The ATS Issues Thread

No, sorry. Because then we'd need a quality control person to control the quality control person, and then another to control him... and... you get the picture.

However, I've noticed that as our daily post-count has been increasing, some of the most-replied threads are not necessarily a good representation of what's important on ATS any more (we very nearly hit 8,000 posts in one day earlier this week). I've revised the auto-generation code of the home page to focus on the top-flagged threads (in the past three days) at the very top of the page... we'll see how this works out.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

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Ahaha its an endless circle.

I think you solution will work out just fine. A true representation of the tastes of all ATSers, those who flag the threads at least.

Judy,

Here's what I do. When reading a long thread, if I encounter a post that I find significant or think I will want to respond to, I open my word processor and start a new document. I then copy the post and paste it into my document, along with the name of the author and what page of the thread it is on. As I am reading along, I can make notes and copy additional posts into the same document. When I am finally ready to reply, I copy snippets from the relevant posts into my reply using the "quote" button (the one that looks like a yellow balloon), add the author's name, and then type in my reply. In this way I can post the relevant snippets out of all the posts and type in my response, all in one post, or just put "reply to" and the author's name if no quote is necessary.

Before I post, I copy my entire reply into the end of the document and save it. More than once I've been very annoyed to hit the post button and have my long, brilliant reply disappear into cyberspace and be presented with a page that says "please log in to post" or " timeout error: the server at abovetopsecret.com is taking too long to respond" . If I have copied my reply into my document before hitting the post button, I can simply back up, hit reply again, and copy my reply from the document.

I can also keep the saved document as a journal and reference for all the of the posts in that thread which were important or significant to me, and even add my own notes to it. If the thread continues to grow, I can always open that saved document and add more to it.

BTW, copying the text of any post and saving it somewhere, or even just having it in your clipboard until you've posted successfully, is a great way to avoid real frustration on those occasions when something goes wrong and all of your hard work goes *poof*!

New Gray Background or temporary issue?

Are you using the "light" or "dark" setting? Look up to the top. If it says "go dark" you may have inadvertently changed your settings.

reply to post by intrepid

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Ha, as usual it was my fault, I thought the "gray" were striking from within?

DIGG ATS

for original
content
more infoThe sorry state of ATS

I joined ATS to pursue thoughtful intellegant discussion outside the normal dogmatic world of the political blogosphere. Since i have joined there has been a severe decline in the quality of dicussion in forums not only in skunkworks but above politics, sci/tech and even general conspiricies, every other thread these days seems to be mindless anti-american rhetoric not faced only at US policies but very broad attacks centered on the american people (and vise versa with americans attacking others the same way) ... these posts add little to the discussion and cause people to be fed up with ATS on a broad scale. Even in sci/tech every discussion falls victom to mindless assaults from one poster to the other. All these couch jockeys who sit at there computers all day and spew abusive hateful bigotry and devisive rhetoric in a forum designed to give an outlet to those who want to have intellegant conversation outside the mainstream bloggosphere make me sick... and unfortunately it seems ATS has become a bastion of hate and very disheartening devisiveness. I joined ATS with the hopes of finding good information and conversation about a broad spectrum of topics with people who felt compelled to come here aswell to escape the dolldrums of "mainstream forums". It seemed a good decision for awhile, but the steady decline of quality thoughtful threads and posts have proven once again that people who cannot express themselves in an informative and factbase manor result to mud slinging and fingerpointing.

I'm sorry ATS'ers but the fact is we too have been sucked unfortunately into the same dogmatic narrow minded rhetoric that we purposefuly set out to avoid

the purpose of this thread is to discuss real solutions to this id like to hear from anyone who cares to offer a solution mods, super mods, and regular posters we must resolve this issue if ATS is to be what it sat out to be

i wanted originally to put this thread where it could be responded to and talked about but was instructed to post my opinion here... why do i feel im being swept under the rug? this was meant to be a thread not a post


www.youtube.com...

[edit on 15-8-2008 by constantwonder]

Okay, I'll try to reply to this again.

I'm new here, so all I know is the atmosphere of mud slinging and fingerpointing. It's impossible to discuss a topic without the debunkers or antagonists dominating a topic with criticism and insult. Unfortunately, it's very easy to get sidetrack defending oneself against such attack. Meanwhile nothing constructive is learned.

You want a solution? Today I just discovered the value of the IGNORE button. It works fine. So from now on I'm putting anyone on ignore who I deem to be rude and a negative contributor to the hopefully constructive atmosphere of ATS. (Translates = Troll) I think that's the best solution under the circumstances.

The other solution might be allowing only 18 year olds and older onto ATS.

reply to post by constantwonder

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Your thread was directed to the proper location for what it concerns. Your concerns can still be responded to.

If you were seeking points then you are out of luck. If you are trying to help the "cause" then this is the place to do it.

May I suggest you give it a bit more time before being critical of ATS. Also take into consideration that school is now open and threads and posts will probably return to the standard you expected.

If you believe there to be a problem with good threads then why not be part of the solution and create threads you feel meet the standards you
want others to adhere to.

In my opinion, ATS is the most civilized board I've had the pleasure of being a member of.

No board is perfect and we do have detractors. But overall the content of this board is excellent.

You joined ATS two months ago. How the heck can you say there has been a serious decline when you haven't even been here long enough to appreciate the conversation going on?

Spend three months reading a Serpo thread and you might know how to appreciate serious decline.

Watch true believers fawn over Profit Yawah launching balloons into the air for a month and you might come to appreciate decline.

Then we have those magical threads where everyone seems to come together and magic is in the air.

ATS has never promised you the truth, only decent conversation on the path to finding it.

I just wish someone would start a thread on epiphany's. That's a thread that would run for years. I would but I'm not around enough these days to babysit it.

ATS has it's ups and downs, like any good site. Whether it's up or down depends on what your interested in. It's all a matter of perspective.

[edit on 15-8-2008 by mrwupy]

uhhh hmm do you think im incapable of reading posts older than my membership? alot of ats'rs are anons before they join ive been following ats for 3-4 years prior to joining and i fully appreciate the decline i asure you and your reply to me is a perfect example of crap that doesnt contribute you jumped to a conclusion and judged my post based on the length of my membership thanks for missing the point entirely

reply to post by constantwonder

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For a simple, and obvious solution to your concerns, follow the link thats in my signature below.

If you concentrate on that, rather than on just being negative, you may find your viewpoint changes.

reply to post by constantwonder

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Thanks mods for the input its most insightful and helpful glad to know that there are good posters and mods who share my concerns and your right ill try and focus less on the negative and seek out what matters to me again THANKS GUYS

[edit on 16-8-2008 by constantwonder]

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Reply to post by constantwonder

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Perhaps it is a relevant point to stipulate at this point that if something upsets you so much that you feel the need to post in anger then perhaps it is a good idea to walk away from the computer and do a few jumping jacks...seriovsly...it/s the internet not your personal life.

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Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

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reply to post by constantwonder

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As I've heard Skeptic say over and over again..
You can please some of the people some of the time but you can't please all of the people all the time.

Anywhere on the net is going to be threads, blogs, and discussions that are going to tick anyone off regardless of what anyone believes as far as politics is concerned. The point is that ATS is for discussions of ALL of these topics, to include all viewpoints and opinions. Because of this, people have flocked to ATS who are like-minded people because ATS involves a free-thinking, free exchange of ideas kind of atmosphere. ATS is now "discussion headquarters" for alot of people who are very anti-establishment and anti-government and this is no big secret here..

But regardless of what political opinions anyone has, this is still ATS. We are still going to discuss topics and people are still going to post whatever they want (as long as it doesn't break the T&C of this site). I understand your concern and I actually agree with you.. But ATS isn't going to limit, screen-out, or otherwise censor people who actually have an opinion just because the moderators don't agree with it or whatever. I'm actually pretty amazed to see how passionate ATS members are with their political opinions in general and at least they actually have an opinion unlike alot of people I know.

At least it makes for great discussions and debates.. That's what it's all about here..

-ChriS



[edit on 17-8-2008 by BlasteR]

Not sure if this is the right forum but it seems like there may be some server issues?

Three times last night I made posts that did NOT appear even after refreshing...they did not appear for hours, one all night, until I reposted and then suddenly BOTH appeared (yes they were slow moving threads with no posts after mine).

It could be on my side but I have not upgraded browsers, or gotten any new programs. I wonder if others are experiencing this too.

If this has already been discussed in this thread, my deepest apologies....thats a lot of threads to look through - and the search resulted in no clear answer that i could find:


Would it be possible to extend the amount of 'ignores' indefinitely?

if not

Would it be possible to triple or even quadruple the amount of ignores available during election seasons?


I ask this seriously - not sarcastically.

I realize that some people would say you should exercise self-restraint, etc etc, when confronted with a "troll"

but to speak for myself, when i confront someone who i just can't find anything that closely resembles common ground - ever, or they completely go over the line

it always makes me, personally, feel a lot better to put them on ignore.

Oh, no!! You mean there's a limit on how many people you can put on ignore? Bummers. I'm really going have to learn self-restraint.