The "ATS 2010" Project: The Creative Look & Feel of ATS.

moveable text and icons, where you can take somebody's quote and rearrange it into a new paragraph and post it next to the original....

might get the actual truth outa some posts that way.. =)

is that possible?

if so it might make things a bit more fun around here !!

[edit on 7-1-2010 by DarkspARCS]

Originally posted by nerbot
"Member Tools" in the top toolbar -- "member profile"

On your profile you can access all your posts from the link at the top that says "posts" which is in between the words "PROFILE" and "threads".

Hope that helps.

That link gives one access to 250 posts and possibly more than that if one has posted more than once in a thread, but it is not an exhaustive linkable list of all the posts one may have made on ATS. That's what I would like to see. I believe that every post has a number ID anyway.

I would like to see a complete linkable list of all my posts in the member's profile section.

I wish I'd been archiving them all along. Sometimes in the 9/11 forum people will bring up subjects that were discussed quite a while ago and I would like to be able to access my arguments of the time and the relevant links included in posts. Re-researching everything is a drag.

I like this site layout, nice and clean. I'd love to visit more often but the subject is limited as far as conspiracy theories.

www.--.com...

WT?

--.com

It won't let me type (all news web)

[edit on 9-1-2010 by 5 oClock]

[edit on 9-1-2010 by 5 oClock]

[edit on 9-1-2010 by 5 oClock]

reply to post by ipsedixit


Good grief,no.
I am trying my hardest to get rid of those early ones.Some of them just scare me like my first ever post.

No its gone.

[edit on 9-1-2010 by tracey ace]

One very cool thing I noticed here on Australian News. If you scroll down a bit on the homepage, you can actually drag and drop the News Boxes where you want them.

Very cool idea. Something like this may be very suited to ATS.

Have a look at what I mean -

www.news.com.au...

I have been a member of ATS for about 6 years.

Most often I only read the posts or watch and listen to the videos. Every thing about ATS satisfies me, especially the dark color and light lettering.

Reading "the other side", when made with intelligent, and thoughtful comments, is why I have been a frequent member of ATS for the past 6 years.

ATS mods have always been there to help me whenever I have been stuck on finding information.

So...I am ready to follow wherever the administration takes us.

Mahree

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned or not, but I would rather have the ability to search the forum and search threads within the ATS board like on other forums rather than the generic google search.

Heed my warning ATS Staff!

DO NOT, under any circumstances, start using flashy flash animations and drop downs that require ridiculous ammounts of system resources in order to run.

Clean and simple is the way forward. It can look fantastic and still not have to wait 2 minutes for every page to load.

~Keeper

This is a BIG ISSUE for a site like this.

I don't usually pay that much attention to looks.
You want to make a good first impression with your site, but that can cut both ways. I see a commercial site that "looks good" but is about something very important and sort of personal in nature and the gloss turns me off. It equates to superficiality and money-motivation to me.

At a site with LOTS of data, you need a way to find what you need if you are looking for something and also to contribute what you have, if that is your purpose, in a way that you hope will be noticed and usable.

The blog paradigm is ubiquitous but is it the best for a site like this? I hate to read through a whole blog just to find unique or useful content.

But this thread is about look and feel, right?

So, I offer two very different sites that I like for different reasons:

www.w3schools.com...

w3c schools - an IT training site. One of the best as far as I can tell, not necessarily because of content, but because of organization. And the home page really communicates "this is a well-organized site."

www.evanescence.com...

The official site for Evanescence. A sample of their music comes on from the home page. Beautiful images that align with their music. Everything about the site exquisite but clean.

Any sense of consensus yet? I think a lot of aspects of your current site are on the right track. You don't want to innovate just for the sake of change. "If it's not broke don't fix it" might apply here, to some extent.

One thing i notice that is a bit of a pain is : when you click on the my media, it takes you from abovetopsecret.com to subdomain media.abovesecret.com then once in the media. sub there is not clear link to get back to abovesecret.com , say to add the code of an image uve just uploaded. so i usually have to just go to the url and del the media. and then refresh/reload. so this it a bit clumbsy. ..like my spelling.

is it possible to update the interface for writing posts to include a spell check !! people have a really bad habbit of flaming users just for misspelling a word !!

maybe also in this write a post dialog box interface have a button that links to your media pictures uploads folder for easy selection of images into a post that your writing.

also the blog feature you have is really great. maybe make this feature more prominent and accessable. also the html editor for the blog is very outdated, update the code to latest version of the module. its a REAL pain having to write my blog entry in html like just to get photos to appear in my ATS blog. ..but its great once can edit it in html.

Snip: just had a great idea... brb.. (sorry.. Be-right-back.. no TXT..texting speak)

I have other ideas ..but thats above top secret !!

[edit on 14-1-2010 by mikeg2222]

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Heed my warning ATS Staff!

DO NOT, under any circumstances, start using flashy flash animations and drop downs that require ridiculous ammounts of system resources in order to run.

Clean and simple is the way forward. It can look fantastic and still not have to wait 2 minutes for every page to load.

~Keeper

I'll second that.. In this day and age where everyone seems to think flashy sells and is the end all be all, the simpler sites seem to get more traffic.

Twitter comes to mind, as does a good simple blogger or wordpress layout, simple, easy to run on even older systems and in the end, less frustrating to the end user.

my 1.5 cents adjusted to -7 Euros for the new World Currency

You could consider looking into a big server move -take it out of the USA to protect yourself against new federal laws, get the site hosted on no US federal turf.

have a good look at cyberbunker www.cyberbunker.com... this is a REAL former top secret bunker NATO Radio Base Band Relay Station, nuclear warfare bunker and is currently privatly run as a bomb-proof data-center for hosting websites or as remote data backups

The facility was built in 1955 to survive through a full-scale nuclear war. apparently cos 200,000,000 euros . this place is designed to be self sustaining for 72 men for 10yrs. !

• Facility is over 5 000 m3.
• Entire complex is equipped with airlocks for an independent atmosphere.
• Fully redundant air handling/cooling systems.
• Air tight rooms.
• Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) shielding to military standards.
• Up to 5 meters thick reinforced concrete subterranean construction.
• Designed to survive a 20-megaton nuclear blast from 5 kilometers.
• Backup 750 KW diesel generator.
• Large diesel fuel reserves.
• 10 000 liters freshwater reserve tank.
• 240 000 liters freshwater reserve stored in a remote backup bunker.
• All critical equipment shock-mounted on isolation pads.
• Nuclear/Biological/Chemical (NBC) air filtration

even if the rest of the internet get nuked ATS could still operate !!

reply to post by mikeg2222

One thing i notice that is a bit of a pain is : when you click on the my media, it takes you from abovetopsecret.com to subdomain media.abovesecret.com then once in the media. sub there is not clear link to get back to abovesecret.com

There is a link in the upper right hand corner

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2d02bd11b61e.jpg[/atsimg]

I'd like to be able to scan video - forward and backward - not just jump.

FYI - I do think text is sacred.

- sofi

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


There are those more qualified to assist with design, layout, features and ease of use concerns. I want to merely recommend that you begin by data mining your own data as a part of contributing to your choices and decisions regarding the direction ATS will grow into the future.

I have no doubt that if you would data mine your own archives and historical data files, you will be shown exactly the directions, concerns, interests, and a multitude of data mining uses for the data which you so fortunately already possess. With no need to buy data, you can data mine your own data and in doing so, you will clearly define what your business model is actually doing and why. It will no doubt show you options that chould be benefited from.

I will reveal a good example of how data mining can benefit the corporation if only someone would look at the data and see what it is saying. I once looked at a 2 year period of data and focused on guest accidents. That look into the data revealed that at a certain property locations that 88% of all reported accidents had occurred at certain entrance turnstiles. Knowing that these turnstile were responsible in some unknown way, I got with management to authorize a maintenance look which led to the engineering group coming in and determining that a certain supply part gear which turnstiles use was defective. After looking at where that particular lot of gears got placed into turnstiles, it was determined that all turnstiles with those gears had a high failure rate and were so sporadic as to cause injury in varying degrees depending on conditions and age of the gear.

This finding because it was supported with quantitative data allowed the legal department to win a law suit against the manufacture who had provided sub standard and defective replacement parts. All insurance claims for a two year period at the many turnstiles affected were in turn directed against who was actually responsible and in the process allowed the corporation to recover millions in losses attributed to Insurance guidelines. Anyway I sure you get the picture.

If you or others just want to read a quick guide to data mining in the event data mining is not your best subject, I offer the following link. I am certain that if you find this recommendation a viable option that you will find more than enough information to satisfy any desire to truly see what is going on at ATS in ways that only those at ATS can see and use to benefit the forum that ATS has built.

Good luck and thanks for the great ATS subject matter to select from. To me, it's one of ATS's best features.


www.exforsys.com...

Originally posted by MaxBlack
[I have no doubt that if you would data mine your own archives and historical data files, you will be shown exactly the directions, concerns, interests, and a multitude of data mining uses for the data which you so fortunately already possess.

In a previous life (VP of a mid-sized ad agency's online department), I performed all variety of exhaustive reviews of client web site analytics, and have done the same for ATS. In fact, it's the current analytics review that prompted the "kick in the butt" to get cracking on a new effort to rethink the site.

Traffic is very high, we average over 130,000 visits from distinct human users every day. Percentage of traffic to the site home is higher than ever, and home page abandonment is the lowest it's ever been. However, other aspects pertaining specifically to content show we need to rethink the overall presentation... and the nature of complaints from new members (or those trying to join) tell us that the "discussion board" structure is unfamiliar to our broadening audience.

Could there be a feature (automatically set) in which anchors are placed in the threads to your member name, so that basically one can jump to the thread to the point where you last posted. and thus follow up and subscquent comments. It takes ages to trawll through a thread to find your post. if the thread is moving fast its difficult to ensure one has not missed anyones reply etc.
So to be able to filter thread down a bit would be a great help. and also in the "my posts" page include data to show how many comments been posted in reply to members post in that thread.


Also, I notice ATS being listed well in search engines for things written in threads - it does appear google at least likes ATS and credits the site with very high relevency content. The site even lists #2 in google for the single word "above" - so anyway if u do get some web developer to re-do the website - ensure that whatever they do they keep the threads as visible as possible to the se spiders. or your loose the bulk of traffic over night.
search engine visibility & traffic could be vastly increased if you < hint > changed the way the URLs for each new thread are currently generated. < /hint >

oh the new mutter box thing... did anyone consider this "ATSmutter box" = "at smutter box". I just see the word "smut" and in my country its not a very good word. Colors dont match the rest of the site at all eiher


[edit on 21-1-2010 by mikeg2222]

Another thought i just had that may add to user interaction is on the flimstrip style horiz display of recent media thumnails, it would be a good idea to get it coded to display some information about the clip/media just by hover over. then user does not have to commit to click it and be side tracked away it it turns out its not their interest which is anoying. it doesnt want to have to be a lottery picking one.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e5ab37c5b060.png[/atsimg]

this image serving suggestion should show what i mean

I posted this under board questions and it was suggested that I put it here. It seems that I'm not the only one who would like to have a feature similar to the following:
I think the "My ATS" is great, but perhaps we could improve it a bit. Maybe a way to send you to your last post or list all of the replies to your post. In short threads, it's not a big deal, but if you are a mega thread, keeping track of yourself is tedious. Perhaps you could even track your favorite posters. If it had a data base quiality to the search engine, or maybe I just haven't found out how to do that. I'm still learning. I know you can search on topics, which is wonderful. Thanks for considering the suggestion,
zachi