ATS Is Skewing Our *STAR* Responses

so i'm checking out the thread "Whistle BLOWER-Secret Plot to NUKE parts of the USA Exposed!" that is currently top of the flagged list. as i'm reading the responses, i'm starring the ones i agree with as most of us do. later i return to the OP to watch the included video again and i notice that apparently i forgot to star the OP? so i add my star. then out of curiosity, i check some of the other posts that i KNOW i had already starred and none of those stars stuck either! must be something wrong with my account or my computer right? so to test that theory, i pick a post that is in opposition to the OP, and wouldn't you know it, THAT star sticks just fine. are our responses being intentionally skewed by admin allowing only stars that support a certain viewpoint to register? anyone else have this happen to them?

reply to post by Urantia1111


It seems your conspiracy doens't hold much water, since you oppose ATS i shouldn't be able to star you, which clearly worked.

Edit: Just messing with you btw, not saying you oppose ATS.

reply to post by Urantia1111

Nope , its just that you have already stared it , however only the first one takes.
Slight bug there.

That's when you know its got ya... When everything is a conspiracy..

reply to post by Senduko


i'm not saying it happens in every thread, only stating what happened to me in that particular thread. star OP, refresh page, star did not register. star random "this woman is insane" post, star registers.

reply to post by bluemooone2


i realize you can only star each post once. my point is the total stars for the posts remained the same. i was not allowed to add a star to posts supporting the OP but when starring an opposing post, no problems.

Urantia1111
are our responses being intentionally skewed by admin allowing only stars that support a certain viewpoint to register?

I highly doubt that. It would probably be a really difficult thing to do .. computer wise.
I don't know if they could even make their computer program do that.
And why would they want to???? I don't see a motive for it ...

anyone else have this happen to them?

Nope. Not me.

reply to post by FlyersFan


i doubt your doubt very much that it's at all challenging to program a computer to do just this. the motivation would be to skew public opinion, of course. "look at how few stars these supporting posts got. must not be true." you really don't see influencing opinion as motivation for anything? i doubt THAT very much.

There are bugs along those lines. I notice the field to star reply , link, etc., is small inside others posts. Sometimes I have to "search around" the icon for it. Sometimes I have to scroll up or down a little to enable it at all.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Ah Ha! We've found a possible answer to this. All the stars are going directly to your avatar box.

It's the only explanation to the ATS "stars" conspiracy that has two facts I can combine.

Urantia1111
you really don't see influencing opinion as motivation for anything? i doubt THAT very much.

You'd have to have a conspiracy among all those that own this site and among those that run it. The opinions and political positions of those people are known to vary WIDELY. ATS moderators/site owners run from far left to the conservative right and everything in between politically. The people are everything from Atheist to, what I'd call, uber-religious/spiritual ... and everything in between.

That's a lot of people to have to agree on a conspiracy like this.
And considering their own views are so diverse ... I doubt you'd be able to get consensus.

Sorry .. I'm not seeing it.

reply to post by Urantia1111


I think you are reading a little too much into this.
There are people who have millions of stars now that didn't before and even when I posted my 5000th post,it went back to 4500.
Its a glitch.

When the site changed over,there were glitches.

Bassago
Ah Ha! We've found a possible answer to this. All the stars are going directly to your avatar box.
It's the only explanation to the ATS "stars" conspiracy that has two facts I can combine.

You got me. I'm sucking them all up. I"m the mastermind star conspirator!
bwahahahaaaaa

Seriously though ... the system is messed up.

Member listing by number of stars
Take a look at the top 'star' poster .... 28 million stars.
The star counting system is screwed up.
The Karma and WATS is completely messed up too.
None of it means anything right now.

'They' are working on it. Have been for what seems like months ...
They'll get it together at some point ...

reply to post by Bassago


good point. the "stars" don't really mean much regarding member stats as it seems overnight some folks got a 100+ fold bonus for some reason. however, i propose that people might be swayed by the star count on a POST and if those aren't being tallied accurately, someone ought to say so.

Skeptic Overlord knows there are still problems with the site. He's working on them. Just send in a complaint form to staff, and they will make sure he gets it. Really they will. I think we can all be reasonably sure there's no conspiracy here.

reply to post by FlyersFan


you know darn well that nobody needs a consensus if they have enough power/control. site owners, hackers, who knows? do you know for certain that all these "mods" are real actual people? it could EASILY be the case that it's all controlled by a handful of folks with a mainly focused, coherent agenda.

Klassified
Skeptic Overlord knows there are still problems with the site. He's working on them. Just send in a complaint form to staff, and they will make sure he gets it. Really they will. I think we can all be reasonably sure there's no conspiracy here.

glitches. right. i'd just like to say at this point, i'm finding this all very intriguing. the particular group of members who have chosen to shown up here so far is quite telling.

reply to post by Urantia1111

the particular group of members who have chosen to shown up here so far is quite telling.

I'll say this,last years Bohemian Grove Ceremony was pretty packed...new mods this year.
BTW...who ever brought that AMAZING spaghetti sauce will get a bonus this year if they bring it again.

They never told us the agenda though....the spaghetti sauce was that good!!

reply to post by Urantia1111

If you want to label myself, drums, FF, and and anyone else who has politely disagreed, shills. I'm sure we would all be honored, and it wouldn't be the first time. But seriously, just report it. If there's anything to it. Staff will deal with it. I've found all of them, including SO, to be helpful over the years. However, they won't just tell you what you want to hear.

Urantia1111
the particular group of members who have chosen to shown up here so far is quite telling.

Urantia1111
do you know for certain that all these "mods" are real actual people? .

*sigh* I'll let one of the 'imaginary mods' deal with you and your paranoia.
I'm not in the mood tonight. There is a Modern Family marathon on in a bit and
I'd much rather watch that then engage in silly talk here ...

Bu-bye.