ATS is so commercial

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.

Let me be very clear.

A sponser never has had any influence on anything within ATS, or anything related to ATS policy.

Our current advertisers are through online ad networks, and as such, are rarely specifically buying space on ATS, and instead buying space on categories of sites within which ATS fits.

In September, we served nearly 2 terrabytes of bandwidth on 4 high-end dedicated servers that require daily monitoring and attention. A site of this size is a significant effort, and unfortunately, requires significant revenue to maintain.

Response shall be interesting Kuhl, I feel you are about to be laid siege to by DI Loyalists or eaten piece at a time by a head honcho... can I interest you in some health insurance?

While many of the Old School will no doubt be nodding their heads, it is curious not many of them say it..... those of the Old who are left anyways....

Pity.... user feedback is a beautiful thing.... and the silence is horrid.... oh the pain of it all.

Just before you all start bitching at Kuhl, remember he loves this community as much as you, and he wants to see good. He isnt saying this to be a wise arse or a stirrer.

At least, thats what he told me...

'walks off into the night, laughing hysterically'

I think two things urk me the most. The first is the fact that on the main page, we now have very subtle advertisements. It started with the SUMO beanbag chair. And while I understand that the game costed money, and I was fine with that, I've begun noticing more and more adverts of that like. And in many ways, these are viral advertisements. They are in the main section of the forum, in a picture, surrounded by other ats related icons. So when you see this, you think it is ats related, or something pertenant to the actual site. Instead we have basic viral adverts to make you buy, in one case, a vietnam war book. Is it a subject ABOUT the book? no, its justa link to buy it.

Another thing is specialty forums like Dave Rabbits first termer forum. How is it that a member gets his own forum to muse about anything and nothing? Not even Lear got his own forum, though he's placed on a pedestal by moderators and administrators as being better then others when it comes to ones opinions.

Is Dave Rabbits opinions on anything more important then mine? Is he not just a regular member like me? If he has his own forum stubb, why dont I?

These types of things, and this subtle change in Above top secret greatly concerns me.

I love ATS, I've been here forever, I've contributed to it almost daily, and I hate to see it fall into something on the lines of GameFAQs or Myspace. I'm concerned and wary, but I'm not Ignorant.

I too have noticed the adverts are getting bigger and more noticeable. At least, the buzzing one is gone. I hate mosquitos. Anyway, I guess it's just the times nowadays. Gotta get to the mainstream to keep running eh? Plus, here's a question I'm curio about. Do special speakers, like Dave Rabbit, Lear and Icke get treated differently because they are celebs, or are they treated like any other ATS member?

I know what you mean kuhl, I feel like drinking Pepsi just looking at it.



In all seriousness, more people = need more bandwidth = need more money.

It's understandable and hardly rocket science.


If you want to blame someone/thing blame capitalism. Oh, and drink pepsi.


(Im joking btw, ATS doesn't use advertising as a prop for anything else than to pay for bandwidth & tech, this commie pinko even says so )



[edit on 5-10-2006 by kegs]

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
Let me be very clear.

A sponser never has had any influence on anything within ATS, or anything related to ATS policy.

Our current advertisers are through online ad networks, and as such, are rarely specifically buying space on ATS, and instead buying space on categories of sites within which ATS fits.

In September, we served nearly 2 terrabytes of bandwidth on 4 high-end dedicated servers that require daily monitoring and attention. A site of this size is a significant effort, and unfortunately, requires significant revenue to maintain.

S.O. while I respect all the work you do for this site (after all put your all into it) I am only pointing out my opinions but they may be wrong. I could not build a site as popular as you have but please ....keep the faith.

Originally posted by kuhl
...while I may be wrong some mods have felt the urge to leave due to the current climate.

You are wrong.

There have been no mod "departures". Some, like me, have simply less time to spend at ATS than we would want. You know, real life and all that...

If you are unhappy with the quality of recent discussion and posting (I know I am sometimes), the solution is simple. Put-in your best work and along with others, you will raise the bar. You can't rely on the mods and senior members to do it for you.

I guarantee you that there is no influence on what, how, and why topics get discussed here, only the Terms and Conditions govern this site. The rest is mostly up to the membership.
.

I'm afraid I can't comment on ads, as I have all of them blocked. But perhaps if more members feel this way about certain ads, maybe there could be other advertising agents which fulfill the money requirement, and are not so... well, not so whatever other members think of them?

Originally posted by Gools
If you are unhappy with the quality of recent discussion and posting (I know I am sometimes), the solution is simple. Put-in your best work and along with others, you will raise the bar. You can't rely on the mods and senior members to do it for you.

That would be good advice, if that was the subject at hand. That idea works best if its the members that are contributing to the changes of the website. What his fear is is that the corporate nature of the site is taking over. That special priviledges is being placed on some people and the rest are left on the wayside. That the advertisements on the site are becoming bigger and seemingly more pertenant then the topics. When the special guests and the SUMO beanbag chair buttons become bigger and more important then the conspiracy topics, a member has no ability to change the forum.

After all, its always more important to advertise a book, then to advertise a good thread. right?

Having only been here a short time, I must however say, the advertisements on ATS are very very VERY tame compared to other sites of the same ilk.

Working in Computer Forensics and at times knee to knee with some of the Governments greatest geeks, (No Offense SO) I truly don't know how the Three Amigo's do it!!!

The expense for a site like this to be maintained is astronomical, TRUST me on this. I don't see the few advertisements on here picking up much of the "tab" at all.


Just my 2 cents..

Semper

I posted the below quoted post here also, but it does seem to fit with the theme of this thread:

Originally posted by Implosion
I have a problem with these, however, they are "Ads by Google" so I don't know if anything can be done about it.

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Why would a site dedicated to denying ignorance advertise a buy your way through college service?

Once again, how can a site with the motto "Deny Ignorance" pay host to advertisements such as these? I understand that they are a source of much needed revenue, but surely you should draw the line somewhere before advertising a way to cheat and lie your way through a college course?

Originally posted by Implosion
... but surely you should draw the line somewhere before advertising a way to cheat and lie your way through a college course?

I see you found this thread... Worst Ads Ever! (SkepticOverlord's Ad Hitlist)

... and that's what it's for.

There's nobody at ATS sitting around selecting which ads get displayed. They come down the pipe and they're not even the same for everybody. I get Canadian ads.. and yeah I'm sick of seeing Harper's face everywhere on ATS. But I put up with it because it's a minor invconvenience compared to what I get from being around this place. If that wasn't true I guess I'd be spending the time I spend here somehwere else.
.

²Implosion: I don't know much about Google Ads, but after all I know they're automatically implemented and rendered into the box by GoogleAds (depending on the [semantic] contents of the page) so no administrator has any control over which ads appear and which ads are blocked. I have recently seen a Google Ad in arabic, it could have been for AlQaida or Ayran Yoghurt drinks, I'll never know, but I bet the owner of the site hasn't exactly chosen it for his conspiracy-related website :-)

EDIT: Gools was faster.

[edit on 5-10-2006 by Akareyon]

Originally posted by Xar Ke Zeth
I'm afraid I can't comment on ads, as I have all of them blocked. But perhaps if more members feel this way about certain ads, maybe there could be other advertising agents which fulfill the money requirement, and are not so... well, not so whatever other members think of them?

I believe that is against the T&C. May want to rephrase that statement.

We need to look at the broad picture here people.

Are we recieving a tremendous service?

Yes!

At What cost?

None!

Whats the problem?

The people who own and run this site, who provide it to us for free, wish to use some ad's in order to produce revenue which keeps our money in our pocket. Where do we have room to complain?

Ad's with audio are very annoying, but other than that we should at the very least turn our other cheek to it.

Complaining to the staff for keeping this site afloat seems alittle hypocritical.

Ask someone on the street, "What is the number one purpose of a newspaper?" and you will get many answers. Some will say it is to provide the unvarnished truth so the people will be informed. Some will say it is to enlighten the community, Others will say it is to provide comic relief with the funny papers.

They are all wrong.

The number one purpose of a newspaper is to generate enough revenue to pay the bills. If they cannot do that they will go out of business.

You may not like the adds, but look at how many are in the local newspaper. That is what keeps it going, that is what pays the bills. That is why you pay less than a dollar for enough wood pulp to choke a beaver.

As for mods deserting, I've thought of running away in shame over some of my behaviour, but my friends here have stood beside me and walked me thru it. We are a community.

A community that must pay its bills.

Love and light,

[edit on 5-10-2006 by mrwupy]

I say there should be a subscription fee!

Honestly, hear me out.

How many of the current ATS addicts would stop coming here simply becaue they have to pay say $5 a month?? I would pay, I would pay a bit more then that if it ment more frequent upgrades and such..

It would also keep anoying kids out and stop random messages about how someone has an alien in their basement or how they talk with the greys via walkytalky or some bs story, we all see them!

Then all the adds can go away!

I wouldn't come if it was a pay site. I am more then happy to deal with ads for free service.

We did a calculation a while back...

Guests see more ads... and on average, about 2.1% of all the pixels they see on ATS are ads.

Members see fewer ads... and on average, about 1.6% of all the pixels seen on ATS by members are ads.

How many top-quality magazines you read have 1.6% of their pages devoted to ads?

Also, membership fees would never work... over 80% of all bandwidth is non-member... which would be non-paying. The best fee you can pay ATS is quality posts that in turn attract quality traffic, which in turn translates to decent ad revenue.

I really don't think it's that bad. Very good site, pretty unobstrusive ads.

But incidentally, why the hell are the Girl Guides of America advertising about keeping girls interested in science here?

TD