TOTM cheat prevention: votes from totally new registered users not counted

[whd]

TOTM votes can be and are manipulated with new registered (fake) users. It's silly for a fun only race, but I followed the votes and it was pretty clear cheated. A not so complicated change would prevent this.

I suggest to make the roule, that voters have to be registered for more than a month to be able to vote.
The solution in the SW would be: if somebody submits his/her vote, the system checks, if the register date is older than one month, before checking in. All voters, which are newer than one month, shall not be counted.

Since my tease was nominated for TOTM, I followed the race, despite it was clear from the beginning, that my beta release would not win.

At first, the votes were logical. The tease which is played most and with the best ranking note was first, my tease with second high played number and second ranking was second and the third in this list was third.

But strangely, this changed. If you compare the late voting numbers, you would see, that my tease got almost none and the other teases got almost half of the votes in the second half of the month.

It is totally unlogical, that there are so many votes that late. If somebody as third party (user with no connection to the tease writer) votes, who would do this that late. If you are interested in voting, you do it in the first two weeks and then you are done, would be much more logical.

What's my conlcusion: the voting system does not work. There are many votes (in %), who are fake votes. I guess, that these are voters, who register one day and vote the next or the very same day when they are registered.

I would prefer the roule, that voters have to be registered for more than a month to be able to vote. All voters, which are newer than one month, are not counted.

In contradiction: if somebody encourages to vote, I would not forfeit them, since encouraging is only a recommendation and not a fake vote itself. This roule may prevent from tons of forum entries only to encourage in voting. But it does not prevent from cheating.

[ostermanblue2]

You created an innovative and truly fun tease, and I hope the nomination helped attract a lot of players to experience such a well crafted experience. Sorry to hear there were some circumstances around the voting that gave you concern, and I hope the site leaders give it serious thought.

[indyc]

Oh boy... I'm glad someone else said something about it because I wasn't sure how it would sound if I raised a flag despite wanting to.

Though I cannot guarantee anything, it totally seemed like vote manipulation. Voting looked far more "expected" in the first few days. The winning tease only raced forward midway through the month and won in the very last day of the entire competition and had more votes than actual tease rating votes. In a normal world I would expect Monopoly Of Teases to get first or second. Board game teases has historically performed quite well.

While TOTM doesn't mean the world, it is the main source of views for teases. A way for small creators to break through and a way for people like me to get new people in my community. I made two separate posts to my community that I was nominated and this is where you can vote. (On the first day and towards the end of the race when I saw the winning tease gathering momentum) I assure you I never created any alternate accounts nor requested any of my community to do so.

Even if it was determined that something fishy went on PLEASE no one rate bomb anything.

[kerkersklave]

Well, it is a theory but not proof. I guess the forum system stores which users vote and creation of users is invite only, so it is also possible to check whether they are connected. So it would be possible to investigate this. Before accusing anybody of anything, this has to be done.

All three teases are quite complex teases, so they all probably have some dedicated fans. Also, people do not come here daily, so yeah, more regular visitors might vote at the start of the month, but others vote at some point later, or they might only vote, when they see that a option is winning that they do not like.

The three top teases all have aspects, that clearly make them quite popular. But they are also all very different. I personally liked Foot Zone and Monopoly, I don't remember which I voted for. I liked Foot Zone for the teasing and Monopoly for the Game and its mechanics, but it was unfinished. Keystroke has grate mechanics but not stroking, so it isn't for me. Now if a lot of people should feel like that, they might at first be unsure how to vote, but once keystroke picks up they vote for the finished tease. And once there are two clear runners it motivates even more people to vote. So there are realistic scenarios how this could happen.

The total vote count is very high, but then even without the winning tease it would be on the higher end of historic vote counts, so its not enough to be suspicious on its own.

[I'mASoleMan]

Well, that's a shame. I'd much rather have had a real bronze than a fake gold, so to speak. Someone must like feet even more than I do if they want to vote spam my tease, but it doesn't make me happy. I wasn't keeping up with the votes on the poll, so I can't say if I saw anything happen, but my basic, bare-bones foot tease that didn't even have metronomes for a few weeks beating indyc's Keystroke and whd's Monopoly adaptation does seem fishy.

Also, I'm just clarifying that I didn't orchestrate any of this, just to be clear.

[whd]

Thanks for your thoughts on the subject. It was interesting to read.

To me, it was clear, that a such unfinished tease as mine has no chance. Hence I thought, it is also certain, that my suggestion was not to my advantage. It was only because the race looked really fishy and I find the TOTM race fun and interesting to look at. How do others rate teases in comparison? But this question can only be answered, if there is no easy possibility to bomb rate.

The thoughts from kerkerslave are reasonable. This would explain quite a few effects, which looked fishy in the first place.

But I still really wonder, what the ranking system would be if my suggestion would have been implemented. How many votes were there with users, which are registered before december? is it the same number?

But I clearly understand, if nobody checks this. TOTM is a fun race. What's the hassle to spend time to investigate such questions? Since it's not my time, I am neither disappointed nor do I expect anybody to investigate. I just state, that I would really wonder, what the suggestion would impact.

[ritewriter]

That was an interesting read in light of the voting pattern for this month's competition.