This Awesome Feature Could Improve the Quality of Virtually Every New ATS Thread and Post!

reply to post by Hefficide


Posts aside... do you experience the same sort of divide with threads you offer? Do some of your best threads get little recognition, while some of your worst are swamped with accolades and posts?

Kinda like the difference between Shakespeare and Carrot-Top

Some would rather see comic gag-items played with for 2 hours than witness a legendary performance by some of the world's greatest artists.

reply to post by esteay812


For me it's been pretty good thread-wise. I've tossed out a few gag threads. In fact one of my gag threads is still alive and kicking today ( search BACON ) if you're curious.

My pains as a member come when I spend a day or two seriously sourcing and authoring a relevant and meaningful thread only to see it buried because I post it at exactly the same time as some "ZOMG AN ALIEN JUST STOLE MY COFFEE AND TOLD ME THE SECRET TO GOD!!!" thread.

That's always painful.

~Heff

reply to post by Kino321


It's ok... just go to the stats page and study it for a while... it should improve your memory and help you articulate future thoughts! haha, just kidding and thanks for the reply.

Since I have been ATS active I have seen the member 2 member interaction platform evolve to what it is currently... and that is just over the past couple years. I am sure some of the more veteran members have seen a big transformation from then to now.

I like the current system in general, but I think that is because I have seen it for a while now.

I know one thing I don't like about it and I am guilty of using it this way too;

on a busy thread or a thread I missed out on when it opened and now it's 500 pages long, *some members* scroll down the screen, not really reading the replies in the thread, but looking instead for posts that have received an irregular amount of stars, relative to the surrounding posts.

Doing this can lead to missing some key comments or information.... sometimes I hate being lazy...

reply to post by esteay812
Here's a link to Trending topics real time: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Now you can watch the OMG threads in action........

reply to post by Hefficide


HAHA, yeah, I have seen that happen to several good threads, even to a couple I have worked on in the past.

I imagine that I will soon uncover the evidence to prove we were put here by aliens and write a thread about... I am sure as soon as I post it the Rapture will happen! (I better stop talking about what I know nothing about, before I make an ever bigger fool of myself)

I rough out threads in MS Works now, but when I first started messing around on here I would write them directly in the new thread composition box. I am not sure how many times I lost them because of browser refresh or accidentally deleting them, etc, but it was a lot... that is frustrating...

or doing a copy and paste, closing the window only to find that the content was copied... sheesh...

reply to post by esteay812



Well, ATS could require an ID or face photo as a requirement to post. That would fix things in a hurry!!!




Mod Note: Excessive Quoting – Please Review This Link

reply to post by unknownusername


Uh... what do you mean?

I worked 17 hours today, so maybe I am just too exhausted to understand what you mean... can you spoon feed me what you mean, in relation to the topic?

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me the stars and flags are meaningless. As others have said, they seem to be awarded largely to show approval of one's position on an issue. Or, sometimes, for a witty remark.

Because I don't care for them, I wouldn't care for any statistic based on them. My concern is two-fold. Before I hit "reply" I review the work to eliminate things which might be seen as hateful or attacking, and to try to clear up my thinking where fuzzy. I am also concerned about the reaction from people replying to me Have I hurt or confused them? Then I know I've done badly, regardless of stars. That's what matters to me, and that's how I try to improve quality.

Flags and stars have nothing to do with the quality of the post.

Threads that COPY other people's work or are hoaxes, get the most.

Generally, the flagging and starring going on is cliches, survival island type gamey mentality votes and some with multiple accounts on various IPs so they can flag their own.

Any other stats are based on stars and flags are irrelevant too.

In the early 90's, there was a writer's program that took your written work and checked it for the obvious things like spelling, grammar and punctuation ... but, it's best feature was the ability to size up the writer's target audience levels. It would tell you if it was mediocre Jr. High School quality work or PhD quality work, and everything in between. It judged on many other factors as well, particularly 'voice'. Something like that might be worthwhile for ATS.

Completely agree with all posts above that suggest many stars and flags are awarded to the inane thread/posts sometimes by others (and me); and I've also had many threads/posts which I poured my heart into completely fall by the wayside...

But I'm not going to say it wouldn’t be interesting data to see if it were available…

reply to post by Hefficide


You mean threads like this one? It deserved a lot more attention than it got.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

For the flag and star system to have any validity at all there needs to be a "negative" flag and star rating system to counter out the friends that star and flag all their friends post and threads.

reply to post by esteay812


but in reality, they're not indicators of good posts/threads. at all. trollbait get the same if not more stars/flags then really indepth high quality posts. quite honestly, i don't know how you can say with a straight face that stars/flags indicate quality posting.

Sounds more like a game scoring mechanic than a way to better quality.

reply to post by esteay812


Since many of the threads with the most flags are garbage and those with the least flags and posts are often the best, I don't see any advantage. I have no real problem with those things, but they don't mean much. Anyone with lot's of free time and an obsession can shoot to the top of the flag and star counts. I noticed a thread a couple of weeks ago with over 100 flags where the OP simply found an old thread and pasted from it to a new one. I see great threads all the time that get no notice at all.

reply to post by esteay812


First, while reading this I read it in the voice of Billy Mays. Then I switched half way through to Vince Shalom.

Regardless....this is just another way to highlight our little trinkets so that our egos can be soothed. The only value is to someone who finds value in those trinkets. Of course, this would drive only certain types of content (and bury other types that are still worthy of reading). We have plenty of that as it is.

The battle for quality vs quantity of content wages on....

Honestly, I post to put my opinions out there. I care not about stars and flags. Just like I don't post on facebook for likes. Here at least, I can post about "contraversial" topics though, well kinda. I have had topics I posted removed for obscure reasons more than once.

Originally posted by Hefficide

My pains as a member come when I spend a day or two seriously sourcing and authoring a relevant and meaningful thread only to see it buried because I post it at exactly the same time as some "ZOMG AN ALIEN JUST STOLE MY COFFEE AND TOLD ME THE SECRET TO GOD!!!" thread.

That's always painful.

~Heff

Better a an alien ,

than a

OMG 2012 END OF THE WORLD..!

P.S.

2012 Threads are overdue so i assume the month of December is going to be a no-post month, unless i have some nasa guys drunk on hidden iphone camera revealing to me that 2012 was manufactured to sell more Chinese manufactured goods as a trade off to them buying the u.s. debt.