The ATS Conspiracy!?

When it comes to official ats threads from Abovetopsecret.com account, im just questioning do they really recieve that many flags? The bp thread 34 replies and 155 flags? Little over 5 minutes it popped up it had around 50 flags or so. Is this a true figure or admin flag manipulation?

It's not strange to see a thread with only a handful of replies, but dozens (or hundreds) of flags and/or stars. Many OPs are simply so well put that there is simply nothing else left to add, and instead of a 1-liner such as

"Great post!

2nd line."

people add a flag, because we're not too keen on 1-liners.

In regards to admin adding flags... I'm sure they could edit the database if they wanted to, but that would be stupid. If they wanted to bring a certain thread or topic of interest under our attention they could simply add a link in a banner (or on the sides) - such as at this moment I can see two horses at the sides of my screen with 'Marked for Destruction" stamped across them...

It's really not that far a stretch for a thread to get 155 flags and only 34 replies...

Look at the recent posts page and you'll see many threads with more flags than replies. Like this thread (random example) already has 9 flags but only 2 replies...

No conspiracy here.

reply to post by Haydn_17


No...it isn't strange...the same happens with posts by moderators and admins...people pay attention to those posts and make a point of reading them because it's coming from the people that lead the biggest conspiracy discussion website on the internet...though I do think they place important threads they want seen straight onto the front page...

It could be because some threads, such as the Mustang Conspiracy one, are highlighted in a u2u to many members.

If i remember rightly the u2u i got said that the message had been sent to just over 13,000 members who had been on ATS over the past 30 days.

So if just a fraction of those 13,000 click on the link and flag it, even few hundred flags is not a lot.

No conspiracy here, just a little help from a mass u2u....and rightly so.

CX.

[edit on 5/7/10 by CX]