ATS 2010 Updates Thread - #(UPDATE Nov. 10)#

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I hope those changes include myATS going back to the new version. I liked it much!!

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I am always in awe of the fact that you are so willing to consider member feedback.

Thank you, and much much respect!

Originally posted by KingKongBongoBong
reply to post by greeneyedleo

 

REMINDER: This thread is NOT to complain about banned members! Keep to the topic: ATS 2010 Updates

With all due respect, we are talking about updates. An update which I think is highly disrespectful. You should have read my post, before removing it

Member list can be found under MEMBER TOOLS, ACCOUNT SETTINGS and its on the left side menu.

I know that. But I recall when I used to be a visitor, there was a function to visit the members list. That is no longer accessible as a visitor.

edit on 14-9-2010 by KingKongBongoBong because: (no reason given)

Now you are a member and you can now visit the member list. Not really sure what the issue is.
We do not discuss the status of members nor is that the topic of this thread.
Thank you.

reply to post by greeneyedleo


The issue was the 2010 change to the member search results and why it was changed to filter certain things, not really about anyone's status.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by Common Good

 

I get where your coming from.

From a business standpiont however, there are far more visitors than members, even far less of those members who are posting. I think the percentage is just a tad above 50.

Now, MOST of the new aditions to ATS, believe it or not, were member suggestions from various different threads. Lets remember this change is not only for us, but for ATS' visibility among the mainstream internet.

According to what I've been told by little blue birds, ATS is trying to become the first independant Main Stream HONEST media firm.

Unfortunetly there's some conformity required in order to attain those goals. Also from the business standpoint, the money coming to ATS via ads is mostly due to the ammount of visitors we have.

Bill showed us ( early in this thread) some of the stats for non members, right down to how many pages they went through and how long they stayed on the site with different pages etc..

The results were astounding, minor changes ( that we don't like) are making incredible differences in the level of daily traffic at ATS.

I do understand how we might feel like we are getting the short end of the stick, but I'm sure that once ATS is fully layed out, that they will start refining the process, making things even better.

So just sit back and wait, the Staff have ALWAYS since I've been here made changes on things that WE vocalized were not good. Afterall we the contributors are the only ones who they can get feedback from. ( other than the statistical side I mentioned earlier)

I have my issues with some of the design, as we all do, but I am optimistic that they will fix those things. I work in IT, and something like this is a ridiculous endeavor, it's not going to be perfect right off the bat.

The old ATS took almost 10 years to get to the point it was, I don't think it will take nearly as long for 2010 to be like that, but some time I would assume.

Just my thoughts.

~Keeper

edit on 9/13/2010 by tothetenthpower because: I can't type today

"According to what I've been told by little blue birds, ATS is trying to become the first independant Main Stream HONEST media firm."

Thats just it, its going too mainstream. Its becomming a joke. There is no such thing as an HONEST mainstream media firm. They all eventually end up being corporate sell outs who bow down to advertisers instead of giving the people who actually made the site what it is the time of day.
MEMBERS made this site so successful, NOT advertisers, and NOT Analytical graphs comprised of unfounded opnions of a site that they havent even had the oppotunity to to get their hands into.
Nobody knows what ATS is REALLY about until they sign up and start digging around, making friends-foes, and like minded and not so like minded individuals who share different perspectives. New members cant give the appropriate feedback to a site that they have not had the privelege to delve into. They cant point out whats great and whats not if they dont have the experiences that members have.
Instead, ATS is going off of the words of passer bys and advertisers who could give a damn about the content and more about the money that it brings in. This is why ATS has gone downhill. How many advertisers know about the illuminati and space aliens? Not many. But they do know that they are more than enough people out there that do know about these things so that THEY can make money off them. ATS used to seem like a 'community', now, its turning into something unrecongnizable.


Oh and one more thing- THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TOTHETENTHPOWER and being courteous to my unfavorable opinions- At least someone on this site does and is.

Originally posted by jennybee35
I hope those changes include myATS going back to the new version. I liked it much!!

There are some refinements that include some code originally intended for a separate page. It's easier to test its operating in a live setting, so I had to revert general access to the old version for now.

Stay tuned.

"According to what I've been told by little blue birds, ATS is trying to become the first independant Main Stream HONEST media firm."

Thats just it, its going too mainstream. Its becomming a joke. There is no such thing as an HONEST mainstream media firm. They all eventually end up being corporate sell outs who bow down to advertisers instead of giving the people who actually made the site what it is the time of day.
MEMBERS made this site so successful, NOT advertisers, and NOT Analytical graphs comprised of unfounded opnions of a site that they havent even had the oppotunity to to get their hands into.
Nobody knows what ATS is REALLY about until they sign up and start digging around, making friends-foes, and like minded and not so like minded individuals who share different perspectives. New members cant give the appropriate feedback to a site that they have not had the privelege to delve into. They cant point out whats great and whats not if they dont have the experiences that members have.
Instead, ATS is going off of the words of passer bys and advertisers who could give a damn about the content and more about the money that it brings in. This is why ATS has gone downhill. How many advertisers know about the illuminati and space aliens? Not many. But they do know that they are more than enough people out there that do know about these things so that THEY can make money off them. ATS used to seem like a 'community', now, its turning into something unrecongnizable.


Oh and one more thing- THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TOTHETENTHPOWER and being courteous to my unfavorable opinions- At least someone on this site does and is.

Mate, just what I was trying to say on my post on the last page and I got the party line from one of the mods, lets see how long this post lasts...

SkepticOverlord,
take your time, get it right. i know changes are in progress, and it takes time.

may be temporary, but i'm getting 404 errors for BTS forums and threads right now.

thought i would mention it,
et

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Thanks, SO! I love everything I've seen so far. It looks great and works fine for me.

Originally posted by Common Good
"According to what I've been told by little blue birds, ATS is trying to become the first independant Main Stream HONEST media firm."

The birds don't quite have it right.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Could have fooled me.

Two.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


That's just a very general set of words I used there, not precisely what I think I know .

I remember it from a thread you wrote ( or replied to) about where ATS wanted to be and sort...I think.

That mixed with what I think ATS could achieve over the long run.

I'm probably a bit too optimistic, ohh well.

~Keeper

Originally posted by cupocoffee
reply to post by operation mindcrime

 

It's working for me. That's strange.

Strange indeed!! I know the "ignore" function is gone so it can not be the reason I have not got an answer yet.

Probably I am doing something wrong but I have not changed a d*mn thing on my computer!!! Guess I'll just have to manage with the few threads I still have in "My ATS".

Man, this s*cks. Best check back in a couple of weeks. Maybe it will be solved by then...

Peace

Originally posted by operation mindcrime
Strange indeed!! I know the "ignore" function is gone so it can not be the reason I have not got an answer yet.

There's much to do, and if I stay on top of every post in these threads, nothing would get done.

There was an errant "Forum ID" in an early version of the recent posts page. Try deleting the specific cookie, "todaynegate," from your browser -- that *may* fix the problem as that was the cause of the only other known issue where recent posts were not displaying.

reply to post by Common Good


I get it. I disagree in some aspects, but I certainly see where your coming from.

You're welcome btw.

In any case, good things come to those who wait.

I'm doing just that .

~Keeper

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

S.O.,

Your tip paid off!!! I can once again visit the ATS recent posts once I deleted the cookie from my browser.

There's much to do, and if I stay on top of every post in these threads, nothing would get done.

For what it is worth, I think you guys are doing a great job!!

Peace

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
It is simply from one member's pov that the new layout avails less information per page thus I have to do at least twice as much scrolling to see the same amount I used to.

The design of a human/computer interface and the design of a system to display access to information is much more about the density of information on a given screen. YOU (and many other ATS members) have learned to look at some of our very-dense pages (like the previous recent posts page) and learned what to do next. But an effective interface for accessing content doesn't require learning (unless you're in the midst of change).

What brought us here is that we have two converging data-points in our analytics over the past year...
(1) a diminishing percentage of visitors clicking on threads from pages like "recent posts"
(2) a rapidly increasing percentage of visitors on "pixel-dense" displays

What this tells me (and its generally supported by other research), is that more people with high-resolution monitors are coming to ATS, but that the small fonts (of the ATS pages) on those monitors present a poor interface for finding content.

There's a lot of other data we churned through, and I can assure no design decision was arbitrary or based solely on personal preferences (for example, my first design idea as my personal preference was a white-background site).

We even sought out both well-heeled amateur and professional designers for ideas, and even paid a few. Pretty much across the board, those with extensive experience in information-rich sites were coming to us with much-larger fonts and a minimalist approach at listing links to threads (20 per page). We actually dialed back the recommendations to what you see now.


At first, when I (and some other staff) started using the 2010 site regularly back May/June, it *was* initially difficult to make the transition and it did indeed "feel" like less stuff was on the screen. But I soon discovered it was all easier to read... and read quickly. I can scan the entire page of recent posts much faster and more accurately now -- even with the extra scrolls -- because it's easier to see.



Would you believe that the initial reaction to the color-coded thread titles on the old recent posts was much, much worse than current reaction to the new page?


In summary: There's a reason for every change, and all of it has to do with either finding or creating content more easily. As more people use the new design and user interface, we're certainly going to be making tweaks... we always have.

Originally posted by operation mindcrime
reply to post by SkepticOverlord

 

Sorry S.O.,

It only works temporarily. If I remove my cookies, I can reach the recent posts section. I can reload it and it remains. But as soon as I log on to ATS the Recent Posts section comes up with the same error message.

I have tried Internet Explorer and firefox but both have the same result. It is probably my laptop so I will try a friend's computer later today. Will keep you updated.

Peace

On a side note:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/8412ac6d38ba23ae.bmp[/atsimg]

You have to appreciate the irony in that one!!!

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


But..... but......

In the case of the myATS page, it's not just that the fonts are bigger and there's less information on the screen.

Functionality was removed too.

On the old page, you can see how many Flags each thread has. In a nice, neat, easy to read table format.

On the new page, that's gone. You can still see the number of replies, but not the number of Flags.

That was something that I found extremely useful, being able to see many, many threads all on one page, along with their Flag count; and then choose threads to check out based on the thread title AND the number of Flags.

Now I can understand that it could be somewhat processor-intensive to aggregate the Flag count for every thread like that, maybe that's why you removed it?

But still, it's an extremely useful function to have.

And without it, I will be totally lost! LOST I tell you!! *sob sob*

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Hey SO,

Thanks for putting the old MyATS format back up.

Speaking of which, perhaps ATS could keep that as an option similiar to 'going light'. The way you had MyATS earlier tonight could be the default setting, which you say could help the newer members who aren't used to the density of info, but the older members would still have the option of the switching to the information-dense MyATS page we all know and love. It would give the members the best of both worlds.

What do you think of that idea? Is it feasible?