ATS, BTS, What would you like to see in the future?

can 'views' be added back to the recent posts page? not sure where it went or why it vanished but i liked that feature as it showed how many people were interested in a thread title/subject.

What Happened to the Views Column?

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

In reality, the "views" tracking is indeed an item that is a "luxury" and was beginning to introduce some problems.

As most people who work with high-volume technology are aware, simple database writes can often take up to four times the processor cycles as read queries, even read queries that touch on more data than a simple one-column update write... such as incrementing the view counter for a thread.

I ran a test by removing the view increment for guests, and db server load immediately decreased... so now it's implemented across all sites and we're no longer tracking views. You may notice other very large boards have adopted a similar approach.

The issue of incrementing a view-tally on every page load is not an issue on small-traffic and/or small-size sites. But as our threads table continues to grow in size with more than 262,000 topics, it has become an increasingly processor-heavy operation to open the large table, read the current views, write the views+1, then close the large table each time a thread is viewed. Now consider that our threads are getting close to 200,000 views a day, and you start to see our problem.

So, now that we're not incrementing a view-counter, views are no longer shown.

thanks for the link enjoies05

perhaps the problem can be solved by changing how it was counting page views before?

are we to believe ALL scripts going to slow down the site? a quick google search shows many (free) ways of adding page counters to your site and i can't believe every single one would slow the site down that much.

perhaps there is another script that would work better than whatever was being used before. theres many languages like perl, python, _javascript etc and amongst them there must be one at least that would work well without compromising loading time

it seems lots of people miss the feature so it would be a shame to dismiss it for good if another way could be found to keep it

How about a "Most Important Issues" menu button for former events (possibly unresolved), current events (things we can potentially influence), and future events (things we can plan for) as determined by the very bright ATS Administration and moderators (and possibly supplemented by votes by regular members)? This might assist us regular members to at least partly focus on the most important world issues so that we can have a more positive impact on the world.

The "Most Important Issues" might number from 10 to 100 for each of former, current, and future events.

How about a "ATS Lottery" Menu Button where members can win points, gifts (such as an ATS hat or t-shirt), or even money (????????) by correctly answering a question at the right time [such as the 15th member to correctly answer who the owner and founder of ATS is (a more lottery-type question) or the first member to correctly answer who the 100,000th member was (a less lottery-type question)]?

Many ATS members might believe that ATS is at least partly fun (I do!!!), and I believe this creation might enhance the "fun capability" of ATS.

I do not believe that this addition would reduce the credibility of ATS. The genius ATS Administration and Moderators could present this option in a way that would only enhance the credibility of ATS.

[edit on 9-4-2007 by GreatTech]

[edit on 9-4-2007 by GreatTech]

I like that lottery idea. It would be fun to win things. It can be as small as 100 pts, or a t-shirt. That would be fun. We could have it like once a moth or something

Originally posted by ImpliedChaos
I like that lottery idea. It would be fun to win things. It can be as small as 100 pts, or a t-shirt. That would be fun. We could have it like once a moth or something

ImpliedChaos, I agree. It may even help increase the number of visitors, members, threads, views, and advertisers.

Personally, I am an extremely strong believer in God, faith, spirituality, and theology and regularly contribute to the Faith, Spirituality & Theology forum, but lately I have noticed a very substantial increase in threads and replies posted by atheists. Could there be an "Atheism" forum? If so, members might not always be distracted from what they already believe and would not have to repetitively reveal their belief systems.

God Bless ATS!!!

I myself love the different statuses that you can get here on ATS. Like Writer, Fighter, Scholar. But what I wonder is why isnt there a Podcaster status? I kinda think it would be cool for those that regularly contribute to ATS by podcasting.

I know I have asked about this before. I just want to start some buzz about the idea...

I keep seeing time and time again, where people create new threads on a hot topic, without first checking to see that there is all ready an existing thread. Currently there are several new threads today on the recently found Earthlike planet. Do we need more than one? I would like to see a points penalty for members who create duplicate threads in the same category. A preliminary search is not hard to do and would help the board from getting clogged up. I understand if the duplicate is from an old thread, but several in the same day or two, is poor member activity and only serves to dilute the discussion.

Duplicate a thread within, oh say a week, and get a 50 point penalty. That might make a difference and help clean up the board a bit.

Edit: Never mind here, I am still learning about this format here.. I like it so far

[edit on 24-4-2007 by zysin5]

Terapin,

Taking punitive measures over something so trivial would probably work as a more of a deterrent rather than a form of structure. Our current approach works just fine I believe. It is based on a collaborative effort between staff and members. We, the staff, keep a close eye on all forums and try to prevent repetitiveness among our threads. Members can keep an eye out as well, and submit a complaint when necessary. These are noticed almost immediately, and the appropriate action is engaged from there.

Now we also need to keep an open mind on certain issues. One thread sometimes isn't always enough to discuss an issue. The recent events at Virgina Tech has seen countless threads being authored on the subject. Several were closed, but several were left open as each one was viewing the events from a different angle.

It should also be noted that our rule of thumb is, if a thread has been idle for more than two weeks, it is acceptable to have another thread authored in its place. A board of this magnitude, which has been running for over ten years, is surely going to have more than one thread on the same issue. An inevitable reality. If it has been sleeping for two weeks, fire away.

Just my .02 on the subject. But I'm only a member who happens to volunteer on the staff. Your opinion is just as valid as mine.

Very constructive. Good job.

Yep, thats why I mentioned the one week offset, as I realize that threads die out sometimes and starting a new one can be good in that case. I also understand that some threads may have a different slant on a subject and that's all good as well.

There is however a problem with people starting threads on a topic that is already being discussed and the new thread is the same as the previous one. I thought that members were asked to check before starting a thread and it seems clear that this does not happen. Sometimes, it takes quite a while for duplicate threads to get closed down. I thought that by mentioning a points penalty (which is fairly meaningless and painless) it might get people to pay more attention not only to the topic, but to the quality of the discussion. Loosing a few points is not going to hurt anyone, and it might encourage them to participate in an ongoing discussion rather than leaping before looking.

Just a thought.

terapin,

As per the T&C ... one news article and one in the forums/boards.

While the "one news article" is limited indefinitely [void of an update/break] the "one in the forums" is a bit more lax ... allowing for repeats of topics which haven't been posted to or about in the past 60 days. Otherwise, they're closed and directed to the ongoing discussion ... to the best of our abilities.

In my opinion, the best option [tool] in dealing with such would be the Complain/Suggestion feature.


Just sayin' ...


 

[edit on 24-4-2007 by 12m8keall2c]

I would love to see an additional navigation tool, where you can choose the page to go to............
When reading the BIG threads and I leave off at page 99 and yet there are 2500 pages it would be VERY NICE to not have to click up 3 pages at a time to be able to get to where I left off.
The big threads are BIG for a reason..............they are POPULAR and people read them and I bet allot of people would appreciate being able to just click to page # (whatever) where they left off.

Thats my 2 cents about a board improvement.

Originally posted by theRiverGoddess
When reading the BIG threads and I leave off at page 99 and yet there are 2500 pages it would be VERY NICE to not have to click up 3 pages at a time to be able to get to where I left off.

That's an easy one.

Example:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Notice the page number at the end of the url??

Just change that to your desired page. (Given that you remember the page number that is)

Of course that example is for this thread, but you should get the general idea.

Method two:

Just bookmark that page.

[edit on 5/10/2007 by Mechanic 32]

How bout Live Top Secret? Where youhave a webcam 24-7, watching the skies? or where users can livecast their ufo sightings or at least have like a live skywatch?

Also maybe we could get like 1000 points (per idea) for making suggestions to ATS member questions?

Can we have like guest XFiles characters, or real ufologists and conspiracists in a Live member's chat room? (once you get ATS LIVE CHAT service up and running?)

I was wondering is there any way to add more items in the ATS store. I mean if we earn 100000 points we get a free shirt and if earn a alot more a free hoodie/hat..more tangible items. The only thing that even remotely interest me is the pass to RATS and from what i heard its not worth it. Now we dont have to get a free shirt but it would be cool if we a a greater variety of items to put our points to use.

This will probably get glossed over in the 17 some odd pages of this thread but I would like to see my favorites somehow accessible from the myATS page since currently it only shows favorite forums and subscribed threads, but not threads that have been added to the favorites list.

I wonder why such a great resource as ATS we've no regular Skypecasts?
I would like to see (and listen to, participate in) regular, official ATS Skypecasts..

Peace and Deny Ignorance.