How to Manipulate Stars and Flags on Above Top Secret

I posted previously on how it was blatantly obvious that ATS was manipulating their own flag system for the benefit of their disinformation YouTube videos.  This article can be found here:  http://atsisdisinfo.blogspot.com/2014/09/example-of-ats-manipulating-flag-system.html

Encyclopedia Dramatica details how the star and flag system can also be manipulated by anyone else using a glitch with the IMG tag in signatures:

Easy CSRF Hack = Unlimited Stars and Flags

ATS is a custom coded site that has numerous gaping CSRF vulnerabilities. One of which easily allows you to nigger as many stars and flags as you want. All you need to do is star your own post, then copy the URL that appears in the address bar, and paste it into an [IMG] tag in your signature. Your sig will contain what looks like a broken image, but everyone who views your post will automatically be "starring" the post you linked to in the tag. Watch as your star count goes up by thousands in no time! You can also use this to get an insane amount of flags for your thread, and even unflag other members' threads that you disagree with!
Lots of members do this, but the mods are entirely oblivious to it because they are morons.

https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Above_Top_Secret

Top ATS Poster Banned and His Home Broken Into

This comes from Protoplasmic Traveler, as he posted here: http://www.protoplasmictraveler.net/smf/index.php/topic,243.0.html

Protoplasmic Traveler's story not only indicates how much disconnect there is between the ATS staff's stated values and their actions, but how it can even be dangerous to a person's property and well-being to become prominent and outspoken in the ATS community.

He explains his story in his own words, emphasis my own:

    As many if not all of you know up until a couple months ago I was the number one ranked poster of all time on the Way Above Top Secret List on ATS.

    That was until I was banned from the site.

    Up until recently the initial members of ProtoplasmicTraveler.net for the most part have all been friends and confidants, in other words people I have been in private communication with both before my banning from ATS and after my banning from ATS.

    I have discussed with them privately the circumstances of both my banning and the break in to my home and tampering with my computer by what appears to be a shadowy international network.

    More recently a few new members here who don’t know me all that well or well at all have some questions, questions mainly related to the gossip related to the attempted smear campaign by ATS in the wake of my banning in what I would typify as a wrong and misguided attempt to explain the banning in a way that would benefit ATS.

    First I want to state very clearly a break in to my home actually occurred and my computer actually was tampered with and it was absolutely a result of my posting and what I posted on ATS.

    I know this for a fact because it was a fellow ATS Member who both lured me out of my home when the break in occurred and later admitted that my home was broken into and my computer was in fact tampered with as a direct result of him being able to lure me out of my home, so my home and computer would be available for that purpose in my absence.

    This is absolutely no joke and I shutter to think what might have happened had I not actually taken the bait and been at home when the break in occurred. I very well might be six feet under right now, or in jail for putting some one else six feet under for trying to intrude into my home during the wee hours of the morning.

    Regarding the rumor that Bill Irvine and a few members started that I admitted that the whole “Charmed Life Thread” and the events were a hoax: That is an absolute bold faced and shameless lie, one statement I had made as part of a side bar debate with a member to prove a point about that member’s debating style was immediately seized upon by Bill Irvine and taken out of context and purposefully misconstrued so he could declare the thread not a hoax but a farce and attempt to justify my immediate banning.

    First let me say that I had absolutely no reason to do such thing. I simply had nothing to gain by doing such a thing, not only was I already the number one poster of all time, but I had such a large lead over the next closest member there would be absolutely no reason for me to bring a false story to the boards, let alone one about me, let alone one that was such a political hot potato.

    Second I was not given the chance to defend the slander over the out of context comment and how it was being misconstrued because I was immediately and I do mean immediately banned the minute it was seized upon by Bill Irvine.

    In other words Skeptic Overlord was following the thread post by post looking for any reason to shut it down.

    Why? Well, it’s pretty simple my home really was broken into as a result of my posting and what I post on ATS and my computer really tampered with. Boondock-Saint made a similar disclosure with some proof during the thread, and the mystery surrounding Dimensional Detective the former WATS number one poster who suddenly stopped posting without explanation and asked that his WATS Listing be stricken from the list has not been explained honestly or fully by any owner or staff member of ATS let alone by Dimensional Detective.

    In other words the disclosure of what happened to me was simply a public relations and advertising nightmare.

    If people knew and believed that select top posters on ATS are really being targeted and they really are, real time, in the real world, by a real determined organization prepared to break the law to reach it’s goals ATS membership and advertising would all potentially be at jeopardy.

    Here are some things for people to consider regarding my banning.

    First is I placed the thread in the Gray Area a Board for Member Personal Stories (what I disclosed was a personal story about what really happened to me) and that the Board requires little to no proof (I actually provided much more proof for a gray area thread than hardly anyone does, including videos, pictures, and testimony of people on video tape that my home really was broken into and my computer really tampered with). In other words not only is against ATS’s own Terms of Service to Hoax a Gray Area thread it went above and beyond that by then closing the thread and moving it to BTS to a newly created category just for the thread “A Farce on ATS and it’s Members”.

    Why was the thread closed? The reason is why the next day when I realized ATS was going to misconstrue everything and slander me for the sake of it’s own reputation and advertising revenue I contacted them and threatened a law suit if all such slanders were not immediately stricken from the board.

    I remained in Private Contact with Bill Irvine off and on for the better part of two weeks and the fact is that he knows the thread was not a hoax, and it was not a farce, and not only has he stated privately to me that a crime occurred but also banned the member Tristar who lured me out of my house so the break in could occur unmolested by me.

    So why would Bill Irvine ban this other member with 48 hours of launching his own investigation to the Charmed Life Thread if he believed I made up the whole story to hoax or farce ATS? Answer: He wouldn’t.

    Bottom line because the conspiracy originated on ATS and I made it clear I was going to talk about it on ATS and investigate who and all on ATS that might be involved Bill Irvine simply did not want me on the site anymore.

    A business related decision that is his to make as the business owner, however one that really does not work with the “deny ignorance” motto of the site, or its conspiracy related content or membership.

    In addition a post made to my YouTube account responding to one of the videos I shot and posted there about the break in has a comment from a YouTube member who stated that “this is how a well executed psychological operation against a target is conducted, give them the right bait, sit back and watch the whole thing unfold”

    That wasn’t an observation of someone, that was someone gloating. In this case a YouTube member named Tangento1, who at the same time wrote me privately through YouTube from an account that has existed for years without so much as one Video on it, and all but admitted he was Tristar and invited me to connect with him on Facebook to learn more giving me their account name there. In other words this person is simply all over the Internet.

    The Charmed Life Saga very much continues as within a couple days of launching this site I receive an ominous email regarding it from yet another ATS member of shadowy connections and reputation disclosing a lot of personal inside information about the plot against me, and as usual some coded and cryptic warnings and disclosures, signaling that while I may be off of ATS I am not off the radar.

    If they are to be believed the whole plot against me was designed to either frighten me off the internet or ideally become a paid shill for their own causes.

    I have chosen neither of the above and refuse to be run off the internet or to sacrifice my values, principles and code simply for money or security.

    Where that all leads to, I can not say.

    While I know a bit more today about some of the people involved in the plot to get me off of ATS, break into my home and tamper with my computer and to attempt to run a psychological operation on me, I still do not know the exact make up or origin of this organization and who and what all they may or may not be connected to and may never know.

    I also know that people have to make up their own minds in regards to any event that they hear about in life and it’s impossible to control what other people decide and think. I do know that these events are very real and have really affected me in the most personal way. While many people who followed along with the thread on ATS did so for infotainment reasons or part of some self serving agenda this is all a very real part of my life now that doesn’t stop being real for me because some one not effected by it chooses to disbelieve me or believes me. It simply is what it is.

    A lot of people have concerns about ATS and some of its policies and actions, and its own possible connections to other organizations. This site though wasn’t founded as a bash ATS site, but as a place for me to continue my Internet Writings and to share them freely with others over the Internet without having to any longer have worries about someone else having editorial control or the ability to censor those writings or me.

    I’m happy to answer questions about the Charmed Life thread and what all I know, but the main purpose of this first post in the new Proto’s Place Forum was and is to set the record straight for those who don’t know me so well or hardly at all.

    Thanks,

    Thomas

Septic Overlord Forced to Admit Having Sock-Puppet Accounts by a Mod

The insanemedia.net article reminds us of a moment in the early history of ATS (2003), when SepticOverlord was posting in the same thread with a sock puppet account, and was called out on it by a super moderator, DJDOHBOY.

The sock puppet account username was (and still is) simply "William."  This account now is labelled "SkepticOverlord" in the mini-profile to show that yes, this is a sock-puppet account, though at the time of this exchange it's obvious from the context that Septic had not yet admitted this and even seems to have hesitated on trying to hide it.

There was also another username SkepticOverlord used, now deleted, exposed by a Supermoderator:

William (aka Supreme Skeptic Overlord)

Registered: 3-7-2002
Location Manhattan
Member Is Offline
Mood: eh

SkepticOverlord

Registered: 3-7-2002
Location Manhattan
Member Is Offline
Mood: eh

William posted on this thread:
posted on 25-11-2003 at 19:48

SkepticOverlord posted on this thread:
posted on 25-11-2003 at 19:49

Let’s read the interesting response the Site Owner revealed in this thread:

SO:“Then you haven’t seen both me and William in ATS chat. Nice try Columbo!”

MOD [DJDOHBOY]:“Columbo says: “if you had a laptop and a desktop computer next to each other and logged into different accounts on both you could chat to yourself in ATS chat”

SO:“Or… If I had a laptop that ran Mac OSX, Mac Classic, X-Windows, and Windows XP all at once (I do), there’s lots I could do“

There was also another username SkepticOverlord used, now deleted, exposed by a Supermoderator:
William (aka Supreme Skeptic Overlord)
Registered: 3-7-2002
Location Manhattan
Member Is Offline
Mood: eh
SkepticOverlord
Registered: 3-7-2002
Location Manhattan
Member Is Offline
Mood: eh
William posted on this thread:
posted on 25-11-2003 at 19:48
SkepticOverlord posted on this thread:
posted on 25-11-2003 at 19:49
Let’s read the interesting response the Site Owner revealed in this thread:
SO:“Then you haven’t seen both me and William in ATS chat. Nice try Columbo!”
MOD:“Columbo says: “if you had a laptop and a desktop computer next to each other and logged into different accounts on both you could chat to yourself in ATS chat”
SO:“Or… If I had a laptop that ran Mac OSX, Mac Classic, X-Windows, and Windows XP all at once (I do), there’s lots I could do“
- See more at: http://www.insanemedia.net/ats-exposed-above-top-secret-censors-sandy-hook-cointelpro/442#sthash.UNTbFuKb.dpuf