Some clarification on the status of this website would be nice.

originally posted by: Assassin82

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Assassin82

It can be summed up in one word...

Broken

It’s hard to fault companies who don’t want their names tied to the dark side of the internet words and behaviors via advertisements.

If it were individual organizations pulling ads that may be an excuse, but this is a few gatekeepers that are gutting the revenue of sites that don't conform to what they find appropriate. A prevalent ideology is one that encourages censoring things you disagree with by any means possible, fact-checking when total censorship isn't possible, and when neither is possible you mob the person saying things you don't like.

While these tactics are acceptable and mainstream the sites that don't conform get silenced. This should concern people of all political persuasions, but will only become problematic when it's their own ideas being mashed under the boot of the gatekeepers. It doesn't and shouldn't matter if it's about political conspiracy, black projects, mysterious sightings, or anything else that you might experience. You shouldn't have to be approved for your ideas to be consumed by other adults.

There are larger things going on than site maintenance and no amount of updating will stop the steamroller of homogenization on the internet. The internet was promoted as a brave new world that belonged to everybody, but it's been on borrowed time from the moment it went live and it never belonged to us. Now we have gatekeeper chaperones telling us what is safe, what's acceptable, and the consequence of defying them is death. You conform or you and your site are starved out. It's the same way outliers in civilized society are always wrangled, resource restriction and banishment.

originally posted by: Domo1
Owner gets sidetracked with projects and ATS hasn’t been important to him for a LONG time. I’m amazed it’s still up.

Politics turned this site into a horrible place. It’s not interesting anymore. The old conspiracies have been soundly debunked. The good users have all left.

What’s the latest? Trump stuff and some idiots planting crappy monoliths?

Nobody who could afford to buy the site would be dumb enough to. There’s not any revenue. Nobody wants to sell ads on a site that’s full of whack job political commentators. Users and a complete lack of interest from the owners killed ATS.

It’s over.

Sad if true. I’ve been absent for a few years but I remember this being my go to place to see truly interesting discussions about UFO, alternative science stuff, paranormal. I’ve peeked from time to time the last few years and I’m so surprised this place became what it has.

To think this site was soooo anti Bush back in day but that’s besides the point. The main point is that there is no discussion here happening that worth much to what it was back in the good old days.

a reply to: Domo1


Nobody who could afford to buy the site would be dumb enough to. There’s not any revenue. Nobody wants to sell ads on a site that’s full of whack job political commentators. Users and a complete lack of interest from the owners killed ATS.


Actually there is someone looking for a new job shortly and he could afford it on a plan and he also doesn't care about revenue.
I also think this would make this person feel better.

Anyone ever read the Terms and Conditions anymore? The membership as a whole determine what topics sink or swim. As a moderator, I have the ability to remove any post or thread in any forum that I have assigned. What may surprise some is that am assigned nearly every active forum (there are a few old ones no longer promoted like the Live Shows or DISC forums - which is a defunct planning and discussion group).

But staff are also held in check by the T&C as well.

22b) Editorial Neutrality: TAN provides a forum for the open discussion of a wide variety of subjects, but does not influence editorial control over any particular theory, opinion, ideology, political doctrine, viewpoint or position on any topic in so far as those topics adhere to the rules set forth in these Terms and Conditions of Use and the Terms and Conditions of Membership. Furthermore, though operating costs are supported by advertising and promotional revenue, TAN do not officially endorse or promote any commercial product or service.

Because some can’t resist the mudslinging, the Mudpit exists to do it there. If the whole of every thread written on a given day is there, it is because the thread author wanted it there. The staff is unable to move threads there as we have stated many times, myself included.

And yet, the accusations fly, by those that didn’t author the threads they wanted to see to inspire and encourage others to write their own as well. Plenty of political thread authors wrote. Why didn’t you? Or is it just easier to blame others for your own failure to produce?

There is an echo chamber on ATS, but it seems a belly aching echo chamber.

a reply to: Ahabstar

All crap aside ... I have for several years found it utterly amazing that any sane mod continues to muck around in this.

Thank you, Ahabstar, DTOM and all those who have tried to preserve at least a small glimmer of what ATS used to be.

originally posted by: Veryolduser
Owner is a fed anyway his handle at one time was Skeptic overlord don’t know if it still is! It’s probably no longer profitable to gatekeep conspiracies for normies!

He did it to himself by blocking some conspiracies and when that happened people ran to reddit and once reddit started in with their censorship they moved to the Chan’s.

People want freedom of speech and expression it’s inherently built into the conspiracy community! Ats has broken that only rule for far to long. This place used to be more but only when republicans are in office do they allow conspiracies. I was here during the Obama years this place actively shutdown conspiracies that happened under Obama’s watch!

I'm fairly sure it's because some users posted comments that were clearly libellous because the people making the comments seem to think libel laws don't apply to them. Given the toxicity of the comments that did make it through before the threads were closed I'm not surprised they were shut down. Hardly the fault of Obama, blame the reckless nature of those on here who were so opposed to his administration.

originally posted by: Ksihkehe

originally posted by: Assassin82

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Assassin82

It can be summed up in one word...

Broken

It’s hard to fault companies who don’t want their names tied to the dark side of the internet words and behaviors via advertisements.

If it were individual organizations pulling ads that may be an excuse, but this is a few gatekeepers that are gutting the revenue of sites that don't conform to what they find appropriate. A prevalent ideology is one that encourages censoring things you disagree with by any means possible, fact-checking when total censorship isn't possible, and when neither is possible you mob the person saying things you don't like.

While these tactics are acceptable and mainstream the sites that don't conform get silenced. This should concern people of all political persuasions, but will only become problematic when it's their own ideas being mashed under the boot of the gatekeepers. It doesn't and shouldn't matter if it's about political conspiracy, black projects, mysterious sightings, or anything else that you might experience. You shouldn't have to be approved for your ideas to be consumed by other adults.

There are larger things going on than site maintenance and no amount of updating will stop the steamroller of homogenization on the internet. The internet was promoted as a brave new world that belonged to everybody, but it's been on borrowed time from the moment it went live and it never belonged to us. Now we have gatekeeper chaperones telling us what is safe, what's acceptable, and the consequence of defying them is death. You conform or you and your site are starved out. It's the same way outliers in civilized society are always wrangled, resource restriction and banishment.

I hear where you're coming from, and I have seen the same lay of the land you're seeing, in terms of the advertising wellsprings for Internet content getting filtered, metered and regulated (often based on the political orientation of those in charge of Big Tech and affiliated sponsors).

There have been a number YouTube channels I watch where the content creators are simply walking away, unwilling to put up with the censorship and ideological prostitution that one must conform to if they want their content to survive on such platforms. Some of these creators are realizing that, it /IS/ possible to generate a revenue stream on the Internet off the shiny main streets of the Googles, Facebooks and YouTubes. It requires a bit more ground work, but the end product is one that could be self-sustaining and completely decoupled from the censors.

With all of that being said, has there/is there no thought being given to subscription model to continue funding this site? When this crisis was raised to everyone's attention, I thought there was a thread that asked informally who would be willing to pay to play, and IIRC the thread blossomed into half a dozen pages or so. Of course, some of that is noise, but there does seem to be a core set of users that find this forum useful and worthwhile enough to pay for, /particularly/ if it means we're all doing our little part to keep this slice of the ideological spectrum (CTs) free from the clutches of the Internet paving machines.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Decentralise ATS and run it on crypto..

job done..

originally posted by: SleeperHasAwakened

originally posted by: Ksihkehe

originally posted by: Assassin82

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Assassin82

It can be summed up in one word...

Broken

It’s hard to fault companies who don’t want their names tied to the dark side of the internet words and behaviors via advertisements.

If it were individual organizations pulling ads that may be an excuse, but this is a few gatekeepers that are gutting the revenue of sites that don't conform to what they find appropriate. A prevalent ideology is one that encourages censoring things you disagree with by any means possible, fact-checking when total censorship isn't possible, and when neither is possible you mob the person saying things you don't like.

While these tactics are acceptable and mainstream the sites that don't conform get silenced. This should concern people of all political persuasions, but will only become problematic when it's their own ideas being mashed under the boot of the gatekeepers. It doesn't and shouldn't matter if it's about political conspiracy, black projects, mysterious sightings, or anything else that you might experience. You shouldn't have to be approved for your ideas to be consumed by other adults.

There are larger things going on than site maintenance and no amount of updating will stop the steamroller of homogenization on the internet. The internet was promoted as a brave new world that belonged to everybody, but it's been on borrowed time from the moment it went live and it never belonged to us. Now we have gatekeeper chaperones telling us what is safe, what's acceptable, and the consequence of defying them is death. You conform or you and your site are starved out. It's the same way outliers in civilized society are always wrangled, resource restriction and banishment.

With all of that being said, has there/is there no thought being given to subscription model to continue funding this site? When this crisis was raised to everyone's attention, I thought there was a thread that asked informally who would be willing to pay to play, and IIRC the thread blossomed into half a dozen pages or so. Of course, some of that is noise, but there does seem to be a core set of users that find this forum useful and worthwhile enough to pay for, /particularly/ if it means we're all doing our little part to keep this slice of the ideological spectrum (CTs) free from the clutches of the Internet paving machines.

The site owners were pretty clear that they no longer have the time to dedicate to running the site, so a subscription or donation system would have to be created under new owners. That could support the site, but there's still upfront costs for somebody to acquire and update the site. As SO mentioned it all takes time.

I don't know what will happen, but we'll know fairly soon I think. Like everything else in life all we can do is enjoy it while it lasts.