Thanks to Springer...

Questor has a very good question which should be answered:

"What if some of us decide to contribute funds equal to or above Springer's contribution? What do we get in return?"

OOOOOoooOOoOoOoOooh...

I bet there's a lot of activity going on in Cosmic right now lol...

Wonder what the awnser will be, if we get one...

[Edited on 10-2-2004 by m0rbid]

Originally posted by DramaQueen
Questor has a very good question which should be answered:

"What if some of us decide to contribute funds equal to or above Springer's contribution? What do we get in return?"

Let me say again...access to the beer fridge and your own Swingline stapler of course.

Skeptic: Zedd.
Nerdling: Who's he?
Simon: You know, squirrely looking guy, mumbles a lot.
Nerdling: Oh, yeah.
Skeptic: Yeah, we can't actually find a record of him being a current ATS member.
Simon: I looked into it more deeply and I found that apparently what happened is that he was banned off years ago and no one ever told him, but through some kind of glitch in the system, he still gets to post.
Skeptic: So we just went a ahead and fixed the glitch.
Nerdling: Great.
NetChicken: So um, Zedd has been let go?
Skeptic: Well just a second there, professor. We uh, we fixed the *glitch*. So he won't be receiving ATS points anymore, so it will just work itself out naturally.
Simon: We always like to avoid confrontation, whenever possible. Problem solved from your end.

Have a laugh...and move along. These aren't the driods your looking for.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Originally posted by John Nada
and that to me shows a lack of integrity.

So... to publicly disclose exactly what happened and how demonstrates a lack of integrity?

To offer an "inside" position to the person providing the third-highest amount of funding for ATS shows a lack of integrity? (Would taking the money and running have a better level of integrity for you?)

Can you explain why it would demonstrate a better level of integrity to accept a significant offer of financial assistance, and not provide anything in return?

I've already posted what my problem is about and it isn't any of the above, read my posts again please.

Oh, and to answer your other question. You didn't offer Springer anything, he asked for access in return for his money and not the other way around. He bought his way in, end of story. If you had offered him that AFTER the money was given then I wouldn't have a problem at all.
In fact I still don't have problem even if it's the other way around...(I guess I'm going to have to repeat myself but please read my earlier post)...

...what I do have a problem with is certain people trying to pass this off as a donation and charity from Springer and thanking him, when in fact he asked AND got something for his money.

If that's the way it works here then fine, it's not my board, but don't start a thread thanking him for his charity when it was no such thing.
All I'm asking is for you to not pass it off as something that it's not.

Originally posted by ZeddicusZulZorander
Let me say again...access to the beer fridge and your own Swingline stapler of course.

Skeptic: Zedd.
Nerdling: Who's he?
Simon: You know, squirrely looking guy, mumbles a lot.
Nerdling: Oh, yeah.
Skeptic: Yeah, we can't actually find a record of him being a current ATS member.
Simon: I looked into it more deeply and I found that apparently what happened is that he was banned off years ago and no one ever told him, but through some kind of glitch in the system, he still gets to post.
Skeptic: So we just went a ahead and fixed the glitch.
Nerdling: Great.
NetChicken: So um, Zedd has been let go?
Skeptic: Well just a second there, professor. We uh, we fixed the *glitch*. So he won't be receiving ATS points anymore, so it will just work itself out naturally.
Simon: We always like to avoid confrontation, whenever possible. Problem solved from your end.

Have a laugh...and move along. These aren't the driods your looking for.

Zedd... Milton... whoever you think you are at this point... these have been some of the funniest repsonses to any pointless thread on any board that I've seen in a long time.

Keep paraphrasing!

Originally posted by Springer
I was approached with a request to help out which I did gladly because I am able, "status" should not be confused with responsibility here.

I re-read a few posts. Springer was approached with a request to help.

So there you go folks.

On one hand, I hear a lot of poor-mouthing about how much it costs to run ATS. Bandwidth costs, upgrade costs, Security costs, IT costs. The site goes up...it goes down...up...and down...and now you're forced to "break the rules" to get the financing needed JUST to keep going.
Yet on the other hand. There's two threads going around about "record posts" over the last two days. The consensus from those being that this is a GREAT thing.

"Good gravy what are we going to do with 500,000 posts?
S.O. you better build a shed to store 'em all in!
This is awesome, the more the merrier I always say. Think of the miriad points of view and multitudes of minds ATS is attracting.
This could REALLY become something HUGE" - Springer

"-- 2333 -- the numbers keep rolling in
Yesterday, our members smashed our previous one-day post-count record...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
2,333 posts for February 5th, 2004. This broke the previous one-day record of 2,007 on January 21st, 2004.
Way to go members!!!" - Skeptic Overlord

There's also a thread asking people not use the "quote" function so much as its depleting bandwidth and hogging space.

So what gives? Do you want all the traffic or not? Is the poor-mouthing just a routine for soliciting funds from "eager beavers" drooling to be "on the inside", or a con for the Google advertisers?
I have become confused with what ATS is about. Are you aiming to be the biggest "conspiracy" site on the web? If so why? Does "ad hits" and "web-traffic" really allow us to "Deny Ignorace" better?
Why is there such a push for "ATS legitimacy" from the outside world with such obvious examples as ATSNN? Why has that become so important? Why are we trying to get bigger and bigger when there's NO money available?

Perhaps the members should be let in on the grand plan for ATS. The people here tend to be smart, educated and are obviously loyal. It might help to CLEAR THE AIR with them.

- The Village Grouse

Damnit this is sooooo ridiculous.

We all come here and get to use this great site for free. Sure we are all asked to donate if we can but we are not required to do anything. Yet still people are bitching about someone getting special privledges that they didn't get.

Springer gave a large enough amount of money to make him the third largest contributor to ATS. If my knowledge does not fail me that would put that contribution into the thousands of dollars. If I was him I would want to have a look see into what my money was being used for. I think that he is smart for doing so and it don't matter if he was approached or gave the money unsolicited it was still his money.

Remember one last damn thing. This site is owned by Simon and not by anyone protesting to this appointment to moderator. This is not a damn democracy if the owner wants to make a change the owner shall make a change.

[Edited on 10-2-2004 by John bull 1]

Originally posted by BlackJackal
Damnit this is sooooo ridiculous.

We all come here and get to use this great site for free. Sure we are all asked to donate if we can and click on the google ads but we are not required to do anything. Yet still people are bitching about someone getting special privledges that they didn't get.

Springer gave a large enough amount of money to make him the third largest contributor to ATS. If my knowledge does not fail me that would put that contribution into the thousands of dollars. If I was him I would want to have a look see into what my money was being used for. I think that he is smart for doing so and it don't matter if he was approached or gave the money unsolicited it was still his money.

Remember one last damn thing. This site is owned by Simon and not by anyone protesting to this appointment to moderator. This is not a damn democracy if the owner wants to make a change the owner shall make a change.

WTF are you talking about? Where in any of my posts do I disagree with anything that you have said? I suggest you back and read them, as you obviously didn't do so the first time.

Originally posted by Voice_of Doom There's also a thread asking people not use the "quote" function so much as its depleting bandwidth and hogging space.

That's not the reason for the thread about quotes. The reason is related to readability of threads, not bandwidth or storage space. Large quotes with one-line responses disrupt the visible flow, and easy readability of a long thread.

Do you want all the traffic or not? Is the poor-mouthing just a routine

I'm not sure what "poor-mouthing" you're referring to. The traffic is an important benchmark for community members to take pride in what they're inovlved with.

Perhaps the members should be let in on the grand plan for ATS.

The only "grand plan" is to see how a community like this might grow when technology and bandwidth support is provided. Every change, modification, upgrade, addition, or improvement (such as BTS, points, colors, ATSNN, etc.) has been in response to what is happening within the community. Where ATS "ends up" has much more to do with what happens in the community than any direction I, Simon, or anyone else could attempt to steer. "Deny ignorance" is a theme or rallying call. You have the high-performance, high-profile, high-volume forum in which to do it. What will you do with it?

I dont like the sound of a "grand plan" it sounds too evil besides i like surprises but not evil surprises

[Edited on 11-2-2004 by drunk]