## ATS 2003 --- WHAT A YEAR!!! ##

Well, here we are, the end of another year, 2003. Most of our current active members were not posting this time last year, and have only heard dim rumors of the ATS of months gone by. Well, as in the tradition of nearly every other type of media, it's time for a end-of-year recap. 2003. The year in threads! Our tribute to the biggest year ever for ATS. And what a year it was. In the "real world" we saw a country continue to be divided over a president that everyone either loves or hates, and no one is impartial. The war on terrorism hit Iraq hard as the coalition of the willing pummeled the country into a state of insurgent-submission and found the multibillionaire ruler cowering in a hole in the ground. This combined with the usual political chaos, terror alerts, lies, corruption, scandals, and rumors made 2003 an excellent year for the paranoid conspiracy theorists. And here in the "ATS world", we had our own dramas play out in ways that often rivaled the events of the real world. We had all manner of hackers attempting to peck away at the outer perimeter defenses of ATS, and some were able to get through and cause various levels of mischief. We grew at a tantalizingly fast pace as we went through two rounds of technology upgrades and bandwidth improvements. The growing pains of that growth were exacerbated by our newfound attention as more and more lunatics from the wild came to ATS. One notorious character literally threw our community into chaos for weeks as they posted cryptic warnings and played games with the board database. As a result, at least one staff member entered into a bitter struggle with ATS senior staff over the handling of the event, and left in an unfortunately ugly way. On the lighter side, a grand April Fool's joke here at ATS pulled a famous prank on all members. A beloved member, ultra_phoenix didn't get to be Presidente, but is now on staff. Member blogs are thriving, and a new site was spun off from ATS, BelowTopSecret.com, to better accommodate off-topic discussion. Yes, what a year it was! Have a look at our 2003 summary page ( www.abovetopsecret.com... ) for some fond memories or eye-popping history lessons. It's all there, from the ugliest dramas to our most shinning moments as an important voice in the Internet wilderness. At any time, use the 2003 link in the board menu bar at the top to jump to our 2003 summary page. Thank you to all our members for making 2003 the year ATS broke out and become a force. If there are favorite threads of yours that aren't on the list, post it here and make the case for inclusion. In any event, feel free to use this thread to discuss 2003 on ATS. [Edited on 30-12-2003 by SkepticOverlord]

I'm all happy now i've got 2 nods!

Its been a fun year, i hope 2004 will be as good!

All the best!

woo. the adopt a new member thread made the list! since we're on the subject, head on over to the thread and adopt/be adopted!

It was a great year. Lost of News to talk about. Just as many conspiracies. Lots of controversy on ATS. 2004 will be even beter.

Glad to be a part of it!

But 2004 (particularly events around April) will blow your socks off!

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
Glad to be a part of it!

But 2004 (particularly events around April) will blow your socks off!

April? Why April if you dont mind me asking?

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
But 2004 (particularly events around April) will blow your socks off!

I am curious too.



William...

Error on page of Other Interesting Threads...

Win 10000 points- who is simon gray

and the link immediatly following...


BOTH link to the same thread !

[Edited on 30-12-2003 by smirkley]

1. I made a prediction in the predictions forum.

2. In an unrelated area, I plead the fifth, and private insider knowledge.

My predictions have been OK to date. I liked being an hour off the time for the 200,000th post after all the spreadsheet modelling and linear regression analysis I did to come up with that one. LOL. 20,000 ATS points earned woohoo. I will have one drink to remember that at New Years this evening.

Happy New Year folks.





[Edited on 30-12-2003 by MaskedAvatar]

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
1. I made a prediction in the predictions forum.

2. In an unrelated area, I plead the fifth, and private insider knowledge.

[Edited on 30-12-2003 by MaskedAvatar]

Oh great well that explains it.

Ahh yes ... 20,000 points....I remember it well.

Originally posted by smirkley
Ahh yes ... 20,000 points....I remember it well.

I have promised you an item of your choice from the ATS store when I figure a way of spending points in gift form.

I would like to just say thank you for being here.
ATS has opened my mind to so much that I hadn't even thought about before.
I am really learning through being here.
And thank you to all members that have posted such informative and sometimes lighthearted comments that have made me laugh out loud on many occasions.
This is without doubt the best that I have come across on the web, and I find my self more and more quoting things that I have read here.
Each and every member should be proud to be a part of it, I know I am.

When you look at our 2003 summary page, and have nothing much to do for oh... say 4-5 hours, click on the months to go to an additional page that ranks the top threads of each month (with more than 40 replies) by the number of replies. It's a very interesting history lesson to look back to April, 2003 and see what was the most active threads. How else will we know where we're going, unless we know where we've been?

When Valhall (my GORGIOUS 105lb WIFE! ) found this site and told me about it in June, 2003 I was non-plussed. It SEEMED just another collection of clap trap.

Then I got into it with FreeMason over Diamonds and I was HOOKED!

Hell, I drove back to the Dallas house that night and simply HAD to see what was said in that thread! Soon as I got the Suburban unloaded I was online...

This site has grown at exponential speed and I have to say that William, inspite of his inate ability to rile the # out of folks, has done an OUTSTANDING job of getting the needed technology and fighting off the trolls all at once.

The members here, by and large, are intelligent and INTENSE, I think that's what turns me on the most. I simply LOVE intense people. Shy, boring, non-risk takers leave me wanting. INTENSE, passionate, thinking Human Beings are who I like to hang with!

ATS has it "going on" at a level WAY ABOVE any other site I have seen.

Here's to 2004!

PEACE...
m...

[Edited on 12-30-2003 by Springer]

I know, MA, it's going to be a VERY important month.

It'll be **MY** ATS birfday.

or were you talking about something else???

Originally posted by Springer and INTENSE, I think that's what turns me on the most.

S-man... were you here 4/1/2003 to experience the epic April Fool's joke played on the membership by forum staff? I doubt we'd do something like that again... but it was an epic prank... right up there with "The Mercury Theatre on the Air"... well... maybe close.

i think if you pull something like that again william, you'll lose every member that was here for the first one

Originally posted by KKing123
i think if you pull something like that again william, you'll lose every member that was here for the first one [/quote

Indeed, i was going to pull a halloween prank but was warned off, so i think we wont have anymore of those.

It has been one heck of a year! My life would not be the same if I had not accidentally found ATS nearly 10 months ago. Thank you, thank you, thank you Simon and William

Thank you to all the members that rolled their eyes and tolerated my unusual posts..(being that they were mostly non-conspiracy related) Thank you to all the members that enjoyed my posts I have learned a great deal and progressed *in my own mind* since I joined here.

One day *soon* maybe I'll share the greatest reward ATS has given me..for now though I'm just looking forward to the new year and especially the time around my 1 year anniversary here, which also happens to be around my 31st birthday

There are NO words that can even begin express how important ATS has been to me! Thanks for all the knowledge fellow ATSers
Magestica

I've really enjoyed looking back over the years posts. Although they were all already there, the 2003 review made it nice and easy to view the more prominent threads.

Big thanks to the ATS Admin for doing such a sterling job over the years.

ps - would it be a silly question to ask who ended up winning the Jarrod vs IronDragon debate?!?