Ad-blockers, subscriptions and money? ATS is worth $2 million and makes $466,920 a year

At one point back in 2011 when ATS was in it's prime it was ranked higher than many popular websites, this is a quote from SkepticOverlord himself at the time:

originally posted by: SkepticOverlord

And our US-traffic is bigger than ABCnews.com, CBSnews.com, scientificamerican.com, jetblue.com, fastcompany.com, dailykos.com and many other "major" names you'll recognize.

And our total global traffic is on-par (or better) with some seriously major sites, such as newsweek.com, telegraph.co.uk, blackberry.com, breitbart.com, bostonherald.com and many others.

ATS Internet ranking-Quantcast rating is: 1,132!! Wow, the lowest I have seen-Congrads!!!

I just checked the rating of ATS on Alexa and it's dropping dramatically. In just the last year alone the global ranking has dropped by 50% and since 2011 the US ranking has dropped by like 600%. It's pretty obvious that dwindling profits don't have anything to do with ad-blockers, and everything to do with the shrinking popularity of ATS. I've watched ATS go down the drain for several years now and I'm afraid I must lay some of the blame on the site owners and staff because a great deal of the best posters have been banned from ATS, leaving us with a lack of original threads and no reason to visit ATS so often.

Sure it's important to enforce the T&C but it's also important to not run a heavy handed dictatorship with no transparency. The other core problem is that ATS attracted many young kids when it started integrating with Facebook and Twitter a few years back, I think that helped drive off many good posters who felt the discussions on ATS were becoming too childish. I know I'm reaching my limits, especially with all these Trump fanatics. In any case, ATS still has more than enough traffic to make a decent profit imo, it just wont be as profitable as the prime years and there's no reason it should be.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
Be real. ATS is bending over backwards trying to give us what we want, all while trying to fund it, run it, and make a living at the same time. Us transients are not the heart and soul of this website. There are people who actually work, while we just log in and off at our leasure.

Support your communities, or watch them rot.

There is more of a symbiosis than you are admitting here. If they run like most other online communities:

- Revenue is most commonly generated by ads.
- Ads only pay off if there is traffic.
- Traffic is generated only because of content.
- Content is virtually 100% provided by members.
- Members are not paid.

I would say some gratitude is owed both ways here. This is how nearly every online community operates. It is fair and everybody gets something out of it but let's not pretend that the members are not the "heart and soul" of ATS. We absolutely are.

Does this mean they owe us transparency? No way. The only thing they "owe" us is the basic good will attempt to keep the site running smooth and fairly moderated. The only thing we "owe" them is our continued patronage. I say the owners and the members all do a decent job holding up their ends of the bargain.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder
I joined in 2011, although I knew the site from some tesla related researches and have been hiding in the dark without an account. But what you write resonates with me. Around 2011/2012 doom porn and fresh members flooded in en masse.

I´m not into Alexa, but I think they get their statistics from their alexa tool sneaking in with almost every damn free tool (at least that´s what I connect with "alexa", something really nasty to get rid off). Take into consideration that maybe members of ATS (not all but a part) keep their machines clean of such dirtware. That could play some % but of course not all. Just came into my mind.

I think it comes down to: if you have X number of visitors to your site, you should make Y dollars of revenue.

Surely the content we get on ATS is solid verses the Kardasianized places online that have ads too, but feature content that is objectively worthless.

Dealing with ads on the pages is really a small price to pay. Anyone thinking otherwise must be posting on some silly threads.

a reply to: FlyingFox

Nowadays, to be honest, a big part of the OPs are also just a small OP and then a link to the title followed by a discussion. The same happens on the original sites, although often with less substance.

Really TRUE content like Slayer and all the others that left over time is rare. And I can see the reason for that. Back when I joined, you could feel when holidays were on. Anyone remembers? Today, it feels there is holiday season the whole year.

If you look at most of the first responses, they are quick one liners to get on the first page. Mostly they are ridiculing and get more attention then well written posts.

I also remember the time when it was a big fashion to post "xxx ways to xxx" or something.
The best content of ATS is hidden in some rare threads if you ask me. Everything else is just copy & paste from other sites and a mirrored comment section outsourced to ATS.

I just checked the rating of ATS on Alexa and it's dropping dramatically. In just the last year alone the global ranking has dropped by 50% and since 2011 the US ranking has dropped by like 600%. It's pretty obvious that dwindling profits don't have anything to do with ad-blockers, and everything to do with the shrinking popularity of ATS. I've watched ATS go down the drain for several years now and I'm afraid I must lay some of the blame on the site owners and staff because a great deal of the best posters have been banned from ATS, leaving us with a lack of original threads and no reason to visit ATS so often.

Sure it's important to enforce the T&C but it's also important to not run a heavy handed dictatorship with no transparency.

I think I came on board right before/after all that really got heavy, around the time of the new site design.
I have been a member on quite a few forums and I can say from what I've gathered over the few years I've been here that ATS has one of the strictest T&C's of any, but given the subject matter and topics discussed on this site I really don't blame them. However, battening down the hatches has caused a lot of members to feel wherry of expressing their true opinions and instead they just logout and start returning less and less.

All in all, the overall vibe these days could definitely be a little looser.

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: FlyingFox

Nowadays, to be honest, a big part of the OPs are also just a small OP and then a link to the title followed by a discussion. The same happens on the original sites, although often with less substance.

Really TRUE content like Slayer and all the others that left over time is rare. And I can see the reason for that. Back when I joined, you could feel when holidays were on. Anyone remembers? Today, it feels there is holiday season the whole year.

If you look at most of the first responses, they are quick one liners to get on the first page. Mostly they are ridiculing and get more attention then well written posts.

I also remember the time when it was a big fashion to post "xxx ways to xxx" or something.
The best content of ATS is hidden in some rare threads if you ask me. Everything else is just copy & paste from other sites and a mirrored comment section outsourced to ATS.

Are saying we are an apocrypha!? ;o)

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

I've watched ATS go down the drain for several years now and I'm afraid I must lay some of the blame on the site owners and staff because a great deal of the best posters have been banned from ATS, leaving us with a lack of original threads and no reason to visit ATS so often.

And that^ is the reason I won't pay to use ATS. When I first got here, there were great threads just about every day, by some of the best posters we've ever had. Now, most of them are gone and those still here, usually just lurk or pop in for a quick comment from time to time. The folks who just joined in the last few years have no idea what they missed. They should go back and read some of the stuff from back then and compare to what they see now. The content is fast going [ gone ] downhill and while I would have gladly paid a subscription when I first joined, no way will I now.
This place is starting to look more like GLP and Infowars every day.

originally posted by: Enderdog

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: FlyingFox

Nowadays, to be honest, a big part of the OPs are also just a small OP and then a link to the title followed by a discussion. The same happens on the original sites, although often with less substance.

Really TRUE content like Slayer and all the others that left over time is rare. And I can see the reason for that. Back when I joined, you could feel when holidays were on. Anyone remembers? Today, it feels there is holiday season the whole year.

If you look at most of the first responses, they are quick one liners to get on the first page. Mostly they are ridiculing and get more attention then well written posts.

I also remember the time when it was a big fashion to post "xxx ways to xxx" or something.
The best content of ATS is hidden in some rare threads if you ask me. Everything else is just copy & paste from other sites and a mirrored comment section outsourced to ATS.

Are saying we are an apocrypha!? ;o)

Perfect timing, you are the parade example. Intention?

originally posted by: DAVID64
a reply to: ChaoticOrder

I've watched ATS go down the drain for several years now and I'm afraid I must lay some of the blame on the site owners and staff because a great deal of the best posters have been banned from ATS, leaving us with a lack of original threads and no reason to visit ATS so often.

And that^ is the reason I won't pay to use ATS. When I first got here, there were great threads just about every day, by some of the best posters we've ever had. Now, most of them are gone and those still here, usually just lurk or pop in for a quick comment from time to time. The folks who just joined in the last few years have no idea what they missed. They should go back and read some of the stuff from back then and compare to what they see now. The content is fast going [ gone ] downhill and while I would have gladly paid a subscription when I first joined, no way will I now.
This place is starting to look more like GLP and Infowars every day.

I'm not sure you realize, that many of the old members, have gone dormant....in order to enchryllis....they will later emerge though, having achieved their final form....

;o)

originally posted by: verschickter

originally posted by: Enderdog

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: FlyingFox

Nowadays, to be honest, a big part of the OPs are also just a small OP and then a link to the title followed by a discussion. The same happens on the original sites, although often with less substance.

Really TRUE content like Slayer and all the others that left over time is rare. And I can see the reason for that. Back when I joined, you could feel when holidays were on. Anyone remembers? Today, it feels there is holiday season the whole year.

If you look at most of the first responses, they are quick one liners to get on the first page. Mostly they are ridiculing and get more attention then well written posts.

I also remember the time when it was a big fashion to post "xxx ways to xxx" or something.
The best content of ATS is hidden in some rare threads if you ask me. Everything else is just copy & paste from other sites and a mirrored comment section outsourced to ATS.

Are saying we are an apocrypha!? ;o)

Perfect timing, you are the parade example. Intention?

No idea. I am but a hint of a clue about the universe. Occasionally I wonder who I pissed off cosmically, to get here.....

Stilla reply to: verschickter

Still more serious discussion here, than most places....

a reply to: verschickter

Not consciously. But perhaps one day, anthropologists will be be vilified by their peers, for positing that there is informational value in these ancient html files, other than primitive myth....

;o)

a reply to: daaskapital

ATS has slumped into mediocrity for far too long. They've expanded their website to the point where it's become just another Facebook for conspiracy nerds and religious zealots bent on preaching...and there ain't no going back. I don't care how much they earn and profit from this place, and I don't care if they want a little more. Corporations always do.

What they don't understand is why so many people on the internet use Adblockers. It's not because they hate the site, and it's not because they don't want to be here contributing in some small way...with those few still in search of the truth. Internet users have adblockers because ads slow pages down, are intrusive (on a conspiracy site LOL), click bait, and generally f@cking annoying...for almost everyone. That ain't conspiracy.

The funny thing about adblockers is the right to choose whether or not they are seen. Some adblockers do better than others, but the right to choose is always there. ATS is now already denying those with adblockers some of the basic perks that come with membership. It is their right...just as it is their right to use anything you post and ask for a little more green.

The problem with ad based revenue is that you're always at the mercy of the ad companies themselves. It's like swimming in a pool of effluence nobody wants to smell or see for that paycheck on the other side...only to be told by the companies to swim it again with feeling at times. They suffer, ATS panics, and some of us don't get a profile pic and other features. It doesn't matter what ATS makes. What matters is how long it takes for the very members ATS depends on for forum content to wake up and see that the net is a big place...far bigger than ATS. The choice is yours...kinda like the ads when using the very thing ATS hates right now.

I think it's none of our business to know the finances of this website. We come here and use the website because we want to if you don't like that the owners are asking members to chip in with a few bucks every now and then, then you don't have to use the forums.

a reply to: daaskapital

"Our money"? Where does that come from, do you own shares, do you think you have a financial stake in this website?

originally posted by: uncommitted
a reply to: daaskapital

"Our money"? Where does that come from, do you own shares, do you think you have a financial stake in this website?

If one were to pay any amount of money to a business, it is only reasonable to know where it is going.

originally posted by: daaskapital

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: daaskapital

How is that any of your business?

It's not mine. I won't be paying anything to the website.

That said, many members have requested more transparency in the matter, before giving the website any money. I don't see how it would hurt ATS to detail how they spend their money, if only to provide clarity to those seeking it.

Many companies have annual reports which detail expenditures. It's not like people are requesting ATS to do the unthinkable.

If a company has shareholders it has a legal duty to produce a report showing incomings and outgoings. If a move was made to a subscription model on ATS you would not be a shareholder, you would be subscribing to a service - nothing more, nothing less. If the owners of this site wish to provide a financial report to anyone regardless of the fact that they have neither a legal or to be real, moral obligation to do so, then hats off to them. If they don't - I for one wouldn't blame them.

originally posted by: daaskapital

originally posted by: uncommitted
a reply to: daaskapital

"Our money"? Where does that come from, do you own shares, do you think you have a financial stake in this website?

If one were to pay any amount of money to a business, it is only reasonable to know where it is going.

Rubbish. If you are paying for a service it's reasonable to expect that service to be provided - that's it. Unless you are a shareholder you have no actual legal right to know where or how the money you pay for that service is spent, or how much is collected - you really don't see that do you?

originally posted by: uncommitted

originally posted by: daaskapital

originally posted by: uncommitted
a reply to: daaskapital

"Our money"? Where does that come from, do you own shares, do you think you have a financial stake in this website?

If one were to pay any amount of money to a business, it is only reasonable to know where it is going.

Rubbish. If you are paying for a service it's reasonable to expect that service to be provided - that's it. Unless you are a shareholder you have no actual legal right to know where or how the money you pay for that service is spent, or how much is collected - you really don't see that do you?

I'm not talking about law or shareholders. You're trying to steer the discussion in a different direction.

People on ATS have expressed interest in increased transparency. Obviously, the site doesn't have to comply, but it would ease the minds of many if it at least showed how people's money would be spent.

We know ATS is having problems with money, and we know they're having problems with ad-blocking software. It wouldn't be much of a hassle to ease the minds of members and show which areas they plan to invest any donations or payments into.

My mentioning of an annual report was only an example of the extent to which some companies report on their activities. Obviously, ATS isn't obliged to create an annual report, let alone engage with members about their troubles and plans, but some clarity on the overall financial situation of the website would be nice.