I like this idea. What happens if the system is abused? People could easily vote down good quality posts. That would be a problem wouldn't it? I agree that some threads get flagged too much. Some posts also get starred too much. We need to have some mechanism of dealing with these threads that are over-starred or over-flagged.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
Or that a garbage thread will get a huge showing of support but you can't see the 100 people who think it is garbage.

Freedom means that people can show their disapproval too.

I don't believe you should be able to remove a thread, but you should be able to show dissapproval.

Why? One man's trash is another man's treasure. We have such a diverse membership that this is not the way one should look at the board. It's not designed for one type of individual.

Focus on what you like, there's plenty there. Not what you don't like.

Originally posted by intrepid
Focus on what you like, there's plenty there. Not what you don't like.

I tried to star this post!

I disagree with the idea of "negative stars". There's so much negative now, that adding to that wouldn't bring the level of the board up. You think there's bad feelings now, just imagine how it would be if we had the opportunity to have "Star Wars"...



No thanks.

Originally posted by IntastellaBurst


I agree totally, there should be some type of indicator, to let some people know what their posting is crap..... if not for them, ... for everyone else.

If theres positive their should be negative reinforcement !!

You have the option to say you dont agree with the post all you have to do is hit reply. Hitting a button that says their post is garbage to me is the easy way out. Why not respond with a meaningful post and your views as to why you feel that way?

To be honest something does need to be done.

Good threads (and I don't just mean threads I find interesting) ones that contain well thought out information, researched, backed up with information for us to follow often get ignored.

At the same time Jesus is Gay and Imaginary would get plenty of flags and stars, even if all the OP wrote inside it was a paragraph of random crap with lol written amongst it intermittently.

There is also a seriously high number of posts in the political forum and the religious forums which have NOTHING to do with conspiracy its just an attempt to troll other members of the forum.

I'd even consider joining a premium forum for these type of topics just to get away from all the damn brain leakers.

This idea is good on paper, much like communism was..

You see my introducing a "negative" button to any thread, we are just inviting those who like to mess around on these forums to start starring/flagging and dissaproving of everything, in large numbers.

The OP mentioned those who control the boards with stars and flags, the same would go for those who got dissaproved.

Furthermore, the bulk of threads I read, are not for the OP but for the responses and conversation that take place afterwards.

This sort of system would possibly deter me or another member from reading a subject, because of it's "dissaproval" rating, which cold possibly hold some very valuable information.

Too confusing. We should applaud effort and good thread with the stars/flags system, and ignore the trollers like we've been doing all along.

~Keeper

Agree with that 100 percent.
I get peed off with a lot of UFO/Alien threads being taken over by plonkers who say they are from "Another Dimension", "Another Planet " or many and various other forms of total kak.
I know all things are possible, but for FFS.
It's possible I am the reincarnation of Mother Theresa talking to you now,
but as I am a 53 year old male living in the UK it's definately BS.

Could we get a mechanism to unflag, or black flag a thread?


Dont flag it in the first place. What i do is wait to see how the thread goes and then i star and flag.

if black flags would be too detrimental --->


how about a function where putting your curser on a 'Star'
identifies the member who awarded that 'Star'


that scenario would preempt the idea of a 'secret vote'
which the present method does as it is now set up.


think-about-it
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`


the post above mine says:

""Flags are supposed to be the way in which the community brings things to the rest of the communities attention.

[...]

Letting maniacs or teenagers manipulate whats active on the site because we have no way to counter check flags as a community also seems counter productive. ""


i reply,

Flags are designed for the outside audience, to draw in readers to discussion threads which Google search indicates has wide appeal & interest.... the 'Flags' corresponds to the level of interest and appeal, & suggests the material is 'top notch' stuff...& intices the searcher to 'come-in' & see for themselves... i.e. the carrot on the stick !

i have discontinued the practice of Waking Up & Smelling The Coffee,
as i feel others need it more than I


[edit on 4-10-2009 by St Udio]

Flags are designed for the outside audience, to draw in readers to discussion threads which Google search indicates has wide appeal & interest.... the 'Flags' corresponds to the level of interest and appeal, & suggests the material is 'top notch' stuff...& intices the searcher to 'come-in' & see for themselves... i.e. the carrot on the stick !

Isn't that what Digg is for ?

Flags are what brings articles onto the ATS front page or onto the headlines of each board section (depending on how you view ATS).

Stars are an indication of how many people who have read through your post particularly agree with the point you are making.

It doesn't matter who stars a post, if anything getting a lot of stars just shows an opinion that has strong support, it doesn't affect whether or not a thread is presented on the main page as far as I know. It may be interesting to know who supports what opinions but it will be fairly meaningless outside of the people who frequent certain sections of the board very often.

I think many are forgetting that we already have have a positive/negative system or the tools we need to rate it...........

We already have a Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down System.



[edit on 4/10/2009 by Revealation]

How about a mechanism that gives the post author the ability to mark their own contribution with some kind of pro/con icon? Then as the thread develops, those little bits of data are captured and displayed somehow.....as some measure of the "balance" to a thread.....

"Huh....here's a thread with 10 "pros".....11 "cons"....what makes this thread have a nearly balanced ranking?"

Know whut I meen?

Originally posted by abecedarian
And in order to deter "drive by flagging", make it so that one must comment / post in the thread in order to be able to flag the thread... maybe a minimum of 50 words so that discussions are more likely to occur instead of just "hey, S&F for you!!" type posts. Heck, you could even do something similar for "stars"- if you star a post, you have to reply to / comment on the post.

Best idea so far in the whole thread. MODS please make this happen.

This kind of thinking is why our modern society is so screwed up.

"I should have the freedom to censor, discourage or make disappear anything I don't agree with".

I don't like homosexuals so they shouldn't be on my TV or running around in public . . .

I don't believe in Christianity so I shouldn't have to be exposed to it . . .

I don't like guns so no one should be able to own them . . .

Somewhere along the line we lost the basic respect for other people's rights and freedoms of choice. Somehow we never seem to figure out that once we start trying to censor people or limit their freedom eventually it works its way back around to us when someone decides they don't like something we do / believe / enjoy.

The founding Fathers of the US put a great deal of thought into this. That's why they started off by acknowledging certain God given rights each and every person holds. The freedom of speech encompasses most of the debate we see. In Europe and now in America we're killing this freedom in an effort to combat "hate crimes". In the Obama administration a theme of labeling all conservatives as "extremist" and calling for censorship, prosecution and so on continues to grow.

We don't need a global elite to enslave us, we're perfectly capable of putting the chains on ourselves. Selfishness will see us all caged eventually.

There are a huge number of threads on ATS I find personally ridiculous, hilarious, unnecessary and redundant. For some reason I don't have this overwhelming need to rush in and tell the people participating how stupid
they are. Since a hundred other ATS members will beat me to it, some who seem to specialize in doing so it would also be a complete waste of my time.

We don't need a method to censor discussions or indicate our displeasure or make them go away. If it really bothers you that much that people are posting threads you dislike I'd suggest you go see a counselor. You're becoming deluded as to your own importance in this World.

For people who just can't live with discussions they disagree with there's always the option of leaving and starting your own ATS type forum where you can trample on other people's rights all you want.

Don't like something on TV or Radio? Turn the channel.

Don't like a thread on ATS? Skip it and go find one you do like. Do you really think the thread participants care about your disapproval? Consider your not giving the thread a flag and star your personal act of registering your dislike.

Oh and grow up, please. Treat other people's rights as dearly as you treat your own (or pretend to if you can't even respect your own freedom).