who moved that thread... In a U2U even?

Oh yes, I don't suppose you could be flexible and move this thread back to Aliens and UFO Forum. I was just about to get a load of stars when this was moved

Originally posted by InvisibleAlbatross
That thread was hilarious.

"They're breaking through the door! I can't st...!"

Can't finish typing the word, but he could do the ..., exclamation mark and hit reply.

It was funny. I wish it had got there with fewer posts though

P.S. Oh no, I had to look again then in case it was you. Paranoia or what

Originally posted by Immortalgemini527
I tell you what,after reading what you just said,i ...really have nothing else to say about this thread.have a nice day,your right and your the winner.

whats wrong immortal?

hes been giving up all day?

hes lost it!

In a logical term of this matter, he gave up because, basically what the op is trying to say is, we might as well ban every one then, so he didn’t say it, because then they will change what they intestinally said again, and i think this is some personnel stuff ,not pertaining to the whole ats as a view. ?

?

?

Who in the hell made him the spokes man for the immortal one.

I KNOW ..RIGHT !

edit on 9-2-2011 by Immortalgemini527 because: (no reason given)

I rarely get confused by posts but you got me this time. This is either an unusual trolling strategy or somebody in need of some medication

reply to post by Wetpaint72



dude, I like it!

...and lets say that somebody gets a bunch of shovels but it turns out he really was the 2nd coming or sent us ET's home phone number...then a moderator could just take all the shovels away.

But....the only way you can give a shovel....is if you don't post a single word....just click shovel and that is it....
a new guy will see an OP and wonder why nobody has responded...he will see 50 shovels and go "oooohhh"

We just have to figure out a way to not feed the trolls, at all. not even to just write bs.

click on the shovel and done.

we can even give people who respond a shovel! "but I didn't knowwwww, I just responded to the op to tell them that I didn't believe them." well, get 5 stars and 1 shovel will be removed.

However.....if someone does post to the Troll OP....they should understand that they risk the shovel themselves so they should craft their post with purpose....example....if OP says..."I have the aliens on VHS and I need Gertrude or Bertha to transfer it to the computer" a shovel free post would be....."take a picture of it off your tv and post it in the next 15minutes or you lack credibility" that would be a shovel free post. but the guy that post...."yeah...I think you should do that and what is your favorite color" ...then...as Jeff Foxworthy would say..."here is your shovel"

A troll should get one or two "purposeful" responses and that is it. They are given the info they need to proceed and if they don't follow it...they are busted...or buried with all the shovels we can give them!

I love it! great idea my friend.

reply to post by Res Ipsa

Thanks Res,

Finally a reply in the spirit of the thread. I know I was feeding them and it's my own fault

It sounds like a great idea. The biggest draw back is that it is vulnerable to abuse by certain groups of members who can almost censor using it (e.g. the disclosure crowd could censor out stuff or the I'm so skeptical I can't even look at evidence posse censor out real evidence) by flooding an OP with shovels. If the mods reversed anything they might get accused of having agendas.

I like the, one or two pertinent questions then wait for some evidence strategy. I wish we could do more though.

Originally posted by Pimander
Many members will be aware of this hoax thread, that has just been run. Have a look if you aren't sure what I'm talking about. Could I ask that in future when a new member posts some unsupported information that one of you requests some evidence, like the video in that hoax, then wait.

By posting pointless garbage it makes the thread a waste of our time and assists the hoaxer. Asking for evidence then withdrawing stops you from fanning the flames and ruins their little game.

If any other members have good ideas about how to treat these cases then great. For a start the post was done before the member had made 20 posts. Why was it not removed or blocked? Banning them is obviously all good, but can we do more to halt these games?

edit on 9/2/11 by Pimander because: capitals in heading

edit on 9/2/11 by Pimander because: Change thread title

edit on 9/2/11 by Pimander because: typo

lol,u noticed that to huh ?
Not only that..but 3 more after the ...newbie,thats how i saw it..i guess since your not mentioning the names and your talking sublimenal,i agree totally,had me confused.
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its the gemini i guess,thats all i can say.
but he just..
shhhh,just let him be,hes slow,not right up there.