for some reason i am just not feeling creative enough to participate in the contest to win 10,000 points but i am wondering if there will be other ways to win points of varying amounts.

i see a lot of people have spent their points and it also appears that a lot of people are making full use of the vulgar language censoring being removed. i'm hoping once the novelty wears off the swearing will go back down.

Yes.

Here are some of the ways we're working on.

Winning a debate... probably 5,000 points
Activity on your blog (still working on this)
Other contests (like the Simon question)
Posting to the news portal... probably 500 points
Getting ATS mentioned in other sources ... big points

And more as we'll always be thinking of things that make sense. There are/will be logical ways to gain points that are everyday contributions to the quality of ATS as the Internet's leading conspiracy site. And occasionally... some fun stuff.

Sounds nice William...but surely we can be excused for using this new points system for our own personal gain?? I'm thinking:

Washing and Waxing my car:
500 points
Fetching William another glass of Whiskey:
500 points
Picking up after Thomas Crownes dog:
1000 points
Cleaning Netchickens Hen House:
1000 points
Translating Estragons posts into everyday English:
1000..no...2000...no, ah, who am I kidding, thats near impossible *don't hurt me Estragon ol' buddy*

William

Excellent.

I think good model citizenship is worthy of brownie points too.

How about:

* hottest topic initiated in a month 250 points
* winner of the ATS banner award (Above Top Secret outdoor publicity contest run a few weeks back) 1,000 points - was that announced?
* any new member who works out how to put up their avatar without asking for the 200th time - 150 points (good kickstart!)

MarkosOrrealus just U2U'd me to ask if he could have 10,000 of my points for humanitarian causes.

If these were not to be applied to my own goal of global domination and benevolent autocracy for the good of humankind, I would gladly disperse my points evenly between he and the other 4000 members...

As I am not U2U'ing until I get rid of 900 non-existent U2U's from somewhere, I trust he will read these short allegories....

1. Ask not what ATS can do for you, but what you can do for ATS.

2. Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him forever.

3. Greed is good.

4. You just never know where your next 10,000 points may come from. It could even be from getting to know SimonGray in your own way.

I gotta go and watch E true Hollywood story now.

Be back later.

Sound's like you'e got it all planed out in your head William

By the way, this is our 16,000th thread

ATS still rockin',
Tassadar

We're also theorizing an ATS futures exchange... allowing for speculative investment of points based on what you believe to be the expected movement of the forum mood meter.

I have been looking at ways to automatically reward users for activity on threads they initiate (1 point for every post)... harder than it seems.

What did you get for your personal spending spree, William?

Originally posted by William
Yes.

Here are some of the ways we're working on.

Winning a debate... probably 5,000 points
Activity on your blog (still working on this)
Other contests (like the Simon question)
Posting to the news portal... probably 500 points
Getting ATS mentioned in other sources ... big points

And more as we'll always be thinking of things that make sense. There are/will be logical ways to gain points that are everyday contributions to the quality of ATS as the Internet's leading conspiracy site. And occasionally... some fun stuff.

activity on our blogs? nah i like my blog and i wouldnt make an entry just for points. although.....maybe we could have a reward system for people who leave comments? that would get more people to read the blogs!

as for mentioning ATS....i can put a link up to the site on my own page. or even a banner (i think)

Originally posted by Tassadar
Sound's like you'e got it all planed out in your head William

By the way, this is our 16,000th thread

ATS still rockin',
Tassadar

really? can i get some points for that????

For thread activity you could use the Today Posts for a measure of frequency. Or just how many people have viewed your thread. I'm not sure how you've modified the board and all, but intermingling with the view code should be fine because it happens for everyone. The cost for updating the data base is already there.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
What did you get for your personal spending spree, William?

Well... I can award myself points whenever I like you know, for testing the programming.

You said points for submitting news. How do we submit news? If I go to any blog, I can log in and post comments (haven't posted yet, but read quite a few) but when I go to the news blog, it makes me log in, but then tells me I tried something invalid. What gives? I don't have a blog so maybe that is part of the problem?

I spent two hours crafting a magnum opus on Simon's history as a hybrid agent working for humanity, recently helping expose secret plane designs with this site. I hit reply when I was finished, forgetting I was offline, losing my entire work to a "Cannot find server."

xaos

p.s. I am totally serious. From now on I am saving mywork before posting. Don't laugh or I'll sic Simon's pet Chupacabras on you.

And uh, now that I stopped crying and tore myself away from the liquor, I have an idea for a way to spend points. Maybe we could be able to buy themes as well as backround colors? Cause the roswell theme is really grating on the eyes. I want my midnight colored ATS back.

xaos

This is just an idea ... I'm not so pressed that I'm actually going to pay 50 bucks for 25 points, but the idea has a certain allure.

You get money for the server and the payee gets points. Sounds fair to me. You could have like a donater scale:

$50 - ATS member - 2000 points
$100 - Supreme Conspiracator - 10,000 points
$500 - (something witty and cool here) - 50,000 points

and so forth.