Flagging? Noob question

I am new to online forums. Spend most of my time just reading and searching for answers to my random questions or subjects of interest.

Recently started posting on AboveTopSecret and cant seem to figure out what it means when someone flags my threads.

I know it is kind of a noob question but anything would be useful.
Thanks!

People Flag which gives points sorta to move the topic to the front page. People flag for many reasons and I think a majority use flags to push their own agenda items to the front page.

I rarely see a well articulated research article receive many flags it is usually the thread that is a shocking subject thread that gets the most flags.

To the right of the flag button is a question mark which states according to ATS.....

Flagging enables you to signify that you feel this is an important thread. The more flags a thread receives, the higher its "status" as compared to other threads, and the more likely it is to appear on the site home page and forum summary pages. Top-flagged threads for the week also go out in our weekly email newsletter.

...This is why you are supposed to flag

Also underneath the flag button is a link that says "Why Flag" Which will take you to this thread explaining flagging.

Hope this helps.

[edit on 4-3-2010 by Rising Against]

Well i flag a post if the person who created it has put a lot of effort and research into it, even if it's a subject i might not be interested in.

I also flag if i feel it's an interesting subject matter, which more people would probably want to read.

reply to post by Kram09


Is the effort and research relevant to the thread they discuss? Did you read all that was provided in order to form an idea as to how worthy the entire thread is for flagging?

I see many threads that get flagged a heck of a lot, yet sometimes I am left wondering why they draw so much attention.

There is a couple right now that are active and, IMO, are a bit of a far stretch, although not impossible.. but I felt they were not really worthy of the many flags they have received...

It has nothing to do with if I agree or not regarding their topics... the topics themselves just seem a bit daft at times..

It's funny how the world works..