Creating a cleaner and faster AboveTopSecret.com -- member input requested.

Cleaner and faster is easy. Just get rid of all the streamed advertising.

Less bandwidth for each page to deal with. Er.. I know you guys want those ads to make money on but this would help.. hey I'm just the messenger

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
Would a better option, for those who use it, be to display new activity in your favorite forums in a list-view similar to that of recent posts?

That could work......and if it makes for a better ATS....I "could" live without myATS....sooner than losing background images....

And that new page could replace myATS as my "home page"??
Would there still be a list to subscribed pages?

Also, one thing I never use...and only have to empty it one at a time now and then...is REPLIES in Private Messages.......:

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Whatever it is that makes ATS appear dark w/light text, please keep it. And I dont know what it is because it's the same on all my devices regardless of being logged in to the site.

I dislike the auto sizing of threads like a newspaper. I dont need "headlines" trying to compete in an importance contest..... Thus, i like listviews, & if the myFavorites were to be a list thatd be welcome.

Signatures? Ok, rather keep em than profile avatar things. Not sure what those do to functionality as I font have em turned onanyway.

In short, please let whatever customization options for display be set-it-&-forget-it. Like I enjoy now!

P.s. the icon changes are fine... & it's time to move "Japan" off the top.

Thanks for asking!

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


i just wanted to add a bit about profile images and avatars and how important a role they play, which i just fully realized.

i just read THIS thread, and now realize how important individualized and customized avatars are (at least to me). it would sadden me to see the thread format here devolve into something that resembles other sites (glp) where the conversation is a mesh of ideas and comments that takes more time to figure who said what than it does to read the actual thread.

just wanted to express my potential sadness if that were to become the norm here....

Not sure if has been said, but the new topics updating could use some adjustment. Although, The new topics tab should be kept.

Maybe you could have two columns, one of the newest threads, one of the highest rated. Have an option to be able to see more than 5 or 6 in the rows. People would then people able to see more whats going on. and only allow a certain amount of the same topic in the highest rated. It would increase the connection between the groups of people on the site.

It really depends if you want people to be coming for the highest rated, or the more relevant; This is an alternative news source, and maybe you see it different, but anyone can paint a pretty picture and get some stars, you know? What about the people who don't get invested in their topics because they're not important, just highest rated.

My input is, the new site is looking good and the new topics could use a little tweaking.

Alright, that previous post of mine was bad for morale.

Just have fun, we'll adapt.

The only thing that I could think to add to this thread is an idea that crossed my mind while playing around with a couple of members.

One of the members thought it would be neato to take the 'Illuminati' cards from the card game and use them as flags for a custom Google Earth map tour. I put one together very quickly and was very surprised at how cool it came out. Each card marked the geographical location of the incident discussed on the card, along with a summary and links. You click on the crad icon and it takes you there ala Google-Earth.

Seems to me that it was a powerful tool to add to the UGC tool-box.

Now, of course, that means that ATS would have to be able to handle those GE files, I forget their extension at the moment.

Would it be possible to bring that to ATS? As something members could provide? Maps make everything better.

Also, some sites out there seem to allow users to post a 'thin' version of YouTube videos; just the 'bar' is visible and not the whole deal with the screen image. It makes for sleeker threading and allows all of the UGC elements built in to a thread look smoother and more elegant, as though it all belongs together, instead of the vids looking like big ugly punctuation.

Thems my idears.