Transparency On The Future of ATS

1. I’ve been coming here in various forms since 2005

2. I’m not a computer dude. Don’t even know how to set up an ad blocker. I’ve had two computers rendered useless over the years by malware I got from this site. I currently log on using an old iPad that isn’t used for anything but playing music. This solves the problem but slows down my typing to the point where I no longer make lengthy posts.

3. I used to come here daily for the survival forum. But anything I posted got beaten down by anti-preppers making jokes, or one poster who disagreed with a thread and argued with every post I mAde. Til I just quit posting. He’s a well known poster with a following, and his fans came and cheered him on.

4. A few posters like Augustus masonicus, phage, etc. are going to derail any point you try to mAke, in the name of showing how funny or important they are. Their “unequal membership” discourages meaningful debate.

5. I have wondered since Obama I, whether this site was a “vacuum cleaner” run by the authorities to suck up all the laughners et al. That’s when the malware really set in.

6. Notice how you cant set up an account without giving your google twitter or Facebook login— all leftist/government whores who do the work of the OWG. ATS does this for the same reason that scientists tag baby sea turtles. I am not about to PAY to tell the powers and principalities what I really think.

a reply to: Graysen

#overthinkingit

If coding is an issue, use one of the pay sites where people can go and make their donations of 10 bucks a month. Then all those who run ATS can divide the profits every month. I know it sounds simplistic, but sometimes the answers to our problems are. Either way I hope something gets worked out. i would hate to see this website fall.a reply to: SkepticOverlord

originally posted by: Graysen
4. A few posters like Augustus masonicus, phage, etc. are going to derail any point you try to mAke, in the name of showing how funny or important they are. Their “unequal membership” discourages meaningful debate.

I like pineapple.

originally posted by: kosmicjack
#overthinkingit

Careful. That kind of thinking leads to being tied up in the Masonic basement of Augustus.


Am waiting on my invite.

Hope things work out, need the feed. How else are we going to logically hold the high ground without getting drowned out by the lost youth with veiled vision? We will get picked off one by one out there in the wilderness...

a reply to: DBCowboy

20,000 if you keep your socks on

I believe they will get a buyer.
It's a known brand for years and gets a decent audience and membership.

What might happen is the conspiracy syndrome, which is down a bit, may reboot.
unless...
..the secret boys and girls have something else in mind and body

originally posted by: jsjAmeicanMo
a reply to: DBCowboy

20,000 if you keep your socks on

Black socks, or white?..is that racist?

What's the cost to keep the site running?

Also if you need help with coding, i'm a software engineer willing to help. I see the site is using php and jquery, i'm familiar with both techs. Would be great to even start modernizing this site

I've been reading through the threads here for years, about 10 years actually. Decided to finally make a profile only 5 years ago or so.

Also for everyone else this site has been archived since its birth along with the rest of the internet.


1999: https:// web.archive.org/web/19990208011105/http:// www.abovetopsecret.com/
July 4 2004: https:// web.archive.org/web/20040704035833/http:// abovetopsecret.com/

a reply to: Willtell

It's a known brand for years

You're right about that... it's definitely known for something now...



Bigger Version

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

When I stumbled on ATS in 2009 looking for info on 2012 (lol) I thought I had discovered a goldmine. And I had. Grab a cup of coffee in the morning, and click it on. No need to turn on the news, if anything Big had happened while I was sleeping, I would find it here first. And it snowballed. Find a writer I liked and click on his profile. Read ALL his/her threads. Which led me to other topics, other writers. Sometimes I had to make myself get off ATS to sleep.

And the friends, none of them are here anymore, but the "U2U's" -- Checked them every morning. (And no, the mods don't read them. Please.) I stayed away for a few years and returned to see my profile page had been emptied. All the greetings and fun things from friends. I felt like my history had been erased. I didn't feel connected anymore.

But anyway. I adored it. Learned a lot, laughed a lot. Cried sometimes, and stayed in awe of it. I left I suppose for the same reasons a lot of others did. Sometimes I felt like I had been 'run off', because my political views were so opposite of the most prolific posters, but hey. I just didn't fit in anymore.

My most sincere thanks to S.O. and Springer for giving me a home online for so many years. No regrets.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Thanks TSA I tend to agree on your sentiment here, and want to put all that aside of the sake of saving our beloved ATS

Losing ATS will forever shape my views of the world. I won't have that unfair and unbalanced view of the world that is what ATS is, completely bonkers.

I learn from the unbalanced, the sane, the totally whacked out jobs.....I learn from you all. And that is the joy that is ATS.

Fourteen years I've been here, and I've learned. How to debate, how to argue, how to agree.......

Losing ATS will be devastating. This place may be imperfect, but aren't we all? ATS is a reflection of all of us and I'm willing to put up a few bucks if needed to help the cause.

Me too man, grown a lot as a person here and just the way my brain processes new information. Maybe we could call it the ATS effect

Continuing With Full Transparency


Those green lines represent known changes to Google's algorithm. The last one in early May has essentially de-platformed us from search.

We've always done well with algorithm changes because we play by all the right SEO rules.

Ive been watching the decline for few years now... it easy to see and the cause just as easy to see.
Declining interest in UFO's !

All the old cases have been done to death

No real good new cases ...

Everything either is or is assumed to be cgi

Trump and politics ruined site.

I guess the last reason was tolerated for the hope that this would generate traffic to the site.

Personally I think the days of grand conspiracies is over... maybe time to turn out the lights on our way out.

All the best SO and team

Thanks to everyone that made ATS such an amazing find nearly 12 years ago for me. It’s sad to see it ending but I have to say I’ve had became less and less attached to ATS as instead of the good old days of crazy theory’s and great debate it’s became a cesspit of political debate and seems to have lost its soul. I still find the odd gem so return one every couple of weeks but that’s about it.
Take a leaf out of the Chive’s book as they are going through the same issues, subscription models and rewards, merchandise sales and adverting that isn’t too offputting.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Why are we falling then, what’s led to us being essentially de-platformed as you put it

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Advertisers are deplatforming anyone that allows comments on their site

originally posted by: JBurns
a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Advertisers are deplatforming anyone that allows comments on their site

Comments offend these days ... the melting millenium pack cant handle comment or opinion.

Sign of the times friend.

Another victim of the culture war.

You say it's not because of the culture but I think it's obvious.

IYKYK