History of AboveTopSecret.com incomplete?

Originally posted by Shawnna
Frankly, I find all of the above disconcerting, to say the least.

Why?

It's not on ATS.

It's on a fan site for a game about those subjects.

It's long before ATS evolved into what it is now, and looks to be Simon's first effort to give his site a traffic kick by providing a destination for fans of the game.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
Why are none of the "researchers" looking at this:

*raises hand*

I did. I just forgot to use my sarcasm tags when I said the following:

Originally posted by Duzey
Is the contention that ATS was put online as a site for Majestic at least a year before the game went into development? That Neil Young, creator of the game who didn't start working with EA until the end of 1996, asked Simon to set up a website two years later for his game while it was still an idea floating around in his head?

That's OK though, I'm used to my genius being overlooked.



[edit on 7-1-2007 by Duzey]

Oh dear... I can't believe the paranoia which some people have...

Are people going to find conspiracies in the fact I like to eat Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast, that my favourite TV shows at present are 24 and Battlestar Galactica.

It's come to the point that a person who found interest in a video game decided he'd create a website about that video game, and is now the subject of loony paranoia. If that's the case, the same can be said for every person aged 10 to 100 who's created a webpage or website about something they thought was "cool"...

11Bravo, you're reading into this far too much. Have you never read a review about a video game or DVD coming out you thought sounded good? Then decided to express your interest by telling friends or family (or us I.T. nerds might create a website)? Sheesh!

Originally posted by 11Bravo
Very Interesting, atleast to me.
Can anyone tell my why the EA game Majestic was controversial?

The mainstream probably found it controversial because part of playing the game involved the players receiving telephone calls, IM messages "in the real world", not to mention it is based on the conspiracy theory of a "shadow government", something that conspiracy theorists love to delve into.

Originally posted by 11Bravo
So, do you own a copy of this game? You have played it?
I ask because I was wondering if events in the game were the controversy, or if the story line of a 'secret elite government entity' was the controversy.

No, I didn't play it in the end. I didn't fancy the idea of paying a monthly fee for a video game. Also why the website never took off, I lost interest.

The reason behind it's supposed controversy? I never knew there was any controversy before reading this post and looking it up on Wikipedia.

Originally posted by 11Bravo

It wasn't a typical PC game, and it's no longer around. Unfortunately, the game was halted after 9/11 and the user base didn't reach the levels anticipated.

You say 'Unfortunately' here. Curious choice of words.
What is unfortunate about a video game going belly up? It happens all the time.

Why, in your best guess, was the game 'halted' after 911?

I say unfortunately because the game sounded cool and had the potential to become a new novel way of playing a form of entertainment.

It's unfortunate that Aliens: Colonial Marines was ditched during production too!

Why was the game halted after 9/11? I don't know, I read about that here first. Maybe the producers felt it was in poor taste. Again, I don't know. I had nothing to do with the game.

Originally posted by 11Bravo
Yes, how odd it is that the events of 911 appear to have effected the sales of one particlular video game and the growth one particular forum, and that these two seemingly unconnected things appear to have atleast a thread of commonality, and an inverse relationship to boot.

How did you jump to the conclusion this game is related to ATS? You do realise ATS was born in 1997 as a hobby of mine when I was a teenager?

The events of 9/11 did indeed raise the bar on the interest of conspiracy theory as so many people not normally interested in the concept of conspiracies suddenly questioned the events and possible reasons for the fall of the World Trade Center buildings. These people turned to the World Wide Web, and came across ATS, so yes, it did increase our growth quite dramatically.

Originally posted by Shawnna
This is an interesting revelation - to say the least.

I am preserving this thread on my computer - just in case it disappears.

Why would this thread disappear?

Shawnna, you do realise this link you provided - www.virtuallystrange.net... - claims that three of the biggest and longest serving Alternative Discussion websites on the web, all around prior to EA's Majestic game, are hoax sites. Do you not see the complete stupidity in that statement?

Originally posted by Jbird
What's even odder, to me , Shawna,
is the fact that tenured members such as yourself ,
are just discovering this.

I've listened to more than one Simon interview,
with the obligatory, 'History of ATS' question,
and don't recall any such game related background.

Seems like the kind of small talk that would,at least,
come up in RATS or an associated chat lounge,
doesn't it?

And SO has never heard of it?

Interesting synchronicity, even if innocent.

Why do you find it strange that because no one had asked about EA's Majestic game before that we are involved in some kind of conspiracy?

I bet there's loads of things in the history of ATS's evolution I can't even remember which will be brought up in future by hard-researching ATS members. In most cases it brings a smile to my face and a bit of nostalgia, in this instance I did have a chuckle at first remembering when I went to Yahoo and bought the www.majestic-alliance.com domain. But then ignorance and paranoia dug it's way in somehow.

No offense to SkepticOverlord who I now consider once of my best friends, but you do realise he didn't create this website? He wasn't involved in it's creation and it wasn't until a few years back I partnered up with him to improve our computing infrastructure as ATS was struggling to survive it's own popularity and I didn't have the I.T. knowledge or skills to keep it up-and-running?

That's why he didn't know about it. Not to mention the Majestic-Alliance website was a personal thing I decided to do (probably one weekend) but abandoned because I couldn't be bothered. Simple as that.

Originally posted by Shawnna
I've never had any reason to question the motives of any of the 3 Amigos - until recently.

Give me a break. This is a website where people freely discuss almost anything they want bar sex, drugs, murder, and a few other subjects that breach our simple Terms and Conditions.

Originally posted by Shawnna
If you read the information posted in the links provided by the OP - you'll quickly understand why this isn't something that is discussed openly - even in RATS.

Eh!? It's being discussed here openly...

Further, the content of the Majestic-Alliance website I created was all cut-and-paste from EA's Majestic website. It was a template I never did anything with. You are reading into this way too much.

Originally posted by Shawnna
You're right - it is being discussed now because an individual (the OP of this thread) posted his research.

And it could have been discussed whenever anyone wanted to. It's only now that someone has resurrected something I started in the past. It was never a subject silent from discussion.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Originally posted by Shawnna
Frankly, I find all of the above disconcerting, to say the least.

Why?

It's not on ATS.

It's on a fan site for a game about those subjects.

It's long before ATS evolved into what it is now, and looks to be Simon's first effort to give his site a traffic kick by providing a destination for fans of the game.

Couldn't have said it better SO.

[edit on 7-1-2007 by SimonGray]

Originally posted by Duzey
That's OK though, I'm used to my genius being overlooked.

Genius should be used to being overlooked.

But really, it seems as though we needed to be less subtle and more overt for those that hope to discover new dark secrets about ATS.

Originally posted by Shawnna
Why does that seem odd to you?
I've never had any reason to question the motives of any of the 3 Amigos - until recently.

Shawnna, with 2 n's, I didn't mean to imply you should have investigated anything.
I just assumed (insert cliche' here), being 'old news' , that it would be innocent shop talk, sooner or later amongst the 'old timers'.

Obviously, I'm not a RATS participant, so I just assumed (there's that word again) there would be some kind of 'lounge' or small talk section inside RATS, or one of the comparable upper echelon forums, where this seemingly related topic would come up.

Originally posted by Shawnna If you read the information posted in the links provided by the OP - you'll quickly understand why this isn't something that is discussed openly - even in RATS.

Is This part of what you refer to?

Should a third party unknowingly intercept one of the game's death threats and turn it over to law enforcement, we imagine that there will be a whole lot of explaining to do."

www.elfis.net...

On a side note-
Wasn't there a movie with a similar theme, about 10 years or so ago, starring Michael Douglas?

Classified: ABOVETOPSECRET.COM/MAJIC

For the record, there's no such thing as the Majestic 12.

Um... yeah, that's the ticket!

Originally posted by Jbird
Wasn't there a movie with a similar theme, about 10 years or so ago, starring Michael Douglas?

Yep.

It's called The Game and is nestled in between Deliverance and Evil Dead 2 on my shelf. I really need to organize those DVD's better. :shk:

Great movie.

Originally posted by SimonGray
Oh dear... I can't believe the paranoia which some people have...

I was guilty of it myself once, .

I think paranoia and distrust of you guys as immature and unjustified as it may be is something your probably allways going to have to put up with, its like the saying, you cant please everybody all of the time.

i think you could very well post pictures of your colonic irrigation sessions online and some moron would still think you are hiding something.

i suppose the best you can do is answer questions when they arise, other than that id personally tell people if they dont like it they can leave.

Patience is not becoming one of my finer points as i get older, i dont know how you guys put up with the crap, on a day to day basis.

Jeeze, lighten up .

Just for the record, my original post was mostly intended to be TIC.

I'm not looking for 'dark secrets' or
'immaturely' trying to 'justify' anything.

As far as I'm concerned , no need to get all serious n stuff.

the immature comment wasnt aimed at yourself mate, so im sorry if you took offense, it was aimed at the questioning collectiveness, from in the past to what i belonged.

i myself had a big distrust of simon and william, so the comments were not aimed exclusively at anybody, more making fun of the general paranoia and myself in honnesty.

i wasnt trying to offend you or anybody in reality, sorry if i did, its only natural to question authority i guess.

Ha,ha. No worries, mate. I'm not meaning to point fingers either.
Like yourself, I'm just talking in generalities.

Being a new member, I just wanted to clarify my non threatening position.

Was trying to broaden my posting parameters, here on ATS, but
maybe I should stay in the kiddies sandbox, a while longer.

JBIRD the only sandbox you need to be playing is the ALLTHECONSPIRACIES sandbox matey. Seeing as the amigos are perusing this thread may I use this oppertunity to ask " what the heck does WHITE CHINA refer to?"
Ok back to topic..

Ex' , as you will notice next to my 'Mood', I had to finally blink.

I think the 'EYE' has won this round.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Originally posted by Shawnna
Frankly, I find all of the above disconcerting, to say the least.

Why?

It's not on ATS.

I find it disconcerting because it was created by one of the owners of ATS who appears to think it is "cool" to participate or promote activities that include making up news when the real news doesn't lend itself to an objective.


If that seems a bit odd only to me - so be it.

Originally posted by SimonGray

Why would this thread disappear?

I believe SO could answer this question. He and I have just had a pretty lengthy email exchange related to one ATS member (out of four total) contacting me out of the blue concerned about having a very long thread deleted that they, and a number of other members contributed to, albeit accidentally.



Springer openly touts his "magic delete button".





This post of mine was deleted.




I hope those examples help you understand why I would have this fear of posts being deleted.

Originally posted by SimonGray
Shawnna, you do realise this link you provided - www.virtuallystrange.net... - claims that three of the biggest and longest serving Alternative Discussion websites on the web, all around prior to EA's Majestic game, are hoax sites. Do you not see the complete stupidity in that statement?

Ummmm..... no? What that link states, among other things, is this (emphasis mine):

Among the many ethical ambiguities implied by the very premise of the game is its use of real and fake web sites to promote real and hoax news stories. The game designers have gone so far as to create front companies for several of these web sites. They are actively urging fans of the game to create web sites to act as fronts for the game.

Within that link, the "three biggest and longest serving Alternate Discussion websites" named include:

www.chemtrail.com...: no longer exists

www.disinfo.com...: per that link, they officially announced their open participation in this new gaming experience

The third being ATS - well.... that is what we are discussing here.


I do hope this is helpful in explaining my perception of this.

Especially in light of the recent thread created by SO titled: ATS = Altruism - Trust - Sincerity

:shk:

I can see why that post was deleted. YOUR continued attempts at raising drama on the board, this post is just a continuation of this. If ATS just isn't swinging for you anymore, why don't you just leave as opposed to derailing threads and causing unwanted drama? Do YOU have an aganda here Shawnna?

Originally posted by intrepid
I can see why that post was deleted. YOUR continued attempts at raising drama on the board, this post is just a continuation of this. If ATS just isn't swinging for you anymore, why don't you just leave as opposed to derailing threads and causing unwanted drama? Do YOU have an aganda here Shawnna?

No, Intrepid, no agenda at all. Note that I did not start any of the threads, or bring up any of the issues, where you seem to believe I am 'causing unwanted drama'.

It appears to me that simply questioning anything related to ATS is equated to 'causing unwanted drama'. Why is that?

[edit on 7-1-2007 by Shawnna]

Originally posted by Shawnna

Originally posted by intrepid
I can see why that post was deleted. YOUR continued attempts at raising drama on the board, this post is just a continuation of this. If ATS just isn't swinging for you anymore, why don't you just leave as opposed to derailing threads and causing unwanted drama? Do YOU have an aganda here Shawnna?

No, Intrepid, no agenda at all.

It appears to me that simply questioning anything related to ATS is equated to 'causing unwanted drama'. Why is that?

Oh, c'mon. There is more questioning allowed here than any other site, I would wager. You're not only questioning but derailing threads, just like the one you posted above. It's not only that, it's CONTINUOUS on your part. Seems like it is your only reason to be here now. That might lead one to believe that there IS an agenda on your part.

See? We(you and I) have successfully derailed THIS thread. Mind you, I was just responding to your "questioning".

Originally posted by Shawnna
I find it disconcerting because it was created by one of the owners of ATS who appears to think it is "cool" to participate or promote activities that include making up news when the real news doesn't lend itself to an objective.

Do more research. That was part of the game.

It appears to me that simply questioning anything related to ATS is equated to 'causing unwanted drama'. Why is that?

That's a gross exaggeration. In this case, it's pretty obvious what Simon was doing back then... but some want to make it out to be something it wasn't in an effort for... for... what? Attention? Dunno... I'm stumped.

Yes... we had a lengthy email exchange... most of the length was on your part because you refused to accept simple logical explanations.

Originally posted by Shawnna
It appears to me that simply questioning anything related to ATS is equated to 'causing unwanted drama'. Why is that?

[edit on 7-1-2007 by Shawnna]

Let me tell you why. I have been on ATS since i believe about 99' or so. I have been the crazy paranoia nut, moderator, regular member, and moderator again. THe thing is with drama is that most drama bombs we have start out just like this. Basically people calling the site a front for some government organization. I can see where some people come up with it but in reality there is no way you can prove that it is and we can prove that is not. We just have our long track record to fall back on. Trust me at first i thought that it wasa frount or that the FBI replaced simon back in 01 but then I started reading the post and it just seems silly the government will want to control a place like this.

Believe me from being a long time member and having access to the inner workings. THere is no grand conspiracy goin on. We are not witholding information. If I knew that a mod or even SO, Simon, or Springer was limiting big news or censoring information i would be the first one to start calling in the search dogs. Simon is an upstanding guy with a vison, So is a genius with the web to make the vison into a reality, and Springer is a great guy to make it all possible.

I have had my run ins with all 3 amigos at some point, but i never distrusted them. My opion and their opinion may be different but we work it out. THey dont shut me up or any of that even at times i probly should have been ignored or banned.

Im just a regular college kid who sits in his dorm at night and post on ATS with a passion with finding the truth. THat it not CIA/NSA here.

If you have any questions about ATS's past feel free to U2U me and I will give numerous example of how this is not a front.

Thanks,
Quicksilver