I was just thinking after looking at a thread on here thats now been put into the HOAX bin.....

Many threads that end up being found to be Hoaxes end up with huge amounts of stars and flags...this is because people think its legit and feel that the person who posted the material had done a good job in discovering something new and exciting.
For the most part (and in this thread) the people writing the thread are just going on second hand information and dont post knowing its a Hoax. I suppose the argument to that is that you should always do a lot of research if you have your doubts, or the story sounds too good to be true.

Wouldnt it be fairer if the stars and flags were removed from these??

I went to the Top Topics section and just saw a thread just like this. Its at the top of the boards, yet its a Hoax.
Why are people encouraged to continue to debate on something that is a Hoax?

Isnt it the starring and flagging of posts that put them in the top topics section?

the reaction to (fill in blank) tells us a lot. frinstance, if a hoax said Obama was going to reduce the Navy to 20 ships, conservatives would howl and liberals would be supportiuve. I think some hoaxes are started just to see the reaction.
a few years ago Rush Limbaugh (on April 1) said he was in favor of the gummint taxing the poor, suggesting 'if they have three tvs, take one; if they have two cars, take one. we have the richest poor in the world'. well he actually had people agree with this and call up to tell him so.

I'm sort of new to ATS but as I understand it:

Stars : Are your way of saying that you like that post.

Flags : Are your way of saying that you like that thread.

Just that. Nothing but simple opinion. Sure ATS collate's them like data and uses them to determine things like the karma rateing but they don't really have any impact on the individual user I don't think. I've never heard of anybody getting banned for lacking in S&F.

I have found myself giving people Stars and/or Flags more often when I had nothing useful to add to a thread or post I liked. (After all, the last thing any respectfull decent human being should do is deliberately disrupt a good discussion by repeating what has already been said several times or inserting an off-topic-comment don't you think?)

I've seen many member's discussing S&F but I've not been able to find anything from ATS itself. If they could put it somewhere in the guidelines that would be great. I've seen some good definitions and even an explanation of the formula they use to determine the other rateings but I've never been able to find it myself.