ATS, What have you done!?

oblvion
Ummm what????

ATS is selling out to corporate interests in the name of profits, that is the exact reason for this format change.

The companies financing them said " make it softer and more politically correct" so they over compensated, hoping to gain extra favor from them.

Instead most members do not like it.

You might just get used to it. I'll try and find my original and very rude post to SO about how much I hated it. (this was way back when it first showed up).. Since then I have grown to like it and was very disappointed in many peoples attitudes towards the site. You are calling the site a sell out for changing the look, not the content. If the content doesn't change then who is really selling out here? Sounds like you have sold out your emotions to colors on a screen.. Hahaha P

They are going to alienate their primary source of income, because of promises of money from their corporate sponsors, in stead of following their golden goose.

How do you not see this???

It is what is called "selling out" and I will not watch it happen without speaking out against it.

How are they both selling out and losing all their profits? You do need to pick one of the two. It most certainly cannot be both.

By the way for people with slower computers/internet download speed, this new site is faster. I like how it doesn't refresh a million times like when I star posts.

you may hate me for liking it, but I won't hate you back.



BTW any members with questions can message me and I'll answer whatever. I've been using this format for a while now. Have you checked out the uploads?

SkepticOverlord

oblvion
Which is why SO specifically responded to all but those points of my post he replied to.

You're speaking nonsense for which you have no basis, that's why I didn't feel your silly crap worthy of a response.



Sellout. Please.

Which is why you "temp post ban/perma ban" members right?

So you can claim a much higher member rate than is the actual facts?

Or deny anyone the ability to quit the site, thus keeping your membership high, though it is less than a few thousand "actual" members.

It is all in the name of claiming a higher portion for profits...

You are and have been a sell out for years now.

Otherwise simply "ban" members for good and clean the books up.

What is the number of "temp post ban/perma ban" members on the books?

I bet it is in the tens of thousands.

I know of at least 100 myself, that are " temp post banned, that is never resolved"

Either relieve their "temp post bans" or "ban and delete them"

Otherwise the entire net is wise to your crap, only idiot board room trolls are buying it.

Dustytoad
By the way for people with slower computers/internet download speed, this new site is faster. I like how it doesn't refresh a million times like when I star posts.

I've been using Browserstack to test on OS/browser combinations I don't have, and even very large pages, like thread pages, get the "HQ" score for load speed, which is their fastest/highest score.

In most cases, the "payload" of the average ATS page is 20% of what it used to be.

oblvion
So you can claim a much higher member rate

I don't recall "touting" member enrollment anywhere in the past several years.

Or deny anyone the ability to quit the site

Nothing of the sort happens.

It is all in the name of claiming a higher portion for profits...

How is member count translatable to profits? Some new voodoo economics I've not aware of?

You are and have been a sell out for years now.

And you are a government shill sent to piss on the ATS carpet.

Otherwise simply "ban" members for good and clean the books up.

Banned members are part of the total.

I know of at least 100 myself, that are " temp post banned, that is never resolved"

Good for you. Do you all meet at Waffle House to complain about us?

oblvion


I know of at least 100 myself, that are " temp post banned, that is never resolved"

Either relieve their "temp post bans" or "ban and delete them"

you know of 100 temp post banned members and you have less than that many posts? You must have been one of the banned members then heh?

What was your old account?

Or you have been here 13 days and hang around all the screw ups who get banned somehow finding 100 of them in 70 posts.

you are funny.

reply to post by Just Chris


Hey Just Chris. Come on over to the Avatar Creations thread and someone will help you adjust your background to fit with the new environment.

Just click on my sig... Operators are standing by.

The new design is way better. A couple of hours into it and I know my way around quite well. Posting is easier. No gradients. A lot faster. Better looking. More intuitive. Better typography/ easier to read. Works great on mobile for when I'm on the bus.

Who cares about the emoticons? Are we 13 year old girls?

Dustytoad

oblvion


I know of at least 100 myself, that are " temp post banned, that is never resolved"

Either relieve their "temp post bans" or "ban and delete them"

you know of 100 temp post banned members and you have less than that many posts? You must have been one of the banned members then heh?

What was your old account?

Or you have been here 13 days and hang around all the screw ups who get banned somehow finding 100 of them in 70 posts.

you are funny.

Nope been hanging around for awhile, never too steady, mostly here and there. Just made an account in response to a couple of threads I couldnt not respond to.

The mods and SO have the IPs and physical addresses.

They know I am not a usual.

I am just responding in kind to the obviousness of what I see happening to what was at one point one of my main points of truth on the nets.

This one is now obviously much demonished!

So SO what was the price of your soul?

A couple million? A couple tens of millions?

I bet the original founder of this site would be quite proud of you guys, oh wait...that is why he left isnt it?

reply to post by oblvion

oblvion

Which is why SO specifically responded to all but those points of my post he replied to.

You're lucky he responded to any of your so-called points. It's obvious that you don't really care what the responses actually are. Your mind is made up.

My first reply to you was to guide you towards the answer to your question. SO did the same, by telling you another place where you could find that answer.

I apologize for actually thinking that you asked a question, because you wanted to find the answer. Had I realized that the only purpose for the question was to lead into your whining, I would not have bothered with trying to help..... My Bad.

What exactly is it that you expect to accomplish with your repeated whining in this thread? Aside from getting yourself all worked up about it, you're not actually going to accomplish anything.





The reason for the change is irrelevant. There really are only 3 options

Deal with it.

Attempt to offer feedback that might be useful.

Move on and go elsewhere

The choice is yours.

NiNjABackflip
The new design is way better. A couple of hours into it and I know my way around quite well. Posting is easier. No gradients. A lot faster. Better looking. More intuitive. Better typography/ easier to read. Works great on mobile for when I'm on the bus.

That's been the general feedback (with need for tweaks) from our staff who first played with it, our member beta testers who pounded on it, and many of the comments I received during open testing.

My heart and soul went into this. My passion is ATS.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Well, I apologize for my tastes being very different from yours. The thing I miss most is the animated smilies. Now they look like rough caricatures that were intended to be cheap and quick. At least the website works period.

Is this a WordPress or Joomla theme that's been customized? Or did you guys build this from the ground up? As a website designer I can see a lot of benefits with the new layout vs the old. I think the coloring is fine as too much color junks up the site. Less color in the background and boxes allows for ATS to make the site easier to navigate by using bright colors for things that matter instead of just eye candy.

Where did you guys find the sticky menu, btw? Also, I would suggest building the search box directly into the top right menu position as a searchable box instead of have an icon that has to be clicked. All in all, I think once members get used to the new site, they'll like it. Change is always a shock.

reply to post by OptimusCrime


100% rolled on our own. It's a full HTML5/CSS3 execution... sticky menu also our concoction.

Also... no pansy-arsed SSaS or LeSS with the styles... and no stock grid system.

I would like to know what credentials "oblivion" has and what research he has done to formulate this notion that ATS is worse off and that members generally "dislike" the new design. With every change is growing pains, but what about change gives you the impression of ATS "selling out?"

Really, I wasn't even here until a few days ago and I was even aware of the change. I think the layout is extremely modern. I don't agree about the kiddy approach and I don't agree that the site is over-simplified. I think it's simple to the point that navigation is overall simplified and that safe for a few bugs is perfectly sound. My opinion anyway, obviously not others - but I don't get why people feel the need to say "everyone/most people don't like it." Did you survey all 250,000+ members? Did you speak up in the beat testing announcement threads?

Just Chris
Seriously guys, is this some kind of Beta test gone wrong? Surely the top dogs didn't approve the new format (design aside).

I presume this new design is probably more mobile 'user' friendly but it does look rather bland and stripped back at the moment....And the smiley faces over there ---> WTF!

I agree the new emoticons really suck!

I think the avatar section and this block that is displaying my comment right now looks quite good but the rest of the surrounding site is horrible.

Overall I don't think its much of an improvement at all

This look is totally incorrect for ATS because it makes the site look like its for children and not hard headed deep discussion of cutting edge stuff.

Sorry its just a bizarre choice and I hope it was free because I'd hate to be the one that paid for it!

Its also broken...When you do a reply the number counter fails to work, it sits stuck at 7500 unless you need to edit like I do and then it kicks in.

And to be honest, the dark version borders on racial as if you look at the smilies when doing a post they look like the old Black & White Minstrels or Golliwogs.

Hardly a good choice...

reply to post by Mclaneinc


Every new piece of software will have its bugs. Every piece of software ever has had its bugs. It does not make the software or site of any less quality. The bug you are referring to has been reported already and you had months to voice your feedback on the forums.

I happen to agree that this format really sucks.

It's like regressing back to a stone age kindergarten.

"If it works, don't fix it".

Mclaneinc
This look is totally incorrect for ATS because it makes the site look like its for children and not hard headed deep discussion of cutting edge stuff.

Well... often times managing/moderating ATS does indeed feel like being a kindergarten hall monitor.

I've seen lots of sites targeted at kids, and have written/illustrated/coded award winning children's CD-ROM story books (back in the day), but none of it looks like this.

Sorry its just a bizarre choice and I hope it was free because I'd hate to be the one that paid for it!

I spent about 7 months, the last three being the most-intensive, creating it as a custom solution. The new design is starting to get high praise from other sites. Comments on a site specific to admins of discussion boards have called the new ATS the best discussion board platform of 2013.

Its also broken...When you do a reply the number counter fails to work, it sits stuck at 7500 unless you need to edit like I do and then it kicks in.

Reported and discussed. There have been complaints (since the old ATS.2010) that the reply/post form occasionally has very-slow typing response. This is a test to see if the counter is the cause.

And to be honest, the dark version borders on racial as if you look at the smilies when doing a post they look like the old Black & White Minstrels or Golliwogs.

Blue in the dark version, orange in the light version --- yeah, overtly racial. (@@)

Elentarri
"If it works, don't fix it".

It was broke, and needed to be fixed... and has been discussed for months.


The rationale...
Open Member Testing: ATS.5/3 Final Release Candidate

What you are testing is not "change for the sake of change." Two massively important factors have been the driving force behind such a significant re-think of what a discussion board platform should be.

1) While the number of in-bound new users (roughly 85% of all daily traffic) has remained relatively flat, the user-engagement (content/thread pages viewed) has been falling off for months.

2) Across the Internet, nearly all discussion boards are experiencing a very similar phenomena. The decline in engagement is seen everywhere, even in large long-established video game forums.

The reason, is relatively simple: the audience has changed. The percentage of people comfortable with the rigid/tight discussion board format is decreasing, while the percentage of people accustomed to the more open sensibilities of contemporary flat design is increasing. It's a clearly quantified (and has been) fact of life for online operators.

The preview...
ATS.5/3 Preview Video: see the big changes coming soon to ATS!

Great design is more about reduction than anything else. What we're striving to do is to reduce the site "chrome" to the essence of what's needed, and places focus on member content in the best possible way.

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

Also, with our new approach at a modern CSS3/HTML5 web app execution, all of those screen shots combined use only two image files -- we're greatly reducing the "weight" of ATS pages for faster loading, especially on mobile devices.

As the daunting task of propagating the new clean user experience into deeper pages such as threads, I need to know how much of ATS legacy features will break your heart if we loose or otherwise alter them. These include:

Not only have we involved our members, every step of the way, we've also explained the reasons in exceptional detail.