Alternative News Media - Where does it belong on GOC?

[harbl_the_cat]

Umm. you mean like this one?
http://www.gunownersofcanada.ca/foru...for-the-future

Keep it in there. It is much easier for "us" to monitor.
Your cooperation will be noted, and earn you Solyent credits after the collapse.

Back to your regularly scheduled programme....

The prepping forum is more themed around prepping.

I'm talking about a forum from alternative news media sights that occasionally have overlap with prepping, but focus more on news the mainstream news tends to ignore or censor. Perhaps something as a sub-forum of the actual news forum?

[Canuck]

Well... yeah...

Thing is I think some of the folks in charge over there don't tolerate tin-foil at all and are pro actively censoring/banning posters who post alternative media, lambasting them as tin-foil hatters (which admittedly, sometimes they are).

That said, forums are privately run businesses, and I completely respect their right to censor and regulate whatever conversations are hosted within their domain, but provided articles are not inciting anything illegal - I don't understand why the need to censor them at all? Forums generate revenue by having happy subscribers posting diverse content.

To that end, I think having a separate clearly established "tin foil" forum 1) keeps those sorts of discussions contained and localized 2) establishes the context that not, as they say over there: "News Articlesfrom Real News Outlets ONLY - NO PERSONAL/FRINGE/LOBBYING BLOGS"

I got a little slap for posting these stories, even if they sound pretty extreme and though the companies producing them are doing so to solicit subscribers - I think at the very least they are thought provoking and great discussion starters (I've had several PM's to that affect from disgruntled users over there - and I have referred a handful of them to come on over here).

Who cares what they (he) tolerates or doesn't. That is there and this is here. Two different worlds.

You just answered your own question. They (he) doesn't want to lose subscribers or business to another forum. It has nothing to do with hating "tin foil types".

[harbl_the_cat]

Who cares what they (he) tolerates or doesn't. That is there and this is here. Two different worlds.

You just answered your own question. They (he) doesn't want to lose subscribers or business to another forum. It has nothing to do with hating "tin foil types".

Granted - I'm more talking about the fact that public internet forums don't have to respect the right to free speech and the CGN and GOC owners (and the moderators they appoint) have complete power to censor whatever they want. That said, I think a number of people over there (self included) are getting frustrated by the fact that much of the content they would like to discuss isn't welcomed and pro-actively censored. That's fine - it's their shop, they can run it however they like, just as users can choose to not post there.

That said, I think a real opportunity presents itself (especially for GOC) to offer a platform/forum, to welcome and centralize those discussions not welcomed on CGN.

Personally, I prefer GOC - but, for now, CGN has a bigger marketplace and more bronies, so grudgingly, I go back there.

It's up to them if they want to remain competitive or not and alienate their users by letting thought-police moderators filter all the interesting, juicy conversations - but I think it's there loss, and concurrently gain for anyone who doesn't do likewise.

[lone-wolf]

There are better places for tin foil hat discussions, where the members wouldn't be open to ridicule and the discussion would likely be more sustained.
I don't join a ford forum and expect them to be open a chevy news subforum.

That's how I see it, but could care less if such a forum existed here.

[blacksmithden]

There are better places for tin foil hat discussions, where the members wouldn't be open to ridicule and the discussion would likely be more sustained.
I don't join a ford forum and expect them to be open a chevy news subforum.

That's how I see it, but could care less if such a forum existed here.

Well....this place isn't just about guns.....it's more like a social media site with a focus on guns, where people who own guns can come and talk about guns AND other stuff. That's my perception anyway. Ok.....what does everybody think about this...and I'll have to run it by admin and the other mods before I do it.....how about a sticky in the news section titled something like "Alternative News - Warning: May Contain Tinfoil" ? We just don't want to get a billion sections going and get things to the point where the forums page is 10 pages long.

[Canuck]

There are better places for tin foil hat discussions, where the members wouldn't be open to ridicule and the discussion would likely be more sustained.
I don't join a ford forum and expect them to be open a chevy news subforum.

That's how I see it, but could care less if such a forum existed here.

I agree. A gun forum can't be all things for everyone. I think it has enough happening right now. Leave it the way it is.

[Neil Burke]

I agree. A gun forum can't be all things for everyone. I think it has enough happening right now. Leave it the way it is.

Seconded.

[zulu]

For once i agree with harble. why not have a tin foil hat forum. if you dont like it,dont bother reading it. plus why should people looking for advice in prepping for natural deseasters have to be grouped in with the tin foil hat crowd.
we live in canada where a real problem could be getting stuck in a ditch on a snow day where having a kit like a blanket and large candle could save a life. why have these people scroll through posts about "the elite"

[Forbes/Hutton]

[Canuck]

[Strewth]

...

[loki]

Honestly I see a lot of this going on.

So the news forum is a bit more strict and some 'news' must now go in the off topic? My life seems to be going on...

I'm over it, no more KDX and Harbl tinfoil in the news section and now it's moved to off topic, actually makes browsing easier and saves me a few seconds out of my day . I may not like being told what is and isn't news, and I'm fully capable of not opening a thread I don't want to read. However if I want to seek out 'alternative media' I can do so without the perpetual soapbox some of the members seem to get on.

See you can still post all of the tinfoil and alternative stuff you like, just do it in off topic. Perhaps the dislike is that people don't see their post counts go up now ?

[JustBen]

As much as I don't mind the occasional tin-foil or "alternative media" thread, I can see the point of not having a dedicated section for them. To do as CGN did and complete sensor them is overkill. Moving forward, if you want to post the odd thread that is a bit wacky, okay. However, if anyone wants to get up on a soap box and tell us that the illuminati/aliens/gubermint/CIA/russians/mutants/global warming/PETA/etc are out to get us, there are lots of other places on the internet where this can be done.

Alternatively, tinfoil threads could be placed in the humor section.

[Camo tung]

As much as I don't mind the occasional tin-foil or "alternative media" thread, I can see the point of not having a dedicated section for them. To do as CGN did and completely censor them is overkill. Moving forward, if you want to post the odd thread that is a bit wacky, okay. However, if anyone wants to get up on a soap box and tell us that the illuminati/aliens/gubermint/CIA/russians/mutants/global warming/PETA/etc are out to get us, there are lots of other places on the internet where this can be done. Alternatively, tinfoil threads could be placed in the humor section.

x2.

[harbl_the_cat]

Well the thing is the main stream news deliberately ignores, fakes or misrepresents a lot of important news stories that most of the time, are covered accurately long in advance on the blogosphere/alternative news - especially financial news.

The best example I can think of is a lot of "tin foil hat" blogs were screaming out for people to buy precious metals for the past decade, including several that timed entry and exit points in the market almost perfectly. A lot of these same sites called the US housing crisis, the financial crisis, and the various stock market crashes of the past decade - if you go through some of those sites (the good ones at least that don't doctor their history), you can see some that posted information that made or saved their readers a LOT of money.

Likewise, a lot of those same blogs/news sits have very interesting political and world event stories on them you'll probably never hear in the main stream media. Most importantly, a lot of microblogs from foreign countries give very good coverage of events happening in their region of the world that is almost always ignored or misrepresented in the Western main stream media.

It's not a new or secret phenomenon either - just look at this news story from the first gulf war that was obviously fake, but also ran over the air on CNN!

The thing is that the blogosphere/alternate news media is enormous and very difficult to filter through for accurate information. It's not impossible, but the best way, I've found is through a network of others who share a common interest on particular subjects. The problem with CGN moving the "tin-foil" to the OT forum isn't that it's in a new forum, but that it's in a forum that's not readily publicly accessible. Likewise, with their move to lock the news forum making it a "permission only" forum and threatening to ban anyone who doesn't comply.

As an IT professional, let me tell you that a simple step like making forum access permission based and making pretty rigid usage policies like that kills a HUGE amount of traffic and traffic is the key driver to the alternative media and to extracting reliable and accurate information from it.

Sometimes such restrictions are merited - for example preventing non-tech savvy people access to a forum that allows for selling of goods and services (like the EE or marketplace). However to facilitate a rapid and free exchange of information - it is a HUGE deterrent AND detriment.