'Landing Area' another ATS hopeful

[sailorsam]

just got a link to site called 'The Landing Area'

several ATS alumni working it

https://landing-area.com/community/?loggedout=true

[F2d5thCav]

Ha!  I wondered where Zaphod ended up.

Now I just gotta find Dashen.

[ChiefD]

Yep, I'm one of them.

[sailorsam]

Rogue is still my #1 site

[Freija]

I signed up but fear the backend chosen to run the site, a plug-in for Wordpress, will not be sustainable or offer the technical features of traditional forum software.

I'll give it a chance but will continue to call this joint home.

[Ninurta]

I signed up there, and have the same misgivings about the choice of WordPress, but then I have a bad history with WordPress, and so may not be as objective as one would hope.

BIAD and I were once both participants in a WordPress blog, along with ATS member DCMB1490, that came under attack not by any government entity, but by a lunatic fringe group that was organized and led from South Africa, with the participation of a South African expat then living in Germany. They first tried to spam us out of existence, and when that dismally, utterly, and completely failed, they started a letter-writing campaign to WordPress that ultimately got the blog censored and taken down. I managed to retrieve and save all of the blog posts and pages before WordPress censored us, but the very fact that WordPress could even do so left a really bad taste. That's a factor in my strong stance against censorship to this very day.

DCMB1490 has since passed on, about 13 years ago, but the blog posts still live on on a portable hard drive I still have.

I found it odd that the Landing Area site automatically pulled an actual old photograph of me from somewhere on the internet to use as my avatar, but I changed it to something more recent.

Regardless of all of that, I think that it's a good thing. I feel that decentralization of these sorts of discussion sites can't be a bad thing, in case they come under fire. In that event, there is no single "head" for the opposition to take out. While "they" might be working on the elimination of a single site, there are always many more to fall back and regroup to so that the network is never truly eliminated... and that can't be  a bad thing, any whicha way one cuts it.

The more the merrier!

.

[GRIZZ0317]

I signed up as well, still going to be spending most of my time here, but definitely hope it will be a success.

[BIAD]

I found it odd that the Landing Area site automatically pulled an actual old photograph
of me from somewhere on the internet to use as my avatar, but I changed it to something
more recent...

That is strange, although I know very little on how the internet works.

[727Sky]

I got an invite email but have not signed up... 

I remember when just mentioning another site could get you banned even if it was in a email at ATS as evidently TPTB read your ATS U2U emails..  What a bunch of insecure idiots that did that to people IMO ..

[BIAD]

I found it odd that the Landing Area site automatically pulled an actual old photograph of me from somewhere on the internet to use as my avatar, but I changed it to something more recent....

Re that comment, I noticed in one of the posts on the archived RN website where 'The Hoax Heard 'Round
The World' story is discussed that you mentioned:
"...On page 300, there is a photo of me in my younger days, in uniform and on the job.
I included it in order to prove my authorship later, if that should ever come into question,
and I still have the original photo, complete with metadata, for comparison..."
I'm wondering if The Landing Area acquired that image from there?


I've heard it said that everything floats to the surface eventually. So take a look at this...
Profile: Dr. Judy Faltskog

[AdmireTheDistance]

I fell asleep reading threads on ATS for well over a decade, so having the remnants of that scattered to the winds across multiple sites isn't ideal for my personal usage, but is probably better for continuity in the long run; We'll probably never have something as centralized and comprehensive as ATS again. 

Right now I'm bouncing between here, DI, landing area, and reading stuff on the old RN3 site. 
It is what it is. One of these days I'll start contributing again but right now I'm just happy to still be able to chat with and read the thoughts of many old Internet friends, wherever they may be.

[SomeJackleg]

no thank you i'm fine with being a rogue only. maybe we should call all the new sites. the wannabe sites thou shalt not be  named

[Chiefsmom]

I got an invite email but have not signed up... 

I remember when just mentioning another site could get you banned even if it was in a email at ATS as evidently TPTB read your ATS U2U emails..  What a bunch of insecure idiots that did that to people IMO ..

LOL  Exactly why I got banned from DI, but it was the PM's.

I'm over there, as well as Cypher and probably a few more that I don't remember from way back.
I do just miss the rapid thread making and ease of finding the "Breaking News"  on ATS.  Heck, I can't find it that fast on X.  LOL

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

Let us not forget Hernando's Hideaway, a ghost town I sometimes haunt while drinking beer. ChiefsMom would know this.

https://hernandoshideaway.boards.net/

I just logged in and left a fresh message in the public chat area. And No I'm not drunk yet, still on vitamin C, Coffee.

[Ninurta]

no thank you i'm fine with being a rogue only. maybe we should call all the new sites. the wannabe sites thou shalt not be  named

No.

Let me give you a not-so-hypothetical. Suppose RN goes down. Folks try to get on, no dice. We're working in the back end to fix it, but it turns out to be a really sticky problem. How are we gonna get the word out about what is going on, and what is being done to fix it?

Having sister sites on friendly terms would really be a help in that situation. Somewhere folks can go to get updates and whatnot, rather than just having to sit in the dark.

Furthermore, not all "conspiracy" sites are going to have the same concentrations. I think it's good to be able to see all different viewpoints on a variety of subjects, some of which not all sites are going to cover due to varying member interests.

And then there is the "strength in numbers" argument. More sites equates to more targets for the opposition to have to ferret out to shoot 'em down... and while they're hunting, more can always be springing up. Decentralization, the absence of any one "snake head" to take out to collapse a network, is a GOOD thing.

For those reasons and more, mention of other sites is not going to be censored here at RN. We are not at war with them. We may currently be the "elder brother", but that doesn't make us "superior", it just makes us different. And older. And, where I came from, it's usually the responsibility of the older brothers to look out for the younger ones. I know that at a gut level because I am the oldest brother in my family. It has paid off over time - when I've fallen so hard that I can't get myself back up, my siblings have always been there to help. And yeah, that has actually happened in the Real World.

It's just a part of my upbringings I reckon. I recognize no superiors, but neither do I think I AM the "superior". Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and a wider network allows the weaknesses in one site to be covered by strengths in another.

I believe that working together is the way to go, rather than wasting time and energy on animosities that are, really, just artificial. I'll let the snooty, nose in the air attitude remain on the "paid" or "advertisement-laden" site, the sites where folks are in it for the money. They have a vested interest in tying down their membership, because wanderers mean less money for them. We are not one of those sites. We are member-supported so we can maintain our independence from the whims of censorial advertisers... so we really have no vested interest in locking our members up in some kind of electronic prison.

.

[Ninurta]

I found it odd that the Landing Area site automatically pulled an actual old photograph of me from somewhere on the internet to use as my avatar, but I changed it to something more recent....

Re that comment, I noticed in one of the posts on the archived RN website where 'The Hoax Heard 'Round
The World' story is discussed that you mentioned:
"...On page 300, there is a photo of me in my younger days, in uniform and on the job.
I included it in order to prove my authorship later, if that should ever come into question,
and I still have the original photo, complete with metadata, for comparison..."
I'm wondering if The Landing Area acquired that image from there?


I've heard it said that everything floats to the surface eventually. So take a look at this...
Profile: Dr. Judy Faltskog

No, it was a different photo. The one in the book is from 2002 I think, when I was sent out to secure an area in eastern North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Isabelle. The one pulled as an avatar was from around 2010, where I was out of uniform and had longer hair and a beard.

Interesting that Judy's site is still there. That particular CV is quoted verbatim in the book, but I think it came from a site that she scrubbed during the beginnings of the hoax. Also, right now she would be about 60 years old, and the woman in that photo is not 60. So I'd guess it might be a revival of a former site she had.

I would say it's definitely "our" Judy, though - I can see Jimmy's eyes in hers, just a few years older and with more flesh put on.

.

[BIAD]

...Interesting that Judy's site is still there. That particular CV is quoted verbatim in the book, but I think it came from a site that she scrubbed during the beginnings of the hoax. Also, right now she would be about 60 years old, and the woman in that photo is not 60. So I'd guess it might be a revival of a former site she had.

I would say it's definitely "our" Judy, though - I can see Jimmy's eyes in hers, just a few years older and with more flesh put on.

Thanks for the photo explanation.

Yep, it's him. I took a wander along the internet and it seems the only references are just re-ploughings of
the ATS days, some interactions from ago where those who tried to deal a straight game with Judy became
aware it was all just a con and that her/his buddy Wayne is still hustling for a cult status!