What does WATS and applause mean?

a reply to: schuyler

In Account Settings.

originally posted by: ksiezyc
a reply to: schuyler

In Account Settings.

Account Settings.

a reply to: vethumanbeing

Your reply is entirely pointless. But hey it's your existence, waste away as you will.

originally posted by: ksiezyc
a reply to: schuyler

In Account Settings.

Thanks. OK. I was misled because Vet said "in the profile" and it isn't in "the profile" at all. What it means is that you have access to the Way Above Top Secret Forum. It's just a software switch. "0" means the switch is off and you do not have access. "1" means the switch has been turned on and you do have access. As I stated earlier, it was once the case that you had to "buy" access by expending points. I believe you have to have "X" number of posts to qualify for access also. You could also "buy" background colors, etc. With every overhaul of the ATS software it has become simpler and some of these things have been dropped.

You still see some of the residual effects because all of the code that does this has not been removed. Why hasn't it been removed? A rule of thumb in coding is that if it isn't broken, don't fix it because "fixing" something introduces more bugs. The coders were obviously moving fast and chose not to tackle parts of the issue.

The most obvious residual part of the site is the awarding or detracting of "points" for applause or sanctions. 500 "points" amounts to the worth of a single flag, but otherwise does absolutely nothing for you. These issues are probably related to cost. You need to hire programmers to "maintain" code and it may be the case that the programmers who actually understand how this site works are no longer available. The site works, more or less, and that is deemed good enough. Only rarely do people even ask about these things. Nobody much cares, plus people are antagonistic to any reward system such as stars and flags because, you know, "everyone is equal" and all that, even the morons.