URGENT ATTENTION The Time is Now to Save ATS!

a reply to: Night Star

All I can say is, it’s in the works. Very complicated process.

I hope this may get discussed by serious parties who may be able to buy the site and hopefully keep it online.
I will be so sad if it dies, I only officially joined relatively recently but have lurked on and off for years. Not sure where else to go for random x files like topics and intelligent research. Sucks.
a reply to: UKTruth

originally posted by: JusticeIsComing
a reply to: KKLOCO

At its peak, ATS was truly the a fantastic thing to behold.

But given the direction ATS has gone in the last 3-5 years and all of the political rhetoric and garbage posts with nothing but childish and frankly, stupidly thought out mudslinging between red and blue... I gotta be honest, I wouldn't mind if we just lit a candle and watched this thing fade out of existence.

I miss the old days with tinfoil hats and good old fashioned conspiracy theories.

I dont know what to say to this post, what does it even mean? I havent clicked on half the subforums in this place, mostly a UFO guy, why should I care what goes on in the political forums? I personally hate horror movies, so I dont attend them...

The only truly sickening thing is the attack on free speech Google is waging/winning. Just check out this post by self hacked to get caught up. A few web searches on Google censorship will also put things in perspective.

Health websites crushed by Google's censorship

I think self hacked has a good solution for ad blocking as well, something for the new ownership to consider. As long as you let everyone know up front it is coming, I think you will get more buy in.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
I wanted to pop in and say — THERE IS HOPE!!!

We have some AMAZING people leading and helping!

Didn’t have time to read comments in this thread, for the last 6 hours or so.

I knew many were looking for an update.

Apologies for the glumness earlier.

FYI, updating will be minimal in the beginning stages. It needs to be that way.

Hopefully all is still going well, I never understood the 25k migration. There is a good tagging system in place that I think would be easy to translate to another platform.

Honestly I think all the right wing political hack talk radio and such who's been stealing crap from ATS for years or testing semi-insane stories here first to see how the reaction goes needs to start bankrolling the site to keep it open. We all know this happens. They will lose the most should ATS go away, how will they stir up insanity in their listening audience without the free legwork from ATS's own folks.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: Night Star

All I can say is, it’s in the works. Very complicated process.

Are the current site owners involved at all?

originally posted by: Bent8484
a reply to: NightVision

Yes. I think it's pretty much the consensus that a monetizing model based primarily on advertising is not viable to make ATS sustainable. We'll have to get creative, that discussion is coming soon.

Just my few cents...

Firstly, as others, I'd be happy to stump up for subscription if required. I know some might see a paywall as a move against freespeech, but it isn't. Subscription shows a level of commitment. I mean, looking at how many conspiracy based content providers (who remain successful, or at least active) work, is that they provide X amount of content for free, but full access for the subs. I'm not a tech guy, but if there was a way to allow unsubbed access to the first 2-3 pages of some of the forums, but subscription for full access, it might be enough to really get a good general income (profit based or not.... rainy day fund).
Like I say, I'm not sure if this is technically possible without a programmer actually writing custom code to achieve it. I'm just sharing the idea.

Secondly, I just want to commend all of you that are getting involved in the effort. A big tip of the hat.

In the past few years I've returned here more and more. Quite frankly, I've had an odd history with ATS, as I only really ended up here back in 2007 after I became a subject of discussion and felt a need to defend myself. Beyond that, in and out at various points. But, at this point, I've grown to appreciate the people here... enough that I'm willing to give much time to any graphical needs that may arise (yes I know this is early days). Certainly not looking for money... this would be a goodwill contribution, and something I'd be proud to help with as a long(ish) time member.
In fact, I'm potentially willing to do a fair bit more with my skills, but that is getting way ahead.
From a graphic/music/video POV, there isn't much I can't do these days.

To follow on from that, and I don't know how viable this is (or the implications/revenue of such an idea) but as someone else mentioned, ATS merch might be a good way to raise some extra funding. You know, t-shirts, mugs... that sort of thing that can all be done through a 3rd party without any heavy lifting being done by anyone. Though it reduces the money made, it is money non the less.
SO on that, I'd be very willing to provide as many ATS designs as you like... and they'd be top notch. In fact, a new selection of designs could be created every month. Make them collectable and only available for that month... something like that. I'd be willing to keep buying Ts if they were good... even if I designed them myself... I kind of like the idea of a collection of different ATS shirts.
This also gives a sense of involvement in the site to those that wish to contribute.

Anyway, I'm just thinking from my perspective and experience of others I have come across.

As a whole, I hope I can find a way to support the efforts here with what I have. Sadly, big investments isn't one of them. But time and skills, absolutely.

One final thought... some sites have a monthly cost target that is met through donations... that might be a way to go if you wanted to avoid paywalls. However, one last thing I will say about paywalls is that you tend to weed out the trouble and spammers/trolls etc. A more focused membership would be invested in making the place a good experience.
If that approach was considered, then an external poll of interest would be a good idea to get a rough idea of potential monthly revenue. If the costs can be brought right down, then it only requires a few hundred subscribers to cover the costs. Add that to merch, and even have a donations option for those who have a moment of altruism (combined with occasional fund raising drives if some technical investment is required), and it shouldn't be too far out of reach.

Final final thought.... if it all falls through and can't be saved, I suggest a discussion with the current owners about a brief period towards the closing point where a thread could be used to help people find new homes and to share those links between one another.
I have this weird idea in my head that a simple free forum (even if as an interim) could be set up as like a refugee camp for those who want to stay in contact... call it "Beyond Top Secret" or something. I like the people here for the most part, but when they are all hidden behind anonymous usernames etc, I think it'd be strange to think that I'd never know if I'd be able to chat with them again. It'd seem a pity.

That's all I got. Good luck, and ignore the negative. ATS future isn't ATS past or present.

The attitude in this thread shows that even if you guys succeed it will be followed by a power struggle. That being said - obviously the forum has to be migrated to something fast, I cannot believe that even after so many years the servers the site is running on don't use cache-mem, various image cdn's etc.

A "user-buyup" won't happen, because you won't be able to collectively get at least 5x12 of the monthly advertising revenue together, which should be somewhere around 450-700k and thats a very conservative number. Also, having a variety of investors that each have a 1%-2% share will be financial suicide for those share-holders, because the majority *could* simply raise investment and make their share even more insignificant. Even if you're willing to risk lets say 20$k, the ROI you get as an investor having a .5% stake would be laughable - if there is even something to take after part of the revenue is being reinvested or used to cover costs.

As a member that has spend 15 years on ATS I really appreciate the people trying to save it - but what you guys are trying to do won't solve the real problem - which is the lack of quality posts on ATS and the politicizing that attracted many members which do low-quality posts - both on the right and left spectrum. ATS was most successful before politics were discussed here, however most of you won't even remember that time.

Now with low-quality content it's gonna be impossible to attract a base that pays a subscription. Of course, a lot of people feel very emotional right now and are saying yes, however if you do some research you'd find out quickly that less than 5% the current users would pay *anything*. It's mostly gonna be older users who are torn between nostalgia and reality, me included. And whats next? With capping out 95% of the userbase the forum will get less active and it will slowly die.

I've had a website with roughly 200k members about a decade back. Once I introduced a paywall, roughly 80% left. Another 10% tried, but left a few months after that. The remaining 10% were loyal, but once they started leaving I sold the website to a competitor and never looked back.

I love ATS and always respected the owners. The best thing to do is archive the site and start fresh. You want me to invest? I'd be happy to invest 20k in a new project, that has a paywall from the very start - a free section for the trolls and a section where ATS veterans can have normal discussions again. Including the current site owners. You know, a place where having an opinion doesn't automatically make you a 'insert-a-name-here supporter'.

George

PS: I am starting to archive the site, especially the older posts. I really hope someone else is doing that already as well. There are many many old threads which are irreplaceable.

originally posted by: UKTruth
Just out of interest - this site is big but not THAT big - How much does cloud hosting and forum software cost?
One thing to bring down costs immediately would be to use image links, embedding for pictures instead of hosting MASSIVE photo libraries of content that is elsewhere on the web.
Modern forum software allows embedding of all sorts of content - inc Twitter , youtube, photo hosting sites, etc. I bet just simply modernising the forum could cut the actual storage cost down to a fraction of what it is now.
Something like Tribe or Xenforo.
We're not talking big money for a site like this to modernise it, make it faster and more integrated with other platforms

I would be prepared to help with an investment, but it should not take more than a few grand to totally modernise this place, migrate content and keep it going.

There is no way in hell that a site with this level of traffic should not be able to cover costs with ad revenue.

Cost to maintain a site like this would be minimal. hosting perhaps less than $200 a month. Suspect current owners are more concerned about dropping profits from the site over the years. In selling it, they really not making profit on its name or software, but on existing membership, and the potential earnings (click revenue), from that membership.

if I were to develop a new site based on the current format but redressed. It would take 4-6 months. Perhaps ~2 months to have a basic forum running. Which should give you some idea on cost of recreating site from zilch. Free web forum software is available from github but format of ats is better in my opinion. It just needs to be modernized.

Current owners may not be willing to give away past content (also logins etc) for nothing.

a reply to: glend

glend,
the thread linked below has a link to an off site forum where a group of ATS members are working to try and 'save' ATS

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: lostgirl

Thanks lostgirl

Apologies for the late reply.

Discussions are still in the works.

Things like this take time.

There are people working to save this place.

Keep the faith!

That’s all I can say.

🍻

Hey! I've tried messaging a few people, but haven't heard anything. Just want to check in see if there is anything I can do in the meantime. Thank you!

a reply to: ProgramSiberia

Here’s a link to the discord discussion.

discord.com...

If you want to take it a step further, they will show you to the working group.