If i can

Everyday i see posts that are obviously authored by trolls, disinformation specialists, paid "information suppression agents" and so on. Whats even worse is their posts are backed by stars that even the most naive observer would see could have only come from the same type of Information Suppression Agent as the statement they are endorsing with the star.

I would like some feature that acts the opposite of a star where i can make it readily apparent that i Do NOT agree with this posts ideas, statements or any other content there in.

Is this too much to ask?

[edit on 3-3-2010 by imeddieone4202003]

If I was to guess, choosing not to S & F a thread is ATS's derivative of what you're suggesting.

A novel idea none the less, "against" a topic should be made as equally available as being "for" it.

Flag

edit: would Star if I could.

[edit on 3/3/2010 by UberL33t]

reply to post by imeddieone4202003


Yes, it is.
Consider youtube...go to a video and you will note comments below, if they are not fully in agreement with whatever the video is about, gets negatived to death to where they dont even appear anymore.

Yes, there are bros that star and flag any nonsense to get it constantly in the active threads box, and the opposition whom arent cheating tend to get buried in the dust. Oh well.

reply to post by imeddieone4202003




You know, I've been thinking of that since day one. I mean come one Digg and Reddit both have ways of downvoting so why shouldn't ATS. I hope the mods are reading this. I know there is an upcoming change to the site and I hope they implement this small but significant change happens. Thanks

This suggestion has been made any number of times. Here are just a few threads on the topic:

The ATS post rating system: Why not give "Stars" for bad posts too?
ATS Points & Star System Overhaul
Two suggestions for the forum
Questioning the stars
Could we get a mechanism to unflag, or black flag a thread?

Personally, I don't think that negative stars would be in keeping with ATS's goals of promoting meaningful discussion. Too many threads are already polarized, with the goal apparently being to outshout the "opposition" rather than discuss the topics. In my opinion, the starring system as it stands gets abused; giving us the ability to "bad star" posts we disagree with would just make the situation worse.

This gets bought up at least once a week.

The answer is no. Stars arnent the same as thumbs they dont bump threads they are just a way of showing how many people agree with any given point.

Flags are more like Diggs and are more important but still the staff dont think its a good idea to let us downflag stuff ourselves.

Originally posted by gYvMessanger
This gets bought up at least once a week.

The answer is no. Stars arnent the same as thumbs they dont bump threads they are just a way of showing how many people agree with any given point.

Flags are more like Diggs and are more important but still the staff dont think its a good idea to let us downflag stuff ourselves.

Its not my goal to "downflag" but like the star, just my personal opinion. But that i dont agree, unlike the current system where it is only to agree.

Ignoring a topic is the worst opinion you can give.

That option is inherent within the programming currently...

Well there is no value in anti-stars, because stars dont do anything, I don't think it does anything for the community to be able to grade every single post.

You could argue that even giving positive stars is a bit much but frankly sometimes a lot of work goes into individual thread posts and its nice that there is a way for the community to say 'yea good post' 'thanks' without having to post one - three word posts.

My problem with the system is that people Flag whore by creating topics they know will start fights and get loads of flags, then those topics get a lot of attention, get on the front page and get a lot more attention. Even if (as usual) its a topic we have gone over a million times before as a community, sometimes even as recently as a week or so ago, then as a community we cant fix this unless the mods decide to bin the thread. Which I find counterproductive personally.

Originally posted by MemoryShock
Ignoring a topic is the worst opinion you can give.

That option is inherent within the programming currently...

Wow, how can i deny ignorance with silence? Simply ignore the topic? Im sorry but thats a perfect example of where i would have clicked that "anti-star"

If you disagree with a post to the point you feel strong enough to 'anti-star' surely you should actually post your full opinion, or if you want to anti star something because it was written by a drooling idiot you may want to hit the ignore button instead.

As opposed to when you agree with a post and a star is enough to save on server space and spam in threads.

[edit on 3-3-2010 by gYvMessanger]

reply to post by imeddieone4202003

Well...if you would rather deny ignorance than by all means provide a sound response explaining your reasoning...

"Anti-Starring", in my opinion at least, is a cop out. If you don't like the rhetoric then either provide sound logic for your opinion or ignore it...because the presentation of a very basic "I don't like" doesn't communicate the why...which results in offense and base commentary.

Its actually sad, the reason behind this thread is that the current volume of BS is so rampant that i do want a quick way i could express my opinion that the post im viewing is anti-star worthy. I honestly wish i had the time to present factual evidence in contrast to their post. But the reality of the matter is it would take more than my lifetime to accomplish that. Thanks for eveyones opinion, just letting out some frustration.

[edit on 3-3-2010 by imeddieone4202003]

Use the ignore function liberally and then clean out your ignore list every month or so. It helps honestly.

reply to post by imeddieone4202003


The negative star system would not work. It would just trun into a number game and whoever has the most supporters would get the most stars and everyone else would get negative stars. For example when I see stuff about

...trolls, disinformation specialists, paid "information suppression agents" and so on.

I think crazy or troll. They are so cought up on the fact that they must be right anyone who does not agree with them must be a part of the dis-info croud from la la land.