Abuse of Star System in Certain Threads

You know WATS had the same problems pretty often.

People would click because they agreed with someone or liked someone rather than clicking for a post that they felt truly was Way Above.

The same thing CAN happen with the stars.

The thing is, when the Amigos set up a feature like that, it's for the members, not for the staff. So it's really up to the members to use it the right way. If someone is clicking 5 stars for a post for the wrong reason, they're cheapening their own vote aren't they?

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
it's become a rather juvenile "if you don't agree with me, I won't be your best friend," kind of game.

That's how it seems to work, for sure. I find the system unnecessary.

Originally posted by kinglizard
Any star is a good star...the only "poor" mark is no mark. If you receive one star for a post then someone appreciated the contribution.

I beleive there should be a U2U announcement to this effect. Just to clear things up with the members who apparently haven't understood yet.

Originally posted by NGC2736
I personally think the system is in need of scrapping,

You get five stars for that one

I seem to recall stars in grade school... something you were proud to show mommy... surely we are beyond that here?

And how hard is it for two people to team up and give each other stars on every post?

Personally I think its silly, but I suppose the children need their little pats on the head

:bash:

Originally posted by Fowl Play can you not see the benefit to newcomers who cannot possibly read every post on the site, or even thread, to be able just to pick out 5 star'ers to read??

Not really no... I can think of a number of threads where the OP and followers do not concern themselves with the stars and the opposing side plays the 5 star game... so if a newbie reads only the 5 star posts he/she would only get the one side of the argument, and it would be the side NOT supporting the OP

And quite frankly I don't have the time to spend properly evaluating every post for merit.

can one vote for herself / himself???

anyway, this system can easily be taken advantage of:

one could simply make a second ATS account for the sole purpose of adding starts (and flags for that matter) to the primary ATS account...

i hope there are protocols in place to detect and deal with this possible threat...


EDIT:

bad english...




[edit on 7-6-2007 by they see ALL]

Originally posted by they see ALL
can one vote for his / her self???

No.

Originally posted by they see ALL
one could simply make a second ATS account for the sole purpose of adding starts (and flags for that matter) to the primary ATS account...

I may be overestimating humanity here, but I seriously doubt anyone would be so pathetic. Hope not anyway.

Originally posted by Implosion

Originally posted by they see ALL
one could simply make a second ATS account for the sole purpose of adding starts (and flags for that matter) to the primary ATS account...

I may be overestimating humanity here, but I seriously doubt anyone would be so pathetic. Hope not anyway.

Of course were you to do that you would probably be banned for having multiple accounts. I'm sure there is wording to that extent in the T&Cs.

I agree with MM on this one. Especially about the religious forums. Having recently been on the religious forums posting my two cents worth, I got 4-5 stars from several people who eventually hung back and quit posting while MM and madness ganged up on me and my star rating went down to 2. Broke my heart. I nearly cried. (Is the sarcasm coming through?)
I use the star system to rate posts that are well thought out whether they validate/confirm my point of view or not. I have "worthy foes" that keep me on my toes and make me think and I tend to rate theirs higher than even my "friends".
If I ever get to the point where I feel that my contributions on any forum are useless and/or a waste of my time, I'll just gracefully exit. (Any of you are welcome to point out to me when that occurs as we are not usually aware of when we're boring someone to death).
I don't pay much attention to the star system and when I get "knocked down" I just put on my big girl panties and deal with it.
ATS is still the best site on the web,imho.

Any star is a good star. One star means "fair contribution". What's wrong with that? Remember this whole thing came about due to an outcry for a method to single posts in a thread. It was thought that the flag system gave too much "credit" to the thread starter. So we got this ability.

And I for one am shocked at the associated drama [/sarcasm off]. Hey, you got a star? Someone was paying attention. You got 5 stars? You haven't been significantly noticed yet. It's not like you can trade the stars in for gas coupons or anything. It's all good.

Just remember to star, flag, tag, and oh yeah ALERT where appropriate. You ARE all tagging, aren't you?

I agree with the author of this thread - the star system is being severly abused. I have noticed that several times; mostly on my own account. I noticed, that somebody (or a groupd of members), went to my profile, opened most of my recent threads and stard ALL of my posts in them with one star! Now I know some members said, that yout stars are NOT you, but still, it takes an awful childish individual, to do such a thing, just to put down your star-ranking and make you look like a "two star member", just by opening most of your posts and taking his or her time to rank each and every post with one star. I have written that before in the thread, which introduced this new ranking system, and I found out that some people do agree with me. Now I know this is a new system and that it needs time, but I still think that certain members will remain who they are even in one or two years from now, and they will keep on doing what they are doing.

Thank You.

I suppose we could all just hang out on the threads where our friends are and sit around agreeing with each other and patting each other on the back but that's not really denying ignorance. Popularity contests are kind of silly, imo, but I do like to let posters know when their efforts to educate us all have been fruitful. Whether it's stars, tags, flags, wats or U2U's, people like to know that they're contributing. There are so many worthy posts on the threads that the bar is much higher than on other sites. Getting a "1" on ATS is like getting a "5" on some of the lesser quality sites. I have no problem with any of the rating systems here and think they make the conversations more interactive. Kind of like a nod of assent when someone is talking to you IRL; it lets you know that they're listening.

Originally posted by whitewave
I agree with MM on this one. Especially about the religious forums. Having recently been on the religious forums posting my two cents worth, I got 4-5 stars from several people who eventually hung back and quit posting while MM and madness ganged up on me and my star rating went down to 2. Broke my heart. I nearly cried. (Is the sarcasm coming through?)
I use the star system to rate posts that are well thought out whether they validate/confirm my point of view or not. I have "worthy foes" that keep me on my toes and make me think and I tend to rate theirs higher than even my "friends".

How would you possibly know with hundreds of people logging in at some point during the day that it was those named people that actually downgraded your post? Maybe It was someone else that didnt even post in the thread that thought your posting was just not what you thought it was worth?

Listen, if your friends posting validly surpasses the quality of your foes posting it should not keep you from doing so.

No matter what, if there are people against you in the thread they may temporarily be able to drag you down but sooner or later people not even involved in the conversation but that may read it will judge you to what they feel its worth, and if you are credible, it won't matter what your foes may have done to your stars temporarily.

I noticed, that somebody (or a groupd of members), went to my profile, opened most of my recent threads and stard ALL of my posts in them with one star!

That's disturbing...

Whoever did that really needs to learn how to participate in a community of intelligent adults. Seriously folks, this isn't class president election.

Simply put, the administration of the site put this forth asking for people to click the stars based on POST QUALITY. If you're clicking based on who you like or don't like... well, you're cheating yourself.

The point is to identify high quality posts and those who contribute them. As a member of the community, diluting that intentionally is simply idiotic.

If you're not clicking for quality, please don't click at all!

People they come together
People they fall apart
Nothing can stop us now
For we are all made of stars.
-Moby

Stars are for ranking the contribution that a member perceived you made. If they disagree with you, of course they'll think you made a poor contribution. This is neither good or bad.

Something that might solve this issue would be a star-power meter of some sort where you could see the number of star clicks along with the star average. Members who try to downgrade your average by clicking on a single star would be boosting your star click meter. This would be an appropriate fix (IMHO) since all star clicks are good clicks. This would enforce the idea of not clicking a star unless you liked the post.

Of course, you'll need SkepticOverlord to fulfill this plan so speak up if you like the idea.


(Disclaimer - My thoughts do not reflect the thoughts of the rest of the staff)

Originally posted by ThePieMaN
How would you possibly know with hundreds of people logging in at some point during the day that it was those named people that actually downgraded your post?

That's such a good question. How do you know who did it? The same question is good for Souljah. how the hell do you know that happend? Did you remote view them doing this? How can you be sure you're not just being completely paraniod?

You're absolutely right, pieman. Hadn't even thought about someone just reading and not posting being the one to do the rating. Give yourself a star for denying ignorance (and thanks). Is this a great place or what!

Originally posted by dbates


Something that might solve this issue would be a star-power meter of some sort where you could see the number of star clicks along with the star average. Members who try to downgrade your average by clicking on a single star would be boosting your star click meter. This would be an appropriate fix (IMHO) since all star clicks are good clicks. This would enforce the idea of not clicking a star unless you liked the post.

That is an excellent suggestion. But more work for our poor Amigos.

I actually had no idea what a can of worms I opened by starting this thread, but I think we're all getting stuff off our chests and that can only help us as a body of members, no matter what the end result is.

Thank you everyone for sharing, even when some of the posts began to get just a bit sharp and pointy.

On speedguide.net we had something similiar which was a Reputation system. It was used, since it was a tech site so that people not familiar with the site could guage wether a persons techical opinions were of value or not. It was pretty nice. You could either give a person rep or you could give them negative reputation. Depending on the reputation of the person either repping you or de-repping you, it would add a certain amount of points or take away a few points. There was also a limit as to how many reps or dereps were given in a 24hr period. Once the cycle turned you were able to give out rep points again, you also could not give rep points to the same person for a certain time period which the system would give you a message saying "You've already given reputation to such-and-such please spread it around" and once you had given others rep, you could once again give that person a rep. The one thing I didnt like which at first was good, was with each rep or negative rep you could leave a short comment stating why you gave rep or neg. rep and you could click on your rep bar and see what comments you had, and at first it was anonymous, later they changed it to having usernames which caused some problems. Tho here it might be a good thing to keep phoney negatives from taking place.

The rep bar worked like the posts bar here where it had a guage according to level and if you moused over it, it would say "A Great Member. One to be trusted" or "Excellent Member. Highly qualified" somthing to that affect.

i was just wondering,
every so often when i do a google search i notice a ATS contribution used as a defining source...

i do tend to select other other sources of the info i'm seeking
but in the future i will make it a point to click the ATS link to the info. i'm searching on.......
and take a good look at the community Star appraisal/ rating of that particular post.


the double edged sword does cut both ways,
so loading up a very predestrian post as if it were truly exceptional....might tend to make an outsider discount the site as 'fluff-stuff'


thanks,