Applause...

What do they do??

Ive had 9....but i still dont have a gold or silver background thing lol.

I know mods give them out, and they appear on the profile. But is there nothing more to them?

Possibly the wrong forum, so mods, move as needed Not that you need telling haha

reply to post by loves a conspiricy


They give applause for a job well done.

Accept it, be thankful for it, and then continue to be all that you can be on here.

vvv

reply to post by loves a conspiricy


Explanation: It is all about stars and flags!

Way AboveTopSecret [ATS]

A hall of fame of the top-50 highest-flagged and often-starred contributing members on AboveTopSecret.com, displayed with a link their most-recently authored topic. Visit the threads of any one of these members (by clicking on their username) to find some of the best "alternative" content anywhere.

No#1 ...

WATS Index: 510 Topics: 546 posts: 20,042 flags: 12,054 stars: 55,935

No#50 ...

WATS Index: 111 Topics: 290 posts: 6,241 flags: 3,437 stars: 9,833

loves a conspiricy ...

P 3,334 F 477 S 4,802 W 40 K 23

You would need at least double the amount of stars and 10 times the amount of flags to automatically aquire a gold trim border.

Personal Disclosure: Silver trim is far more ambiguous to determine. I hope that helps.

Originally posted by VreemdeVlieendeVoorwep

They give applause for a job well done.

Accept it, be thankful for it, and then continue to be all that you can be on here.

Or in other words~ It does absolutely nothing, and is completely meaningless.


I don't think it has any effect on the gold/silver borders. I think that's based solely off of the WATS thing, based only on posts, stars, & flags. (I think)

Why do you care anyway?

Applause is one of those things that comes around when you either put a lot of effort into a thread and contribute some amazing material to the forum, or by shear dumb luck you say something that offers insight into this crazy world we live in.

My applauses have all been the latter.

reply to post by boncho


Hahaha Same... I see the U2U sign, and think "Awwwww now what have I said that's been deleted..." and see the Applause, and then have to spend 5 minutes working out what I said, fearing that if I read it to grasp this understanding instead of letting it appear in my mind for me, I will shriek and run away at the concept that I said something worth someone spending the time applauding me for....

I'm just a ladder goat, not a real llama..

reply to post by boncho


Can you see what you have been applauded for?

reply to post by XLR8R


Yes - when you receive an applause, the u2u will contain a link to the post that you were applauded for.

A lot of times though, it may be an applause for overall contribution to a thread, not just one specific post, but they can only hit the applause button for a specified post.

reply to post by loves a conspiricy

I think the W when at 50 gives you silver, when at 100 gives you gold.

The gold gets you 20% off at the ATS cafeteria.

(They have meatloaf today)

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by loves a conspiricy

 

I think the W when at 50 gives you silver, when at 100 gives you gold.

The gold gets you 20% off at the ATS cafeteria.

(They have meatloaf today)

My W is 79 and I don't have a silver border?

Applause is worth 500 points, but points don't do anything right now. They did in the past and they might in the future. Applause is worth one flag in the stars & flags derby. The formulas below are APPROXIMATE:

POINTS
You get one point for every post. You get two points for every reply to a thread you have started. You get “applause” points if a moderator thinks highly of a post you made, usually one that makes a significant contribution to a thread. “Applause” comes in the form of 250 or 500 points. You can also win a tremendous amount of points for participating in ATS games, debates, contests, and the like. Points do not appear with your posts and are only shown on your profile page.

You can get negative points if you post something that violates Terms & Conditions in the form of content or manners & decorum. Sometimes this can be because you are extremely nasty in a response, calling names, for example, or if you solicit business or violate T&C in some other way. Going off-topic can get your post erased, though it does not always result in a points deduction. Deductions, at least in my experience, are 1,000 points at a time.

What do points get you? Right now, nothing special. In the distant past you could spend points by “buying” a background color for your avatar or access to the REALLY Above Top Secret Forum. Today points aren’t really used for anything substantive. If you look at someone’s point total, you can get kind of an idea of where they are at. Someone with minus 2,000 posts is probably a new member who isn’t settling in well at ATS and is probably a candidate for being banned next time they transgress. Someone with tens of thousands of points has probably been here awhile and made steady contributions.

FLAGS (F)
You earn flags based on threads you start. You are flagged by other users, who can remove a flag if they grow disaffected with your thread. Flags feed into the Karma and Wats scores.

STARS (S)
You earn stars based on posts. You are starred by other users if they like your post, but they cannot remove a star once they give it to you. Stars also feed into the Karma and Wats scores.

POSTS (P)
Simply a tally of how many posts you have made. Posts feed into the Karma and Wats scores, but not always in a positive manner. See why below.

KARMA (K)
I’m indebted to member Sherlock Holmes for figuring out these formulas. As far as I know, ATS management has never been explicit about the scores. I believe Sherlock may have back engineered the formulas mathematically. I’m not really sure. In any case,

It's ((stars * 15) + (flags + applause) * 10)) / posts. So if you take the following, you get:

7466 stars 3979 posts 524 flags 87 applauses
((7466 stars * 15) + ((524 flags +87 applauses) * 10)) / 3979 posts
(111990 + 6110)/3979
118100 / 3979 = 29.68, rounds to 30

So my K score is 30. Note that the overwhelming variable here is stars, which are multiplied by 15. You get much less for flags (starting threads) or ‘exceptional’ posts that earned applause, both of which are multiplied by ten. Applause, which can earn you 500 points a whack, are counted the same as a single flag here. So right off the bat flags and applause are worth two-thirds of what stars are. But the whole thing is divided by number of posts, which means the more posts you have, the lower your Karma Score. If you had 5,000 posts instead of 3979, your Karma Score would be 24. If you only had 2000 posts your Karma Score would be 59, twice what it is. Therefore, making posts that do not earn stars is to your detriment. It is better to make one pithy post than two throw-away comments that don’t add to the conversation.

WATS (W)
It's (number of posts ÷ 600) + (number of flags ÷ 80) + (number of stars ÷ 170). My score today is:

(3979 posts / 600) + (524 flags / 80) + (7466 stars / 170)
6.63 + 6.55 + 43.91 = 57.09, rounds to 57

So my Wats score is 57. Here you see an opposite (and far simpler) sort of formula. Here stars are worth half of what flags are and posts themselves are worth about an eight of what flags are. Flags are dominant. Here my nearly 4,000 posts earn me 6.63 points and my mere 524 flags earn me almost as much at 6.55 points. But since there are so many stars, even though they are worth half of what flags are, it still gives a boost. But clearly, flags, earned for starting threads, is the dominant theme here. Also, in this score posts don’t hurt you because they are added in, not a part of a ratio. In the previous formula, lowering your post count raised your score. In this formula, lowering your post count lowers your score.

reply to post by schuyler


This may be the best break down of the whole flag/star/WATS system I've seen here.

Thanks mate.

Originally posted by schuyler
Applause is worth 500 points, but points don't do anything right now. They did in the past and they might in the future. Applause is worth one flag in the stars & flags derby. The formulas below are APPROXIMATE:

POINTS
You get one point for every post. You get two points for every reply to a thread you have started. You get “applause” points if a moderator thinks highly of a post you made, usually one that makes a significant contribution to a thread. “Applause” comes in the form of 250 or 500 points. You can also win a tremendous amount of points for participating in ATS games, debates, contests, and the like. Points do not appear with your posts and are only shown on your profile page.

You can get negative points if you post something that violates Terms & Conditions in the form of content or manners & decorum. Sometimes this can be because you are extremely nasty in a response, calling names, for example, or if you solicit business or violate T&C in some other way. Going off-topic can get your post erased, though it does not always result in a points deduction. Deductions, at least in my experience, are 1,000 points at a time.

What do points get you? Right now, nothing special. In the distant past you could spend points by “buying” a background color for your avatar or access to the REALLY Above Top Secret Forum. Today points aren’t really used for anything substantive. If you look at someone’s point total, you can get kind of an idea of where they are at. Someone with minus 2,000 posts is probably a new member who isn’t settling in well at ATS and is probably a candidate for being banned next time they transgress. Someone with tens of thousands of points has probably been here awhile and made steady contributions.

FLAGS (F)
You earn flags based on threads you start. You are flagged by other users, who can remove a flag if they grow disaffected with your thread. Flags feed into the Karma and Wats scores.

STARS (S)
You earn stars based on posts. You are starred by other users if they like your post, but they cannot remove a star once they give it to you. Stars also feed into the Karma and Wats scores.

POSTS (P)
Simply a tally of how many posts you have made. Posts feed into the Karma and Wats scores, but not always in a positive manner. See why below.

KARMA (K)
I’m indebted to member Sherlock Holmes for figuring out these formulas. As far as I know, ATS management has never been explicit about the scores. I believe Sherlock may have back engineered the formulas mathematically. I’m not really sure. In any case,

It's ((stars * 15) + (flags + applause) * 10)) / posts. So if you take the following, you get:

7466 stars 3979 posts 524 flags 87 applauses
((7466 stars * 15) + ((524 flags +87 applauses) * 10)) / 3979 posts
(111990 + 6110)/3979
118100 / 3979 = 29.68, rounds to 30

So my K score is 30. Note that the overwhelming variable here is stars, which are multiplied by 15. You get much less for flags (starting threads) or ‘exceptional’ posts that earned applause, both of which are multiplied by ten. Applause, which can earn you 500 points a whack, are counted the same as a single flag here. So right off the bat flags and applause are worth two-thirds of what stars are. But the whole thing is divided by number of posts, which means the more posts you have, the lower your Karma Score. If you had 5,000 posts instead of 3979, your Karma Score would be 24. If you only had 2000 posts your Karma Score would be 59, twice what it is. Therefore, making posts that do not earn stars is to your detriment. It is better to make one pithy post than two throw-away comments that don’t add to the conversation.

WATS (W)
It's (number of posts ÷ 600) + (number of flags ÷ 80) + (number of stars ÷ 170). My score today is:

(3979 posts / 600) + (524 flags / 80) + (7466 stars / 170)
6.63 + 6.55 + 43.91 = 57.09, rounds to 57

So my Wats score is 57. Here you see an opposite (and far simpler) sort of formula. Here stars are worth half of what flags are and posts themselves are worth about an eight of what flags are. Flags are dominant. Here my nearly 4,000 posts earn me 6.63 points and my mere 524 flags earn me almost as much at 6.55 points. But since there are so many stars, even though they are worth half of what flags are, it still gives a boost. But clearly, flags, earned for starting threads, is the dominant theme here. Also, in this score posts don’t hurt you because they are added in, not a part of a ratio. In the previous formula, lowering your post count raised your score. In this formula, lowering your post count lowers your score.

edit on 6/22/2012 by schuyler because: (no reason given)

Definitely the best breakdown I've ever seen cheers..