Suggestion on how to clear up the too many star, flag glitch that was exploited

As many have asked quite a few times of ow some have had millions of stars or flags... there was a glitch that could be exploited in te platform change over to give such, I saw it but did not exploit it as some have.

Now of course such an exploit has slapped the face of the entire flag and star system.

Thats the history of it to make those unaware well aware, so on to the suggestion of how to clear it up if ATS and its owner(s) want to clear it up.

Since the new platform is in place, and it has been quite awhile since then... its quite possible to take such users that have the millions of star and flag exploit from being banned as one claimed to have been by abusing the exploit... but multi accounts could mean tey came back abusing it yet again or just lied about being banned for the glitch exploit.

In any case a way to restore its integrity, would be to take an average of the flags under similar topic but not the most popular of course to make an avaerage for the flags of posts that that poster has made since the system has been stable in the change over.... the same could obviously occur in their star count averages made since the change over stability and actually give both stars and flags a much closer representation, than the current one than the exploit allows them to display for either abuse or accident.

Now of course this is a suggestion, and if its a popular one among the users and staff and owner(s) of course to make the stars and flags have some semblence of meaning again without bans or an obscene amount due to tat change over in a fair way to normalize that system based on a mathmatical system of averages... then perhaps it will happen?

Well its a suggestion and if its thought to make ATS better or fair as to the star flag system then why not?

Thanks all of those taking the time to read and comment... this is all I really need to say as its simply a suggestion, and not somthing I really need to hang around and debate for or against so Ill just leave it as is and let democracy or the workers or owner(s) to of course choose... as Ive really no idea how they function anyway except for being able to lose some for viloations making some glitchers untouchable to that system, or allow people into the way above top secret or grey area threads.

So once again tanks for taking the time and concideration of the topic or suggestion at hand.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

Stars?
We don't need no stinkin stars

a reply to: EmmanuelGoldstein

Of course not in this section of the forum but a flag would certinaly help more people see it... but free will of course.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness
Flags mostly organized content I feel though they are a nice pat on the back / encouragement for people to make more good content.

I get rated enough at work to want to avoid my web forums giving me quarterly reports and stats about how am doing, buuuuuuuuut if the thing you're talking about happened it wouldn't bother me. Guess it depends on the utility ... Does anyone get practical use out of stars and flags beyond the topic trending?

Will admit, have sometimes used them to find persons that post a lot of good topics. So maybe on the opposite from my gut reaction ... Having a reset would be nice to make that relevant again and bump some new users to the top for delicious readings.

Would like to see that orrrrrrrr maybe some member spotlight thing saying 'these threads are awesome! go read!'

Particularly during American election time this would be nice.

I stopped posting here for a year, came back and I had 21 million stars, lol

I asked someone the other day why they're average over 10K stars per post.

Response was "Dunno, guess a glitch". OP however is suggesting that individual posters intentionally exploited the glitch.

I don't care that much about flags and stars but it's the system in place here we can use to judge other posters and their reputation. So I'd think it should be fixed instead of making a mockery of the system in place. Otherwise why have the system at all or why not create a new one?

originally posted by: syrinx high priest
I stopped posting here for a year, came back and I had 21 million stars, lol

My experience was similar.
I didn't think much of it.
Guess it's really important to some.

a reply to: shooterbrody

"Really important"?

That's really doubtful.

Seems it's more like, why have a rep system which is broken?

originally posted by: MysticPearl
a reply to: shooterbrody

"Really important"?

That's really doubtful.

Seems it's more like, why have a rep system which is broken?

If it wasn't important to you would you have asked me about it repeatedly?
There was a technical explanation floating around here somewhere about what happened. I did not participate in any glitches or other unsavory behavior to get stars, flags, ect.

a reply to: MysticPearl

Some did Im sure, as I could have as well not insinuating thats why all that have some do, but I noticed that digging up a super old post and starring it allowed one to star and flag their own stuff instead of just everyone elses. Ive test driven some friends sites before theyve went up to test for such anolomalies and curious of any during cross over, I tested it... but kept silent so it wouldnt be exploited as plant a seed eh? And since new content usually gets transfered first even though the platform was updated... digging and old post up allowed the possible exploit I noticed. So Ive got one too many stars and two too many flags. Making my count 3 off what it should be. So hey bannable offence? Then yes I deserve it.

If one had all those stars flags on coming back, perhaps the exploiters where auto clicking with something like mouse clicks autobot sort of thing on their stuff in one of your threads... as it did also add a star and flag not only to my test but the op as well as I tested one of my own thread posts.

If this issue is nonsequitor, then my apologies for bringing it up but seeing the exploit in change over theyve essentially become meaningless to me due to that glitch abused or not.

a reply to: shooterbrody

I've asked one person, once. Twas you. I didn't care enough about it to search as to why. Noticed something odd, asked, per life.

No need for you to get all defensive about it.

Looks like it first was reported in Sept of 2013.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

Maybe mods want to tell us who the hidden gov shills are, outing them for us by doing this subtly! j/k


iTruthSeeker

I've never seen an issue with flags. There was a bug with the stars, but as far as I'm aware, members couldn't exploit it to give themselves more anyway (unless they created additional accounts to do so).

In either case, who cares? On the mobile site, you don't even see star counts.

I think somebody said the number of posts and the flag counts are accurate.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

You're totally wrong, it was a system glitch, part of the revamp of the new version of ATS.

Nobody exploited anything.

a reply to: Springer

Fair enough sir sorry for any controversy as the main intent was to offer a solution but of course had to relay my experience of the glitch.

If this is seen as a disruption to your site, then of course a ban would be in order and Id also suggest an IP ban so I could not further disrupt your site.

But of course that may cause some controversy and make things even more disrupted.

So I am going to do the responsible thing as an individual and if possible I dont know... which is delete my account and of course any content yourself or mod see as disruptive to the community of course are obviously welcomed to be deleted.

It has been a pleasure to be a part of this community but in all fairness disrupting it or being cause to disrupt it and not deny ignorance as mottoed is the last thing I want to do, and of course not actually knowing by such questioing is obviously ignorant hence in logic and ration te reasonable thing to do is also the resonsible thing.

Thank you for taking the time to personally address this issue.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

Hey man quit tripping! you blundered and you were corrected, welcome to humanity, but if you must go then rock and roll..

I mean seriously, isn't there a means to figure it out? Use a way-back machine, find a few members who were affected, note the stats before and directly after, and then figure out if there's a pattern to the goof, if it was a one-time affect or continued to affect users as their star-counts rise, and the reverse engineer the funk back into sanity.

a reply to: TechniXcality

well ill just do other things I need to do irl and just avoid it as an honorable thing to do... if decided a disruption for whatever reason then ive no issue with a silent ban.

Its just my view point that tries to erase divides is not conducive to a forum that encourages debate, which by very definition means im not debating but doing a mods job in a way unofficially by running my mouth when posting. The value of that is debatible but thats not what I do i kinda douse fires. But hey some fires are meant to burn so it is really a disruption to debate.

Seeing this clearly its not my place to do such a thing and its better to leave people to it.

So if a mod would please close this Id greatly appreciate it and sorry to put anyone to work as allowing it to continue could be construed as attention I certinally dont want or need.

Take care.