Transparency On The Future of ATS

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
I regret the fact that we can't give stars in this forum.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Off in the distance, there is a group of people trying to preserve the faith and culture of ATS...all of ATS. They are dedicated, and they are feverishly giving everything to make so many wishes here come true. It is not easy, and it is a big undertaking, but they all have generous intent, honorable hearts and creative minds.

With hope and help, the effort will succeed, but in the unlikely event it does not, trust it was a valiant and noble attempt. One where no stone was left unturned, all considerations were contemplated, and all avenues explored.

The spirit of ATS lives on!

i AM EVEN THINKING OF TAKING TO SOCIAL MEDIA perish the thought taking a cute photo of my mutt up with a gun to its head or a knife to its throat with the caption $ 1 or the dog gets it and see how many caring people are out there , well sob stories seem to work on these places .

Or have American members sell their blood FCD i hear they pay big ,but i have not got the faintest clue about bit coin etc and Facefarce hate me for telling the truth .

Ii really wanted to get serious i could do a Asian night where the dog gets whacked and cooked Chinese style that might scare the bucks in easier , But the stupid mutt is lying on my couch atm sleeping like a baby [cute as hell ] dreaming he is G-d

good luck on your quest FCD

a reply to: DISRAELI

Thank you.

It wasn't intended for stars, just a statement of fact.

But, thanks all the same!

FCD

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The following is something i wrote a few years back. maybe ATS is the Star in flight and its members are the stars to be hmm?

Behold. the brilliance of the star in flight.
Winding its way across the endless void.
Brightly it shines in the light of its place in the heavens.

Oh wandering star how you inspire!
Giving dreams to all who glimpse such beauty.
transcending this temporary vessel such as I.
Will I too become a wandering star one day?

Verily i wish it to be so!
so as to walk the infinite void along side you.
Into the stars we all must eventually go.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is a shame really.

As I recall, not even a decade ago many members and staff, were willing to put forth funds for exactly this situation.

Sadly, back then it wasn't seen as an issue, and Springer was our sugar daddy, so things were quite different.

If members really love ATS and having it around for more than a punching bag. I seriously advise every member to click some of advertisement based revenue.

I've found it to be less of a concern clicking ads, run losing this great community. Because that's what we are.

A community.


Well, it was once at least...

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Its very sad news but as a few others have mentioned, the amount of USA politics threads is now ridiculous. When I first started coming here, it was mainly all about UFO's, paranormal and general mysteries and conspiracies.
As UK citizen, I have zero interest in US politics unless its something along the lines of the Kennedy assassination.

No wonder people dont stay or advertisers have willies when half the new threads are "I hate Trump" or "I love Trump".

I hardly ever read the politics stuff and I am sure I aint the only one.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It wasn't intended for stars, just a statement of fact.

That says a lot about the other forums.

ATS. Go figure why we're here.

originally posted by: devilhunter
a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Its very sad news but as a few others have mentioned, the amount of USA politics threads is now ridiculous. When I first started coming here, it was mainly all about UFO's, paranormal and general mysteries and conspiracies.
As UK citizen, I have zero interest in US politics unless its something along the lines of the Kennedy assassination.

No wonder people dont stay or advertisers have willies when half the new threads are "I hate Trump" or "I love Trump".

I hardly ever read the politics stuff and I am sure I aint the only one.

I hear you. Also being from the U.K I have no interest in American politics. I sometimes go to specific forums, but if the front page is filled with something i'm not interested in, I leave. I'll come back a few times a day and keep an eye on things, but someone new won't. Once they see the love hate Trump threads they won't come back. I know I do when I'm forum searching on the Internet.

a reply to: ADVISOR

I wouldn't mind clicking some ads, if I saw any. It's been a long time since I saw my last advert on ATS, some time last year, if I'm not mistaken, and even then I only saw one or two from time to time.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

So basically the real problem is if you wanted to keep doing this and make a profit right?

Would there still be a problem if you did not care about too much profit?

I understand viewpoint - 'why keep doing this if there is no profit?'...

----

Perhaps you can get rid of ads altogether and just run it on a donation model like Wikipedia. When they need money they post these annoying requests for donations that temporarily block your view. I guess it seems to be working since they are still around.

If you pay for moderators, I think this site can be with a lot less moderating. That would leave just hosting bills as long as the site stays working the way it does.

Anyway hope you find a solution or find a suitable buyer.

If you decide to shutdown, it would be great if you allowed people to download the entire history of posts on ATS from the beginning with photos and everything. Or in which case even be kind enough to give the code out since the work has already been done. Perhaps somebody can build an improved site with the same-ish format, less advertising and less moderating.

a reply to: devilhunter

If people discuss politics, they are prob ignorant of the real conspiracies.

What are people even doing here in that case?

Google And YouTube Target “Conspiracy Theories” In New Quality Control Update since 2017

The latest update to its rating guidelines brings many changes, but the biggest are focused on conspiracy theory websites and query results in the non-English language and satirical pages that don’t make it clearly known they are satire.

The search engine giant is hoping to address complaints from left-wing media organisations that they allowed so-called ‘fake news’ to dominate the search results and thus influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. According to Google’s senior engineer, Paul Haahr, an army of quality raters will be tasked with ensuring that websites peddling conspiracy theories or generally offensive content, are put onto a blacklist so that Google can begin removing them from the web.

“We’re explicitly avoiding the term ‘fake news,’ because we think it is too vague,” said Paul Haahr. “Demonstrably inaccurate information, however, we want to target.”

source


Here are googles guidelines for the search police

originally posted by: devilhunter

Its very sad news but as a few others have mentioned, the amount of USA politics threads is now ridiculous. When I first started coming here, it was mainly all about UFO's, paranormal and general mysteries and conspiracies.
As UK citizen, I have zero interest in US politics unless its something along the lines of the Kennedy assassination.

No wonder people dont stay or advertisers have willies when half the new threads are "I hate Trump" or "I love Trump".
I hardly ever read the politics stuff and I am sure I aint the only one.

Gosh!! ..... I have to applaud your temerity You've been a member for

14 years and you have managed in all that time THREE posts!!

Have to wonder the attraction that kept you here in view of the fact not

much on the site was of any interest to you. /SMH

Sorry your ads were blocked, friend, but maybe you should have chosen better ones and not ones that force-lock your browser and cause you to have to close and re-find the thread you were on.

Malicious ads + mods/owners ignoring said problem ads = shameless and warranted use of adblocker.

This site isn't being killed; it's committing suicide.

originally posted by: eletheia

originally posted by: devilhunter

Its very sad news but as a few others have mentioned, the amount of USA politics threads is now ridiculous. When I first started coming here, it was mainly all about UFO's, paranormal and general mysteries and conspiracies.
As UK citizen, I have zero interest in US politics unless its something along the lines of the Kennedy assassination.

No wonder people dont stay or advertisers have willies when half the new threads are "I hate Trump" or "I love Trump".
I hardly ever read the politics stuff and I am sure I aint the only one.

Gosh!! ..... I have to applaud your temerity

You've been a member for

14 years

and you have managed in all that time THREE posts!!

Have to wonder the attraction that kept you here in view of the fact not

much on the site was of any interest to you. /SMH

Some people like to just read the thoughts and ideas of others. Nobody has to create any amount of threads to appease you. Stop gate-keeping the internet.

originally posted by: ArMaP
a reply to: ADVISOR

I wouldn't mind clicking some ads, if I saw any. It's been a long time since I saw my last advert on ATS, some time last year, if I'm not mistaken, and even then I only saw one or two from time to time.

Is that because you're signed in as a member? Can you see ads if you don't sign in? That's how it works for me.

Since the content here is member contributed and the contributing members aren't paid directly, I thought the omission of ads for members who have contributed at a certain level to ATS was an indirect form of "compensation". (I don't know what that contribution level is, just that new members with not many posts seem to get ads and members with a lot of posts seem to not get ads when signed in). Skeptic Overlord said lost ad revenue amounts to maybe $25 per year per member who doesn't get ads, and the way I read this, he is also inferring that $25 isn't going to be enough to save the site.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: SkepticOverlord
Given the current state of online advertising supply-side and demand-side automated auctions, and the current revenue average across ads - if you were getting ads, and we tracked the generated revenue from just your ads, it wouldn't be more than $25 for all of 2020.

So please don't worry.

a reply to: eletheia

Ya know, if I were an unregistered lurker, posts like this would dissuade me from joining. Or coming back to lurk further.

Going after dissenting opinions with personal jabs is a good way to ensure new memberships dry up, especially when you're targeting posters with much lower post counts -- it just looks elitist, childish and petty. Is that really the image you want to project for the site?

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
Is that because you're signed in as a member? Can you see ads if you don't sign in? That's how it works for me.

I had to use a private browsing session to see how things are when not signed in, as I never log out.

Logged out I can see a couple of ads inserted between the posts on threads, but only those, I don't see any ads at the top of the page, like I used to see even when logged in.

a reply to: nOraKat

All moderators are volunteers, they are same as any member plus some admin permissions, granted they are of proper maturity.

As a former mod and super, I can vouch for the relatively unbiased standard required for mod responsibly.

That's all it is, other members trying to keep the forums from becoming a labyrinth of debate and collaboration. Some times quite heated and deep. I miss that ATS...


However, times change and so too must we as a community.

If we can come together, and set aside temporary difference, for mutual benefit. The community of ATSers will thrive.

Just look at it's heritage already.

Decades of ignorance denied.


Remember;

United We Stand, The Rest Is, Not An Option!