Welcome to the first edition of the newly tooled and re-imagined ATS newsletter. Just twelve days ago one of your board adminstrators, William One Sac, thought it might be a good idea to resurrect Simon's old email newsletter. It ended up being such a good (and obvious) idea, several people worked diligently behind the scenes to make sure it happened in a way everyone could be proud of. And for members of the AboveTopSecret.com discussion board community, there's a great deal to be proud of.

Over and over again, we (senior board staff) experience and hear of a prominent reoccurring theme from our members, ATS matters. And because our members feel this way, we're inspired to keep pushing to see how high is up for a community such as ours. The trouble is, each time we think we may see the upper limits of what's possible, we're stunned at how wrong we are.

About six weeks ago, we began an experiment with a service from Google (currently in BETA) that accepts XML feeds of entire site maps. We developed custom programming the generates new XML site maps of every page on ATS (all thread and forum pages) every six hours. Combined with our already highly search engine optimized code, the results have been nothing short of spectacular. Google now reports more than 300,000 total pages from our discussion board, several times more pages than nearly any other site in our topical category. Our new forum for the conspiracy of creationism revisionists has become the number-one search return when search on "creationism conspiracy" (out of over 100,000 returns).

Normally, summer is a slow traffic time for our community. However, July of 2005 is poised to be our largest traffic month ever, even surpassing the wild days of November, 2004 (a result of the US election).

Despite a more intensive member review process that rejects nearly 40% of all new member applications, the number of daily approved members is surpassing our averages before the review process. On some days, we receive over 150 new member applications.

We've received inquiries for joint ventures from two popular cable television networks, and one independent documentary production company. All of these are in early exploratory phases, but at least one will certainly pan out to be an exciting new experience for ATS members.

And that is what is at the core of everything we do, improving the member experience. And as a result, even more changes are on the way in response to the needs and desires of our growing community membership.

• Design: A newly redesigned, more efficient and user-friendly ATS is about to be launched. Our main site already has been converted to the new design.
• Community PodCasting:Soon, any member will be able to publish a PodCast through the Internet's most popular conspiracy and alternative topics website.
• ATS Merchandise: In response to requests from our members, a new ATS merchandise store will be launched soon that features a wide range of logo wear and assorted swag to aid the denial of ignorance.
• Mobile Posts: By the end of the summer, members will be able to use their wireless phones create both text and camera phone posts in all three boards.
• ATS Economy: Councilor Lysergic is spearheading the proposal for a new ATS economy.
• Technology: Our fourth server will arrive sometime in the fall (if not sooner).

ATS is moving forward. Not because the owners or managers are pulling it, but because you're pushing. Thanks.



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