A new way to thank our members who contribute consistent quality -- no ads!

reply to post by fooffstarr


One step at a time my son...

Or the old analogy... how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time...

They may have only removed the recognition, but they have a least seen that there is another side to this issue and I'm sure they are going to address the other issues when possible.

If not, then at least there is debate happening that allows for both side of the coin to be seen instead of denying that anyone is possibly against any policy ATS may bring forward.

This milestone that you would be pleased to display would have really meant little should it be shown that it is achieved by those that it was not intended to be displayed by. This meaning the people who don't want to have ads displayed.... I never thought that anyone would use this as an indication of some "elite' status... my big point was the loss of meaning to what we have come to show as a meaningful way to find the diamonds in the rough, or the worthy opponent to spar with in a debate amongst the threads.

Rational thinking...

Rgds

I for one flagged this thread... very worthy indeed as an indicator of good debate and thought.



[edit on 12-5-2009 by AllTiedTogether]

[edit on 12-5-2009 by AllTiedTogether]

and I've just noticed that I also have no ads on my screen. I have nowhere near the required amount that was put forward....

Could this be a show of something grander in the works from our illustrious ATS staff?

Surprises abound here...



[edit on 12-5-2009 by AllTiedTogether]

This is really neat to not have any advertising on my screen when here.

I love it. the site looks so clean and nice without dumb advertising. Now somehow ATS looks more "pure"

OK great now they're gone.

Sheesh.

See your mom warned you that if you kept playing with it you would break it!

Now it's broken

It should have been left alone but noooo you all had to snivel now nobody gets the shiny stuff.




[edit on 12-5-2009 by SLAYER69]

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

The intent was to give a kind of "nod from the owners" to the small percentage of members that produce attention-getting threads and posts.

Nod appreciated some ads are very distracting late at night...

But a badge not needed

Well I for one am really disappointed to see the badges of honor disappear again

Having a little badge or stripe of honor as a symbol of one's accomplishments can be a Great Motivator to keep producing quality day in day out. I'm sure that those who have achieved "Conspiracy Master" or "Forum Subject Matter Expert" wear their badges with pride - and if it were suddenly taken away from them, they would be extremely hurt and insulted. Right folks?

I don't belong to any of the cliques or gangs, I have no real friends on here, I know that - but you know what, I work HARD to earn my Flags, DAMN hard!!! And you know what, I was really looking forward to finally earning a little badge of honor in my profile to reflect that.

Now that I know I'll never see that badge, I'm a lot less motivated to work hard for the site and post quality threads - why the hell should I, when my work never gets acknowledged?

The owners said it themselves - it's THREADS that make it to the search engines and drive the whole site, not posts or applauses........

ATS should have a badge of honor for those members who work hard and go out of their way to produce great THREADS.

Now sure there's some potential for abuse here - but so what? We all know there are ways for people to exploit the system and rack up loads of Points, for example - but does that mean the points system should be done away with?

Please don't remove this wonderful badge of honor just because certain members whine and scream and complain for pages and pages and pages like damn babies, ATS!

reply to post by MajorDisaster


Wow so sad, but I have to say it does make some sense. If points aren't important why are they on the mini profile. People work hard to be writers and fighters etc and they are on the profiles. Why not those that are lucky enough to enter the "250 club"?

Threads are the only way to get flags, so I will never enter the club.... not for years and years at least. No problem but I could see who are the quality thread posters are from the 250 badge on their profiles and perhaps clicking on their profiles will lead me to some interesting threads.

reply to post by Blogstalker


That's a great point, Blog. If you implement a clickable badge of honor that goes directly to a member's THREAD list, that would be yet another great way for people to locate quality content as they're browsing

How about leg lamps?



[edit on 093131p://bTuesday2009 by Stormdancer777]

good idea
but I find 250 a small number though

should be more, like 1000/1000/1000 club

okay, so I have:

Flags: 1823
Stars: 3084
Post Count: 1,683


I'm assuming that i'm in this club... not sure
but if so, I can't see it in my profile page
you mean the member profile page right?

We're seeing democracy in action. Which means a lot of people have to accept things they don't necessarily agree with.

What I note is a large segment of the ATS community is hipped up on starring and flagging each other in a points gaining game. My assumption is they are generally younger, have more time on their hands, or attention-seeking. It's more about scoring high than learning. Someone who puts up and argues something on the culture of Grey aliens, 9/11 controlled demolition, Israel bashing, will get a lot of positive feedback.

Those of us with a more sober approach to questionable issues don't get the same enthusiasm. We also aren't here to get high marks, just discuss things.

So if points, stars, and flags mean anything, those who want to push an agenda with volition get rewarded. Not so much those who want to separate fact from fiction, information from disinformation.


Mike

reply to post by mmiichael

Someone who puts up and argues something on the culture of Grey aliens, 9/11 controlled demolition, Israel bashing, will get a lot of positive feedback.

Those are all important topics though. That is why they get more attention. Yes I agree about the "cliques" of point gatherers. For some it is like a game.

Originally posted by jkrog08
reply to post by mmiichael

 

Someone who puts up and argues something on the culture of Grey aliens, 9/11 controlled demolition, Israel bashing, will get a lot of positive feedback.

Those are all important topics though. That is why they get more attention. Yes I agree about the "cliques" of point gatherers. For some it is like a game.

in principle yes. But invariably those who push the most outrageous agenda driven claims get the most attention.

"I was kidnapped by aliens, here's my story" is more popular than "that video is a fake."

So in the end it becomes about fantasy fulfillment more than about the truth.
Increasing the numbers of discussions and participants but having a decline quality is not improvement.

This site attracts some really intelligent and serious minded people. But I think our voices increasing get lost in the attention-seeking and shouting matches.

Eventually we're just going to stop contributing. Maybe it's starting to happen already.



Mike

[edit on 12-5-2009 by mmiichael]

reply to post by mmiichael

Eventually we're just going to stop contributing. Maybe it's starting to happen already.

I sure hope not, that would be a grave loss.

There is just no way to avoid these:

A clique (IPA:/'kliːk/, pronounced /'klɪk/ by some Americans) is an exclusive group of people who share interests, views, purposes, patterns of behavior, or ethnicity.[1] A clique as a reference group can be either normative or comparative. Membership in a clique is often, but not necessarily, exclusive, and qualifications for membership may be social or essential to the nature of the clique. The term 'clique' may be used pejoratively.
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clique[wikipedia[/url]

The above is human nature and in social settings is hopelessly unavoidable.

There are cliques right here on ATS, they have been starring and flagging each other threads for as long as they have been here. They are not wrong for this, it's human nature and we humans can't help by acting human. You have the creation crowd, the evolution crowd, the 9/11 truthers, and the reptilians are our fearless overlords groups and many others. There is no getting away from this, and when something like this comes up, its human nature for us to try to help our friends to achieve this status symbol, because really this is all it was, something to be proud of, and most who had it was proud of it.

No matter which way the management goes, people are going to complain about it.

I would like to see it return, and it makes it easy to see who has paid there dues vs some one who joined the site to troll or with some sort of vendetta.

Plus it would motivate newer members to stay here on ATS for the long term, not just to join and post for a month then go on to another site.

BTW Im Very Much Guilty of helping a couple of members get some needed flags to be in the club. !!!!

reply to post by jkrog08


I think its obvious, if you offer a prize to someone that will get rid of something that they find to be a pain in their side they will attempt the feat. If you also leave a backdoor open so that some don't have to use the key and can just walk in, then that will happen. To make it worthy of being called someone that has used the key, you must not have a backdoor that is so easily accessible.

On a website like this, those numbers mean certain things to certain members. For some it isn't a status symbol and just allows them more freedom. Whatever the reason, preventing abuse by not providing an avenue to do it will keep the quality up and also prevent you from obtaining a symbol of quality that someone can attain with little to no work. Making it a valued symbol of your membership.

Rgds

Originally posted by jkrog08
reply to post by mmiichael

 

Eventually we're just going to stop contributing. Maybe it's starting to happen already.

I sure hope not, that would be a grave loss.

You'll see it happening more and more.

The generous fair-minded site owners, God bless 'em, have a business to run.

Quantity and quality have to be weighed. No easy answers.

You have to decide when writing a book, are you just going for a mass market bestseller or something reviewers and smart people will think is great.

Myself I'd rather see the noise discouraged and the signal strengthened around here.

I want my friends to be able to look at stuff discussed here without rolling their eyes when they go to the front page and dip inside.

But it's not up to me to decide how things are run.


Mike

Originally posted by AllTiedTogether
On a website like this, those numbers mean certain things to certain members. For some it isn't a status symbol and just allows them more freedom. Whatever the reason, preventing abuse by not providing an avenue to do it will keep the quality up and also prevent you from obtaining a symbol of quality that someone can attain with little to no work. Making it a valued symbol of your membership.
Rgds

Well this was discussed before and settled.
linky

Originally posted by Nygdan

Originally posted by Implosion
Simple question: Would it be considered poor form to flag one's own thread?

Heck no. Consider that we have thousands of people viewing these pages. One flag won't make a critical difference.

[edit on 12-5-2009 by SLAYER69]

reply to post by LDragonFire


It happens all the time...

I also have gone to a thread and without reading have starred all the posts that had been speaking for "my side". This happens all the time in certain threads, like the chemtrail ones. You will find the gangs that will do the same on the other side... that's why I went and did it... it was and is obvious that these 'cliques' will do that to all the posts from their buddies.... I've mentioned this several times that in chemtrail threads you will usually find that the ones with the stars are the ones that you shouldn't be reading because they were only starred by the group that is assigned to that thread.

Is this wrong? Yes, in a way. Will it change? No... that backdoor is left open and their will be those that use it to their advantage..... You will find those that even have the years and points up there are also doing the same. This has developed into a way of using it to your advantage and having your point, or groups point, pushed to the forefront.

The answer is to not provide a loop hole for those that would use it. If its there and others are using it without repercussions then more will also use it to be equal to those that are using it.

IMHO