Nearly every thread in ATM is locked. Why maintain this board in the first place if mods are just going to shut things down faster than Jimmy can crack corn?
Member
Nearly every thread in ATM is locked. Why maintain this board in the first place if mods are just going to shut things down faster than Jimmy can crack corn?
Order of Kilopi
Well I just finished posting in one. Read the last post in each of the locked threads. The mods pretty much always say why the thread is getting locked and it is usually that the 30 days is up, the OP asks for the thread to be closed, the thread isn't being properly defended by the OP or the OP isn't following the forum rules. If it wasn't for the moderators this forum would be a mess I bet.
Established Member
Welcome to ATM, catloaf!
You may have noticed that this forum has more closed threads than almost any other forum on the board. It's clear that our hosts have something special in mind for this forum. Indeed, this forum is kind of like a special universe, with its own special laws of physics. With apologies to Ultraviolet, it is "a world you may not understand".
But not to worry! Our hosts have been kind enough to explain exactly what the laws are, that govern this universe. The "sticky" threads at the top of the first page should make everything quite clear: the 30-day age limit, the strict requirements for proponents and reviewers alike, etc. Once you understand the purpose, you might actually find the trajectory of these many closed threads fascinating. I know I do!
At the very least, Wayne's recommendation to read the final post in each locked thread gives you a most excellent way to quickly see what is going on here. You might also like to check out the Conspiracy Theories forum! Good luck!
Order of Kilopi
I'll just point out, for anyone confused by stutefish (no fault of stutefish!), that this thread was moved (after post #3 was made) from the ATM forum to the feedback forum, as it was posted in the wrong place.Originally Posted by stutefish
Get up, a get-get, get down.
Bad Post-Doc
We've talked a lot about why the ATM forum even exists, but it isn't even remotely the main focus of the board.
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Gillian
"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"
"You can't erase icing."
"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"
Established Member
AIUI the ATM forum is there to keep discussion of non-mainstream ideas off the Q&A board (and others but this one especially). It has to be very heavily moderated and controlled because the threads can rapidly descend into "Is!" "Isn't!" "Is!" "Isn't" matches. I like it the way it is - it gives thoughtful people with ATM ideas somewhere to expose their idea to scrutiny, makes the advice boards much, much more useful to people with less technical background than some of the posters here and it puts off people unwilling to accept the scientific method over their own judgements. And perhaps most importantly it prevents this forum suffering the fate of the IOP comments section. As far as I know no physicists post there any more because every thread is "This proves my theory!" "This proves that 'scientists' are all colluding to hide the truth which only I know!" and so on. It is depressing if you let it get to you.
I personally like to have a group of boards where I can talk about scientific topics and where I know that anyone presenting unsupported ideas will be asked to move to the ATM section. I returns some weight to the mainstream view, which the anonymity of the internet can remove (why should someone with no technical background believe X over Y if they don't know that X holds a PhD in the topic and Y just read Wikipedia and applied their own brand of logic to it?)
Order of Kilopi
This can be appreciated however there are threads there ( currently active ) that dont follow these rules. Like this one:
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread....-is-it-correct
So what is the exact strategy?
Newbie
If some in off topic babbling would take the trouble to at least read wikipedia, their posts would be considerably improved.
Order of Kilopi
In that case the OP wasn't really presenting a theory that he would defend "at all costs" as is common to ATM. Instead he accepted (with some questioning) the mainstream arguments presented and he (we all) learnt something from it. Arguably, it shouldn't really have been in ATM in the first place. It's just that some people prefer to ask a question by saying, "What I think is...".
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