A Tribute to the Old ATS

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Jeez, now there was a blast from the past. Seeing a lot of the user names brought back some nostalgia to be honest ha, also going back to my last post just to add I've noticed what i was mentioning in that post about the politics, they're now all over the whole "UFO" balloon stuff on the UFO sub forum I personally wish if they wanted to bring that into it then go to the politics forums at least there they can push whatever agenda they want and the rest of us dont have to sieve through the verbal diarrhea but i digress .
J

My very first experience after signing up at ATS way back in 2008 was participating in a competition and winning an ATS t-shirt. Some of my last experiences before I decided to give this website a long break involved political vitriol being thrown at me and intelligent discussion being butchered in its name.

I still visit from time to time, rarely do I actually log in and post though. I can count on 2 hands the amount of times I visited this site in the last few years. Perhaps part of me still hopes that ATS will do an about turn and go back to the amazing site it used to be - but then I look at the daily threads for that particular day and I realise it's a pipe dream.

Still, I have fond memories of the fantastic threads and great debates that used to be the very soul of ATS. That's something I guess.

I remember finding ATS back in 07-08 era. Long time lurker, I actually just made an account to start replying last week or so with the UFO nonsense going on in North America. I came here from /x. I think we all were on that site in some form or fashion back then. I stayed here because of the stern differences in the general maturity level of posters.

It has changed exponentially since I first found this place, but I still lurk and read almost every day as I always have.

On boards like 4chan and Reddit, there’s talk about AI bots and payed shills for the purpose to misinform or derail certain topics ( a la the “real” alien picture you’ll see float around every other day)

If it’s happening there, then it is completely possible that “they” use them here as well.

Ok, I'll bite:

There is a lot of chaff that flies around ATS - it attracts a certain element in society; you and me included.

But among all that flotsam and jetsam over my past 17 years here there have been some real gems, genuine morsels that end up only here.

It takes a lot of time and energy to sift through sometimes legions of antagonistic mischief to find a post or a truly intuitive, intriguing exchange. But it's possible. It's here.

Some things have changed, not all for the better, but it's a tough model to support, and I don't fault the Tres amigos and their lieutenants ('da Mods) for giving it a good try.

I usually feed at the Aliens & UFO's trough myself, but love bouncing around and poking my head in lots of other forums at ATS - another plus as far as sites like this go. I miss some of the Big Game debates we used to have, like for the ISAAC Drone flap, or joint projects - like Hank's alien-hailing project, and the ATS Games and contests used to be a more active and a really fun diversion. What happened to the ATS contests? [the last ATS baseball cap I won maybe a dozen years ago is getting a bit threadbare...]

The ATS GUI and the whole points-award-penalty system seemed a bit sketchy (arbitrary?) - still kind of does - confusing for the user. But I'm just along for the ride here and really not being critical of ATS coders and designers.

Johnny and other media-types used to chime in more often, and I don't see much from the Amigos or the early guard anymore - at least not where I've been lurking.

Seems like the Covid black hole swallowed a lot of enthusiasm for gatherings - but I also miss the leads to live events from ATS - where I've been able to meet and speak with fascinating people: I 've met some of the Amigos, sat in an ATS conference booth with John Lear (he had some great stories!), spoke directly with people like Grant Cameron, Stanton Friedman, and Buzz Aldrin. This is priceless stuff - even if you don't believe everything they say! I wouldn't have done any of that over the years without ATS impetus.

My final assessment: ATS was great back-in-the-day. It's still great today. Different perhaps, but still worthwhile and serving a useful purpose. Thanks for the memories to date - I hope to acquire yet many more.