New Really Above Top Secret (restricted access forum) Membership Policy and Prices

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Originally posted by Hyperen
So what would happen if I paid the 5000 points for membership and renewed it every month but one month couldn't afford to pay the 250 and I lose my access for a period of time.

Once you purchase basic access, you never need to again. Anyone who already has, will not need to. If you purchase it now, never come to ATS in 12 months, returning to RATS will only cost 250.

Unless they delete your account for no activity if you dont show up for a year. Then you will have to purchase access again

I do not see a problem with the new system. New users of RATS can read all the information and posts in there in a month. On top of that, there really is very little posted in there in a month. So take a couple months break from RATS and pay thje 250 to read the new stuff at a later date.

Originally posted by Ycon Unless they delete your account for no activity if you dont show up for a year. Then you will have to purchase access again

Only accounts with 0 posts are ever deleted... thus, they'd never be able to purchase RATS in the first place... so, no issue.

Why do you think all the ATSNN reporters have six figures in points?

So that's how they all passed me up! I always wondered about that.... No biggie, only rarely do I come upon something first...and my little corner of Smallville has been fairly quiet lately (i.e. no bands doing a euthanization in concert, no getting hit with 4 hurricanes, though nearby recently, we did have that hot teacher getting it on with one of her students....) What a weird little place I live in (Tampa Bay FL).....

I feel that the members who have been here over a year should be waived from this points charge. It was all of us who "clicked on thy Google ad"(many new members here have not heard that) to help support and bring this site to where it is now. I have only posted once to RATS, and now I have to pay? Come on....this sounds like the mudpit changes, when members were charged 500 points for the change in venue, and then the whole place was changed again,(correct me if I am wrong) without regard for the previous charge.
Delete all inactive member posters, require a one year membership, and use a kangaroo court, made up of members (not just moderators), to decide who gains entry, and who doesn't. This way, you have to earn membership. Points gains by posting 3 liner responces has been the norm in the recent past...and these folks are doing it just to enter RATS, this is where he focus should be. Not on making things different for longer term members.
All this is going to do is increase the amount of one liner, irrelevant, and immature responces throughout the whole board. And that problem already prevails enough-

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

* The goalposts have shifted during the course of the body of responses on this topic so I want to check I am up to date.

* 250 points per month does not seem unreasonable if the content is good.

* Is it safe to assume that this starts 1 January 2005? Otherwise an announcement on 6 December 2004 for a retrospective action to cover the week prior would be inappropriate and contrary to conventional consumer law in most parts of this planet (private board though this is, and all)... Just checking.

Originally posted by Journey
I have only posted once to RATS, and now I have to pay? Come on....this sounds like the mudpit changes, when members were charged 500 points for the change in venue, and then the whole place was changed again,(correct me if I am wrong) without regard for the previous charge.

Hey, no-one is forcing you to buy RATS access.

What else are you going to do with loads of points anyway?

It must not be so bad, 55 members have purchased renewals since the posting of this thread.

Originally posted by Hyperen

Originally posted by Journey
I have only posted once to RATS, and now I have to pay? Come on....this sounds like the mudpit changes, when members were charged 500 points for the change in venue, and then the whole place was changed again,(correct me if I am wrong) without regard for the previous charge.

Hey, no-one is forcing you to buy RATS access.

What else are you going to do with loads of points anyway?

That, is not the point. The point is, you purchase something, even on a board as this, the original agreement should be maintained. Even more so if you are not a new member. Yeah, you are right (to a certain degree), no one is forcing me to buy access. I have already contributed and bought access, and I do not abuse the forum. Truth be known, I rarely even cruise through there.
And you quoted my paragraph concerning the former mud pit changes, were you around for that?

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid

Originally posted by Skibum
At this rate I'll never get in. I need to come up with some real garbage threads just to get the points. Seems like most threads are just retreads of older threads anyway.

I'd reccommend doing it the dbates way... That way may get you an encounter with the ban hammer. Besides, ATS is really looking for quality of posts and not quantity.

See now, the problem with this is that this, I think, would encourage people to post quantity, just for the sake of points, by setting up a system that drives people to accumulate points.

Should have been for NEW sign-ups.
We spend the points to get in,then now have to keep paying even though it may not get used much,,,,sounds like paying insurence to me.At the same time sounds like living in an association community,,,,will these payments go towards any lawns being mowed?

Doesnt really bother me as I dont go in there much anyway or have even yet to post anything REALLY ABOVE TOP SECRET
Concidering the amount of points one is given on posting,250 A MONTH is pocket change to many of the members here.The ones that dont,,well,I think they are just here to troll anyway.

All kidding aside: I want my 3500 points back. I thought it was a good deal at a fixed "price", they changed it and its not the product I "payed" for anymore. I would like to use my 3500 points on something else.

Its simple: Give everybody thier points back, and if they want to sign up under the new format they can respend them. For those like me ill use them elsewere.

I know its silly, they are just points for posting on some forums, but thats how the site works and I want mine back!



[edit on 6-12-2004 by skippytjc]

I blog almost every day, and do not get points for it. Heck, the owners of this board could sell my memoirs to a publishing company and make REAL money...five bucks maybe, but REAL money nonetheless. I've thought about that more than a few times, but I blog here because I like the people who read it. It isn't for cyber-points, which is my point.

These points are based on participation on this site. You didn't have to sell anything, you didn't have to actually work for it, it is merely a reward for posting.

Actually, I'm wondering if people are arguing for the sake of getting more points under their name.

C'mon ladies and gentlemen. They're not asking for your credit card number, for kri-sakes. It's a FREE INCENTIVE! Look at me, I just spent thousands of points in one hour, and am down to a mere seventeen, even though you can't even read my info now because it should be BLACK instead of RED.

I'm not going to cry foul over it. Rules are rules, and benefits are benefits.

Dot.

edited to add the fact that I have seventeen points.

Dot.




[edit on 6-12-2004 by dotgov101]

Not a bad idea IMO. Gives us something to spend them on.

I mean the points just stack up anyway especially since after you have bought RATS access you have probably already bought everything else you might have wanted.

It doesnt take long with some good posting to earn enough to cover for a year or so anyways.

Psssst! Here's a little secret...if you submit a news article to ATSNN you'll get 750 points when it gets upgraded to a story. If do this once every 3 months you'll always have enough points... Shhh! Don't tell anyone.

Yeah right, like you are actually gonna post whatever news post we come with.

Whenever I post somewhere on the board I get a fairly critical response no matter what, someone always has to argue on it and imply that I am dumb...

The Admins/mods do the same things, they act like most users, they are only human anyway...

I have been here half a month and I feel like I have discussed enough and earned enough respect (I hope) from my message content (Quality) not how much I post (quanity).

I don't get posts for quality which is a damn shame, I barely get replies to my post, I am lucky to have 1 page of replies because I am just a n00b anyway...right guys?

I try to discuss on all forums as much as possible, I am not like a poster who hangs in one forum...I only reply when I think I have something sensible to post and I rarely start post out of fear of having them locked because they already are discussed somewhere else...

I am not going to have 5000 points in a long time, I am not a spammer, and 5000 points is what? 1000 posts roughly? that's a helluva lot of spam, and I am not even gonna bother to try to post news...

So I might as well start using my points on something else, I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT IS BEING DISCUSSED IN RATS! I have no clue and I have to pay 5k points to find out?

I thought 3500 was already bad enough guys...

I only fear of being rediculed in participating in Research forums, Fiction/story forums and last but not least, posting news...

I will give it a try...but i'll be very p!ssed if you will be overly critical...I.E. saying that my sources arn''t reliable or that my first try wasn't good enough...

Sorry for the big rant, but this is upsetting...

Originally posted by Journey
That, is not the point. The point is, you purchase something, even on a board as this, the original agreement should be maintained. Even more so if you are not a new member. Yeah, you are right (to a certain degree), no one is forcing me to buy access. I have already contributed and bought access, and I do not abuse the forum. Truth be known, I rarely even cruise through there.

And you quoted my paragraph concerning the former mud pit changes, were you around for that?

I was around for it and I paid 500 points to access it. Now, I don't earn many points because I usually post only on the 'low paying' boards like Weaponry and Aircraft projects and I was a little angry that I 'wasted' those points on a section I never once posted on but hey, I wasn't forced into buying them, I could have posted if I wanted to and it's a private board - their ball, their rules.

However, we should all understand, members, mods and admin, which I believe we already do, that without the members contributing all this good quality stuff, there is no Above Top Secret.

[edit on 6/12/04 by Hyperen]

The advantage of being a Moderator and/or Admin is you can manipulate your post count and probably points too...so a Mod or Admin might just decide: let's cheat and give my self 10000 points just to look superior...

I know this happens on other boards...which I never really appriciate...it happened on my own board because I and the page owner (who is too soft for an Admin IMO, no offense Estrella) was stupid enough to share our Administration with someone else...and he decided that he deserved 10.000 additional posts to look like the 1337 poster, he was just a 17 y/o with a few mental problems...

I am not saying this DOES happen here, but it's possible...

Unfair. I prefer to read than to write.
Couldn't you have just sent a u2u to all members with access to RATS and ask if they still wish to use it?
I have earned access to RATS according to the original agreement, these terms should not be changed without my consent.

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
The advantage of being a Moderator and/or Admin is you can manipulate your post count and probably points too...so a Mod or Admin might just decide: let's cheat and give my self 10000 points just to look superior...

I assure you this doesn�t happen or I would have 100,000,000 points by now.

Originally posted by Hyperen

I was around for it and I paid 500 points to access it. Now, I don't earn many points because I usually post only on the 'low paying' boards like Weaponry and Aircraft projects

[edit on 6/12/04 by Hyperen]

Well, I posted a 1,000 word research paper on the Fragile Earth forum and didn't receive any points for that.
Overpopulation and Water in the West