I Would Like Your Opnion

I have been coming here for many years, 9-10, somewhere around there. I had another user name that I have long forgot, connected to a IP I changed many years ago. I have just started posting again recently.


I love this site because you can find A LOT of news on here that is posted here before it becomes main stream, because you can get A LOT of different views on things that you may never have thought of, because there are A LOT of smart people here, that even if you do not under stand something, they can explain it or debunk it in a way that you may have missed.


What I do not like about this site is what it appears to be becoming.


I have been trying to research this site as much as I can, from other sources. While this site still has value I believe that has dropped and there are some questions that concern me so here goes.

Does this site seem to be becoming a "chat" site more than the informational site or "conspiracy" site it use to be?

What exactly do you think a Moderators job on this site should be?

To prevent conversations from getting out of hand? To stop people from fighting?

I ask this because of two situations I have come across here
1 I have seen mods delete any conversation that has to do with drugs of any kind, their reason is "because some people thing it is dangerous" while you can talk about guns all you want too ( I guess they are not dangerous) I was under the impression this site was against censorship of any kind, if so then why do they do it?

2 If the Mods have a job here and I am wrong in my understanding of what that job is, what exactly is it? I ask this because I come on here now and I see 10 threads in a week about the EXACT same thing and they never get modded.

Now the reason I bring this all up, this all come from some research I have done on this but I feel if I posted links to it all this thread would be deleted, I am not looking to cause problems I would just like some answers.

I have seen multiple sites where it has been referenced ( I am talking news or blog stories not competing conspiracy sites) that the reason they let post after post after post about the same thing is for one reason, a better ranking in Google and other search engines.

That made me think.
Why would they do this where there is very little advertising on this site?( a pop up once in a while)
So I started searching for how this site is funded and I have come across numerous articles that claim this site is run by one Government agency or another with people posting trace routes back to the supposed Government servers ( I have traced and whoised and if they were in fact one time using something obvious they are not now, they use an anonymous host)

Then I look on the Man pages for the site and see them claiming to have secured "funding" but with no reference as to where it comes from. Where does it come from?

I am hoping to hear your opinions on a few things and I am also hoping there is someone who has been far more involved than me over the last ten years or so that can answer some of these questions with fact. Thank you.

I believe your correct. in this case things are what they seem...

sounds to me like you should message the mods and wait for a reply. cause they'll prolly see this post as a violation n/e ways

reply to post by ZeroUnlmtd


I want to know what people that use this site think a Mods job should be, not what it actually is in the Man pages, if they find that or anything else I have posted in violation then there really is something going on and I have a thousand proxies and a bunch of other site I can ask these questions. I asked them here because I would just like the truth, not to cause problems.

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


it doesn't really matter what the people feel a mods job is really if you think about it, this isn't egypt, we aren't gonna protest mods and its not going to change anything

reply to post by ZeroUnlmtd


I never assumed it was going to change anything, like I said I just want peoples opinions on what THEY think a Mods job should be as compared to what they actually do.

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


Trust me I know advertising

One little ad, like whats at the top of the firehose can be very very rewarding...

Imagine 100,000 people visit this site a day...

and a 1000 of them clicked an ad... That would earn a decent enough coinage...

now add that to an entire year

Thats 365000 ad clicks

lets just guess and say its might be possible to earn .5 cents a click...
I dont know the ATS Payout?!

But at .5 cents a click... by my above figures that comes to

182,500 a year...

Thats more than I make...

BUT... Server maintenance costs... Electricity to keep them running...
Bandwidth Usage Charges... Search engine insertion fees... keeping the domain registered...

all comes to a pretty penny... SO... ATS is LUCKY to be maintained by AD's

But it very well can be funded by just the ads you see

BUT ATS isnt Government Funded...


[More]

And Mods... I think they do a Fine Job...
Any time you think the quality of this site is going downhill...
Its not the site, but humanity in general ha ha
But just check the other conspiracy sites...

GLP comes to mind... its a seedy, shifty place that frightens me

If it was not for the hard work and dedication of the Mods... who are unpaid btw...

This site would be like the "other" ones...

So Thanks Mods for giving me a comfortable space to waste my life

lol

I guess you hadn't seen other discussions on here where they did explain the logic about the drug issue. It has nothing to do with judgement, morality or dangerous as I understand it. It's 100% about legal. I see the same things when I go looking for information on a new medication they have for my son's ADHD. Almost all the sites that allow any open forum type discussion of those at all are just insanely strict about the context and wording of direct reference. It would appear to be a major trip wire for authorities having an easy way to do something.

If the choice is to allow one topic in particular like that one, or risk losing ATS because that topic is simply used as a cheap excuse under U.S. law to shut it down...I'll definitely be happy to see one topic left to other sites to handle


The government server thing is an interesting point, since there isn't any elaboration about where in the trace they would have shown up. However I'll note something here I found in the late 90's. At that time it was common to see traces pass through Fort Huachuca, Arizona with a .mil extension. That would be right through one of the central intelligence collection centers in the U.S....and that was well before 9/11. Now, I imagine nothing is that obvious..but no less a part of the net than it was then. I just thought I'd share that for why a node like that would pop in a trace.

reply to post by EvolEric


This site had 35,000 people give or take this month, I am willing to bet not all of them were static IPs, so if the clicks are based in any aspect on registered user the amount is far smaller than you say. Hypothetically you are correct, but you should use real numbers to reference what you are describing otherwise it just looks inflated.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I see articles on here all the time about how to build your own PVC guns. That is not legal in all states so are you telling me this site is run by federal law?

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


You are quite informed arent you?

Why did ya ask if you knew?

Why dont you use my algorithm then and let me know...

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


That is interesting about the server, good to know. What I was referencing was a trace that lead back to quantico va but I do not want to post links. As I said I am seeking information not looking to start problems and the best way I think I can do that with a touchy subject like this is not post links.

I m no mod but I will try to answer some of these.

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption

Does this site seem to be becoming a "chat" site more than the informational site or "conspiracy" site it use to be?

Yes it has, too many trolls lately, all I can say is don't feed the trolls.

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption
What exactly do you think a Moderators job on this site should be?

to moderate

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption
To prevent conversations from getting out of hand? To stop people from fighting?

Healthy debate is good and should be allowed (and it is), name calling and such, should not and it is often clammed up quickly.
To sum up, the mods job is to enforce the TOS.

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption
I ask this because of two situations I have come across here
1 I have seen mods delete any conversation that has to do with drugs of any kind, their reason is "because some people thing it is dangerous" while you can talk about guns all you want too ( I guess they are not dangerous) I was under the impression this site was against censorship of any kind, if so then why do they do it?

From what I have heard, This site is hosted in the U.S. and its because of some law in the US which this site falls under, under which drugs cannot be discussed. It could also be forced by the webhost, I don't really know, if I was the SO, I would get an offshore host, and let drug debates begin, but I am not, so their site their rules.

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption
2 If the Mods have a job here and I am wrong in my understanding of what that job is, what exactly is it? I ask this because I come on here now and I see 10 threads in a week about the EXACT same thing and they never get modded.

the job is to enforce the TOS.
If you see something that you feel is a violation report it, I have done so many times and often swift action is taken.

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption

That made me think.
Why would they do this where there is very little advertising on this site?( a pop up once in a while)
So I started searching for how this site is funded and I have come across numerous articles that claim this site is run by one Government agency or another with people posting trace routes back to the supposed Government servers ( I have traced and whoised and if they were in fact one time using something obvious they are not now, they use an anonymous host)

Speaking from the viewpoint of a web developer, it wouldn't really take much to run a site like this. It could run very well on a $100 dedicated server, and if you were to use database optimizing and caching as much as you could you could run it on a $50 or such vps.
Besides there are a lot of "non members" always browsing and they get a whole lot more ads.

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption
Then I look on the Man pages for the site and see them claiming to have secured "funding" but with no reference as to where it comes from. Where does it come from?

This is a private site they don't have to tell anyone where they get funding from, or even if they got funding or not.

Just be glad you don't have to resort to GLP.

reply to post by kaleshchand


Thank you, I appreciate you taking time to answer me. Some of your information was very helpful, some of it I think was just guessing and I think a point or two may have been just BS but I do than you for the response

Just be glad you don't have to resort to GLP.

And that is something to celebrate!

Indeed!

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

I see articles on here all the time about how to build your own PVC guns. That is not legal in all states so are you telling me this site is run by federal law?

Well, in a world where logic came first, you'd have a good point there. Now that you mention it, I can think back to a number of threads where items like your PVC gun example are referenced, they are illegal too, and they are ignored.

I'd say the realistic difference whether it's right or wrong, is that the drug war in the United States opens entirely different options for easy use of violations related to it to be used punitively and to just harass when that is what's desired. Other things, not so much.

I mean ATS deals with subject matter as a course of business and the whole point of the site that is gray area and right on the ragged edge of upsetting 'TPTB' anyway. I can't necessarily blame them for not handing them low hanging fruit to smack them over the head with. That is really all I think there is to it.

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption

I have been coming here for many years, 9-10, somewhere around there. I had another user name that I have long forgot, connected to a IP I changed many years ago.

Nearly the exact same story for me. I had a username from like 2006, posted a few times, and then forgot my password and username since i lost internet for a few months....but im rockin and rollin again since 2009!

Does this site seem to be becoming a "chat" site more than the informational site or "conspiracy" site it use to be?

I dont believe so. What I see, is an increase in popularity with ATS and that includes alot of new members. Sometimes I will click the "new topics" and the threads keep coming in at a faster pace than say a few years ago.

1 I have seen mods delete any conversation that has to do with drugs of any kind, their reason is "because some people thing it is dangerous" while you can talk about guns all you want too

In my opinion, I dont think its because some people see it dangerous, but it's because there will be a massive amounts of threads on the subject that will fill up our boards. There are plenty of other sites out there that are all about that kind of subject.

ETA - and about the mods...they are only human, I could only imagine how hard it would be to keep track of every thread being made. The "report" button will help the mods tremendously if there are duplicate threads/off topic posts.

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption
reply to post by kaleshchand

 

Thank you, I appreciate you taking time to answer me. Some of your information was very helpful, some of it I think was just guessing and I think a point or two may have been just BS but I do than you for the response

Well thanks for the thanks,
Yeah some of it was guessing, specially the server part, but not just wild guessing, It is what you would call an educated guess. Specially as I don't have any exact numbers to hand, and I do not know how optimized the code is.

I am not sure what points you are saying are BS, if you would point them out, I might clarify something, if I can.
But I did not intentionally post BS, just what I have read and seen here over the past years.

reply to post by kaleshchand


I apologize for using the word BS, I should have been more tactful. The points of interest I was referring to in relation to my post were I do not believe this is any way this site could be run on $100- 150 a month, just the bandwidth alone would cost more let alone hardware costs and maintenance.

The other thing that concerns me, and in retrospect I am sure it is just a guess or assumption on your part is while it is in fact a private site it promotes itself to be " a wholley owned social community" and then goes on to state "This content community relies on
user-generated content from our member contributors.
The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership
who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides
a collaborative venue for free expression."

I am sorry but when you censor one topic but not others it is not for free expression, which leads me back to their motivations, funding, advertising etc. If they won't let certain topics be posted then they should post all of them along with the logical reasons as to why you cant reference them otherwise there is nothing "free expression" about it

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption

What I was referencing was a trace that lead back to quantico va but I do not want to post links. As I said I am seeking information not looking to start problems and the best way I think I can do that with a touchy subject like this is not post links.

Yah, that, "Are they coming for me in the night because I said too much?"
I think we can fix that by unplugging and I don't mean just from here but-- quit your job, burn your credit cards and bank notes, drive as far into the wilderness as you can and live in a cave, only coming out to hunt when the satellites aren't overhead.

I shouldn't worry to much about it. The Government and the police already track our every move and whim while we do our day to day living. Thats the modern era. Obey all the laws or else... they'll fine you. They want your money not your allegiance. They don't care (yet) about your opinion, just your pocketbook. Nobody is being burned in ovens (yet) for their opinion. Thats a ways off still.

And the mods are human too, not machines. they can't see every stomp on the T&C's. You could test that I guess by throwing some Stuff at the fan and see but why would you want too? They are busy enough as it is.

There are enough trolls on here today. They might get away with it for a while but eventually... you could turn them in I guess, but then you are becoming what you fear about this site.

This is not my site. When I get on a train or bus I gotta ride with everyone else or get kicked off, or get off my self at the next stop. They make the rules, whatever they are.

And if there isn't enough info on here today, then bring some of your own, so I can learn from you. I mean all that nicer than its sounding... please forgive my tone.

Now about that link you mentioned... Details!!!

One time lately when they were having trouble with chat, there were error messages and a picture with a bunch of secret service looking spy types and a message that read: Sorry we are experiencing trouble and we are trying to fix it with our superiors back at Langley.... that got me all scared cause thats CIA right? But people were crackin up when I questioned that saying the servers for this site are in England? And the Mods are all over the world? Another supermod was telling the story of an FBI raid on his home because of something he said here and that got my attention, but that was 8 years ago and a mixup and he is still around being as vocal as ever. So He Says anyway. I'll try to find it for you.