Transparency On The Future of ATS

a reply to: Plotus

Already got to that , so thee question might be better put , who do you have to pay not to archive the content ?
Or even who pays you not to have it archived

Is there any more sh#tty news 2020 going to bring us

a reply to: DoctorBluechip

A very small amount yes.

Google doesn’t run the site but the company where the servers are housed and the site resides...yes, they charge ATS that very small amount.

Since there is no “storehouse/library/etc” to charge you the requester for that little bit of information then it uses the model of ATS owns the content, ATS pays the bill (because you could dine and dash if you like a restaurant analogy) and ATS cannot. With ATS gone, then the content is gone.

I mean I would like to go to Burger Chef, but it just doesn’t exist anymore even though they had a kids meal before McDonald’s did. Cant us ring the bell.

Sad days are ahead my friends

I never truly "woke up" until I found ATS. Imagine how many people are going to be left in the dark without sites like ATS?

I visit this site at least 5+ times a day and I never use an ad blocker. Even if the ads are annoying and irrelevant to me.

Truly sad days ahead.

I'll even miss Phage

originally posted by: Ahabstar
a reply to: DoctorBluechip

A very small amount yes.

Google doesn’t run the site but the company where the servers are housed and the site resides...yes, they charge ATS that very small amount.

Since there is no “storehouse/library/etc” to charge you the requester for that little bit of information then it uses the model of ATS owns the content, ATS pays the bill (because you could dine and dash if you like a restaurant analogy) and ATS cannot. With ATS gone, then the content is gone.

I mean I would like to go to Burger Chef, but it just doesn’t exist anymore even though they had a kids meal before McDonald’s did. Cant us ring the bell.

Time for a whip round from members to buy up what is needed , i remember asking this a while ago

man i hate to hear it. i use to visit the site just to read i'm gonna say a couple of years. finally joined in 2009.

so i guess one more little didy

Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me

We all figured ATS would stay and never fade away
But that's what we found out today
No more rocks on Mars
Or hoping politicians wind up behind bars
All because advertisers don't wanna pay

Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me

It's been a good run Skeptic sad to see it go.

this is the closest one they did i can find to the situation.

a reply to: Ahabstar

In 2017 the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA), a United States financial regulatory organization, released a notice stating all businesses doing digital communications are required to keep a record. This includes website data, social media posts, and messages.[15]

Would the content no longer be available in it's entirety ? Wouldnt web crawlers already have stored the information ?

Web archiving is the process of collecting portions of the World Wide Web to ensure the information is preserved in an archive for future researchers, historians, and the public.[1] Web archivists typically employ web crawlers for automated capture due to the massive size and amount of information on the Web. The largest web archiving organization based on a bulk crawling approach is the Wayback Machine, which strives to maintain an archive of the entire Web.

This site in invaluable, but the US politics is destroying it. Not going to lie, I don't feel good about much of what I read in here these days, it feels like 8kun light I wonder if this might be driving people away? Its not a pleasant place to be if you don't hold right wing trumpian ideals. It has become a hateful place for the most part. That said, I was sincerely hoping this site would ride this period out and rise to a brighter future.

a reply to: stonerwilliam

Not sure how a searchable archive would be monetized enough to be self sustaining if an active forum can’t be.

A buyer and then under new management is still out there as an option, especially if that buyer has a working solution than ad generated revenue which has been the backbone of the internet since webpages were regularly surfed. About the time Mosaic became Netscape.

That was a long time ago...

a reply to: Ahabstar

We can only hope some rich person see,s the bat light getting turned on and comes to help us in our hour of need or a go fund me page

a reply to: DoctorBluechip

Wayback Machine still exists. And generally I have to know what I am looking for and when to look for it. Then I can find it there in a format that is time appropriate for the site design in use at that time. And old thread from 2003 will have that layout and all the ones in between to current (2012 light and dark) provided there is a sample from each layout...otherwise no.

And while the Wayback Machine does receive federal grants, there is no guarantee to being there or to accuracy. I have searched for particular graphics and came up empty a few times. And I cannot see everything there because I am not considered a mod there so quite a few things are different as well included access to less public forums that used to be displayed but no longer are.

Membership is ten bucks a year.

Content is edited by editors, contributed by writers, not just members, but members can say anything in the forum about the post, without modding.

Who needs ads?

I wouldn't want to go to jail, or lose my house, because people on here like to sound big and strong too.
But what about making it a cooperative? I know "commie go home"
Everybody buys a bit of this site, pays for it ad once or monthly and since we all are owners our directors(formerly owners) would be just honorary and not liable for our content.

A little legal trick, maybe it would even draw more people to this site because we uphold values like freedom, being a group that is very much not uniform and still functioning... our marketing needs to work on that...maybe a little card...

Anyhoo what do you say comrades?

Let's all get together and buy this baby!

a reply to: Peeple

Yip a share issue would be a good idea $ 1 share but how many real members are here versus ones with 25 odd socks in the drawer ?

a reply to: Ahabstar

Call me a conspiracy knit wit but I've got to say I'm finding all this a little suspicious , akin to book burnings or culling turkeys .
If the site stops operating so be it , but if the whole historic content disappears too , that would be ... Not good doesnt even start to cover it.

I would suggest an immediate site funding contribution endeavor, like we had a few years ago.

The donations will help to keep status quo while the ownership scrambles for possible solutions and answers. We certainly owe them this as many of us have relied on this place for some time, and it has become a second home of sorts as well.

The information available here along with the exchange of knowledge and ideas are worth so much more than most any other social media site I can think of. The data bank of accumulated knowledge is actually priceless in that regard.

I truly think there are solutions that can save ATS. There are a lot of real movers and shakers in our type of content that have contributed as well as those that have benefited by being subjects here. Many are bound to chime in with great ideas.

Let's give it a go.

a reply to: charlyv

The ownership seems to have done all the scrambling they are going to do.
Read the OP carefully.

a reply to: Phage
But they did say that they were scrutinizing the candidates for a new home... that should qualify for helping.

I was in the great forum in the early 2000s called Zaadz and it was bought by GAIA and didn’t last.

Maybe Gaia would buy ATS.

Back then they still had a lot of great forums but not anymore.

ATS is truly the Last of the Mohegans.

Everything is going technical and material: games, cars, phones, stock market, hobbies surrounding mundane and materiel stuff. No more adventurous or interesting ideas, conspiracies, real journalism, spirituality, political movements are even dead.
Even Ufology is dead

Just anarchy and reaction.

Maybe we’ve lost our souls if we ever had any

Hope we can ride the darkness out

a reply to: charlyv

It could happen.