ATS, BTS, What would you like to see in the future?

reply to post by AllTiedTogether


I think that would have less detractors because most people would not understand it, it gets too confusing and it would probably be ignored.

I think the present system accounts for all possibilities in the best way (at least until a better idea appears).

Originally posted by nerbot
I now have a very strong index finger.

Do you scroll with your index finger?

I just hit the "Home" key on the keyboard, it's faster.

And I also keep "myATS" always open in one tab and I read the posts in another (the
link opens the thread in the previously opened tab).

reply to post by ArMaP


I'd have to disagree with you there... I mean what does the "simply stunning insight" logo mean on your avatar? For me to find that out I would have to go and check where that would put you in terms of the numbers... With my way your 132 applauses would give you an indicator of Compartment Hotel or India... thereby showing that you are above all the others from A to G.

Having it the way it currently is leads to having to go and try to figure out what the numbers are to figure your standing within the community. Also there is the conversion factor, which most would not even attempt to figure out and verify if the tag was correct. At least this way there is no confusion, they could toggle a button and have a mouse-over to show their numbers and what the Security levels are within the ATS community, leading to no guess work.


Rgds

Originally posted by nerbot

Naaaa! can't wreck this place....that's why they move on.

Stick around and see...denying ignorance is a way of life for some people here and if the "kids" you speak of can't deal with that, they dissappear as quick as they came or get the short, sharp shock treatment with a barrage of replies and gain a little enlightenment and return as a valuable member.

"I've seen it happen"

I've seen dozens of thoughtful involved posters fall off the map. Not noticeable by the numbers because the get replaced by a hundred kids.

Been on discussion lists for a decade. One harassing experience can make someone whose been contributing for years sign off for good. People want to share information, not go into self-defense mode.

This is not anecdotal or speculation on my part - it's been happening - and a lot.


Mike

reply to post by mmiichael


I would have to agree Mike.... I tried to post a thread title "Hello ATS and Goodbye" a few days ago and it was cancelled....

I'm trying to change something now to make it worthy of me staying since they won't let me go..

rgds


[edit on 17-5-2009 by AllTiedTogether]

please look at this thread to see what I have tried to explain. I have not been the best at trying to get this idea out but the others in this thread have clarified it.
We would welcome this change.
(it's like an automatic bookmark at your last post in a thread)

Thanks,

Mike

Hello.
I think it would be nice if the media portal had an ATS original paranormal section.
Many of the UFO/ghost videos we will see on there will be videos that people have seen 100 times. So there should be a section for what members have personally captured. And it should be limited to people capturing actual phenomena, not slide shows with text and techno music.

2 things

A count of views as well as posts as I suspect much of the traffic is from non members - will also help with ad revenue and better gauge the interest in a topic.

And a must have is a spell checker for posts.



[edit on 18-5-2009 by pharaohmoan]

I doubt this will be acknowledged but here goes.

A real housecleaning is in order. Good businesses do re-evaluations and decide what works for them and what pulls them down.

Open source content was a good idea in principle. But when you start attracting every isolated loner with an axe to grind, every delusional, every hater, every desperate attention seek, you have an anarchic circus not a discussion forum.

Feedback and numbers may seem to indicate success and satisfaction but that can be deceptive. If 90% of the views are staying outside there's an implicit message - they don't want to be part of this.

And maybe for good reason. Lots of interesting insightful opinions and alternative news - but you have to fight to find it and once inside maintain a line of communication with the assaults.

Lots of conspiracy sites out there - but the old model is getting tired.

Time for quality not just quality. Time for a healthy slimming down removing the really detrimental stuff, Time for a site with serious discussion of what's not being told - more than a conspiracist zoo.

Sorry to be so negative. Think the site is great and appreciate the attempts to improve it.

Just believe an upgrade building on what has been learned will make it stellar.

Time for alternative information and conspiracy not to be something people snicker at.


Mike


[edit on 20-5-2009 by mmiichael]

With regard the member list it would be nice to see a good reason as to why an individual was banned. SS, Naga was banned and I can't find anything as to why that is so and his post count was nearly 700!

[edit on 20-5-2009 by pharaohmoan]

NIGHTLIGHTS!! ats nightlights in the gift shop would be cool, with a green light and the ats logo/alien logo on em.

Originally posted by mmiichael

A real housecleaning is in order. Good businesses do re-evaluations and decide what works for them and what pulls them down.

...

Lots of conspiracy sites out there - but the old model is getting tired.

Time for quality not just [quantity?]. Time for a healthy slimming down removing the really detrimental stuff, Time for a site with serious discussion of what's not being told - more than a conspiracist zoo.

Sorry to be so negative. Think the site is great and appreciate the attempts to improve it.

Just believe an upgrade building on what has been learned will make it stellar.

Time for alternative information and conspiracy not to be something people snicker at.

I largely agree. I think there are three major problems.

The first big one is what do people see when they come to the site? They see a lot of new threads that are sensational or topical and because of that they, respectively, sky-rocket with comments and flags. Unfortunately this means long-time posters that have made a name for themselves often times create threads that contain deep / quality information ( though they're perhaps more boring ) and thus sink to the bottom. This is the best solution that I can come up to address this problem with the way that ATS currently works.

The second problem is the flat thread / reply structure with no mechanism to filter out low-or-no star posts.

Often times I find myself wading through posts that simply aren't interesting that are replies to other posts I find equally uninteresting. There's no reason that I as the end-user shouldn't be able to specify through the control panel "view threads and replies as a tree" or "view threads and replies flat." This would allow me to ignore the entire branch of conversation that I'm not interested in.

A flat thread reflects date order, a tree'ed thread reflects topic first and replies in date order second. Add in a filtering mechanism (say ala Slashcode) and I would never see anything that doesn't meet my threshhold of a minimum of "one star" posts.

The third big problem is making sure all forum posts are graded equally. Say a person submits a post at 1 AM Pacific Standard Time. Very few people are going to be awake and therefore the post is likely going to get pushed off the 'Newest Threads' queue before anyone has a chance to see it.

The solution here is to force people to see items that haven't been rated yet. Once the user has rated an item that hasn't been reviewed then let them sort by another mechanism like date-order / popularity, etc.

What amuses me is the code to do this is already available online for free (Slashcode). I'm very tempted to just install it on my server and ask people which they like better the flat ATS approach or the Slashcode technique.

A SINK or FLOAT (vote up/down) like Digg would be nice.

IMHO...this would help cut down on irrelevant, misleading, and silly topics

Ok I havent seen this yet but then again I havent gone threw all these pages! How about an option to buy a new user ID so you can change it? I also like the idea someone posted about giving points to another member.

I wouldnt mind a funtion that allows users to see how many non members are online. just a thought...

[edit on 5/21/2009 by DarkStormCrow]

A small suggestion ...

ATS has had a massive increase in popularity over the last few years. We have many more contributing members taking the time and effort to formulate terrific threads.

Would you consider increasing the size of the the "recent posts" page so as to include a greater number of threads?

Due to the welcome increase in thread authoring, during high volume hours a thread can roll off the page rather quickly these days.

Thanks.

I started a thread a little while ago asking if there was any way to see who has flagged you, and it appears that there isn't any way to see this.

So would there be a way to implement something the same as getting a u2u when you get applause?

Originally posted by schrodingers dog


We have many more contributing members taking the time and effort to formulate terrific threads.

Would you consider increasing the size of the the "recent posts" page so as to include a greater number of threads?

Due to the welcome increase in thread authoring, during high volume hours a thread can roll off the page rather quickly these days.

I'd say far and away the most important improvement would be here.

Right now a new and interesting thread is sometimes on the page for only a few minutes. If it don't have a shock and awe hook it just disappears off the horizon.

One reason people go out of their way to be outrageous as opposed to informative. More attention, more flags for sounding like the National Inquirer,

Mike




[edit on 23-5-2009 by mmiichael]

This is probably out of the realms of the Mods and time consuming but....

Sometimes it's possible to miss out on good information ecasue threads can get HUGE. A 'Mod Review' at the top of each tenth page or something would be cool.
It would have to be unbiased, contain the major facts in the thread so far and also arguments against.
The unbiased part would be difficult.

Would it be possible to have the stars back in BTS, please.

They could have a zero value so as not to increase a member's star count. Although, I don't make a distinction between posts on ATS or BTS. A good post is a good post, to me.

I really miss being able to award stars and have tried other ways to acknowledge members without spamming, but it's not ideal.

I used to enjoy some of the competitions in BTS but they relied on posts being starred in order to find a winner. I suppose we won't be able to have them any more, which is a pity.

Not having the facility to star posts (especially now that stars are worth something) gives the impression that BTS being under-valued. That may not be the case but I'd like to speak up for it anyway. I can't be the only person who finds it a hugely enjoyable and entertaining part of site - and who wants to acknowledge good contributions.