Some new features on ATS (and soon BTS and PTS)

Originally posted by WolfofWar
I'm opposed to this concept. It really does nothing to ad to the quality of the site, all it really does is cause strife among members ("WHY DID I GET TWO STARS!? ZOMG!") and make people ignore posts in favor for others. Thats not really "denying ignorance" thats just allowing people to pick and choose what they read while ignoring other members. It sets up for more of a superiority complex and the sense of elitism thats already rising on the board.

thumbs down, in my opinion.

I like the system.
It makes it easier for me in huge threads to see what posts were especially appreciated by people, and makes it easier to see how people appreciate my posts, which is important feedback about how clear and cibil I was in explaining my point.

It needs time to balance out of course.

Yes but this is exactly what i DON'T like. You avoid posts which don't agree with certain group of people (and get lower ratings) and this is not very good to form objective view.

Sometimes i find 1-star posts most interesting.

Originally posted by 64738
Yes but this is exactly what i DON'T like. You avoid posts which don't agree with certain group of people (and get lower ratings) and this is not very good to form objective view.

Sometimes i find 1-star posts most interesting.

To me posts that got ANY stars are interesting.
One star because someone felt the need for whatever reason to vote, and 5 stars because someone felt the need for whatever reason to vote.
It makes me curious, makes me want to find out what is in the post, and eventually makes me vote as well, if I do find the post interesting.

Originally posted by NGC2736
Yes Odium, you are right. The question is the same as the issue with schools; do we dumb it down to the level of Ditmar J. Dumb*ss, or do we teach and learn and let the slower ones catch on as they can?

The easier you make it, the more people will be available, but the worse the quality of those same people. This is life, and it 'ain't' fair. If people come here and like what this place has to offer, then they need to work hard enough to be valued contributors.

Excuse me, I'm going to take this personally, since I'm so obviously too dumb to to hang with the valued contributors............

But, a word to the wise NGC2736, that is if you'll even read a post by one so slow as me,......you're not supposed to be evading the censors by using **## and so forth when you namecall.....spell it out, or leave it out.

Now, back to the intelligent conversations......

frayed1,I have not read enough of your work to decide if you are slow or not, but even the slow help to make the world go 'round and 'round.

As to evading the censors, I never even knew there were censors, though even here I'm sure that ignorance of the law is no excuse. I will try to do better in the future.

Oh, and may I say that your avatar is a lovely picture of you?

How come I don't have any stars yet?

Don't ya all like me?

In Nothing We Trust, it's that uniform It looks like something that's coming.

Besides, I haven't been in the right thread to see any of your posts. Though I have to love a person with the outlook to have that avatar.

Originally posted by NGC2736
In Nothing We Trust, it's that uniform

It looks like something that's coming.

Besides, I haven't been in the right thread to see any of your posts. Though I have to love a person with the outlook to have that avatar.

Don't you like fascists?

Fascism is the natural reaction to being preyed upon by preditors.

Would you have me be compassionate towards the preditors when anger is the natural reaction?

Since when has god been compassionate?

Preditors don't understand compassion they only understand the mentality of the preditor. The big preditors did thier damage now it's time for the small preditors to get even. It's just how the system works, sorry.


[edit on 18-5-2007 by In nothing we trust]

INWT, now I understand why you are 'starless'. The idea of replacing one predator with another lacks appeal to those who seek neither to be predator or prey.

Because it is fundamentally against human wisdom to behave in a non-altruistic manner, your argument is flawed. You will not gain much in life with that outlook. Your uniform is from an era that did not succeed.

The best evidence of anthropology says that being helpful leads towards greater good for the entire unit. Thus, early man found that cooperation was better than constant strife.

Now if we can just convince the Neanderthals in D.C.

Originally posted by NGC2736
INWT, now I understand why you are 'starless'. The idea of replacing one predator with another lacks appeal to those who seek neither to be predator or prey.

The non-preditors are visionless puppets. They are powerless to stop the rising tide. Herd animals always follow eachother over the cliff.

Because it is fundamentally against human wisdom to behave in a non-altruistic manner, your argument is flawed. Your uniform is from an era that did not succeed.

The best evidence of anthropology says that being helpful leads towards greater good for the entire unit. Thus, early man found that cooperation was better than constant strife.

Altuism is a fundementaly flawed concept. The minority of humans beings who make the rules do not believe in altruism. The majority who are puppets go with the flow and only act in a seemingly atruistic manner because they are afraid to make a difference. The rules are always made by the non-altruistic few who control the majority through whatever methods are available at the time.

The final solution almost won. Nazi germany had many supporters in 1940's America.

[edit on 18-5-2007 by In nothing we trust]

INWT, time is a long and winding path. There are many dead end trails that lead to bogs where the unwary perish. This is a fact with domination through intimidation.

As we a humans have followed this path of striving upwards towards our destiny, we have been led time and again down these side routes, and always they fail. The results are war and more wars, revolution after revolution.

Because in the past man was slow to learn, this has went on for many ages. Yet, that does not make it the path that will lead to anything except more of the same. But just as knowledge has increased at a steady exponential rate since about the 18th century, so has freedom.

As man increases in overall understanding of himself and the universe at large, he realizes more and more that the path of predatory behavior is not productive. At an early stage in the dim reaches of the past, man cooperated because his enemy was death. The world was hostile.

The road was long to reach the relative safety of a time when death was not dealt by the world on a daily basis. Food became easier to acquire, shelter more substantial, disease less threatening. This was all the result of greater knowledge by the few. And by virtue of this, the few had dominion over the many.

Who can say for sure if it was the printing press, or exactly which invention, but man began to have a greater number of people with wisdom. And as these numbers grew, it became harder for the few to control the many.

With this over all increase each man became more equal to the other. The knowledge of this innate equality bloomed in the minds of men, and the thirst for real freedom expanded. In the last few centuries man has constantly struggled to throw off the yoke of those few who try to control the many.

Yesterday, as ages are counted, the collective minds of men grew to know that freedom was his right. The old idea of master and slave are only throwbacks to the time when brutish men were ruled by more brutish masters, and none knew another way.

We are not yet totally past that time, but it is passing. You must not be fooled into thinking that what worked for a thousands times a thousands years is still true. As i said, the curve of mans knowledge and growth now doubles every year. Such is exponential growth.

This has been a very long time in coming, but man is now almost Man. If you rely on those techniques that worked even yesterday, soon you will find yourself extinct. A person may live for sixty years in the Gobi Desert and never see rain, but a wise man will still recognize a storm cloud.

Clouds of great change are now on man's horizon, and if you are in the wrong boat, you will surely sink. The day of the beastly master is almost past.

OK. What about policing ATS? I'll tell you why. I can easily open an account as a new member on ATS by proxy. Let's say, 'XYZ'. Then all I've gotta do is keep punching away the stars in my main account and bingo! 5 stars all the way. I will ensure that it never gets to below 4 stars!

And that's what I suspect some trolls and dodos are already doing! Hey! There's a guy here with 156 points, but is already a 5-star General for the past few days! Oh yeah, shades of Edgar Allan Poe, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Virginia Woolf, William Shakespeare Or probably just ole Einstein!

And then some said that it's all getting a trifle complicated what with stars, flags, tags and so on. This seems a needless distraction from good plain discussion and seems to have taken the fun out of posting.

It's the simple things in life that matter! Why make our lives more complicated? 10 hours of work and then when we want to loosen up and relax with ATS, we get kinda dumbed down again with the fight for stars, flags and so on!

I loved the old uncomplicated ATS! But I guess age is catching up on me! Gotta keep with the times, what?

Cheers!

Star Whores?

Long ago in a galaxy far far away...

If anyone's so desperate to up their star average that they create multiple accounts, man let 'em have at it. The good news about all this is that the participation is all voluntary. No one has to flag, tag, star, or anything else. There seemed to be a general consensus that the site would benefit from something like the ability to rate individual posts, so it's being tried. If it's abused or causes issues, I'm sure it'll be fixed.

I'm still confident that over time, and given the quality of moderation and membership, it'll all shake out for the good.

I just feel it.

Originally posted by mikesingh
OK. What about policing ATS? I'll tell you why. I can easily open an account as a new member on ATS by proxy. Let's say, 'XYZ'. Then all I've gotta do is keep punching away the stars in my main account and bingo! 5 stars all the way. I will ensure that it never gets to below 4 stars!

And that's what I suspect some trolls and dodos are already doing! Hey! There's a guy here with 156 points, but is already a 5-star General for the past few days!

Check out this thread. An amazing concentration of 3,4, and 5 stars in one relatively short post! Not saying there's any hanky-panky going on or anything, but It sure did seem to attract a lot of talented posters.

Maybe that's the way the system is supposed to work?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Maybe it's my age, but I thought for the last few days the 'display' of the individual post ratings had been disabled.

Can we make the light blue starts just a little darker? I really have to strain to see them.

It is a system that to some will matter. To the rest it won't. There is no validity whatsoever, as you cannot trust your fellow human to vote for anything that matters (see recent election trends...who picks these morons???).

I will just ignore the feature. I will choose to embrace ignorance. LOL

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
(and soon BTS and PTS)

Wait......I thought it was AP.

Originally posted by NGC2736
frayed1,I have not read enough of your work to decide if you are slow or not, but even the slow help to make the world go 'round and 'round.

...rather my point, NG......(up to the condescension at the end, there.)

Originally posted by NGC2736
As to evading the censors, I never even knew there were censors...

Your welcome, just remember I saved you from the embarrassment of getting a from one of the mods, like I did.....tho they seemed to have let it slide this time. ( And also, one can get banned for being overly rude.)

Originally posted by NGC2736
Oh, and may I say that your avatar is a lovely picture of you?

Oh thank you so much, NG! You really are clever, no one else had yet caught that!!

BTB, I have a lovely assortment of troll pics, if you'd like to borrow one for your avi.

[edit on 19-5-2007 by frayed1]

If I understand correctly, now if 9 out of 10 people do not agree with me, I will be very low ranked. So, if I post the truth voting system will make me look bad.

Democracy is not the best system. In democracy, 51% of illiterate, not informed people, make decisions, and smart people are a minority.

If ATS becomes a "democratic" system, we will have the same level of interesting topics as on public TV.

frayed1, i was not being condescending, I truly feel that all people, slow or fast, have value and worth. I was not implying that you were slow, I did say that I had not even formed an opinion on that subject yet. And to me, what matters most is attitude and demeanor. Yet too, those who lack 'speed' will have to do the best they can to catch up. Such is life.

I lack computer skills that many take for granted. I still have trouble with so many simple things, because I am self taught on this infernal contraption, I find myself unable to do some basic things. But I hold no one but myself responsible for that, and all I can do is try to learn at whatever speed my old brain can handle. Each of us has areas of excellence, as well as areas of lack.

I do not try to be rude. I prefer to think of it as overt forthrightness. (My wife insists that I have a genetic disorder that makes me socially inept. Like I believe her.)

And I thought that I thanked you for the 'heads up' on the censor issue, but in re-reading, I realize that I did not. My apology, and my heartfelt, though belated, thank you. (Shame on me for the oversight.)

As a 'horse person, I really do like your avatar. I am sorry, to a point, but I could not resist pointing out the 'play' in this exchange. I know, I'm a bad boy, but it was your 'picture'.

Please accept my apologies if I have offended you with my posts. It was not meant to offend. I am often much too blunt, as my wife of many years can attest. I will star you in the future, as I read your posts, exactly as outlined by SO, and never in a vindictive or derisive way. You have my word as a gentleman on that.

Lastly, I thank you for the offer of help with choosing an avatar. Your offer is most gracious. But until my son gets well enough to come instruct this old Neanderthal, I won't know how to put the damn thing up anyway. ( Now who's slow?)

Again, my apology and my thanks.

Peace.