Why are Mods allowed to star posts more than us regulars?

originally posted by: Bigburgh
a reply to: awareness10

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... 🤐

If this were the case however. They would have removed the MILLION STAR GLITCH😉

I believe TPTB said they DECIDED to not fix the stars because they couldn't decide how to properly determine how many to take away.

There is no technical reason why they couldn't , but I don't know if that is the case?

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
I not talking about the mods, I am talking about life in general,

But this thread is not about life in general, it is about the mods being able to star a post more than once.

But it is, it is all about the pecking order.

originally posted by: grainofsand
Lol I've been spanked loads of times by mods...probably explains why I keep coming back.

You, sir, are a habitual line crosser.

(Probably why you are funny)

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
But it is, it is all about the pecking order.

The 'pecking order'?

The mods have to follow the same rules which I think would be even more stringently applied to them. There are mods who have also been banned.

If there was not some shadowy cabal secretly directing the narrative on ATS. I would be supremely disappointed. I mean, where are our taxes going. If not to shadowy cabals doing shadowy cabal things. Whats the point of visiting a conspiracy site, if some of the mod IP addresses don't lead back to Virginia.

What would be the point. That would just mean we are all talking about subjects not important enough to be manipulated. Even Twitter posts about Kardashian butts are manipulated. Think about that for a second. Twitter tweets about Kardashian butts are manipulated. But we think we are below Kardashian butts on the manipulation scale. That my friends, is the real conspiracy. The apparent lack of self worth ATS members have about themselves and their topics of conversation.

Anyways, I thought only sheeple worry about shiny things like stars and flags. If you are easily swayed by shiny things, should you be discussing conspiracies or should you be reading those tweets about Kardashian butts. Or does it even matter.

In the end. If you are offended or surprised about this possible revelation. Just think of it as a challenge.

Wow......but then I guess I should not be surprised at the amount of hate and venom I'm seeing here.

Do we get paid? NO. NO ONE back here gets paid. All of us staff do this for free, in our spare and free time.

Manipulating ATS: OMG.....that is so funny! Do any of you understand the following?

ATS Staff is made up of a large group of people who come from many different backgrounds, countries, cultures and political leanings.

In other words: No. We do not manipulate ATS except in one very important way: we try and manipulate you all into having civil and polite discussions. Period.

Do we have discussions back here that you all can't see? You betchya!

What do we talk about? You? All of You? How boring. No. We only do that when we are having to discuss alerts and complaints. We don't sit here and discuss members like gossiping old women (or men).

We have our own discussions on politics, world events, current events. Just like you all out here have.

As a mod I get some perks. I get to know what is going on (most of the time). Yah, I know why so-and-so got banned. I get to know why a thread was removed. I get to see how WRONG most of you are about what goes on back here.

I also get to applaud you. That was the very, and I do mean VERY first thing I and other new mods were allowed to do when we first got back here. We got told to go out and applaud people. To encourage discussion. Because that is what our main job is: To facilitate discussion.

But with one had that gives, it also takes away: we no longer get applause. Once you become a mod, you are no longer allowed to receive applause at all.

We also do not get to post as much or create threads as much. There are several reasons for it. A lot of time that it takes to create a decent thread is gone, because instead it is taken up having to moderate all of you.

We also tend to stop because we became mods. It gets thrown in our faces all the time. Rather than debate us on subject points, we instead have "But MOD! You're a MOD!" meaning apparently we are no longer allowed to have an opinion on anything. After awhile, you get tired of having that thrown in your face all the time, so you pretty much just stop posting or creating threads. Why bother? If no one wants to actually discuss things with you and would rather yell at you because you are a mod?

How do I applaud members? I applaud members if I think they did a great job making a post or a thread. I do NOT applaud a thread or post because I "agree" or "side" with it. I have applauded MANY threads and posts that I completely DISAGREE with.
But: if I think the member did a good job or put in a lot of hard work and research into something, I'm going to applaud them. Which is getting harder nowadays because so many of you seem to think an OP should be nothing more than a sentence and a video link.
Applauding that would be like applauding a person that came out to give a speech and all they said was "Hotdog". Do you think they are going to get a standing ovation for that?

Stars and Flags: anyone that bases their opinion or decisions on how many stars and flags a post/thread has, is an idiot in my humble opinion. It means that apparently they can not read and think for themselves. If you are staring or flagging a thread simply because of WHO posted it, again, you're not thinking critically. If you all were that easy to manipulate, then this place would be perfectly calm and no arguments would be had.

If all the mods had the same ideology and agenda, then I could see the possibility of abuse.

But they used to be as human as the rest of us.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

you don't understand, this has nothing to do with ats, it just triggered something in my heart and mind i cannot express

originally posted by: introvert
Really? You guys are just figuring this out?

LOL, But be gentle they appear to be a little faster than the Hillary supporters that still haven't picked up on her corruption.



There are quite a few things I don't like about how things are run on ATS, but I'm not being forced to stick around.

I hope we don't lose Domo over this as that would be disappointing on multiple levels. While the mods can do as they please in regards to the stars and flags, silencing concerns of members might be a little to authoritarian for me.

Plus it appears that we have enough variety of Mods that for all we know, one giveth 1K stars another could come behind and taketh 1K stars.

Although there have been several threads and topics which I have had my suspicions. Looking at you TD Rockstar

I think some of you really need to get a life outside of ATS. You're taking cute little symbols on a internet forum waaaay too seriously.

I don't start threads, but if I did, I wouldn't judge a thread's success based on how many stars it got. I would judge its success based on how many comments it got from other posters. If I could get a lot of people posting on my thread, even if they are arguing with me, it just means I got people thinking about what I wrote - which should be the ultimate goal of any thread - NOT how many stars or flags it got.

But, that's just me. I'm not interested in winning any popularity contests. I'm here to learn, think, debate... and occasionally to laugh, thanks to posters like Augustus Masonicus.

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
you don't understand, this has nothing to do with ats, it just triggered something in my heart and mind i cannot express

You did, however, relate it to the cite. You also said it is about the 'pecking order'. What pecking order?

a reply to: kaylaluv

it's not about ATS, it is about human nature.

I just took it to a deeper level then the surface.

a reply to: interupt42

LOL, But be gentle they appear to be a little faster than the Hillary supporters that still haven't picked up on her corruption.

The constant political nit-picking gets old.

There a quite a few things I don't like about how things are run on ATS, but I'm not being forced to stick around.

I hope we don't lose Domo over this as that would be disappointing on multiple levels. While the mods can do as they please in regards to the stars and flags, silencing concerns of members might be a little to authoritarian for me.

Domo is going to be just fine. He had a few too many drinks last night and ran-off at the mouth. The Mods are not going to go Rambo on him. They may have a talk with him, but he wont be banned.

As far as stars and flags go, who cares? As Phage said earlier, some of the best posts never get any real attention and some of the dumbest posts are the most popular. The stars and flags are nothing more than a tool of confirmation bias. They are not indicative of the quality or value a post may have.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
you don't understand, this has nothing to do with ats, it just triggered something in my heart and mind i cannot express

You did, however, relate it to the cite. You also said it is about the 'pecking order'. What pecking order?

never mind

a reply to: introvert

The constant political nit-picking gets old.

Nah. lighten up.

As far as stars and flags go, who cares? As Phage said earlier, some of the best posts never get any real attention and some of the dumbest posts are the most popular. The stars and flags are nothing more than a tool of confirmation bias. They are not indicative of the quality or value a post may have.

When did I say eitherwise?

a reply to: eriktheawful

Stars and Flags: anyone that bases their opinion or decisions on how many stars and flags a post/thread has, is an idiot in my humble opinion.

Considering some list are made based on flags, like the top or home page, ATS think we are idiots then? oh right give more visibility to a topic is not the reason of the flags...

a reply to: Domo1

I would like to see some sort of evidence for this, personally speaking. Domo1, its not that I do not trust you, but there is always the possibility that someone was pulling your leg, or drunk posting, and frankly, this whole idea sounds utterly bizarre to me.

@Moderators:

I want one of you to categorically and comprehensively explain the details of what, exactly a moderator CAN do, not what you personally would do, but what it is POSSIBLE to do, using ones moderator privileges. I would hope that one of you would be good enough to state categorically whether it is possible to do what is being suggested or not, in an unambiguous manner.

originally posted by: Night Star
Domo, there is still time to take this thread down. I'm telling you, you don't want to get banned. It's not worth it. Don't do this! You will be missed and you will miss us. Wouldn't you rather stay with us? Who knows how many wonderful people you are yet to meet here?

Ok I have read a few of your dramatic posts and jeez. Getting banned on an internet forum is not the end of your life and you can simply make a new account and be back in 5 minutes and they will even allow it in most cases.

a reply to: Stormdancer777

Well, I'll grant you that this thread is an example of human nature - people are always going to get their feelings hurt over nothing.

Meanwhile, Domo's u2u history is being checked to see which mod spilled the beans......