ATS is so commercial

Originally posted by Daystar
LMAO

Dammit, I LOVE it when a prediction of mine comes true.

Having said that, it was obvious.

'Fades back into the shadows, crying with laughter'

Ohh daystar.. you're so special and mysterious. I bet the girls just misunderstand you.
I wish I could be in your gang.

Originally posted by kegs

Originally posted by Daystar
LMAO

Dammit, I LOVE it when a prediction of mine comes true.

Having said that, it was obvious.

'Fades back into the shadows, crying with laughter'

Ohh daystar.. you're so special and mysterious. I bet the girls just misunderstand you.
I wish I could be in your gang.

Meow! Kitty has claws!)

What I really love about this site is the good will to all men (and wimmen. and aliens). Especially when you start talking about Israel and Palestine.

TD

I logged on here as a guest from my Ex's computer and lemme tell you...BIG Difference from a registered member. My antispyware software does block some of the ads its not by my doing. I have in the past clicked on one or 2 by mistake but hey thats how they get paid! I know small dedicated servers can run big bucks so I can imagine what a Co-Located setup like this must run every month...the thousands. It could be worse people...if there were pop-ups it would really really suck. These ads are very tame compared to most other sites with huge banners all over the place. Better coming out of Google's pocket, then mine! They can afford it..I can't


Pie

Originally posted by TaupeDragon

Meow! Kitty has claws!

)

What I really love about this site is the good will to all men (and wimmen. and aliens). Especially when you start talking about Israel and Palestine.

TD

I dislike pretension, especially directed at a site like this. I'm a cynical guy at the best of times and I've crossed swords with the site admin in my time here but never have I seen any arbitrarily imposed change or any shred of evidence of anything untoward to do with the funds raised from ATS's advertising.


I find it pitiful the amount of people who will come out time and again to take cheap shots here in the hope, from what I can see, of getting some kudos for themselves off the back of the hard work of others. It's pathetic.

Originally posted by kuhl
In my opinion lately ATS has become very commercial,I have not been around for too long ,(about 8 months) but I have seen massive changes in this site.

The adverts have grown steadily bigger and bigger and certain aspects of the boards have been pushed more than others.

While I understand that ATS is a free site and therefore must shoulder such burdens,I feel maybe these sponsors maybe having an influence on content.

The 3 Amigo's and Springer really have/had somthing here,with top researchers such as Val and others,and while I may be wrong some mods have felt the urge to leave due to the current climate.

I just hope ATS can survive through this and not fall foul to the media empires ....Long live ATS.

you know what i kinda feel you on this but as long as they share the wealth i think this place will prosper aka more sumos

I agree, the advertising has grown steadily more noticeable and annoying over time, seriously consider the prescription fee, some members would be willing to pay. And visitors wouldn't be effected as they can't post or mess around with the membership anyway and we all log in so it wouldn't affect us.

And if that isn't popular how about having more adds for visitors and eliminating them (or reducing) for members?

Just to add, currently more than 2.1% of my ATS screen is filled by advertisements.

[edit on 6-10-2006 by WestPoint23]

Originally posted by kuhl
In my opinion lately ATS has become very commercial,I have not been around for too long ,(about 8 months) but I have seen massive changes in this site.

Kuhl is just mad he didn't win a "Sumo" in AllTheUFOAnswers

I can't speak for the old school crowd, of course, but the value of this site, compared to enduring the small amount of adds, is very easily digestIble IMO. Although, I do have to turn my speakers off when those dreaded bees come on screen

Keep up the good work ATS! It is much appreciated.

[edit on 6-10-2006 by Zarniwoop]

ATS Commercial? I Wish!

If the Amigos could make enough money from ATS to make running ATS their day jobs, I would be ecstatic!

I don't see any reason why ATS shouldn't be profitable (preferably wildly profitable) because the results would be massive reinvestment in the site and all sorts of new and exciting benefits for members.

High-traffic websites don't run on fantasies, and you can't pay your hosting service with good will.

It takes cash, and lots of it. A hell of a lot more than I would ever want to shell out.

It also takes a hell of a lot of hard work on the part of the staff -- especially the Amigos -- but at least that's free, which is the difference between shockingly high operating costs and impossibly high operating costs.

Though I'm not a big fan of ads myself, if the minor inconvenience of not blocking them is all that's expected as payment from me as a member, I'm okay with that.

It really does beat the alternatives.

let it be known. here and for all time.

I

Two things come to mind.

1) PayPal (or similar) donation link. A few bucks, pounds etc... donated here and there can't hurt, right?

2) The website Fark.com has paying members and non-paying. Everyone can post, but members get a few more perks. (Granted, the quality of posts there don't even come close to ATS.)

Just some thoughts.

A few ads...small price to pay for such a wonderful site. I like any other member see the advertisements and I find that they take very little of my screen. I really appreciate the fact that the owners of this site provide:

• FREE Conspiracy Forum (ATS)
  
  
• FREE Political Forum(PTS)
  
  
• FREE Chit-Chat Forum (BTS)
  
  
• FREE PodCasting
  
  
• FREE Image Hosting
  
  
• FREE NEWS Room
  
  
• FREE Chat Room
  
  
• FREE Blogs

I guess online and in real life I appreciate the efforts of other people....considering all that the owners of these forums offer us we have a lot to be thankful for and a few advertisements to help offset the cost of all these services seems fairly reasonable to me.

So...

Thank you Simon, SO and Springer....

[edit on 6-10-2006 by kinglizard]

at the risk of stirring the pot

the current situation is :

unlogged - sees a lot of adds -- with adds inside threads - and other disriptions

logged in members see fewer ads .

under a a paid subscription scheme -

unlogged - sees adds - at the same leval as now

logged frewiew membership - sees at the same level they do now

logged in paid standard members [ paying a nominal subscription ] - see ZERO adds , except perhaps on pod cast and video [ when / if it comes to ats ] - and any other ats service that has exorbitant bandwidth

logged in premium members [ paying highest rate subs ] -- see zero adds - anywahere , and get extras like ATS.com email , and other premium perkes

how does that sound ??

The ads don't bother me. I've become immune to internet advertising at this point.

Isnt this a question about the influence of such sponsers behind the ads themselves? That's the question right?

Why would i want to pay for a free speech message board for the sake of not having adds on the page?

I got one word for all of you, IGNORE the adds.

They don't exist if you don't pay attention to them.

A thread like this gives more advertising to the adds then the adds them selves.

Just like i do in my every day life, ignore ignore ignore the adds all around me.

Originally posted by selfless
Why would i want to pay for a free speech message board for the sake of not having adds on the page?

I got one word for all of you, IGNORE the adds.

They don't exist if you don't pay attention to them.

Totaly agree, i could'nt tell you what one of the ads were about on this site and thats because i take no notice of them.

Go to the section of the forum you want to visit and ignore the ads, let the people that need to worry about them worry about them!

CX.

Hmm, I noticed one or two things about this thread.

1) nobody appears to be able to read.

or

2) Everybody purposely not responding about the subjects at hand.


This isnt about ads. Yeah, the site needs upkeep. Thats fine, everybody has ads, and pop ups, and flashy eye catchers. The subject at hand is the influence of certain companies and advertisers on Abovetopsecret.

Theres two corporate sellingpoints right on the ATS main page, taking up space where important threads were supposed to be; theres members on this forum who happen to be given special priviledge to advertise theyre materials and products, to the point where they even have theyre own subforums on the site.

This is the subject at hand, is corporate sponsorship and business running, and in cases, ruining Above Top Secret. Are companies buying out space on the site, and in the end result, flooding us with viral advertisements.

I say yes.




Why is a Vietnam DVD on the main page? Because ATS is getting paid to put it there.

Thats fine, but why must it take up space on the main part of the page? why not in the ad banners? hell, why not link it to a thread talking about the dvd? Why is it the sale itself? Why is it that people like Dave Rabbit get special treatment to have theyre own subforums? Is it because theyre paying Ats, or is it the publicity? Why is there so much corporate influence overthe site, and special sweetheart priviledges to some people over others?



I say if these little corporate sponsors get theyre own subforums, that I should get one to.

Lets make a WolfofWar subforum, its just about me, and my musings.





[edit on 10-6-2006 by WolfofWar]

Ummm.... what can I say!

Why is there a problem with ATS having ad banners? If you dislike them, don't look at them. Simple as that.

For the record (even though S.O.) has already said it, advertisers have absolutely no control over ATS. Apart from the occasional deal where we carry out a direct sell of banner space to a company (such as when we carried the "A Scanner Darkly" ad banners), the ads are coming from an ad network. We can quite easily deselect ones we don't want/like (buzzing mosquitoes, Brad Pitt paparazzi).

The costs of keeping ATS running are astronomical I can assure you. Like I always say, have a look at a post where S.O. has mentioned the ass-kicking hardware we need to keep this place up and running and then compare it to webhosting sites to get an indication of the costs. We're pushing five figures here people!

A few bucks from people isn't going to help, we need the ad banners. Considering the majority of our visitors are guests, it is a perfect model. Paid subscriptions would never work, and as a site dedicated to free discussion, only a very small percentage would probably pay to visit.

Another issue, why are people concerned about the varying shapes of ads? There are loads out there, and we select ones which fit the layout of ATS.

Why have ads on the main page? It's primarily the first page people come to when they visit ATS.

Why are ads changing? Well, because companies come up with more effective eye-catching ads. Good marketing = more interest.

Why the grudge against Sumowear? I love beanbag chairs, don't you? Come on people, really, if you dislike ads, stay off the Internet! The majority of websites have ads on them.

Posted by WolfofWar
Thats fine, but why must it take up space on the main part of the page? why not in the ad banners? hell, why not link it to a thread talking about the dvd? Why is it the sale itself? Why is it that people like Dave Rabbit get special treatment to have theyre own subforums? Is it because theyre paying Ats, or is it the publicity? Why is there so much corporate influence overthe site, and special sweetheart priviledges to some people over others?

Dave Rabbit is a very important person to the ATS genres, and is greatly liked by the serving men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces. There is no corporate influence over this site, get that crapola out of your head.

Don't forget, this website is owned by myself, SkepticOverlord and Springer, we decide what goes up and we decided to put this up. If this was yours, you would likely do the same.

I think people are confusing the word commercial with professional far too much.

[edit on 6-10-2006 by SimonGray]

Originally posted by WolfofWar


I say if these little corporate sponsors get theyre own subforums, that I should get one to.

Lets make a WolfofWar subforum, its just about me, and my musings.


[edit on 10-6-2006 by WolfofWar]

You know what - I think you're right. So why don't you get hold of the Business Manager Amigo (that's Springer) and write your check for your sponsored forum so that we can start enjoying your musings. I really don't see anything holding you back.

... and like Valhall said, if you want a sponsored forum, get in touch with Springer, have a chat about it's visioned content. If it fits in with our subject areas, we may make a deal and get one up. Simple as that!