Do the Admins plan for a new website?

I'm just wondering if the owner(s) plan to upgrade the current website forum. Considering the large amount of activity and members ATS have, it wouldn't be any trouble to raise any potential funding through donations to get a e.g. vBulletin forum up - and an actual website. ATS - although great for information, is really kind of a mess from a design/interaction/usability point of view.

reply to post by Shino

ATS - although great for information, is really kind of a mess from a design/interaction/usability point of view.

Are you serious? ATS has great features, and is quite user friendly. Yes, there are many features and functions, and as a result, may take time to learn, but I think they've done a great job with it. There is very little that I would change.

Love the site, but for all the good points, much room for improvement. Hope the admins really are planning on revamping the site for the better. Come to think of it, I haven't seen the SO around of late, proly going crazy trying to write all the new code. ...I hope.

reply to post by Shino

Screw vBulletin. The ATS board works just fine and I find it aesthetically pleasing. It's not really all that hard to use and it looks better than every other forum out there. Different is good. We don't need to be like everyone else.

reply to post by Shino


An upgrade to some is a downgrade to others, I disagree, an all vbulliten site would look horrible, there's tons of them around, and they are just ugly and less functional than this in my opinion, maybe your used to the features but they should keep it how it is, except maybe change the front page a bit and get Nixons face off of conspiracies because he was an awesome dude, who kicked ass, and got caught for others mistakes, and yes made some of his own while being recorded but he resigned didn't he, I just have had access to top secret information proving him innocent of a lot of what he got in trouble for the bulk of which will probably not become unclassified for 20 years.

[edit on 13-1-2009 by flyingunknown]

New user here, I enjoy the board thoroughly...all threads are organized nicely, easy to navigate etc. My 2 cents

I hate the ATS search. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the search features of VB forums search, but that's about the only thing that bugs me about ATS. Love the site.

[edit on 1/13/2009 by ghoulardi]

reply to post by Shino


Hey there. I can understand the familiarity of many users with vBulletin software however I have to respectfully disagree. ATS has so many features that VB does not have. Not to mention, the layout isn't that different when it comes to navigation. You have a main forum page with icons for the different forums, you have a recent post page where you can view threads in order of recent replies, you have a member center that allows you to customize features, a private message system (U2U), quote features, you can use images in your posts, and all sorts of similarities as well as added features. I also love what we can do with our mini-profiles.

Maybe it boils down to personal opinion but ATS is one of the most professional forums I have ever seen. The layout of the forum page is very appealing and the icons are so artistic, especially compared to the icons of VB boards.

In my honest humble opinion, I like the layout of ATS because it isn't like the thousands of other cookie cutter layouts and forums. The customizations and unique style set ATS apart from the others in a major and impressive way. The navigation really isn't that hard once you get a hang of it. I remember VB boards being somewhat difficult for me in the beginning, too. But after experiencing both, I love the ATS format and coding much better.

as a new member i find the boards very functional, of course there is always room for improvement.
but the ranking system, the new flag system and a host of other features, is actually features i have missed on a lot of other forums.

to the ATS crew; keep up the good work

I also think that vBulletin would be a downgrade. The board software seems pretty good. Something like vBulletin is better for a smaller site, that can get by on a very generic board, but for a big site like ATS, I think custom software is needed to make the best experience.

I think the overall engine is great, I would only give a few opinions on things I don't like so much.

Often the navibar at the top changes depending on the page you are on, making some important pages take more than one step to get too., I would personally try and make that more consistent.

The search sucks a lot. A better one IMO would allow sorting by date at the very least, and I'm sure the google powered one just doesn't index some threads.

Use of _javascript/some other slow tech seems a bit heavy. Like in this reply box I can type faster than the letters appear, as I only have a 2ghz machine. I would cull as much as possible of that, although not if it truly hurts features, as people with machines as slow as mine are probably a minority in major western countries.

Other than those personal opinions, I think it's a fine board.

Hate to be a stick in the mud, but changing from this format would be a huge mistake. As a uber geek I can assure you this site is under almost constant attack from people looking to either agree, or disagree with what ever is posted. Not all of these people would be amatures looking to make their mark.
Vbulletin, phpBB among others are feature rich, but a security vacuum.
The customizations that have been made to the initial platform this site was built on makes it reasonably secure, and feature rich. So, "Good Job" to the developers.

Please visit Here for a list of curent reasons not to go to vbulletin.

Thanks for reading.
..Ex

Frankly, ATS looks ugly. Even the formatting box doesn't work right all the time. This site for example, looks and works pretty good - although the forum is kinda dead.

www.ufoevidence.org...

[edit on 14-1-2009 by Shino]

Originally posted by Shino
Frankly, ATS looks ugly. Even the formatting box doesn't work right all the time. This site for example, looks and works pretty good - although the forum is kinda dead.

www.ufoevidence.org...

[edit on 14-1-2009 by Shino]

that's not very nice. beauty is in the eye of the beerholder and if you don't like this site you could always make your own no?

I know 100+ discussion Forums and from that must strongly disagree with ATS being "a mess". This Forum is, in fact, the only one I really enjoy posting at.

Can you show us a better discussion forum on these subjects? If so, go ahead.

We will then either learn from the better Forum or indeed admit that it doesnt get too much better.

Look, ATS definitely has the best layout out of any website I've ever ever seen. Especially when compared to the thousands of other forums out there.

It's the only place where you can actually enjoy posting, and there's always someone around to engage your ideas and beliefs.

I don't post anywhere else. This is it for me and I am happy with the way it is. They update and tweak things every so often as needed and I think that usually does the trick.
If it is only aesthetics, well, there is really no way to please everyone.

The current forum software used here at ATS is pretty much entirely customized and built from the ground up by SkepticOverlord. While it might have originally been based on a more common software package, I don't think there's very much left of that.

Basically what you have here is something that has been custom made over a number of years to fit what our members like, to be streamlined in order to handle our incredible volume, and to be secure from the literally hundreds of flaws and holes found in other packages.

So I'm not really sure how leaving a fully customized environment and switching to a rather basic, cookie cutter layout would be an "upgrade."

reply to post by Djarums


got to agree, being someone that has and still does work with
IPB, VB and phpbb (it would take weeks/months) to customise them to the extent ATS has been done to.

why try and fix something when it not broke

Originally posted by ghoulardi
I hate the ATS search. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the search features of VB forums search, but that's about the only thing that bugs me about ATS. Love the site.

[edit on 1/13/2009 by ghoulardi]

use the grey "google" search bar, not the search panel... it is much better.

Originally posted by Majorion
Look, ATS definitely has the best layout out of any website I've ever ever seen. Especially when compared to the thousands of other forums out there.

It's the only place where you can actually enjoy posting, and there's always someone around

to engage your ideas and beliefs.

Totally agree with that.

the best site by miles...