The ATS website is turning to mud

When I first joined the ATS website some 5-6 years ago (under a different name) it was well laid out and well structured. 100% of the post text was visible and of a good size to read. Now the site is becoming polluted with extremely annoying buttons intruding into the reading area, adverts for upcoming whatever are polluting the screen from the bottom and in the last couple of weeks another advert is polluting the screen from the right just enough to prevent me seeing the full text at the level of the zoom I use. Yes, I’ve tried every blocker I can find but they don’t work on the latest pollution and no I have never brought anything advertised on ATS.

One level of zoom smaller would require me to use a pair of binoculars to read the text. With the old set out is was possible to take a snip of the whole text and more off it. Now several snips are required to get the same text

Why does all this kind of thing happen? I notice this website follows what has happened with TV and movies. It all seems to follow a normal curve. TV and movies started out a black and white, they got better and went to colour and got better with improved sound and definition. Websites, TV and movies have now gone over the hill and are going downhill.

Flashing text, popups and god knows what else is polluting the customer experience of websites. Movies and TV are now filmed in wobbly vision, jerky zooming images do my head in big time and so these days I watch little to no television so me that leaves the internet for me but a good websites like ATS once was is turning to ………. or mud.

Where to from here?? Back to hard copy books I suppose, least that is until they become polluted with adverts then what???

learnatic
One level of zoom smaller would require me to use a pair of binoculars to read the text. With the old set out is was possible to take a snip of the whole text and more off it. Now several snips are required to get the same text

Flashing text, popups and god knows what else is polluting the customer experience of websites. Movies and TV are now filmed in wobbly vision, jerky zooming images do my head in big time and so these days I watch little to no television so me that leaves the internet for me but a good websites like ATS once was is turning to ………. or mud.

Where to from here?? Back to hard copy books I suppose, least that is until they become polluted with adverts then what???

edit on 5-4-2014 by learnatic because: (no reason given)

Not sure about the popups issue your having. I haven't had a popup since I joined. I do have the google toolbar, but its not even active atm (google toolbar stops some popups).
Might want to run a adware scanner to see if you got trackers on ya. spyware also (recommend adware and spybot. google em).

As far as text...just hold down your ctrl key and tap the + a time or two..that should magnify to your liking (same thing with the - key incase you get too crazy with it and need to back down a bit)

One word:

commercialisation:

1. To make commercial in aim, methods, or character
2. To exploit for profit, esp at the expense of quality

dictionary.reference.com...

Dude!... your a newbie... ya don't like it get a add blocker!
But this site has to make money to keep going.....but I look theadds so if I buy something... it keeps the site going!

Simple, the owners want more money for things they dont really work for (they are proud they have the most popular alternative USER generative site) like I said, simple, they want phuckinf paid

reply to post by learnatic


I'll tell you what happened...some of us got old. Progress zooms by in the blink of an eye.

We can learn to adapt..or sit on the floor pounding our little fists and stomping our little feet.

I am learning to adapt. For the things I want to enjoy that have changed faster than I have, I'm learning to adapt.

Des

I have a share bar on the right side that I don't exactly care for. I do not use those things at all and it distracts me. I guess I am stuck with it though, I can't seem to shut it off.

I concur on a few of these points. The advertisements, especially the highly annoying full-screen ads, are an annoyance. Actually, they are beyond annoying sometimes, depending on my mood, lol. Everything definitely has changed though. I've been here for over 3 years, and I've noticed many changes for the worse, both in structure and layout, as well as in post and thread quality.

Now, with all that said, the site owners and admins do not have much control over the quality of posts and threads provided by the community, obviously. And I can understand them wanting to make things better, as I'm sure that is why the changes were instituted. I will not say that things were better before as far as the site layout and structure is concerned, only different. There are some features that I like, such as having a button to click to instantly bring up a list of all my posts. Very useful. I dislike not having a button to instantly access my inbox, but traversing with two clicks isn't that bad.

The main thing I hate is the advertisements. I think they are very obnoxious. We must understand that advertisements are necessary for creating revenue, so I cannot fault anyone for that. However, I think there is a more tasteful manner to go about them. Pop up ads, and full screen ads that cover everything, are imo in bad taste, no matter what the website. Maybe others feel differently, but that is the main problem I have. All the other stuff just seems like no big deal to me. So things haven't changed so much for the worse that I've decided to leave the site or anything. If I decided to leave, it would probably be because there seem to be more and more members who lack any kind of objectivity.

I can understand someone believing in something that hasn't been proven to exist, just as an example, but few make it clear "why" they hold such beliefs, and they just start spouting off nonsense. Maybe it doesn't happen that much, and I just get frustrated when I see it, resulting in me thinking that it happens all the time. But that isn't what the thread is about, so I will drop it. I don't plan on leaving because of the changes, and I don't think it would be a good decision to do so for anyone. This is because it is mostly cosmetic, trivial stuff. Not to mention that not everyone will agree regarding how things should look or behave on the site. But no regular user likes full screen ads, and I mean nobody. If there is someone out there who just loves full screen ads, I would want to know what is wrong with that person, because obviously there is something off about them, lol.

What ads? The only one I've seen is on the home page which is embedded anyway and ignored. When I first joined ATS I dutifully disabled my adblocker for this site and saw some that showed up between individual posts. Then they went away??? Never had a popup here either. Go figure, I hate popups.

They're wasted on me anyway. Only have enough money for food, shelter and ammo.

Maybe my browser is defective...

reply to post by Brotherman


Are you Kidding? Do you know how much work goes into maintaining a site like this? Very time-consuming to say the least. They deserve to make a buck somehow. They aren't charging You a dime. So you have to watch an ad or 2? GeeWhiz!!

reply to post by AreUKiddingMe


pretty disingenuous when the ads are ignorant and the site claims to deny it. You don't have to agree with me its your right even if you are not American and all that is to disagree, hmm getting paid to hawk information, pimp ads, Annnnnnnnnnnnd generated data trends sounds pretty manipulative to me, the mods are free they ALL don't get paid from what I gather are volunteers and also strange you don't hear much from SIMON GREY anymore, his good pal SO does most of the talking for him these days, also I think that what you call sitting on your ass and hitting your little keyboard buttons and all that fancy stuff as work, I think your idealism is skewed, it doesnt require much work, it just requires mommas basement and lots of time. Come at me bro, its ridiculous

reply to post by learnatic

No ads or popups for me. Its your settings...not using blockers. I too have never had issues here, nor needing zooming. I just have an average laptop, work computer and home PC. No issues here. Ever. And Im not alone here as you can see by the replying.

Toolbars, add on, links, apps, click you move thru with some sales items ...just looking. Those can set you up. And if you've been here that long you know about using ATS AD CHOICES? They allow you to site-remove almost 80% of any popups you get on ATS. And you could just TURN ON POPUP BLOCKERS on YOUR computer or phone.

ATS isn't mud....your SETTINGS ARE. And they don't have to be......

dude id take Alex Jones peddling me snake oil if it meant cutting the amount of zealots and sycophants on here now, I do agree with you and have said it for along time now it definitely isn't the same place it used to be.

reply to post by Brotherman


Wow you're pretty bitter about it all. If someone can make a buck from their mom's basement, if it is productive then more power to them...this site didn't just pop up yesterday...it's been here awhile. I'm not saying it's perfect but nothing is...some of the positives I see are:

1) It's well moderated, no endless spamming or endless flaming wars or obscenity allowed.
2) It has a wide range of topics, organized pretty well imo
3) Lots of personalization options.
4) Different ways to sort the recent/top threads

Why be jealous about The top conspiracy discussion forum on the web? I've been visiting this site for a LONG time before I finally made an account to post. I'd say at least 6 or 7 years.

Whoever is laying out the 'floor plan', of the index page, ought to keep the ads and topic titles, etc., out of the same "block". It's like reading your special 'certificates' being written over by a kid set loose with crayons.

CS70

reply to post by learnatic


What annoys the hell outa me here is that ATS was perfectly fine as it was, why change it? Its nothing more than change for change sake. Some of the changes that have been made are good but they could have been made to the existing set up.

What also annoys the hell out of me is that TV and the Movies are the same. It seems the more wobbly and jerky the visuals are the better it is. How the hell can they come to that conclusion? How can they maintain this crap when they know less and less people are watching. What is there evidence that people love the wobbly jerky images that yanks your eyes and brain all over the place?????????????

Why is it deemed to be So bad and wrong to hold the FXYZ camera STILL ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

movies in the 170s are unlikily to be bettered in the way they are made. At least the focus is on the actors and not on camera behaviour itself

ATS is the least annoying place on the internet when it comes to Advertisers.

The opening post seems to be referring to a mouse-over add, that will sometimes load a full screen video of a car or movie. But unlike youtube, many news sites, and most blogs, If I watch where I move my mouse on ATS I have never had to wait to read a post.


Mike Grouchy

To each his or her own I suppose...but all I see is a website that is changing and advancing with the times and technology available in order to keep up it's model as a business. It may annoy you,but to others if it stayed the same as it was six years ago ( when you joined) ,it would likely cause more complaints from members who would be used to browsing other sites with all the bells and whistles and would be encouraging ATS to keep up with the times. Also,as stated,this is a business,and in order to remain competitive and profitable,it needs to be flexible and adaptable. Too bad more members aren't that way...

reply to post by learnatic


LOL - Just how old are you, Mr. "Everything-was-better-in-the-good-old-days".

I bet you want those pesky kids to stay off your lawn too.

i have to come to a decision soon..

how much trust can i put in a conspiracy website that promotes all the social media decried by said conspiracy enthusiasts?