When will ATS fall into oblivion?

Okay, semi-serious discussion here. Everyone knows the Roman empire crumbled, but in its hey-day no citizen of Rome would probably think openly that the empire would fall one day, but it was inevitable. Nothing lasts forever, except maybe death and taxes, right?

So knowing that all good things must come to an end, how does everyone foresee ATS coming to its end?

Personally I see the site rising to greater successes and then become infiltrated with commercialism in such a way that it becomes sold off to purely corporate interests, then the it will become less than spectacular. Its glory of its older days will be gone and its membership will dwindle to mediocre. Then, as time goes on, these corporations will be sold and certain ownerships will be transfered or discontinued. Someday then ATS will be dropped as not profitable and someone will have to start it all over again.

How will the ship sink someday folks?

ATS will fall the day every single person on the planet denies ignorance. We are a nonstop ignorance denying machine! What greater glory is there? Rome? I think not!

[edit on 19-12-2007 by Scramjet76]

imo, ats will die when everyone (including myself) FINALLY comes to the realiztion that ALL the crap that's discussed here is TOTALLY BEYOND our control. ufos, disinfo agents, illuminati, shapeshifting cobras..all of it. if all that crap really is out there (and YES i believe it is) then..seriously..what in the blue hell could we do about it other than spending mindboggling hours formulating countless theories as to why and how like that exists?

reply to post by LordInfamous


Besides the FOIA project ATS is doing, most of it hasn't done a lot in my opinion. Sure, a lot of people have come here and claimed that many of the topics have opened their eyes, but so far I don't see how it is changing the world in any way. Same old situation it looks like.

Without ATS/BTS where would we be?, What would we do? Seems to me I'd be somewhat lost without this channel. I kinda grew up here.

Dallas

I think Lordinfamous summed it up pretty accurately. I think once people lose hope of being able to do anything other than give diatribes, et cetera, ATS will shut her down.. I think most of us truly still believe, perhaps naively, that we can awaken people enough through our posts to cause some kind of change. Once that hope or belief disperses, ATS will be an afterthought.

reply to post by SpeakerofTruth


ATS will die when the rest of the www. goes down due to pervasive censorship like the type they have in China. Free thinking and the free
exchange of ideas is an anathema to the style of government that has
taken over this once proud land. Expect incredible restrictions placed on the internet within five years. Taxes, invasive registration all in the name of homeland security; when in reality it will be "big brother" style of control.

Originally posted by Dallas
Without ATS/BTS where would we be?, What would we do? Seems to me I'd be somewhat lost without this channel. I kinda grew up here.

Dallas

Well, I kinda thought that myself. I have spent a lot of hours reading threads here, but lately I have found that real projects and activities are more exciting because you can actually say that you've really done something that was for the most part, not just a mental exercise. Sometimes you may even have something to show for it. Now I am not accusing ATSers of being in a virtual world and having no lives, but it is important to at least balance reality with computer time.

Adding to this, it amazes me the number of new members ATS adds daily. When a forum is small, everyone seems to know of the other members and it becomes a cozy place to share thoughts. When the membership becomes so large that to know anyone on a board requires being in a clique' then it is like being in a huge crowded stadium and everyone is trying to shout out their idea for a post hoping that someone reads/hears them. This is why you see many good topics on ATS, but many unfortunately get little response, also the social network factor comes into play where only those in tight circles respond to each others threads (and that changes over time).

Another possibility is that ATS will grow because of marketing, so big that it becomes practically useless to share ideas (because of the crowded stadium theory).

Originally posted by whaaa
reply to post by SpeakerofTruth

 

ATS will die when the rest of the www. goes down due to pervasive censorship like the type they have in China.

But, ATS already has rules in place to censor content so that it gets good placement on search engines. The whole forbidden drug topics is all about that. Yes, there is internet censorship even in the US on search engines. It isn't just happening in China my friend. Sites that the government says are illegal have their DNS blocked here in the US. That is a violation of freedom of speech even if the content is illegal, it is just speech.

In my honest opinion, I do not think that ATS will disappear forever. I do think that there will be a time as to where the amount of traffic will come to a near standstill. If and when a severe traffic decrease where to occur, there will always be something that will happen that would bring the amount of traffic back up. Due to events and the circumstances that can happen from time to time, site traffic may decrease, it may increase. For example, look at the amount of traffic that came here pertaining to events surrounding Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

Websites do die off in some cases, but in ATS's case, I think that the site is here to stay and to stay for as long as it is needed. This site, in my honest opinion, is here to stay.