The Failure of ATS

a reply to: Slayer

If you are so disillusioned then why are you still here?

I've been a member on this site for over 10 years. Most of my comments are usually one liners after too to many beers.
Some one liners are pure comedic genius. Some are pure too many beer comments.
This website is like the local beer pub. Old customers come and go.. new customers come and go, and the bartenders are the owners. They hear and watch it ALL.
So, in other words.. what version of a story hasn't been told already, and do you do a strip club for men or women on a Tuesday or a Friday?
Gotta try different things to keep the doors open.
Breaking news is breaking news. Who DOESN'T see what's on MSM and see what's breaking, and then come here to get a different perspective, OR see breaking news HERE and then see how MSM filters the perspective?
I'm just saying.. This website provides an information service through lightly filtered glasses (OR Cold Mugs)

After watching the ATS team go to Trout Lake and watched their "take" on what they saw, it convinced me they're guys I would have liked to have gone there with, or hang out at a bar with them when they got back home and hear their take..
Just not on Male Stripper nite.
Ewwww
CHEERS!

a reply to: LotToTell2

I've got something to say on the shills versus disinfo agents versus regular members but it's a bit hard to get out.

Anyhow, I wouldn't know one from the other - I read threads that interest me and follow links. If the topic really captures my imagination I can go off and do further research and I don't have to be swayed by anyone's opinion unless it actually makes sense to me.

What I do notice is that a lot of threads descend into the usual ATS peeing contest - and I don't think it's necessarily because of trolls or anyone trying to deliberately derail a thread.

I think the majority of members here just don't know anything much more than anyone else, on some subjects. They only have access to MSM and argue according to what information they can gather there. Then it's just a matter of interpretation and whether or not the bad guy in the news ought to be lynched or if there were extenuating circumstances.

If a shill or disinfo agent can put together a decent post and defend their position then they are earning their pay cheque. If they are encouraging or forcing regular members to up their game in order to refute the disinfo or challenge the official line, then they have a purpose. It could be argued that the site would be the poorer without them - if such exist here.

Reading an interesting debate, regardless of who the combatants are, is time well spent - in my opinion. I get fed up of giving up on a thread after the first three of four pages because it has sunk to the level of members trying to score points off of each other.

It's been said many times that we ought to make this site what we want it to be and, within the T&C, there's no reason that we can't.

If the number in the OP is correct...

I ask myself the following: Why is it that there is a need to set a contribution panel on the top of the page.
Don´t get me wrong, the team of ATS has every right to make money with their site.
I just find it a little bit strange that they ask for contributions while earning 150k$ per year.
Am I the only one wondering?

a reply to: Slayer

I can't tell if this is sad or amusing.

Oh boo hoo! ATS has failed you? Your last thread before this was in 2007. Your last post before now was in 2012. ATS runs on content and alternative topics and yet you refuse to even name this "BIG ONE" that is so hugely important but you claim it's missing from here.

I may not be the content queen either but I damn sure don't bitch about it. And I'm not a tease, alluding to some crap I'm not willing to say outright.

Sounds more like you are trying to stealth market this "infinity chan". Look, the chans are can be great but that doesn't have to mean ATS is bad.

originally posted by: verschickter
If the number in the OP is correct...

I just find it a little bit strange that they ask for contributions while earning 150k$ per year.
Am I the only one wondering?

Of course you aren't the only one who's wondering.

However bandwidth and servers come at a price, and when your clientele don't pay for your services then it's natural to ask your clientele to make a contribution.

However 150k per annum is a lot of money and those who have donated never get to see the books.

a reply to: verschickter

I think you are forming an opinion with only half the data required, in order to establish the parameters of that opinion from a position of knowledge. So what, ATS is getting $150,000 a year. If it is costing a significant enough percentage of that figure to run, or MORE than that for various reasons (and bare in mind please, that as one of the foremost sites of its type, various industry powers will be looking to mess with the ownership and the pricing and what not), then it makes perfect sense to ask for contributions from the membership.

Again, this is not about how much the site makes, but about how much it COSTS. When you consider the legal protections it needs, the cost of updating its security infrastructure, its anti-DDoS protections and so on, not to mention anything we do not necessarily hear about, it starts to become a little clearer, and a less nefarious looking prospect.

However 150k per annum is a lot of money and those who have donated never get to see the books.

Exactly why I never donate to websites.

I think they asked for donations because they lost a good portion of their regular revenue (they lost google adsense because of user content) while, at about the same time, they took on more expenditures (upgraded servers because of ddos attacks).

a reply to: Slayer

And people will post and share information that will truly open your eyes. Additionally, this is all done anonymously, meaning that people don't need to face repercussions. This is the maximum potential of the internet: the free exchange of information and ideas at very little cost.

Freedom from repercussions means there is no accountability. A lack of accountability encourages dishonesty. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his "Open Letter To America" pointed out that absolute freedom of speech leads to people speaking out at length about things that are unimportant. If you can say anything you want, it doesn't matter what you say.

The rubbish that gets posted here-- the hoaxes and lies-- are a direct result of the freedom from responsibility that comes from anonymity. Would you stand up in front of a crowd and swear you thought the Moon was a hologram if everyone knew who you were? (Of course, some swindlers make a living by charging gullible people to hear them spout that rubbish. That's just shamelessness.)

originally posted by: niceguybob
I've been a member on this site for over 10 years.:

You joined 2012 actually.

Do you have a time machine and have relived the last few years over and over?

a reply to: Slayer

Slayer...

If you genuinely prefer the chans, to this place, then you are welcome to go there instead and no one would judge you for it. My personal preference is to be here, on this site, as part of this community. Many of us make no secret of who we are, do not require that our identities be entirely protected in order to deflect negative attention from governments and companies (the difference between which, is of course becoming very much more difficult to discern, as time wears on). This community derives its strength not from anonymity exclusively, but in unity of purpose. We may disagree with one another (which is healthy, and is part of what makes this place so educational to be a part of), but we are all here under a banner of the denial of ignorance, and that makes us one, even when we are divided.

There are restrictions, that is true. However, if you look at the subjects that are being censored, if you must think of it that way, then you will note that the vast majority have to do with the discussion of PERSONAL USE of illicit pharmaceuticals, or basically ammount to some form of hate speech. Other than that, there are actually very few potential discussion points which are entirely vetoed. The personal use issues which are prohibited for discussion here, are prohibited because of the need to preserve a certain level of validity and usefulness in discussions on the site. If every conversation on related topics, devolves into a series of monographs on rolling techniques, in the case of weed discussion for example, then the site, understandably, will suffer a complete collapse in terms of how well respected it is, and how useful the contributions from members will become.

On the subject of hate speech, my attitude is that if one cannot voice a given opinion here, because it is considered too extreme for THIS place, then the chances are that there is something wrong with ones opinion in the first place. That might not be a popular thought to take for a walk, but there it is. Hate speech, and those who wish to indulge in anything that can even be loosely termed as such, is not something I want to see here. Even as it is right now, there are those abroad on the site whose attitudes clearly border on the xenophobic, but the more cancerous of their prattle is curtailed by the Terms and Conditions, and so it damned well should be. There is nothing benificial to be gained by freeing people to indulge their psychological weaknesses, which all xenophobia surely is.

Put it this way...

If there is something you believe needs discussing, that cannot be discussed here, then rather than flamming the site, why not try re-thinking your position?

I just find this whole thing really odd. I choose not to go on these chan sites, but I don't go on there to post to everyone why I don't go there. Why would I bother? I just don't go there.

I don't think any site on the web disseminates the REAL truth. Oh you might get a little teaser, but with all the agendas and disinfo manipulators, hoaxes and attention seekers..... everything is suspect.

What I find disappointing is the general mean spirited, insulting attitudes as a strategy to win the argument by encouraging their opponents to just say "**** it" I don't need this ****" Discussion is dead in favor of snarky BS, usually hidden in lame sarcasm of which I also plead guilty.

ATS is entertainment not a burning bush; and it's beginning to fall behind in the entertainment department due to the humorless trolls trying to emulate the stormfront, macho, tough guy wannabe's, far right, my way or the highway style of posting.

originally posted by: nerbot

originally posted by: niceguybob
I've been a member on this site for over 10 years.:

You joined 2012 actually.

Do you have a time machine and have relived the last few years over and over?

Ummmmm Actually? I was signed in under a different name for 7 years. And I do Deny Ignorance.
I "think" seven plus 3 equals 10 even in doggy years....
But good 'Scouting" mate.

a reply to: verschickter

I am wondering WHY they only make $150k a year?.

I am a newbie and, yes, I donated to ATS and will again, no doubt. I have already got my money's worth. Hell, taking a family of 4 out to dinner and a movie these days cost over $200 bucks (the movie will ultimately cost you more than your dinner at, say, Applebees).

Yep, I'm fine here!

The thing I don't get about posts like this ....

The ownership of ATS didn't say "pay us to get to content"..They asked if people want to donate and if they want to they gave them different levels. If people want to donate then great and if they don't then just as great but I just dont understand the few posters I see implying that them asking if people want to donate is a bad thing.

On the shill thing.. The problem is for some posters here if you don't believe that everyone is a reptile, that every rock on mars is an alien artifact, that every event is a false flag or that cop is abusive then you get called a shill. Blindly believing anything is dangerous regardless of which side of the equation you are oh. Do I think their are shill here? Sure, but for both sides and you know what..so be it. I can research something if I want, someone I don't know posting about a topic isn't going to make my mind up.

On the 150k... Do not IS/IT people not realize what infrastructure costs are? The days of firing up an old PC , loading Apache on it banging out something in Frontpage are gone. Security, speed, stability all cost money and while you might say "ATS makes $150k" I would be willing to bet a large % of that goes to infrastructure.

a reply to: Slayer

That's good advice Slayer, in that, we all should do our own research in searching for the truth. All in all, most conspiracy sites have to deal with (via censorship) bullying and hate via rules and regulations as it can get out of control very quickly, but it really is spelled out in the T&C before you join this community. One would hope they keep one eye on the moderators that may develop delusions of grandeur and overstep their authority...one would hope.

a reply to: Slayer
Hey, in a way all conspiracies are there to distract us from the big "P"

As for the donations... they're voluntary, period. If they charged for an account, I'd leave. Not because it wouldnt be worth it, but for the principle. Knowledge is the right of all people, not just the wealthy.

a reply to: Rosinitiate

Where did you get your figures?

And how many employees??

Just curious , if you are referring to this site specifically.