What was ATS like in the olden days?

There was somewhere I was reading, don't ask me where.
I think it was quantcast or Alexa or somewhere.
That actually has all the old page versions of ATS stored.
I cant seem to find it now but it was somewhere.

Originally posted by kuhl
And Zaphod58 and Kuhl

Yes .. and zaphod and Kuhl.
nudge hey kuhl

That's the change I see over 5 years. The people. Some come in waves with agendas and they leave and you don't care. But then there are others who you wish would stay, but they move on for some reason.

[edit on 3/2/2009 by FlyersFan]

Maybe it's just my own perception, but it seemed folks around here were very good about providing supporting documentation and corresponding links to most, if not all, of the assertions made within a post...

It's why I remain such a link whore to this day.

I really liked that practice and miss not seeing that as often as was once the case.



[edit on 2-3-2009 by loam]

I used to drop in to ATS a few years back and between the oddballs and the experts was too intimidated to venture a comment. As I recall it, it seemed even the most outlandish assertions came with links and supporting evidence. My recollection also involves a lot of heavyweights/ barracudas destroying the weak posts and 'locking horns' with each other. It was quite the battleground or maybe I'm just imagining things?

Here's a link to some OLD ATS pages!

Do you REALLY want to see what ATS was like back WHEN?

Check them out year by year to see how ATS evolved!

The Wayback Machine

I think the ATS website evolved very well!

[edit on 3/2/2009 by Keyhole]

[edit on 3/2/2009 by Keyhole]

I sure do miss ATS when I joined in 2006, and when I lurked before then...

Good times, good times. Much quieter.

People seem to be getting lazier ( evidence presumed in evidence, no need for actual proof, etc) but then i am sure i can find a quote by Plato about how kids were just listening to horrible music and not working hard enough....

Either way i suspect the link 'whore's such as myself and loam ( can't think of anyone else in this thread; do correct me) may be a bit of a dying breed if only because we are getting tired of all the completely unappreciated ( in that it seems to be completely ignored 90% of the time ) grunt work people such as yourselves put in. Maybe some of the newer members are doing such things and i just don't notice it for some reason that some psychologist already 'indentified' ( as we know human beings keep coming up with new 'conditions' to suffer with/from) with a smart sounding name?

Oh well.

Stellar

PS. I have only been active since late 2006 so maybe i'm too 'new' any ways.

[edit on 2-3-2009 by StellarX]

Well I got here when I googled oobe'd and found a cool thread. It was a bunch of pages and during its reading I noticed some "hot" ufo threads so i checked them out as well which hooked me into that forum. now with the world ending and all I have decided to be trendy and check out the survivalism forum too.

But the best time to me was sometime last year when every other thread in the ufo forum was about reptilians, that had me laughing for weeks.

I miss the name calling and the edgier feel that ATS used to have.

But most of all I miss a lot of the people that have been banned, both the
rightwing nuts and the ultra lib crazies.

Like JSObecky asked, Anyone know what happened to Thomas Crowne?

Though I have not been here that long.
I would say ats has evolved and grown more complex and far richer in content. Back when I first joined most of the topics and activity was around aliens and ufos and 911.

Today it is so much more from economics to survival to aetherial stuff. Perhaps in the near future we can have a respectable segment on drugs and the many aspects revolving around them.

There used to be many more threads about "World to end tomorrow" "US To Have Bioweapon Attack Tomorrow" "Aliens to visit 3/3/09" etc...

There used to be so many more! Now they're either trashed or moved to skunk.

Anyone remember Pisky?
If you don't, here is one of his hysterical historical threads.

www.belowtopsecret.com...

I'm cracking up now, as i go through it.






[edit on 2-3-2009 by spacedoubt]

reply to post by spacedoubt


I do!

What ever happened to that guy?

reply to post by loam


Not real sure Loam..He mentioned something about moving to a new state. And right around that time, no more pisky..then again, I always wondered how tough it was to keep up the personna, he rarely posted out of character.
Maybe he re-registered?

I'm still laughing at that thread..I gave it a bump so others could see it easily.

...been with ATS for coming up 9 years now...

...ya know the problem with Conspiracy Websites is that they are generally populated by Conspiracy Theorists...

I miss the people mostly.

But also the amount of research that people put into topics.
Stuff used to get knocked down really quickly by other members if the poster didn't back up their posts with reputable links and hard facts.

I go into the paranormal board a lot and I see a bunch of topics lik "OMG I saw a thing at the foot of my bed. HELP!!!!"
And then they post pictures that clearly don't have this spectre in them that their claiming is there.
It seems like these posts are in lieu of doing any research themselves on the topic. They just want immediate answers.
I guess it's just the instant gratification age... sigh... Twitter and Facebook are killing me.

Thanks for all your replies, really interesting.

As far as people suddenly dissapearing one day: I've had the same experience with online friends... You sometimes forget to get their email and when the board goes down or their computer crashes you never see them again, harsh.

Seems like most people have rolled with the changes.

I'm sure it was quieter before; A lot of minor boards have sprung up around ATS, so there's plenty of places to go for a quiet chat in the backroom.

I see ATS as a huge knowledge stock exchange. Click on the 'recent posts' button to see how furiously ideas are thrown about. I like the democracy, and the way threads sink or float. All in all, a cool place. I have learned a lot here, one of the most important skills I've gained recently is the ability to bow out of an argument and let the other guy have the last word.

It's really fun here, and with a bit of luck, this could be just the beginning.
If we get through the current troubles maybe there'll be a permenant research institute one day.

[edit on 222.493f20092am by HiAliens]

There was a lot less electricity then,so computers ran reaaally slow.

A u2u was delivered by carrier pigeon,and chat room was just a tangle of paper cups and a hell of a lot of string.



(DG was the resident hottie,so some things haven't changed though. )

i'm not the ancient ATS relic u must be looking for ,but IMHO i feel that the informative level of ATS went true the sewers created by 9/11 and never really got out of it.....

I used to come up here to read the most "unreal" topics as the MSM presented us. Since most of my "friends" are sheeple who don't even bother to get info on anything out of the ordinary. U can't even begin how sad i feel that i can't get a decent informative talk without those (f-word) spamming """""""""members""""""" telling me its al bunk....

There used to be a time up here when people talked instead of fighting al the time. I understand ppl who have valid reasons to take some thread down the drain, but come on ppl are bashing guys with theories that don't provide ""evidence"" .

Maybe we should put al the members with radical , out of the box ideas on fire like those good old medieval times .... maybe then The Debunking Gang would be happy and shut up when they dont have a clue what they are talkin about.

Also one thing i noticed: why are most of the active members guys/gals who joined in the latest 2 to 3 years?????

Maybe i missed the jump to the sudden awakening of so many ppl..




I'm 25 and a EUer maybe i'm just to stupid to get the huge leap mankind made in denying everything out of the box .....

just my 2 EUrocents ....


Btw. Thx for bringing up this thread, it gave ma a chance to tell what ive been feeling for some time now

Well, I haven't been here that long but I definately think it's changed, some ways for the better, some for the worse.
Like all things, ATS must continue to grow and develop or it will go stale and decline.

The thing I personally miss the most is the people; some of the most charismatic, thought provoking and simply amusing members have been banned.
In addition some of the more qualified, reasoned and again, thought provoking members have become mods and as a result concentrate more on their mod duties rather than contributing to ATS with their own posts or threads.

One way that ATS seems to be worse is that there seems to be much more repetition with numerous threads on the same, or similar subjects.

However, there is still definately quality here, e.g. :
www.abovetopsecret.com...



[edit on 3/3/09 by Freeborn]