AboveTopSecret 2004 - The Conspiracy Year in Review (Interesting & Important Threads)

Important ATS Threads of 2004 The important threads of 2004 that marked some of our more significant events. Ranked and researched by ATS member, Valhall. Following up on our Top Threads of 2004 summary, sometimes the most replied and most view threads don't properly show some of the more important or interesting events of the year within our digital community. Valhall has taken the time to sift through the thousands of threads of 2004 to pull out the interesting, important, funny, and outright bizarre events of the Internet's most popular conspiracy theory discussion board community. Enjoy. ATSNN.com - You're kidding Right?... Dumb Idea Sometimes our personal opinions and gut-feel predictions are...well...just plain wrong. No matter what the future holds for ATSNN.com, in 2004 it was awesome. WOW! 609 members have been on Above Top Secret in the past 24 hours On January 5th ATS broke a record for the most members online at the same time. This would be an indicator for the rest of 2004; a year in which records of all types would repeatedly be broken. ATS IS UNDER ATTACK The month of January closed out with ATS under a distributed denial of service attack. Thanks to Springer... February saw changes due to both skyrocketing activity as well as the denial of service attack in January. Sometimes the bad guys don't win - the result was a more powerful, secure ATS. When will the nasty rumors stop?????? ilovepizza's question would remain unanswered until the end of November. That's about the time the "nasty rumors" that plagued election year 2004 died down. Apology from energy_wave. Should he be allowed to post again? Now banned member energy_wave got a second chance on ATS after hoaxing the board with teasers for several weeks and then delivering against those teasers on February 9th with an attempt to increase traffic at another site. FYI: Hamilton/Mikromarius banned Member Mikromarius, a.k.a. Hamilton, went the way of the ban-hammer and the board waited to see if he would be the bother he threatened to be. This is actaully a goodbye..... An ATS member serving as a medic in the U.S. Army in Baghdad said what was taken to be a short-lived goodbye as he prepared to move out of Baghdad for good on his way to Kuwait. The last activity of this member was 6 days later. We still eagerly await his return. (medic is alive and stateside with his wife for the first time in a year! - hope he pops in soon!) EXCLUSIVE: 9/11 How I Escaped The Fall of the World Trade Center ATS members were given a first-hand account of the terror of escaping occupants from the WTC towers when a fellow member recounted his experiences of that day in an exclusive article for ATSNN. DreamRebel Plagerized Me. What started out as StarChild's finding that his words had been stolen by another ATS member and posted without credit on another site quickly grew into a long list of stolen works of ATS members. Needless to say, DreamRebel wasn't amongst us much longer. Find the Rings?? The first official ATS game was secretly kicked off in April. Find the Rings would last several months and would result in four "Captains of Enlightment" and a brand new sister-board to ATS. 800 Members in 24 Hours!!!!! Each month of 2004 saw new records in activity and April was no different. The board was awed by 800 members on line at one time! EXCLUSIVE: PRESS RELEASE - Record Month for Conspiracies and Cover Ups on AboveTopSecret.com The busy day on April 15th was no fluke. April closed with a press release covering the "staggering growth" of ATS in that month as well as the previous six months. April saw an average of 2,000 new posts per day, passed the mile-marker of 500,000 total posts, and had 489,000 unique users in that one month. Letter To Pope John Paul, by Brian LGM The beginning of May saw the return of several previously banned members who were given another chance on ATS. The most interesting return was that of Ycon when she posted a letter written by the now infamous Brian to the Pope. Ycon's RATS thread brought back some endearing and some aggravating memories for a few old-timers, as well as an opportunity for newer members to learn the history behind Brian. Strong radio signal at 1420 MHZR eminating from a location off of the planet! The board was a-buzz with analytical discussion of a mysterious sound allegedly eminating from deep space. Video Released: Warning!!! Disturbing Content On May 11 a signal event happened that changed the face of the war on terrorism forever and would act as a model for hideous things to come - the Nick Berg beheading video was released. This video would spur in-depth analysis by various ATS members in numerous threads and lead to the most viewed thread in the history of ATS to date. Though, sadly, many more beheading videos would follow, no others would have the sense of conspiracy that the Berg video possessed. Black Project - "Juniper Three Research" In May a member of ATS posted documents containing names and contact numbers, allegedly connected with a "Juniper Three" project. This resulted in phone calls and polite requests that the names and contact information be expunged from ATS. AboveTopSecret.com Goes Big Time --- May 11th, 2004. Another round of breaking records accord on May 11th. The previous single-day activity record was broken by 33% - driven by the Internet's interest in the Nick Berg video and ATS member Jonna's ATSNN article on same. OMG! We are the 4th busiest discussion board on the Internet!!! The activity on May 11th would continue through the month with ATS sitting in the 4th place spot on Big Boards as the month closed out. Either this is the biggest military exercise ever, or something is up. The Nick Berg video was not all that was driving the increase in activity at ATS during the month of May. May was the beginning of 2004's great "Aussie Bloak" hoax. The hoax was fueled to a frenzy by a number of synchonicities - including reports of up to seven U.S. carrier groups sailing to an undisclosed destination. I Have Come!!! June started with the arrival of Jesus!!!...who went quickly from warned to banned, proving the banhammer can fall no matter how lofty the member deems themself. EXCLUSIVE: PRESS RELEASE: AboveTopSecret.com Breaks Traffic and Membership Records June saw another press release on the amazing growth of ATS. With 909,456 unique users and 10.7 million page views in the month of May, it was hard to deny ATS had reached "big". Calling all ATS members who have been with ATS One Year! The Aussie Bloak hoax was full-blown at this point and a RATS thread was started by SkepticOverlord to point out the similarities between this year's major ATS hoax and 2003's Whispers In The Dark hoax. The "GAIACOMM... The technology of H.A.A.R.P." thread was a hoax After a second attempted hoax on the ATS members, energy_wave was shown the door (and the banhammer) along with his GAIA buddy. ATS Stuff Store Now Open (sort of) T-shirts! Real-life ATS-ware became available for the first time. Place your bets everybody: June 18th will the asteroid come? Proving that Internet hoaxes are hard to kill, and especially on a conspiracy board, two weeks after the Aussie Bloak rumors were proven to be a hoax members still waited to see if the earth-killing asteroid would hit. John Titor: Hoax In June Kano decided to re-address an endearing part of Internet folklore with an analytical attempt at debunking the John Titor legend. Though not all who read his analysis and arguments were convinced Titor was a hoax, his points were thought-provoking and led to in-depth discussion. Strange Emergency Message On TV Last Night In the first week of July Skadi_the_Evil_Elf reported the first of several reports by ATS members of strange broadcasts by the Emergency Broadcast system. Reports would eventually stretch across the nation. Removal of College Fraternity Secrets Threads After phone calls from upset fraternities, SimonGray made the decision to remove a thread posted by a member on secret initiation rituals of certain fraternities due to legal concerns. Geetings my new Captains! With the first ATS game completed the four Captains of Enlightenment took their rightful place as administrators of a new board "Ignorance Denied". ATS CONVENTION!!! ATS member Tassadar announced mid-July that he would begin the arduous task of organizing a massive ATS Convention slated for 2006 or 2007. Whats the deal with Jill St Claire? phreak_of_nature's thread concerning a possible code found in a bin Laden video by another board brought the analytical abilities of ATS members to bare, and a new visitor to the board - Jill St Claire, who seemed a bit disturbed by the analysis taking place against the claim. We will focus on the issues of the presidential campaign, even if the candidates do not... With election year 2004 hitting it's peak, and little to no substantial talk of issues from the candidates, ATS members were provided the Campaign 2004 Issues site to be used for serious review of issues important the U.S. Teams were formed for various political affiliations. HUMOR: HomelandSpirit - Campfire Story ATSNN.com saw the addition of a new category - HUMOR - and the awesome abilities of the resident political cartoonist, ZeddicusZulZorander. Nothing was sacred and neither major candidate safe. But we all laughed. Significant new ATS Technology Breakthrough Proving his sense of humor, SkepticOverlord gave us all a chuckle with some faux "DARPA-action". What' with the 'RED' dot? Deep in the heart of the Find the Rings game mysterious red dots appeared before ATS members' eyes and bounced all over the site for a few days. SkepticOverlord should be removed as a moderator Some people were not amused by DARPA or red dots. We'll just leave it at that. ATS Adventure in Michigan is complete. Some people couldn't wait until 2006 to have a get-together. With cmdrkeenkid as their gracious host, several "northern" ATS members had the first official ATS Regional Convention in Michigan. A great time was had by all - even those of us who enjoyed vicariously via the pictures shared with us. NEWS: Hurricane Frances Makes Landfall! The 2004 hurricane season battered Floridians and Carribean islands repeatedly. ATS member Indy tracked the first major hurricane, Frances, real-time for almost 2 weeks as it plowed toward Florida. As the storm neared the U.S. coastline, ATSNN Editor nerdling assisted in keeping the original article up-to-date. Similar storm-tracking news articles would, unfortunately, be repeated. I need your help with two images September started with a new game in the guise of a member "DrJim" who produced a few interesting images he wanted some help with. TA-ATTACKS: Armed Men Storm Russian School; Children Hostage For the second time in as many months Russia found itself the target of Chechnyan terrorism. As the Beslan school hostage situation turned to a massive death-scene, ATS members watched in horror to be reminded even the children of the world are not safe. ATS FAILURE? (ATS Members, Your Opinions on Tough Debunking Please) After a mishandled situation with John Lear, and a rather tough approach to his theories by ATS staff, the ATS members were asked to offer their opinions on how contraversial guests and debunking should be handled. A positive resulted from the John Lear incident with the formation of the Guest Speaker forum and an organized approach to special guests. John Lear: Introduction -- My name is John Lear John Lear was the first Guest Speaker in the new Guest Speaker forum. All questions and answers were later compiled onto this main-site thread. WTF! Valhall banned? Valhall, in a single click, answered the age-old question "Can some one ban themselves?" The answer proved to be "Yes, if you click the right button." The Beginning The board was given a teaser of a third game yet to be started "Blacklabyrinth". ATS Wallpaper Competition A new competition hit ATS in September with the ATS WAllpaper Competition. AboveTopSecret.com Community Management Mission The staff shared their management mission with the rest of the community. RESULTS: The New ATS Halloween Short Story Competition. John bull 1 held what has become his annual Halloween short story competition in October. ATS 2004 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL VOTE RESULTS! As the 2004 U.S. Presidential election neared, ATS did it's own official version of early voting. Nans banned? In October the Internet world watched as Indymedia's servers were confiscated in a joint effort between the U.S. government and the British government allegedly because some one posted sensitive photographs of an agent. Well, Nans thought she'd share those pics here at ATS...and before all was said and done, she got herself in a nine-line ban. Moderators Are People Too. (and they have opinions) After a stretch of a lot of members criticizing moderators when they'd offer their opinions on topics, the staff pointed out - "We're still members." War of the Worlds reenactment on AboveTopSecret.com: Halloween, 2004. For Halloween 2004 many of the staff and members of ATS came together to re-enact the famous Orson Wells radio program War of the Worlds. Halloween ATS Hoax? And...as usual, not all members were pleased with the Halloween activities. ATS Member Only Exit Poll The long awaited U.S. Presidential election day was upon us and we spent our evening watching returns and participating in ATS exit polls conducted by BlackJackal. Eye Patches ATS member Springer had his first cataract surgery in November and as a show of respect certain staff members started wearing eye patches during his recovery time. It didn't take long for an astute member, Sauron, to ask what was up...and soon many members "got on the patch". On ATS, Ignorance Is Winning After the election we all stood around wondering what we'd do next. In the "come down" from the political high prefacing the election, the board seemed to turn a bit negative in November with a flood of complaint threads such as "AAAARGH - You, Your & You're. English 101", "Brainwashing on ATS�", "Constant Flaming on ATS", "Should young children be on this board." But the longer running thread of this ilk came from Majic and apparently won him the WATS award for November. 1,000,000 post! There would be no more appropriate manner for a board which spent the year growing exponentially to begin the last month of the year hitting a new milestone - 1,000,000 posts! Politics @ AboveTopSecret.com The ATS community was given a early Holiday gift in the form of [email protected] - replete with its very own slug-fest. Ignorance Denied Intergrated? And the Captains of the Rings made their way to a tab at the top of the page! Ignorance Denied!!! The ATS Community Holiday Thread The ATS version of a great big phat community holiday card - and Hallmark doesn't get a cent from this one! Banned Member (quickest one i`ve seen so far) December saw with a one-day-wonder appearing and disappearing all in the same day.

The Jesus thread might've been comical, if all of his posts hadn't been deleted. Was that necessary?

Originally posted by Damned
The Jesus thread might've been comical, if all of his posts hadn't been deleted. Was that necessary?

Actually it quite was, but my favorite was Hamilton. I wish I had the links to the two threads where he completely lost it.

Why did none of the interview threads make it? I thought Friedman, Badnarik, the personal choice guy, although I was personally breathlessly awaiting interviewing his running mate the Ivory Snow girl herself Marlyn Chambers, heck even Icke, all brought this board to a higher level IMO

Actually, Amuk, the interview with David Icke is on the OTHER 2004 threads (most popular).

Originally posted by Valhall
Actually, Amuk, the interview with David Icke is on the OTHER 2004 threads (most popular).

I was thinking of the interviews as a whole rather than any special person, I think with those we have had this year, whither you think them idiots or visionaries, we have stepped up above and beyond. I am coming up with a list for this year that we should try to get. I think this forum in itself raises the bar, especially with the names we have had on there, this is what separates us from the run of the mill boards

Why can't the RATS threads be read by us common folk? Just this once? Please? I feel like I'm missing out...sigh.

I'll just sit here and pretend the posts were really good:

~Ohhh, wow! I can't believe he wrote that!
~I didn't know that!
~So that's where ducks come from?

So sad...

I had my claim to fame for 2004! Yay!

People should come to the first one in 2005 now! Look at the link in my signature!

This has been a great year from what I've read here since I've only been here for about 4 months. Also:

Mods: You think you could move the threads that are featured here and are in RATS so that the rest of us can view them?

[edit on 25-12-2004 by invader_chris]

Can't forget that Tupac is a member here, G.

I'm currently in Cubu, FTR.

Now I'm going to the pub...I may be some time.