Transparency On The Future of ATS

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan
It's just an inference which I was drawing from the multiple complaint threads over the years saying "There aren't enough threads about X,Y,Z, and too much politics instead". That implies a demand for more threads on other topics. The demand must be coming from the people who want to read threads, and isn't being met by the people who write them.

Two questions:

How many people does it take to keep a thread active?

Does the same 5 people circularly patting each other on the back in agreement - qualify as a topic in demand?

Please keep your angst over political threads and the posters on here out of it.......whether you LIKE it or not, YES if those threads are still active and they are discussing, then its a topic in demand.....

Christ i get really irritated at people who have to pull in their bs from other stuff into subjects that arent related.......leave it..........

As far as everything else, ive been trying to go over and over in my head about how I can possibly help.....what a horrible time with the economy hurting because of Covid for something like this to happen, had this happened 9 months ago I could have made a considerable donation to keep this going

originally posted by: StallionDuck

What I see are people who know how to send their point across and unless you have a valid counter, you can't really do anything but 'be triggered'. These people come from all ends of the spectrum, not just one political side but many.

I can't disagree more. When a faction of people can decide what facts are 'facts' and what facts are 'fake news', systematically disparage opposing views through an onslaught of pejorative name-calling, and winnow what are acceptable sources of information down to QAnon, 4-channel, and the Whitehouse there ceases to be any point or margin in 'discussion' and debate. Valid, sourced, factual counter-arguments be damned.

a reply to: jtma508

I can't disagree more. When a faction of people can decide what facts are 'facts' and what facts are 'fake news', systematically disparage opposing views through an onslaught of pejorative name-calling, and winnow what are acceptable sources of information down to QAnon, 4-channel, and the Whitehouse there ceases to be any point or margin in 'discussion' and debate. Valid, sourced, factual counter-arguments be damned.

Kind of like a large company that runs roughshod over the web and decides where advertising dollars go , or can be made by other websites, depending on the political message that is displayed on that page?

I want to add that I don't recall this idyllic time when ATS was so civil.
I've been here for quite some time and even from the start I had to avoid the political section due to the posters being even worse than me (LOL.)

9/11 and Bush. You don't remember how people were treated that tried to argue against the ridiculous crap that was posted about that subject?

All the BS about PNAC and the Neoconservatives?

Realizing this is a conspiracy site and would thus contain a whole lot of obsessed haters, it still shocked me to read what idiots will write.

Harte

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: neformore

I know this isn't what you like to hear....but since Googles decision i have purchased at least 1000 rounds of ammo.

No, its not. - Are you planning to shoot Google? - will I wake up one morning and find my search engine home page full of holes?

I do get it. Everyone seems so scared these days. Fear is the enemy.

a reply to: StallionDuck

Political hate is low hanging fruit. And now its been reduced to sound bytes its even easier.

Its disposable.

Which means in the end that its garbage.

Really....

This thread is about the state of ATS and not politics.
There are so many political threads here, some in the Mud Pit, some not.



Surely, members could hash out politics there??????




You are responsible for your own posts.....those who ignore that responsibility will face mod actions.


and, as always:

Do NOT reply to this post!!

Somebody mentioned here r/conspiracy on Reddit? I'm a subscriber myself. It's decent, though if you're trying to avoid politics at all costs, you won't be able to escape much of it there either.

originally posted by: Harte
I want to add that I don't recall this idyllic time when ATS was so civil.
I've been here for quite some time and even from the start I had to avoid the political section due to the posters being even worse than me (LOL.)

9/11 and Bush. You don't remember how people were treated that tried to argue against the ridiculous crap that was posted about that subject?

All the BS about PNAC and the Neoconservatives?

Realizing this is a conspiracy site and would thus contain a whole lot of obsessed haters, it still shocked me to read what idiots will write.

Harte

Hey Harte when did you go all soft and mushy! I didn't realize ATS was ailing

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: Ahabstar

I've spent some time talking with people I know and consider to be the smartest people in my realm. How to monetize ATS is something that, without a massive media support structure, is not within the knowledgbase of any of them. Of course, we are talking about dinosaurs, relatively speaking, that are as comfortable doing their business with excel as anything else. So there's that.

But i cannot fathom how this site could be monetized. The only 2 ways I can envision are another 3rd party ad service that isn't within Googles control. That is a years long endeavor to create...i don't think it'll help here. The other is to be absorbed into the fold of a larger corporate entity that already infrastructure in place to deploy for more enriched content like video, etc. I think that in a world with UFO and cryptids, a vine/tiktok ability would be a prong of attack at gaining audience among a newer audience. Problem is...infrastructure. We know video's can be monetized, though...and if they are moderated well enough to prevent the ire of Google's ad service (i.e., no political rants, as they lead to verbiage that Google seems to not like) then it could be part of a plan. For example.

Sorry to reply so late, been trying to catch up when I can.

There is a monetization model that doesn't involve complete dependence on the ad bundlers and as far as I know it's unique. It doesn't depend on direct site based ads and allows users to choose where their shared ad revenue goes. It's going to change the way content creators, which ATS is one hell of a content creator, fund their endeavors and it isn't controlled by whatever the offended masses find distasteful or controversial.

I wouldn't be surprised if "fringe" sites like ATS start adopting that model at an accelerating rate as the screws tighten on the internet at large. Blockchain is changing the way value is calculated and putting power into the hands of the people that generate that value. There's obviously no good time for ATS to be hurt by censorship, but if it had to happen then right now is quite possibly the best time for it.

a reply to: Ksihkehe

I’ll admit that I don’t understand how it would work. How does ATS create value with its own cryptocurrency in competition to all other cryptocurrency? Does it conform to a particular one which would make ATS just another client of a modern take on a Token Ring Network of aligned sites. Meaning that strong performers carrying the weight of poor performers (like when a management group does a concert of signed acts, the headliners carry the show and get little of the gate because the small acts need more promo work to get stronger...old story).

And then the final part is. The longer a person stays on the site the greater the odds of finding a crypto coin. They can cash it in but how does that profit the site in the first place? That increased time on site is a metric for advertising rates.

The whole thing just sounds like a house of cards foundation to a pyramid scheme to me. I’m sure it works for somebody in conjunction of other revenue generations. But I’d look harder at the other to see what it is. But that is me.

a reply to: Ksihkehe

I wouldn't be surprised if "fringe" sites like ATS start adopting that model at an accelerating rate as the screws tighten on the internet at large.

The only thing these guys are adopting is a Barca-lounger and a cold beer.

They're just done.

Very sad indeed. I’ve been a member here for 16 years or so and in that time I’d say I’d recruited another 50-60 members.

ATS was a passion for me at the start, then it became my “go to” for news on events etc. I have been part of some weird and wonderful discussions over the years and I hope that ATS can continue to provide a platform for discussion.

But remember, It’s not over until the fat lady sings.

*for all you politically correct folk who say I can’t mention singing, fat ladies..........do one !!!

Good morning all!

I've received several PMs recently, but I am unable to reply to them. I tried though

a reply to: jtma508

Thats a good point. The only thing I can say about that is.. I mentally weed out such nonsense when I walk into a thread, unless the thread is about that specifically. If I do go into that thread to see what's being said - it's taken at face value.

I wouldn't consider those topics or sources as valid 'points'. Though, I will give those guys props. They're renegades and that by definition is a big plus in my book. Sans the stupidity obviously but they're somewhat close to the idea.

Admit it... You read QAnon stuff too. If anything, it's at least interesting even if a great deal silly. Though, sometimes I wonder if there is a little insight or if they're just lucky sometimes. Either way, I like to read whatever I can make sense of, which isn't very much. lol

originally posted by: Hanslune

originally posted by: Harte
I want to add that I don't recall this idyllic time when ATS was so civil.
I've been here for quite some time and even from the start I had to avoid the political section due to the posters being even worse than me (LOL.)

9/11 and Bush. You don't remember how people were treated that tried to argue against the ridiculous crap that was posted about that subject?

All the BS about PNAC and the Neoconservatives?

Realizing this is a conspiracy site and would thus contain a whole lot of obsessed haters, it still shocked me to read what idiots will write.

Harte

Hey Harte when did you go all soft and mushy! I didn't realize ATS was ailing

Don't make me go back and find quotes. LOL

Harte

originally posted by: Southern Guardian
Somebody mentioned here r/conspiracy on Reddit? I'm a subscriber myself. It's decent, though if you're trying to avoid politics at all costs, you won't be able to escape much of it there either.

It's a hot topic. I mean, isn't it crazy just how much politics fills every single pore of reality today? I'd love for all of that to go away but I see it as one country sized powder keg. If anything, I think it's being played down more than it really is.

I get that everyone wants to view the "new" link above to see what's being posted but the forums are very specific to their own threads which means anyone can just check the threads they want to see instead of a universal link. If that link wasn't there, I guess we'd have to do just that. Well, the bar of links above in general.

Still, some of the forums would be seldom addressed as it is now. Lack of content for certain ones for sure. Personally I hate politics to the very core but I think it's one huge domino in a chain of events that are soon to topple over right into our laps. It does go hand in hand with ATS since it wreaks of a one world government - NWO... It stinks to high hell of conspiracy and treason. We've even gotten a good handful of conspiracies from it.



Honestly... my way of thinking on this is... If you want a certain topic to become popular - Write about it. Make it an interest for others. It's possible that many of the lurkers haven't heard many of the stories and would have a serious interest in it if they did see it come up in the forums. They might even do their own research because it peaks their interest and you may spawn some great topic writers from it or even some thread makers for similar topics. Others will grow up to be cowboys.... *sigh*