IDEA: Create a ATS Personal Affidavit Feature

I hope I'm making this suggestion through the proper channels, but I think it may be worth considering.

At the end of every opening thread or post form, I would like to propose that ATS add a 'Personal Affidavit of Truth on Personal Honor'.

This would be a brief personal pledge, which states that in posting what they have posted, the poster is also including an informally sworn statement (on their personal honor) as to the truth and accuracy of their posting.

This feature would be elective and would exist as a '1-click pledge' we would have as an option to click & add at the end of our post.

To many, this would mean something. It could add some additional credibility, honesty and accuracy to our posts and threads, while at the same time, helping to discourage future hoaxes and lies.

Proven hoaxers and liars who have established a track record of taking their own word of honor lightly, will become more easily to identify in the future.

To many, our personal 'Word Of Honor' still means something.

ATS, what do you think of this idea?

I think it's a great idea, though when we register on ATS we agree to the T&C, and #15 of it refers to posting knowingly false information. So in a sense, we are all under such a pledge all the time already I'd like to think. See someone breaking #15, hit that alert button.

Originally posted by Sek82
I think it's a great idea, though when we register on ATS we agree to the T&C, and #15 of it refers to posting knowingly false information. So in a sense, we are all under such a pledge all the time already I'd like to think. See someone breaking #15, hit that alert button.

This is true, but to put a pledge of truth on one's honor literally behind one's posting...would carry more impact.

Problem is... 99 % of posts on ATS are personal opinion

I swear on my sword that this opinion is true as far as I can tell

I think that it is upon each of us to ensure that he or she posts from a position of truth. The swearing of an oath to this affect would be superfluous for those of us who value our honour, since we already comport ourselves in a manner befitting the value we place upon it.

For those who do not value thier honour, the swearing of an oath will mean less than nothing, since those who place no value upon thier word, will see no harm in breaking such an oath.

I appreciate what you are getting at of course, but the fact is that since this sort of thing is pretty much covered by the T&C, and since this would be nought more than a badge to some, and ammusing thing to defile for others, it might be better to stick with the current system.

Another reason to leave things as they are, is that right now we have to be careful about what we believe, and who we can trust. That caution means that we dig deeply, without prejudice toward or away from reveiwing the works and posts of our fellows. This is a very healthy system, because it means that everyones posts and threads recieve the same level of peer review, no matter what their position may be.

Some users would be of a mind, were there to be an Oath on the subject, to do a lesser job of peer review, due to the evident character of the poster involved. I see this as a possible weakness that we can ill afford in times such as these, where opinions can become so polarised around specific conversational topics.

In short, this would ammount to little more than a trinket for most, and a shroud, a mask of decency for those less inclined to be honest.

I think people who deliberately try to hoax other people with misleading and outright false information and downright lies wouldn't really be put off by any sort declaration of honour etc as they simply don't have any.

I understand your sentiments, and agree that word of honour still means a lot to some of us.

Personally I'd like to see T&C enforced rigorously in this respect, which to be fair I think it is more or less, but where this results in a banning it should be broadcast to all as a message to all that deliberate hoaxing will not be tolerated.

On a slightly different note I have noticed that there seems to be an increase in plagarism.
Whilst I understand that sometimes this can be due to new members unfamiliarity with T&C or even absent mindedness etc but that doea not excuse experienced members being guilty of it.
Depending on circumstances once can be forgiven, twice should result in public exposure and banning.

There is nothing like a public hanging to focus attention.
(Before anyone points it out that is a bit of a play on a Samuel Johnson quote, )

Thanks for such a great response. I'm taking from the overall comments here that this would NOT be something ATS members would want.

reply to post by IAMTAT


Are you bleeding crazy. Hell no they wont. You have paranoid scitzos posting here. Compulsive liars posting here, people with attention deficit. Disorders they cant control. Why do trucking trolls come on here and post stuff like that. Purposely waste bandwidth. For one that would be a REAL contract. Which could be used against us. Ha. I hope no one listens to this nutter. I mean come on most of this site is cr5zies.

I don't think we need a special feature for it, but if members want to add a formal attestation to a post, there's certainly nothing stopping them.

And with that duly asserted herein, I hereby certify that this post is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

reply to post by IAMTAT


Perhaps because its a horrible idea and would do absolutely nothing to ensure honesty. I already think people who say Namaste or cheers in every post should be banned.

well ATS could always do something like this:
We all start at 100% honor rating. Each time someone is found to be a hoaxer drop it to 0, and then they would have to prove themselves and build back their honor...I know we have points but that's a bit different. Practical....probably not. Interesting?....That's up to the ATS community.

Originally posted by Rustyk
well ATS could always do something like this:
We all start at 100% honor rating. Each time someone is found to be a hoaxer drop it to 0, and then they would have to prove themselves and build back their honor...I know we have points but that's a bit different. Practical....probably not. Interesting?....That's up to the ATS community.

I like this idea, as well. However, from the responses so far, it does seem that the overall concept is something ATS would not be interested in.

reply to post by Rustyk


We have something kinda sorta like that as well. But instead of a sliding scale of 100-0 we just ask that the members hit the alert feature when something looks like a hoax and in the provided space give your take on why that is.

Staff reviews the material and takes the appropriate action. So when you see that a member has been banned and they had some minor hoaxing or a very deliberate hoax. You can consider that their Hoax Scale is at zero or even into negative numbers.

"I am Ahabstar and I approve this message."

Originally posted by Ahabstar
reply to post by Rustyk

 

"I am Ahabstar and I approve this message."

AHABSTAR for PRESIDENT!

reply to post by IAMTAT



It is a thought but the hospital where I was born no longer exists, so we might have all kinds of problems.

reply to post by IAMTAT


Well IAMTAT it's like this, Bill Clinton swore he never had sexual relations with ..erm well you know.

Point is a liar is a liar is a liar.

Personally i would like to see an electroshock button for hoaxers.

Due to technological and ethical reasons that probably won't happen.

Maybe the ATS management could string together a Deny Ignorance enforcement team to track IP's and waterboard er i mean reprimand the perps.

To be fair the ATS staff are pretty quick to get to the bottom of things and actually for me half the fun is in dissecting the evidence to expose the fraudsters.

Ah i see the hand of Moriarty, Watson ! the game is afoot !

Cosmic..