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

Since this seems to be the appropriate place to post this stuff, I'll repost my OP here:

Proposal for member generated applause

I propose that ATS come up with some method for members to award applause to other members who make excellent posts that really contribute to the quality of a thread.

Currently only Mods and Subject Matter Experts can award applause to other members.

I understand that this could be abused by some members to award their friends but I propose that members who wish to award an applause to another member would have to spend their ATS points in order to award the applause.

I recommend a cost of 5000 ATS points in order for a member to award the applause. Members can only spend points they actually have on applause and cannot go into the negative from awarding the applause.

This will keep members from awarding applause lightly. It also ensures that only experienced members who, hopefully have better judgment, will be able to afford to award applause to other members.

I personally have a butt load of ATS points sitting around idle and I cannot possibly think of any way I could spend them all. I think it would be great if I had the option of spending them to help out other members who have contributed to the quality of this forum.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by FortAnthem


What about something along the lines of applause after a thread has 100+ flags? or 75?

Just a thought....maybe not a good one...

reply to post by Chamberf=6


I've only had about 2 threads reach that level and each time a mod popped along and gave me an applause. If a thread generates that much interest, I guess it's hard for the mods NOT to applaud it.


Still, I wouldn't mind parting with my hardly earned ATS points to reward somebody for an excellent post.

What else are they good for.

Originally posted by Shoomoo
I would like to see in ATS is the following.

Metaphysics and/or Paranormal topics have their very own forum. The idea that they are only topics, seems a bit of an odd thought, hence that there are so many topics these categories, many of which is either about the Astral World, Lucid Dreams, Ghosts, Angels, even the positive posts in the Metaphysics topic, including things on philosophy and spirituality. Maybe the Faith and Religion topic in BTS would be able to move into the forum. A forum dedicated to these two subjects, may make things easier for people who make a thread, and hopefully, it can become a "sanctuary" for positive thinking.

Another suggestion is to Re-vamp the forums. when I see the board, it feels a bit messy. I see so many folders one ontop of another in rows and columns in a square list, and it can give people a headache sometimes.

I am thinking of making the forums sort of have their own folder. So It will be easier to find the topic. It can still have the pictures for looks

Ex: Click board, and you see folders. One folder is titled "Conspiracy Theory Discussion Forums". This folder shall have the topics that are there today (Aliens and UFOs, New World Order etc.) The list could be going down, or in the same square list. Then there is the Science topic, Mysterious subjects, General and Shared topic Discussion Forums etc. This will simplify how the board is explored, and can save alot of space. Maybe next to each Forum, there is a top 5 threads for that forum, which will also tell the topic it is posting for.

Last one is based on a thread posting rule on a particular topic. The topic is Drugs. Of course there should not be any threads endorsing, or supporting illegal drug use, and drug crimes and such, but there are some conspiracies that are based on drugs. One well known drug conspiracy is the Marijuana Conspiracy.

This is of course known as a Sched. 1 drug, but a lot of people know today that it is not as bad as it seems. In fact there could be true reasons why it is illegal, and it isn't to care about the people. It is not really a Legalize or not thing, or it can be. All I am saying is that there is some conspiracy on the plant, and people want to know what it is.

As the motto of ATS states "Deny Ignorance", we should not ignore such widely debatable, and researched topics, and not research about them at all, even if it is about a drug, or a plant, or anything for that matter. Heck, there is a conspiracy about the food we eat.

To add to that subject, I believe a topic could be opened on Food, Drugs, and Plants, where we can discuss about such things. There could be informative documents, and facts on food, or drug etc. And of course there should be a sticky reminding people that it is based on the conspiracy of the topic, and not on topics such as how to use said drug, or where to get, or any illegal activity supporting. This can include the person's experience on using a drug.

Thank you.

[edit on 8/30/2010 by Shoomoo]

Just putting it out there, anyone wanna say something?

reply to post by SimonGray
HI! I'm a new member... I haven't read all the suggestions so forgive if this has already been mentioned...

I don't know how hard this would be... but it would be really nice if... when someone clicks (reply to post by "name of poster")... that it would alert the poster that someone responed to their post, like the alert with u2u...

Other then that everything is really neat.... and LOVE the new layout!!!

ive gotta be honest guys this new update is like what they did to digg. i think you might be losing a lot of members soon. the new my ats just sucks. seriously. i have got less than a third of the links that i had on one page.
looks like a kid designed it with a bunch of crayons.

you really should have paid someone to design ats.

reply to post by FortAnthem

I would like to see ATS employ Linear and Threaded modes...
...so it is easy to follow discussions within the thread...
...or easily locate specific poster (including myself)...
...to easily locate and address specific responces to posts.

Another forum I regularly contribute to uses vbulletin www.vbulletin.com... software...
...which allows uses to switch between Linear, Threaded and a Hybrid mode...
...this ability is awesome and allows for focused debate on issues raised within the thread.

I think this ability would make ATS even more rebust for focused discussion than it already is.

See CARM forums for an example of this software in use forums.carm.org...

I'd like to see a history forum.

It's an important subject and we have philosophy, religion, science etc, but no history?

Hi, I just linked here from the thread asking for a Mars Planetary forum. I agree as some of the best works on the forum imho have been the ones bringing forth information way ahead of the msm on Mars.

Seems with all the newer info on Mars it is going to become the hot topic very soon as they discover or announce life has or is on Mars. Is this the big disclosure many have mistaken as Alien/UFO disclosure on earth? It will be the first steps most likely to set peoples vision a bit wider on the subject, yet not so close it becomes a threat to them personally.

I would like to see a forum just for mothers,caregivers,history,education.

reply to post by antar


Although I agree that Mars is a fascinating subject, I don’t think it deserves a forum all its own. However a forum that was for discussions of the planets and their moons might be more appropriate or something along those lines, this way we won’t end up with a separate forum for each planet.

reply to post by AlienCarnage


That sounds reasonable and Exciting!

Originally posted by Ocelot

Online chess and checkers would be a good idea for BTS.

I second that! Well, checkers anyway.

An option to create threads with polls would be cool.

I mean like this:

On the MyATS page is it possible to have different colours for the titles of forums you have added to your favourites?

It's just you have to scroll down and they all look the same and it would just add variety and make stuff quicker.

I don't know...I just don't like the general layout of the page.

Hi!! I would like to see our replies combined with our total post count.I think it only fair because it is a post by us just in the form of a reply.
Have a great day!
Love the new look

Three questions/suggestions.

One

Something that has always bothered me about the way ATS is run, is the handling of posts that "break the rules"; you know, the "off topic posts", the "overly rude posts", etc. Instead of simply fully censoring the post in question, can you make it so that the post isn't displayed by default, but can be viewed (but NOT responded to) by clicking a link?

I think the current censoring policy is counter-productive to everything this site is supposed to be about, and I think the ability to be relatively transparent (by toggling the visibility of the problem post), would improve your standing in the eyes of those that see this place going downhill.

If this feature is already implemented, forgive me for overlooking it.

Two

Also, will a true WYSIWYG interface ever be implemented? One where you don't have to use Javascript dialogs nor hand coding to format text?

Three

As a tangent to the WYSIWYG question, are there any plans to be able to set your say "default" font family, so that every post you make will automatically be in that font?

I'd like to propose a larger range into the ATS Gear Store. It could be designs, but I would love an ATS Live/ ATS UK and Europe Radio range

Maybe also a development in the mobile site e.g. users being able to see u2us, their 'My ATS..'

I know these aren't probably anywhere on your 'To-do' lists..but just a thought

A return of some visual on avatars differentiating who is on our friends list and who may be on our foes list, and possibly who's friends list we may be on, and who's foes list we members may be on. Perhaps this will be phased back in, and I'm just not up to par with current info.

Thanks,
ET

reply to post by Esoteric Teacher

A return of some visual on avatars differentiating who is on our friends list and who may be on our foes list, and possibly who's friends list we may be on, and who's foes list we members may be on. Perhaps this will be phased back in, and I'm just not up to par with current info. Thanks, ET

I'd like to second the above and add that it would be a nice idea (IMHO) if we received a PM to let us know when we've been added as a friend like we do when we are foe'd.