I think we need more contests and awards.

The disappearance of the WATS predated my signingup but I think that the content of ATS would really go up if there was more distinctions.

Perhaps something like a "Member of the Month" award, a temporary banner like the SME or TWE buttons.

This could be divided into catagories, like "New Member" or perhaps be divided upon the number of points a person has.

Perhaps these could be handed out based in excellence in certain areas, too. Like to someone who has broken a huge story or provided some outstanding research.

Great Idea

this would motivate more people to do a little bit research aswell also heres some of my ideas for awards

• 1. Member Of The Month
  
• 2. Best Thread Of The Month
  
• 3. Most Researched Thread Of The Month
  
• 4. Most Points Gained This Month
  
• 5. The Mod Of The Month
  

Originally posted by Anti - Government
Great Idea

this would motivate more people to do a little bit research aswell also heres some of my ideas for awards

• 1. Member Of The Month
  
• 2. Best Thread Of The Month
  
• 3. Most Researched Thread Of The Month
  
• 4. Most Points Gained This Month
  
• 5. The Mod Of The Month
  

I like all of your ideas! Except for the "most-points," I think that would encourage stupid GFL type of threads just to breed points.

I won a contest...

this one.... here is a cut and paste u2u they sent me. It is still in the archives.
___________________________________________________________
Doc Hancock
sent: 15-7-2008 at 07:48 PM
YOU ARE GOING TO VEGAS!

You are one of two finalists to win the BTS MIX Las Vegas trip! (You were the first runner up but one contestant could not make it- his loss, your win!)

You have won airfare and hotel plus other cool stuff!

Great job and thank you for participating.

Here is what we need from you:

Name: (As it appears on your license to obtain plane tickets)
Location (Mailing Address)
2 good contact numbers so we can get in touch with you.

Once we have your info, Spencer Tracey will be in touch to confirm your eligibility and to go over the itinerary.

Thank you for your contribution, and we will see you in Vegas!!

Doc
______________________________________________________
They reneged on the deal with some lame excuse about the sponsorship.

I participated in the contest, and complied with all the eligibility rules but they still reneged with out so much as a "sorry"


This BS has still left a bad taste in my mouth about ATS/BTS. None of the owners of the site ever contacted me with an explanation or apology, not that I really ever expected one.

No extra points, no T shirt, nada, zip...........

I should have had my attorney contact them but I'm just to nice of a guy to get involved in litigation over a deal like this.


Contest are a great Idea; I just hope the winners have a better experience than I did!!










[edit on 13-12-2008 by whaaa]

reply to post by whaaa

[rant]

While I am sorry you didn't get your prize, you are speaking/posting falsely on several points here.

It was made CRYSTAL CLEAR that we (the owners of TAN/ATS) had nothing to do with that contest what so ever. It was made crystal clear because, we had nothing to do with it, and therefor had ZERO control over it.

Getting your "lawyer" involved might have done you some good had you pointed him at the vendor who welched. Your lawyer would have asked you for the announcement documentation first off and would have told you (what you should have been able to read for yourself) that TAN/ATS was not involved in the contest at all.

I had a bad feeling about it when I was asked about it, I was assured the vendor was a big travel agency that had done several radio promos like this one in the past. I made certain the documentation made it CRYSTAL CLEAR that TAN/ATS had nothing to do with it, accepted ZERO responsibility and zero liability for it.

The vendor failed to provide what they promised, apparently the guy who set it up got fired, they never returned Doc's phone calls and I believe you were given the contact information to pursue them yourself weren't you?

For you to call the TRUTH "some lame excuse" is the height of bollocks IMHO.

[/rant]

Springer...


[edit on 12-13-2008 by Springer]

reply to post by whaaa


Whaaa, please allow me to address this.

You were contacted because of a perk that Spencer had found and we were coordinating this with the Las Vegas Travel Authority. They had told us it was all a go, so we held the contest. After THOUSANDS of phone calls from Spencer to these guys, they totally blew us off and we unfortunately were not able to go to Vegas.

I wrote you a letter apologizing for the confusion. We were looking forward to it as well and felt just as bamboozled.

I will stress this point again though, and that is to say the owners and management of ATS had absolutely ZERO involvement in this and it was this Las Vegas travel place that let us all down- so please - if you have a bone to pick, pick it with Spencer and I via U2U and don't run around bad mouthing ATS because they had nothing to do with it.

You wrote a 4 line response to a thread of ours. It wasn't like you put in a whole bunch of effort for this. It didn't work out. We have apologized. Can we just leave it at that?

reply to post by asmeone2


The problem that no one has found a way a round is the same one that doomed WATS. There were so many members voting that there was no clear cut winner via majority . You couldn't use the flags system as the basis for an award because the number of flags a thread will receive has more to do with the nature of the topic rather then the quality of the discussions . In the past I have taken part in some of the highest quality discussions over on the old AP board that went unnoticed. I have no problem with this fact but seeing discussions of lesser quality win an reward just because they are popular would be insulting .

reply to post by Springer


A reality check is needed you can point out that ATS had nothing to do with competition all you want but that wont change the perception of guilt via association because ATS was the vehicle for what happened . I'm not agreeing with or encouraging such a perception rather I am just pointing out a fact of life .

If there was ever a genuine attempted to discredit ATS it would most likely be something like this on a larger scale rather then political trolls who only appear around the time of US Presidential election time .

At the end of the day just being considered a winning poster should be enough. Generally, and I'm speaking from my own experience here, we are not here for perks or interviews or anything like that. We are here to discuss and evaluate.

ATS is not CNN.com... we do not post to eneter competitions at all. We post because we feel that ATS is the most apt place to place these things.

If something went wrong - # happens. End of...

Chill out and think why you here...are you here to find answers or are you here to make a 'name' for yourself?

Blossom Goodchild made a name for herself

Prophet Yahweh made a name for himself

John Titor did the same.

Peace,

MGGG

xpert11:


I think having multiple rounds, or a tiebreaker round if needed, could solve this problem.


machinegun_go_go:
IF it were strictly up to Me I would set the award criteria up around academic mertit or somesuch and not relate it to points or popularity at all. So it would not help a person get a name unless they actually deserve it.

Originally posted by whaaa
______________________________________________________
None of the owners of the site ever contacted me with an explanation or apology, not that I really ever expected one.

No extra points, no T shirt, nada, zip...........

I should have had my attorney contact them but I'm just to nice of a guy to get involved in litigation over a deal like this.

Contest are a great Idea; I just hope the winners have a better experience than I did!!
[edit on 13-12-2008 by whaaa]

Whaa,

Ok, lets get a few things clearer. Not only were you contacted by Doc and myself to explain the situation, I also gave you all the contact names and numbers of the company doing the contest so you could get your arrangements made. This was the U2U you received from me:

Spencer Tracy sent: 13-10-2008 at 11:10 PM

Xxxx,
...to froward the contact information for the Las Vegas Vacation Authority people responsible for making arrangements.

Jay Ellis: 702-528-0673 (Representative and the guy we did the interview with.)

Larry Smith: (702) 285-1706 (Las Vegas Vacation Authority)

Al Rodriguez (Owner-Las Vegas Vacation Authority) 702-301-8574
Cell 866-962-4415
Las Vegas Vacation Authority [email protected]
2301 Winery Road, Bldg B, Suite 102 Pahrump, NV 89048

Obviously, if you haven't contacted the company, your arrangements haven't been made. I would urge you redirect your energies at the company responsible for the prize (Las Vegas Vacation Authority) instead of making false accusations about ATS.

If you have any further questions not addressed already, please feel free to U2U me personally...(something you haven't done up to this point).

... maybe this is why we don't have many contests of this type... too many headaches. I think it's par for the course with such subjective arenas, that there are inevitably going to be people who are left feeling burnt from the experience. I speak from experience, my participation in DATS Ugliest Halloween Contest & Halloween Avatar Contest left me bruised and bitter to the point that i don't want to have anything to do with BTS ever again.

It helps to have incentives, but best when they are objectively based on one's degree of contribution to the community at large. ie:

I did some hefty research in the NEW ~9/11 Evidence Research Project~, which Advisor branded me with the "scholar" title but i lost it due to zero activity for november... month that i had a post ban place on me for a couple of my submissions in the "ugliest halloween costume contest", really derailed me in a big way, coming new year i'll try to pick up where i left off.

The idea of best this and that for the month, i would image would be an extra task on top of the already demanding task that staff already has, plus there is an element of subjectivity and possible accusations of favoritism.

As for awards based on academic merit, i think this can be accurately measured in certain arenas... tinWiki is a prime example. In addition to earning up to 10K per article written, if you write 10 you get a nifty-keen "tinWiki Editor" badge.

WOS & I recently developed a new additional set of awards based on this premise (not sure who's desk this is sitting on for approval, but i have been shaking my wooden idols and chanting ever since, might be a nice addition for the new year hint hint nudge nudge ).

Direct links to the proposals:

tinWiki Awesome Article Award

tinWiki Tin Ceiling Panel Award

Master tinWiki Editor

It would be interesting to see what you guys think of these...
we haven't had much feed back in the tinWiki Working Forum.

Here's my tinWiki User Page if anyone is curious about my current works
(don't expect them all to be stellar, some are works in progress ).

[edit on 14-12-2008 by The All Seeing I]

I agree..we need to vote off the members who are full of crap and provide nothing but crap!!! I miss the area 51 threads and secret underground threads .

Now all I see are friggin idiots with wet brains who only want to boost points and make up threads.. If I want BRAVO SIERRA I will go rent V or another far fetched idea//Im so sick of outrageous lies!!!!!!!

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

Suggestions for ATS and/or BTS should be added to the thread linked above.


Closing thread...