What happened, what we know, what we don't know

a reply to: ChiefD

Nothing personal.. it was just an example of the absentee claim to use for my post. I don't buy the story if you didn't notice. I never do when these bizarre website takeovers happen. Always so much gaslighting and cognitive dissonance. I thought I had found something, guess not. My apologies.

a reply to: Degradation33

between nefarious hackers ghosting us and an experiment or game, I lean towards the latter.

because you're smart.
there is an untold story and something that needs figuring out, I am totally with you.
alas mostly clueless as I am... *shruggs

some have pointed to the Lou Troglodyte banner that went up early this year, right? So yeah for sure sthg like a game...

I wouldn't call the Ghost nefarious but it has crossed my mind that Cicada was all about recruitment of 'idealistic digital do-gooders'

sorry I can't put it in more coherent form it is all a jumbled mess in my head too = driving me nuts a little

a reply to: Degradation33

Oh MY GAAAAAAWD!!!!

You're the best! Bookmarked, gonna look into that later.
thank you

a reply to: FurPerson

They are also to the end of a fiscal cycle. They nearly doubled their membership numbers with all of us making new acounts while the old ones sit in silence. Then who knows how activating the old accounts with a new password might help add to those numbers as well.

Oh don’t forget the activities metrics must have been way up too with everyone posting 20 post to be able to make threads.

Ghost has been used In the past to stir up the Q thread and get activity going, I’m sure Ghost was just to help with member activity.

Maybe this time ghost didn’t move the needle, so they had to resort to plan B. Shadow site to double membership and increase activity.

The dashboard looks great all the KPIs look strong. Investors are happy. More money to keep the site going.

It’s usually comes down to money that drives these dialects.


Or….

$hit happens and they are doing their best to make us happy.

Well I’m still sus on all this just like how I don’t think our government has our best interest in mind.

I’m willing to be convinced.

The fact that the Troll banner is still up feels like they are kinda mocking us.

Thank you so much for your hard work...a reply to: Djarums

a reply to: ObsBartim37

At last, someone with some ability to look critically at this situation.

I noticed that many old faces from the purge after the change in ownership are back. Could it be that ATS suffered from that purge greatly and that the 'hack' news on Discord drew them back like the best catfish bait I've ever seen? (real catfish, not the internet kind.... unless.....)

a reply to: MoreCoyoteAngels

Do you realize how many people that get banned stick around? We have people that get banned multiple times and they still come back. A lot. Many of those were already here under different usernames. They decided to take a chance and ask for their old names back when they reset everything.

a reply to: Zaphod58

#Bernard

a reply to: MoreCoyoteAngels

Right,
This is a conspiracy site so I assume most are familiar with how hegelian dialectics work, and are familiar with Stockholm syndrome.
And while less obvious there is and understanding of the Panopticon structure of society, and it’s creeping into the internet.
What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance?

All three are at play here if you step back and look at this whole scenario objectively.

It’s like a new warden has arrived after a well orchestrated jail break and only he has the keys to get the chaos back in order and get us back to our old familiar cells where it’s “safe”. We have to give up more information more data (data =$ for cooperation) in order to get back in. Gratitude and loyalty for the new warden is established and now sky's the limit for how they can manipulate the masses. What will they ask for next?

Feels like a social experiment, our old usernames are being used as cheese to see how and who moves to it.

originally posted by: ObsBartim37
They nearly doubled their membership numbers with all of us making new acounts while the old ones sit in silence.

Hardly. The forum stats say "364,931" total members, but if you go to the members lists, sort the list by "last visit" you can see that there were only around 650 new members since October 19.
If we do not count the average new members per day (around 12) then we are left with around 530 "new" accounts that are (maybe) not from new members.

530 / 364931 = 0.145% increase.

Then who knows how activating the old accounts with a new password might help add to those numbers as well.

It's the same member, not a new one.

Oh don’t forget the activities metrics must have been way up too with everyone posting 20 post to be able to make threads.

I will post my statistics in a few hours.

The fact that the Troll banner is still up feels like they are kinda mocking us.

Only someone with access to the site code can change that.

a reply to: DBCowboy

I miss Bernard.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Im sure there were.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Maybe they decided they wouldn't continue to play games with the mods here after the purge. They do have choice you know. Some people leave for years and don't alias back in. But, a total lack of mods was worth checking out the party.

I appreciate the mod team here on ATS. That lack of any moderation at all was a wonderful 'learning opportunity', don't you think? I do. We were all so happy to see mom and dad home again. I know I was.

But then again a suggestion: show the offending post to the person that made it in the notice. Particularly with off topic comments. Allow people to understand their errors. And to insure it's not political moderation or some other kind of point made that the mod didn't like. We are all human afterall.

There is a line between no enough mods and too much. Why vacilate between extremes? There is a middle ground. Copying the offending post to the notice would encourage more trust and transparency.

But I don't expect any actual code changes. ATS is most likely archaic spaghetti code and nobody wants to be bothered.

originally posted by: ArMaP2

originally posted by: ObsBartim37
They nearly doubled their membership numbers with all of us making new acounts while the old ones sit in silence.

Hardly. The forum stats say "364,931" total members, but if you go to the members lists, sort the list by "last visit" you can see that there were only around 650 new members since October 19.
If we do not count the average new members per day (around 12) then we are left with around 530 "new" accounts that are (maybe) not from new members.

530 / 364931 = 0.145% increase.

Then who knows how activating the old accounts with a new password might help add to those numbers as well.

It's the same member, not a new one.

Oh don’t forget the activities metrics must have been way up too with everyone posting 20 post to be able to make threads.

I will post my statistics in a few hours.

The fact that the Troll banner is still up feels like they are kinda mocking us.

Only someone with access to the site code can change that.

An increase in membership non the less
Also there is a collecting of new emails from old members, a doubling effect. I’m sure emails have a $$$ to go with it.

Not just junk emails either, Jarum wants gmail addresses.

That banner continues to flys like the Jolly Roger signalling that this ship is run by pirates.

a reply to: Djarums

Thank you.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: DBCowboy

I miss Bernard.

He is holed up with cheezy waiting for the big one to hit