The ATS Issues Thread

Originally posted by Wig
He claimed to know what some 139,000 people thought on this issue -in an attempt to belittle me, much like his counterpart did- when he did not have the authority to do so. The word "authority" has more than 1 meaning.

I am positive that Springer made no attempt to belittle you. The statement, as CA_ROT intimated, was bourne of the fact that the mass u2u is sent to a huge number of ATS members whom have logged on in the past thirty days.

The vast majority, whether they agree with you or not, have not made a formal complaint nor have presented an aversion to this. That is what I infer Springers authority to have implied (he sees all that occurs on this board, hence 'authority).

That said, the u2u system as used by Admin, is one way to get the attention of the members for ATS board issues as well as a 'head's up' to members letting everyone know what they are doing policy wise and promotion wise.

Advertising, sir, is a fact of life and as you will see if you click on the link in my signature, you will see much more prolific examples of advertising in your day to day life.

You may delete them at will. But harping on Admin for using their own board is kind of non sequiter...wouldn't you think?

Originally posted by whoswatchinwho
there are 5 going back to the beginning of November, The ATS mix,the book and the one about the video secion, that's not much really.

And how many in the same period were important administrative messages?

Originally posted by CA_Orotyou are probably one of the only members to bring this issue up. Hence, that would provide reason to believe that the other 139,000...

I agree, I probably am the only person to have brought it up, but within a few hours of bringing it up and within about 4 people replying, one of them did agree with me. So you could say 25% may not want this spam. You cannot claim to know what people would prefer if you don't ask them. Or if you don't give them an opt out. No-one asked me but I have been annoyed with them for the last few years since I joined. By your method you would have me catagorised as not caring about them, which is obviously not the case..... please don't say the obvious...you don't know me, just as you don't know the other 139000

do you really have so much traffic running through your inbox that getting the occasionally rare message from Admin, cramps your style?

As I said its not the frequency, it is just annoying and I really don't see why it would be such a problem to seperate the spam into a sending account that can be unsubscribed from and leave the admin account to be used as it is intended to be used (or as it should be used).



[edit on 28/11/2008 by Wig]

[edit on 28/11/2008 by Wig]

Ok fellas Please lets keep the Tit for tat Personal digs out of it and lets keep to the "ATS issues" So that they can be delt with directly,

Thank you

Asala

reply to post by asala


asala, to divert your attention just for a little, a couple of us have been posting on another thread discussing the bloggs that used to be here. do you know why they were abandoned and if there are any plans to start them up again?

reply to post by whoswatchinwho


Ill pop over to your thread now

Originally posted by whoswatchinwho
asala, to divert your attention just for a little, a couple of us have been posting on another thread discussing the bloggs that used to be here. do you know why they were abandoned and if there are any plans to start them up again?

The software upon which the blogging system was based had become irreparably damaged through a combination of poor spam prevention, and a large database. Apparently the software had difficulty managing the quantity of blogs we were attempting to host.

Also, in looking for an alternative, we've been unable to find a satisfactory multi-blog solution that is also within a reasonable price range. If anyone has suggestions for packages we've not considered... I'm wide-open.

Thanks Asala, and you Skeptic, you're getting to quick I hardly had time to refresh the page there lol....

Originally posted by Wig
So you could say 25% may not want this spam.

Over the years, we've fielded no more than a dozen complaints about the mass-U2U messages on the site-owned private messaging system.

It always has been and always will be a part of being a members on AboveTopSecret.com. We've made deletion of individual messages rather simple, and suggest you utilize that function for any U2U's you receive that you believe may be irritating.

I've been here 6 months and have only gotten a few u2u's from Admin. I, for the record, don't mind them at all, and still get excited just to see that I have a u2u beacon going off. I think it is a little rude to call messages from admin
"spam" as they are trying to do you a service by notifying you that there is something exciting going on at ATS. It is a HUGE site, and there are places I haven't even been yet. I hadn't even heard of Gilliland Ranch until the notice... and I live in the NW.

Admin, and the owners have done much to make this site function well, to provide us with "information" and it is only natural to send you more. Since that is what this site is all about. Discussion, information and enlightenment. It's not hard to push a button on here, and the delete button is working fine. (now about that preview button......)

Admin U2Us
I agree with Skeptic here that the Del button is easy and quick. I always use the Del button for Admin messages. I don't think I have read one in 2 years here. Usually they are just self-serving content-free pleas for hits.

I think this is a problem though. Has any important message been sent in the last 2 years by Admin? I wouldn't know because the signal to noise ratio is so pathetically low (and deletion is so easy) with Admin U2Us that I can't even imagine why anyone would bother to read them in the first place.

Skeptic, couldn't you collect (anonymous) statistics about the percentage of people who delete Admin U2U without ever clicking on them? Who knows - it might just be quite revealing.

ATS Mix
The other thing that really bugs me is that I can not ignore a moderator. Yes, I know there are obvious valid reason to disallow ignoring moderators but there is also at least one good reason to ignore them - ATS Mix threads.

I can't stand it when I click the "Recent Posts" button only to be greeted with 5-10 OLD ATS Mix threads that have been bumped by Dave Rabbit in a recent flurry of posts. What this means to me is that periodically the ATS Mix thread pollute the "Recent Posts" making it nearly useless for 15-30 minutes until the ATS Mix threads fall off the first page. Luckily the posts fall off the page relatively quickly because almost no one other than Dave Rabbit and a few friends posts into them.

In fact, I think ATS Mix should be on BTS because if anyone else tried to make threads with the same non-conspiracy, non-news, and non-political content and titles, we would be told that it is more suited to BTS topic and the thread locked.

Really, "People Who Use Cell Phones in Bathrooms" is an ATS topic? Come on! Stop polluting ATS with this stuff - isn't this exactly why BTS was created? Or is it only the non-commercial posters who built the content on this site who have be careful about the suitability of what they post?

I guess being able to filter which forums appear in the "Recent Posts" would work for my purposes as well.

Jon

EDITED: For make more cents.

[edit on 11.28.2008 by Voxel]

Hello? Hello? Staff?

Here is something I recently found which I am hoping will be of serious interest to you:

Review:Breakthrough Power by Jeane Manning and Joel Garbon

Sterling Allan interviews Joel Garbon and Jeanne Manning

At approx. 63:30 in:

JOEL GARBON: We have, at the New Energy Movement, and folks can check out the New Energy Movement, which is a non-profit organization with a mission to educate about such things as are covered in the Breakthrough Power book, they can go to newenergymovement.org. One of the things you would see featured there is a program that we have called the "Inventor Booster" grants. And what that is meant to do is to try to get the public to support, through their donations, the work of some of these researchers.

And we have just issued recently the first grant from New Energy Movement to one of these breakthrough inventors, a gentleman by the name of Scott [McGee? Can't quite make out the last name] who's in Seattle, and those funds were used to provide him the materials, both to construct a prototype as well as some instrumentation for testing the device.

And, in this particular case the inventor had shown us evidence of his technology, where he was using principles of resonating circuits, and had retrofitted some normal electric motors with this technology, and those motors had been verified by two different third-party test agencies, to provide a higher output than the input to the device, in both cases. So, that would classically be called an "overunity" effect.

Well the inventor claims that he is able to construct prototypes that can be scaleable, with no moving parts, essentially solid-state devices, that can yield upwards of a Kilowatt or more in a small scale device, and upwards of a Megawatt or more for a larger device.

And Jeanne [Manning] and I were very compelled by his story and the evidence, and so in our minds he merited the first such Inventor Booster grant.
----

What I am wondering is, are the staff at all interested in doing their own expose on these overunity devices? What if Joel Garbon could lead Team ATS to this device, or other devices that work, and allow them to examine it, test it, verify it? Finally be able to proclaim to the world that "free energy" is real.........?

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Originally posted by adrenochrome
why can't i see AnonymousATS posts most of the time?? each time i click on a thread on the "recent posts" page that has the latest post by an anonymous user, i can't see their post at all!!

basically, why can't i see some (most?) AnonymousATS posts?

Because we monitor Anonymous Posts for spam, ads or TC Violations before showing them.

I'm looking at the startpage for the Secret Societies forum at the moment. Like all start pages, it lists the 50 most recent threads (including sticky threads at the top). Of those 50, 25 have Anonymous listed as the most recent post. Of those 25 threads where Anonymous boosted them onto the front page of SS, only 2 Anonymous posts actually got vetted to actually be shown to the general ATS population. I'd say that's a pretty bad signal to noise ratio... 46% of the most recent replies to threads within one forum were anonymous spam that wasn't worth approving. Or, perhaps, 92% of Anonymous replies to the SS forum aren't worth bothering with.

Clearly this shows that the Anonymous system in its current implementation is broken. I know I can't be the first one to suggest that threads not be bumped until an Anonymous reply has been vetted by Staff. Anyone looking at the numbers can see that. The question then becomes, is this something that the coders are working on fixing?

reply to post by JoshNorton


I doubt it's spam. It appears the mods are overworked. Of course, looking at some of the garbage they do allow through, they might as well just post the Anonymous ATS posts immediately, then deal with the useless ones as necessary.

Originally posted by Wig
I agree, I probably am the only person to have brought it up, but within a few hours of bringing it up and within about 4 people replying, one of them did agree with me. So you could say 25% may not want this spam.

This is an unfair representation my friend. One out of the Four who replied to your thread, does not equate to the entire membership, therefore it is incorrect to assume that 25% of the membership is dissatisfied with the Admin Messages. This (in my opinion - and having taken a couple of Stats Classes) would be unfair estimation.

My Point, is that out of the 139,000 members, you are the only to voice a concern to Admin about this (that I know of - I'm not an expert nor am I admin therefore I have no real authority on this matter - it is simply an observation. I did not insinuate that I know what the membership thinks; I did however, point out that since the rest have not voiced an opinion, it would be feasible to assume it does not bother them all that much. Perhaps on my part, this was an incorrect asessment.

Perhaps the way to Solve this, is to have a Poll. Where registered users Vote. This would be the ONLY way to determine for sure, who is and who is not satsified with the current messages from the administration. Can we agree that this would be the best way to conduct an accurate survey and gather accurate results? Rather than you or I assuming we know what the rest of the membership thinks.

Just a suggestion.

- Carrot

[edit on 11/30/2008 by CA_Orot]

reply to post by CA_Orot


I think the only problem I see with your solution CA, is that to do a proper poll of the whole membership would probably involve Admin sending out a mass u2u to ask our opinions,

PS: lovin the new outfit you're wearing



[edit on 30/11/2008 by whoswatchinwho]

There will be no poll. The administration of the site (which is provided to members for free) will use the u2u function (which they also permit all members to use for free) to communicate what is determined to be information they want members to have.

Whoever doesn't like the messages, can delete them.

Try contacting your local broadcast tv station and telling them you'd like to "opt out" of the commercials. Or notify your newspaper (which you PAY for) that you'd like an edition with no advertising. Or your favorite magazine, which you PAY for.

We're not talking about spamming someone's personal email account. We're talking about a functionality provided for and maintained by, a free site, which you can also use at your discretion.

I cannot believe a couple of u2us a month from the site are that big of a deal. With the time spent on this issue in this thread, you could've deleted every u2u message sent by administration in the last 3 years.

reply to post by yeahright


I agree with you competely. I personally don't see the problem with the messages, however, Myself and Wig were throwing figures at eachother which were not accurate (and that is why I suggested the Poll, for accurate numbers). I know and understand (as i have stated before) that Admin provides us with the U2U function. And if they want to send us emails, we can read them or delete them.

- Carrot

PS. Whoiswatchingwho Thank ya darlin'! It is Christmas Season...



[edit on 11/30/2008 by CA_Orot]

Originally posted by CA_Orot
This is an unfair representation my friend. One out of the Four who replied to your thread, does not equate to the entire membership

I did not insinuate that I know what the membership thinks

My statement of 25% was as ridiculous as Springer's was. You may not have insinuated you knew what 139000 people thought about this, but Springer did.

Given the option to turn off the spam and allow users to choose to recieve truly administration messages only. i.e. tecnical related emails about server issues. I think a lot of people would turn it off. The fact that they have not complained means nothing, I took 3 years to complain, but it bugged me for 3 years. "Voxel" above is another, who I assume would rather be able to turn it off.

Oh here's another 2 Really important administrative U2U's everyone, don't forget to go to your U2U inbox and read the important message about Peter Schiff and Jim Maars, you never know, not reading them could mean you miss an important message about a rule change or a server overhaul that's scheduled soon.

[edit on 2/12/2008 by Wig]