Something on the lines of anti-"star and flag"

Two quick questions/suggestions...

1. Is there a way to "take back" a star and/or a flag? Say...someone starts a thread, you find it interesting/important, so you give it a "s&f" but later it is debunked. Especially in cases where the OP is proven to be an intentional hoax/troublemaker, etc.

2. Is there anything that can be used to mark a thread down? Flags, from what I understand, mark a topic as important, and stars give credit to the poster. But plenty o' times I've seen threads which appear in the "popular" topics thingy where the post is pure rubbish, but it is there simply because there are a number of posts, more or less saying the same thing--how the thread is rubbish. So, is there any way to give a "thumbs down" to a thread, so as to prevent it from getting to the front page, so as to create space for the more thought-provoking threads?

Thanks!

reply to post by Arrius



One persons rubbish is anothers treasure.
I would have starred this thread but can't so I gave you a flag instead

reply to post by Arrius


I've seen an instance where the the OP turned out to be an intentional hoaxer... Well all the stars and flags didn't matter for more than a day until it was discovered. You don't intentionally hoax here and get to keep your login. I have that on good authority.

As far as taking back the stars and flags I would just be more careful as to when you give them out if it matters to you. I often don't flag a post until I've participated in it for a bit and have seen further evidence that it was worthwhile. I'm all for minimizing complexity on ATS and being able to remove stars and flags is one more function to suck up bandwidth and slow the site down which wouldn't be necessary to the utility of the site.

Ahh but the Anti-Flag / Star I really like that idea. It think it would add to the site. If you can flag it as good and worth praise you should also be able to flag it as that you disagree. I think disagreement and opposing viewpoints are part of what makes this site fantastic. And if a person can agree without saying a word a person should also be able to disagree without saying a word. It might also cut down on superfluous "I think you're stupid" type posts because you can say it automatically and politely with an anti-star.

I would use anti stars and flags to contribute to points and a members standing because getting people going without violating T&Cs is part of what its all about and definitely adds value.

We've discussed this issue many times here. The conclusion has always been (so far) that negative feedback, which is essentially what you are asking for, would result in people marking down posts and threads simply because they disagree with the contents. So if someone advocated abortion, for example, and others think abortion is wrong, the thread/post would be marked down for political reasons.

You DO have some choice here. If you don't like a thread/post, don't give it a star or flag. You will notice that threads which most people disagree with get few flags and stars. There's one on here now by some guy who wants blasphemy laws reinstated. Needless to say, he did not get a good reception and very few sytars & flags. Over time a poster will gain a reputation which you can discern by taking a look at the various indices available. I am not in favor of star and flag "seekers" and I dare say few people do that. it's just a trend indicator you can use to assess the overall rep of a member.

If you don't like a post, don't read it.

Give your stars and flags to only those that deserve your personal praise for their contribution.

To paraphrase a Colonel of mine when in the military:

You can't take back the medal from someone who saved your life because later on he did something stupid and got someone killed.

I think if you give a star or a flag it should stay there, however I would like to see some sort of demerit system.

For instance the site has all these people chasing stars and flags, therefore if you start a duplicate thread about a topic that is already been discusses, then the users should have stars taken away from them as they were to lazy to search and see if there was already a thread posted.

reply to post by Arrius

Two quick questions/suggestions...

1. Is there a way to "take back" a star and/or a flag? Say...someone starts a thread, you find it interesting/important, so you give it a "s&f" but later it is debunked. Especially in cases where the OP is proven to be an intentional hoax/troublemaker, etc.

I say absolutely not. At one point, you thought the thread was interesting enough to rate a s&f,, but then later on you want to take them back?

Well, maybe you should have done more research before you gave out the s&f to begin with. Don't be so hasty to say you like something. It sounds like you were embarrassed at being snookered. However, that's how we live and learn...

2. Is there anything that can be used to mark a thread down? Flags, from what I understand, mark a topic as important, and stars give credit to the poster. But plenty o' times I've seen threads which appear in the "popular" topics thingy where the post is pure rubbish, but it is there simply because there are a number of posts, more or less saying the same thing--how the thread is rubbish. So, is there any way to give a "thumbs down" to a thread, so as to prevent it from getting to the front page, so as to create space for the more thought-provoking threads?

A better idea would be for a thread to be ranked by more than the number of replies. Maybe number of replies + number of flags&stars or something.

On the other hand marking out the 'hoax elements' of a thread can be considered important also.

I'd like to see a method that identifies a star/flag with it's donor.

There is a certain author who has more s/f's than anyone else. He gets mongo amounts for his initial post, then for his summary reply. And his threads are nothing special. It's like he has a posse of admirers that just follow him around, waiting for him to post, so they can star him. The guy reminds me of Ferris Bueller.

I'd like to know what that is all about. Id'ing stars and flags would help me to understand that.

Originally posted by tsawyer2
If you don't like a post, don't read it.

Give your stars and flags to only those that deserve your personal praise for their contribution.

To paraphrase a Colonel of mine when in the military:

You can't take back the medal from someone who saved your life because later on he did something stupid and got someone killed.

edit on 1-3-2011 by tsawyer2 because: content

Excellent way to put it : ) i would give you a star if i could