Above Top Secret Closed Down?

Num7

Num7

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I noticed a couple of days ago that ATS isn't online anymore.

The home page has CloudFlare display a previous snapshot dating back from Jan. 5, 2025. If you force it to reload, you get a 'Page not found' error.

Does anyone know what happened? Did they announce they were closing down at some point? I couldn't find anything...


1736956679765.webp
 
I heard that AboveTopSecret.com was purchased by someone or some group a few years back. I haven’t visited in a while, but it’s framework has been on the decline for quite some time.

If I remember correctly, their core software ran on Xtreme Message Board (XMB) [this would have been back in 2008 or so], but their instance was heavily modified and layered with a custom CMS of some kind.

XMB Forum Software

Forum Software Scripts from XMB2 using PHP and MySQL, translations, themes, modifications, and general support.
www.xmbforum2.com

It might have changed over the years, but old software like that is notoriously hard to keep functional once you fork it that much. PHP versions get deprecated, security vulnerabilities pile up and keeping outdated systems alive becomes an uphill battle. I don’t know the exact reason it went offline but if I had to guess it likely boiled down to the site becoming too brittle and expensive to maintain.

A shame they couldn’t modernize it or transition to something newer. Or at least say why. A site like that has such a rich history, would’ve been great to see it preserved. Maybe it'll come back.

Edit: The best I can recollect is it changed hands post 2021 at some point. There was never an official announcement, but I recall seeing quite a few threads and comments about how the management of the site "felt different", changes to ads (or removal, I can't remember). Stuff like that.
 

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My gut says all that user data probably ended up with some marketing agency. Now it’ll be used to sell Alex Jones' Ultimate Sea Moss or something.
 
Yeah, with their X link pointing to this unexpected crypto account, God only knows who took over ATS and its data... Was it sold? Was it hacked? Oh well...
 
Cool, they're back! I wonder what happened. I looked at their recent threads and couldn't notice anything special that would explain the downtime.
 

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