Questioning the stars

Ok, as far as most members are concerned, the stars system is pretty much anonymous, right? But then it occurred to me that it can't be completely anonymous, since nobody can star a post twice. That means there is a record somewhere of every post starred by every member. Even the flags aren't anonymous, as evidenced by the info in the member profiles.

So what is the site doing with all that data? Building a complete profile of each individual member ala DoubleClick? Only without extensively using cookies.

That's scary sneaky..

reply to post by Beachcoma

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Click My Profile at the top button bar and find out.

In short, yes, you are being stored in a scary database and you will be assimilated.

reply to post by Copernicus

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The member profile page just shows you the flags. The stars are hidden, but definitely recorded.

reply to post by Beachcoma

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I just meant that its the same system as with flags for threads. You can flag a thread only once, and you can give a post a star only once as well.

And yep, its being stored, but personally I dont mind it. I guess its always a question of trusting a site to not misuse the information once you decide you want to use the functionality it provides.

[edit on 30-9-2007 by Copernicus]

reply to post by Copernicus

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I'm aware that threads and posts can only be flagged and starred once. I'm just curious what the data will be used for. Seems like a rich resource for targeted advertising.

On the other hand if the servers get hacked into by parties with less than honourable agendas, it could be a problem for some.

Well if your that worried, and you don't wan't people knowing that kind of info then all you have to do is refrain from flagging and starring.

[edit on 9/30/07 by AcesInTheHole]

reply to post by AcesInTheHole

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I'm not worried about me. I've nothing to worry about from the PTB (who are the less than honourable party I referred to) since I'm just a lowly nobody freelance writer/computer tech from a distant land. If I was overly worried I'd not put my coordinates in my profile.

I just thought it should be brought to the attention of people on the boards is all. Also, I'm curious as to what the eventual purpose of all that data will be.

Well, I flagged this thread but there's no option available to give any of these posts a star.

What's up with that??



Edit to add:

Oops! Now everyone knows I flagged this thread!

[edit on 30-9-2007 by goosdawg]

You can't give posts in the Board Business & Questions, Freshman Forum, or Introduction forums stars.

I heard that SO was a shapeshifting reptile who was compiling all these stars so that they could target those who are most outspoken. It's not who gives the stars, it's the ones that get all those stars, and even worse, flags, that will be sent to a Lunar penal colony.

And the longest sentences will be given those that have gotten applause, because they are the ones being built up for the big crackdown by the New Galactic Overlord Council.

Why do you think he has "Overlord" in his screen name? It's like all those other NWO signs out there, it's because true evil can't help telling on itself.

I guess I'll bebanned for telling secrets.

[edit on 30-9-2007 by NGC2736]

reply to post by enjoies05

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Thanks, enjoies05, that's what I kind of figured.

I was just being a wise guy.

You can rest assured we are NOT "gathering data" on what posts get starred or any other possible data set for that matter. We don't even keep server logs.

Seriously, with all that is so MUCH MORE important for us to do WHY would we bother with stuff like this?

We are OPPOSED to the gathering and sharing of member data at our core, all it takes is reading our privacy statement to understand that.

Springer...

[edit on 9-30-2007 by Springer]

reply to post by Springer

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Thanks, Springer!

I'd give you a star but, well, um...

Springer, I was having a bit of humor there to point out the absurdity of the very idea. Anyone who thinks about it would find it self defeating to sell a few hundred thousand "profiles" and destroy the site.

But I'm sticking by that part on SO.

Consider the man-hours involved in making use of star and flag data.

We'd have to read an interpret the meaning of every single post that was starred, and then look at the sum of a members starred posts to gleen information about his views etc.

And all that would really tell us is what you thought about subjects discussed on ATS, which you already tell the world when you post on ATS anyway.

There's just a simple mechanism (that I have to admit I don't understand the mechanics of) which stops you from starring a post more than once. It would be pretty much useless for any other purpose.


So remember to star the posts that you feel are best in the Debate Forum. You, the members, get to judge the debates this time.

Your Data Is Being Collected!

Everything you post -- every word, every sentence, every idea -- is carefully stored by the All-Seeing ATS Database.

Using this database, anyone can find out what your opinions are about every subject you've commented on, just by searching for it.

It's all part of a grand scheme to find out exactly what you think!

But yeah, like Springer said, the stars are pretty much anonymous, and you'd probably be shocked at how little member data is actually kept or made available to the staff.

Still, it's fun to conjecture, and I wouldn't want to discourage that...

reply to post by Springer

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Ok, thanks for clearing that up. But I wasn't suggesting that you are sharing the data, just that you might be using it for even better targeted advertising. I mean, if Google can come up with an algorithm to analyse pages and provide relevant ads, I thought that maybe, just maybe the Overlord could come up with something similar. No sharing of data sets needed here.

That's not really a problem for me, in all honesty. You guys need to fund the site, no? The paranoia comes from the possibility that someone else with a less benevolent agenda could also come up with a similar algorithm that analyses starred posts or which posts this or that member stars for some sinister purpose. Or something to that effect.

It's a stretch, but like Majic said, it's fun to conjecture. And this is a conspiracy site.

Sort of off topic, but has ATS ever considered doing a system like YouTube has on its comments, the and , and it keeps a total depending on if you've gotten a thumbs up or down, and you can go into the negative?

I like that system for some reason.

The star system is good, but I think you should be able to give a negative star, or if you change it, a thumbs down, if someone makes a poor comment.

Yeah, that'll probably get abused by some members, and they'll just do a thumbs down or negative star simply because they don't agree, but the star system doesn't really change anything as far as content or opinions go.

Or another thing, rather than keeping a running total if you add a negative star/thumbs down option, such as, if someone has two stars, and they get a negative star, now they have one star...rather than doing that, you can show totals for both stars/thumbs up, and negative stars/thumbs down separately, such as:

Stars: 2
Deducted Stars: 1

Something like that.

I hope that made sense

It doesn't really make sense to me.

In my profile I can see the total amount of flags I have received, Is there any way to see how many stars I have?

The funny thing is that I can see the total of stars in other people's profile, but not in my own?

In others people's profile I can see the total right under the total amount of flags!

What's up with that? why can't I see my own stars - I'm just curious to know why!

Thanks in advance!

reply to post by Chevalerous

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You have:

Flags: 125
Stars: 483



And you can not see yours, because of your background color.
Looks like your background color in your profile is white and the text is a very light yellow and verylight blue. You have to highlight it to see it.
I can see my own because my background color is black.





[edit on 6/26/2009 by greeneyedleo]