Been away for a long while, trying to understand my interface a tad...

Ok so I used to have a 10,000 character post limit, but now it's 5,000.

A few out there might say I used to have a touch of veteran style noteriety around here... is that the cause of the 'cool guy' borders I have all around my post boxes? I'm not complaining I just noticed again I don't see anybody else with this when it wasn't an option back when I used to frequent things.

And then in my little 'score' box under my avatar I notice some 'letters' that have values which I dont know what they are...

Welcome back IgnoranceIsntBlisss.

When starting a new thread we now have a 7500 character limit btw, and when starting a new post we now have a 5000 limit. I'm not entirely sure why admittedly but I'm sure someone else will know. Personally I've thought pages have been loading better with this system though as sometimes longer thread's with plenty of characters seemed to take it's toll.

Also, the letters underneath your avatar stand for as follows:

P stands for posts and is the number of posts you've made here.

F stands for flags and is the number of times your thread's have been flagged.

S stands for stars and is the number of times you've been starred.

K stands for Karma.

W stands for WATS rating.

In regards to K and W, here's a post from Skepticoverlord explaining a bit about them, what they're here for and so on:

It's not real complicated.

Karma is influenced most by a stars-to-post ratio, with a minor influence from flags.

WATS is influenced most by a flag-to-post ratio, with a minor influence from stars and post-count.

Long term members with a high number of well-flagged threads will achieve a high WATS number -- or -- mid-term members with highly-flagged threads will also receive a high WATS number. It reflects a ranking of those who start quality threads (mostly).

Short term members who create replies that earn stars may achieve a high KARMA number -- or -- those long term members who focus more on adding to existing threads and are starred as a result, will also achieve a high KARMA number. It reflects a ranking of those who add quality to existing threads.



Sure, there may be short-lived abuses to stars and flags, but the intent of the system is to aid in painting a larger picture of ATS content. While, on occasion, some individual posts or threads may receive more flags or stars than deserved, on the whole I believe the system works as intended as a means to showcase important topics and hard-working members.

Post from Skepticoverlord, site owner.

Active members with the top 50 WATS rating are also listed here: Way Above Top Secret - Top 50 members.

As far as I'm aware, and I could be mistaken, but the next 50 members in the list have a silver border such as yourself.

Hope that helps.

I didnt think you'd been away that long....

Welcome back !
RA above me did a great job, as usual, of explaining some of the features here.

I look forward to see you around.

C'mon, a serious poster can easily best 5,000 characters. If at least the thread author could. That's how I noticed trying to update one of my old 'megathreads'.

WATS? I remember that. I was one of the ones to complain when that got dismantled.

Thanks for the summation tho! I'm surprised I might still be silver with the numerous emotional type topics that surely get obscene amounts of flags etc lol.

Honestly, my bastardized opinion suggests that, not having to type in a reason every time we edit for typos might free up the resources for the formally 'adept' whom used to have high post counts to still do so. Or at least says my bastardized opinion.

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss

If I remember correctly, the large post limits caused some sort of site issue....I don't recall exactly....but afterwards the limits for everyone were decreased.

We all have to just make two or more consecutive posts now.
Or learn to be a tad less vocal

Thanks for the time you guys put in explaining this riff raff to me

Mod Note:: Thread closed

JK