ATS Money & Ethics

Originally posted by Conspiracy Theorist06
He was just asking.

And as well he might ask. There is no harm in that.

There is a danger that we might lose our objectivity in all this. He is quite entitled to ask and the powers that be at ATS are quite entitled to be as coy or as honest as they choose. We agreed to the T&A when we signed up, we agreed to abide by the rules of their house. This issue surfaced before as regards "Free Speech" in ATS. It may chafe a little, but ask yourself, who pays the bills? Are the bandwidth server bills coming to your house?

No, they are not.

However, ATS is content wise, an entity created by us, the membership. By rights, we should have a say in our collective contributions and should never be afraid to question the administration. I feel that the administration here does look after our best interests and for what we invest, the dividends we reap as individuals can not be valued.

Having said that, I do have to address the concerns raised by outside parties to the nature of ATS. These concerns have obviously tripped something among the ATS membership, and considering the inquistive and questioning nature of the membership, this should be no surprise.

We have been accussed of being brainwashed, of being part of some sort of cult that will spring to the defense of the community and blindly follow the party line if needed.

Threads like this one:www.belowtopsecret.com...
started by AgentSmith, make me uncomfortable. I already show my thanks to ATS by returning each day and posting my opinions, I don't feel the need to reaffirm some sort of loyalty in a sycophantic way. I noted the discomfort felt by other posters in replying to this thread also. I appreciate the effort by all the staff, but I do not blindly follow everything the powers that be here say or do.

Nor do I think they would wish me to.

But as long as I post here I will respect their rules and I will do my best to live up to the ATS motto: Deny Ignorance! Even when it comes to ATS itself, I will continue to question and continue to deny ignorance. So if you feel the need to attack theShroudof Memphis, STOP.

In the tradition of our community and the spirit of Deny Ignorance, he is well within his rights to question anything he sees fit to question. And in the spirit of our community, those being questioned have answered and allowed to this thread to live on.

We are not BRAINWASHED and we are not a CULT. We are individuals with different opinions who come together to share knowledge in the pursuit of knowledge. We are warriors on the path of enlightenment, we are the whole which is more than the sum of our parts. We deny ignorance and we are proud.

We are ATS. Freedom. You are going to be offended, so MYOB!!

Originally posted by howmuchisthedoggy
Threads like this one:www.belowtopsecret.com...
started by AgentSmith, make me uncomfortable. I already show my thanks to ATS by returning each day and posting my opinions, I don't feel the need to reaffirm some sort of loyalty in a sycophantic way. I noted the discomfort felt by other posters in replying to this thread also. I appreciate the effort by all the staff, but I do not blindly follow everything the powers that be here say or do.

Sorry dude, it was not my intention. I just felt like I needed to do something and it would be nice for people to show their appreciation considering all the crap of late. I didn't hand around a collection tin or something! LOL

I am bumping this thread for a couple reasons. First, I wanted to know what happened to ShroudofMemphis because that guy was one of the top quality posters here, and right after this post, he disappeared off ATS so far as I can tell.

Also, there are a couple posts in this thread by SO, Val and Simon which really do describe the reality of dollars and cents (sense?) here on this fine board. As has been said, I too hope for the day when SO, Simon and Springer might have a little extra income from ATS and I'm sure it'll be used to reward the mods or upgrade the site (or pay Jessica Alba to host the TV show in a bikini? Please?)

After reading this thread, I do have to say that it's odd when a member loses their bowels and posts nonsense like TSOM's original post here. Obviously nobody's getting "rich" off ATS and in fact the mod crews are working for free and doing a fine job. ATS is a collective work of thinking and I am sure the Amigos would agree. They KNOW the value of a good member and every time they see a good post, they are happy not only for the body of work at ATS but also that maybe there'll be many future good posts from that member.

I for one really like TSOM's posts (probably in my top five favorite users at one point) and I can see what he was saying about the post here because he contributed a lot. BUT sometimes we don't feel appreciated for our contributions, and then we'll end up wrecking whatever good will there was.

In a way, ATS is like a cult. Now, I don't mean that it's cultlike in its behavior, but it's cultlike in that once you get kicked out, you will feel isolation and lonliness. Naturally any of us, if banned or somehow sent packing, would feel withdrawl. Hell if ATS goes down for a day, I start to itch. BUT then ATS is NOT like a cult in that if you beg and plead, I think you can get back in. I don't think you are banned "forever" unless you really really screw up. I think some members have earned their way back into the group. But collective groups of people are often quite similar despite the differences.

But I just wanted to post here and say "Shroud, come back please" because there will be no better forum for your excellent posts. That's the beauty of ATS: It allows you a grand stage on which to trod. Where else can your ideas be seeded into so many minds?

Really now, you wrote this post and asked your questions about the finances (not sure why you care, frankly) and it's very clear that you lacked correct information regarding how much it costs to run this free website. I am sure you understand better now, so come back and post, buddy.


[edit on 24-6-2006 by smallpeeps]