Voting for yourself through new accounts. My suspicions.
Since I've started playing around in the contests adding this and that, I see people with an outstanding number of votes, but a pitiful amount of page views. I get the suspicion that said people are creating new accounts and voting for themselves. How do I come about this you ask? I can't say for sure, but when I see someones page who has a ton of feedback from peoples accounts that were created within the contest period, it seems a little fishy. I think that the person enters said instructable, makes more accounts, and while he's going to vote for himself, leaves some nice feedback to try and incourage others to vote. Because when I see a page full of feedback from accounts created in the last 4 days, I get a little paranoid.
So seriously people, DO NOT DO THIS, don't go and vote for yourself. It's not cool, and nobody likes when people do it. It messes with contests and peoples instructables who honestly would have won, may not because some jerk gives himself votes through his accounts.
Let me know what you guys think, and lets try to figure out a way of keeping this from happening, because I don't want it ruining a perfectly good contest.
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Mar 22, 2008. 2:57 AMchooseausername
says:
Also, some peoples have a lot of friends, and ask them to register on a site just to help them to win a contest ........
Most of the time, those "new members" don't come back again.
Personally, I don't understand why some peoples feel the need to absolutely win ...
Maybe I should feel sorry for them ? Maybe their life is so unfair that they want a revenge ? Or are they so much used to be winners that they're afraid to lose and fail ? I don't know ...
I just don't participate to contests anymore : Even when you're aware you have no chance to win, there is no fun when you compete against a Marion Jones.
Most of the time, those "new members" don't come back again.
Personally, I don't understand why some peoples feel the need to absolutely win ...
Maybe I should feel sorry for them ? Maybe their life is so unfair that they want a revenge ? Or are they so much used to be winners that they're afraid to lose and fail ? I don't know ...
I just don't participate to contests anymore : Even when you're aware you have no chance to win, there is no fun when you compete against a Marion Jones.
Jan 17, 2009. 10:18 PMpurduecer
says:
Agreed, I don't bother to participate in contests (unless I happen to already have something out or am developing something that is relevant for the contest). It's just not possible, as a very busy college student, to compete against the old folks and high schoolers with endless free time.
Jan 18, 2009. 9:36 AMFaqMan
says:
I hear ya there also when ya have no money to build items is a hasel to.
Contest prizes aren't awarded based on votes, ratings, or views. Winners are picked by real people. The judges wouldn't award a prize just because it has high votes, even if the votes looked totally genuine.
100 views, 40 ratings and 25 votes, wouldn't win a prize based on those numbers. Judges can pick out the obvious fakes. I think they might still give it a prize though it if is really great, and fits the contest perfectly.
Maybe the author of the Instructable didn't even know about the cheating. It could have been:
1. That weird boy at school who always carries a bottle of Listerine, and stares at you "When she wins, I'll tell her I did it. She'll give me a hug, and I can smell her hair."
2. An overzealous fan "It has to win, there was a Jonas Brothers poster in one of the photos!"
3. Your little brother "I'll hide the prize under my bed, and tell him the dog buried it in the woods."
4. Your Dad "The little monster cried for a week last time, and I had to buy him the Arduino Duemilanove. I'm not going to let that happen again."
5. Your Wife "If he wins, he will play with his prize, and I can finally check my email."
In the Halloween contest I had the highest number of votes, most views, and highest rating (plasmana had a higher rating but unfortunately he isn't in the US), but I didn't win either of the Grand Prizes.
It was pretty obvious I didn't rig it. The views came from at least 20 different countries, I'd guess the votes and ratings were also scattered pretty widely. The comments are obviously real; they are really short, and my replies are way too long - that's solid proof right there.
I legitimately had higher numbers than the Grand Prize winners, but I fit the Food Category best, so that's where they placed me. It was the right decision (darn it) made by real people not numbers.
I also have a theory that ratings and votes can differ, because of the kind of audience the Instructable attracts. Examples:
1. DIY project - audience: older woodworkers = low rating ratio, low votes, fewer comments; because they want to build the project first, then rate, vote, and tell you how much better theirs turned out.
2. Knex project - audience: teen boys = high rating ratio, high number of votes, and hundreds of comments; because they always have an opinion, and you can't shut them up.
JUST KIDDING - it's obviously hard to shut me up and I'm over 40, and what are you reading? My opinion.
I do think sometimes they might rate and vote just because it looks cool, and they really have fun sharing jokes and ideas (like me).
The ratings per view ratio on 3 of my Instructables:
Make Your Own Soda: 17,222 views / 9 ratings = .0005% ratings per view.
Gummi Legos: 84,420 views / 80 ratings = .0947%
Finger Loop Braids: 29,183 views / 18 ratings = .0617%
Gummi Legos - Young Tech audience - higher ratio, higher votes
Making Soda - Parents - lower ratio, lower votes
Just my theories.
Keep entering the contests. If you have the best Instructable for that contest you will probably come out on top, no matter what the ratings and votes are.
I don't envy Fungus Amungus dealing with all of these statistics. I think they are fun but have no idea how you would come to a solid conclusion from them.
100 views, 40 ratings and 25 votes, wouldn't win a prize based on those numbers. Judges can pick out the obvious fakes. I think they might still give it a prize though it if is really great, and fits the contest perfectly.
Maybe the author of the Instructable didn't even know about the cheating. It could have been:
1. That weird boy at school who always carries a bottle of Listerine, and stares at you "When she wins, I'll tell her I did it. She'll give me a hug, and I can smell her hair."
2. An overzealous fan "It has to win, there was a Jonas Brothers poster in one of the photos!"
3. Your little brother "I'll hide the prize under my bed, and tell him the dog buried it in the woods."
4. Your Dad "The little monster cried for a week last time, and I had to buy him the Arduino Duemilanove. I'm not going to let that happen again."
5. Your Wife "If he wins, he will play with his prize, and I can finally check my email."
In the Halloween contest I had the highest number of votes, most views, and highest rating (plasmana had a higher rating but unfortunately he isn't in the US), but I didn't win either of the Grand Prizes.
It was pretty obvious I didn't rig it. The views came from at least 20 different countries, I'd guess the votes and ratings were also scattered pretty widely. The comments are obviously real; they are really short, and my replies are way too long - that's solid proof right there.
I legitimately had higher numbers than the Grand Prize winners, but I fit the Food Category best, so that's where they placed me. It was the right decision (darn it) made by real people not numbers.
I also have a theory that ratings and votes can differ, because of the kind of audience the Instructable attracts. Examples:
1. DIY project - audience: older woodworkers = low rating ratio, low votes, fewer comments; because they want to build the project first, then rate, vote, and tell you how much better theirs turned out.
2. Knex project - audience: teen boys = high rating ratio, high number of votes, and hundreds of comments; because they always have an opinion, and you can't shut them up.
JUST KIDDING - it's obviously hard to shut me up and I'm over 40, and what are you reading? My opinion.
I do think sometimes they might rate and vote just because it looks cool, and they really have fun sharing jokes and ideas (like me).
The ratings per view ratio on 3 of my Instructables:
Make Your Own Soda: 17,222 views / 9 ratings = .0005% ratings per view.
Gummi Legos: 84,420 views / 80 ratings = .0947%
Finger Loop Braids: 29,183 views / 18 ratings = .0617%
Gummi Legos - Young Tech audience - higher ratio, higher votes
Making Soda - Parents - lower ratio, lower votes
Just my theories.
Keep entering the contests. If you have the best Instructable for that contest you will probably come out on top, no matter what the ratings and votes are.
I don't envy Fungus Amungus dealing with all of these statistics. I think they are fun but have no idea how you would come to a solid conclusion from them.
That's a pretty fair summary. One thing though, certain schools and businesses will show same IP adress, no matter who uses them. Also, I know of at least three families with multiple iblers, so that could look fishy too.
Nov 13, 2008. 11:27 AMDerin
says:
There should be a way to block the email after they use it once.That would do the trick,but there is a way around that,too.I'm not telling!
Mar 21, 2008. 7:07 PMguyfrom7up
says:
yeah, something needs to be fixed about this, whenever I first came here I was tempted about this, but I wsaw another instructable get busted for that so I didn't do it.
Mar 21, 2008. 7:08 PMtech-king
says:
although i dont think it would be against the rules, skunks are not welcome at picnics
Mar 21, 2008. 7:12 PMguyfrom7up
says:
maybe people should have like at least 100 posts or something to get voting privilages for contests. Or post at least 1 instructable or something like that
Mar 22, 2008. 4:33 AMtech-king
says:
i like the first idea of helping out on the forums. just remeber, we already have an expert in just about every field though.
No, we'd just end up with someone posting something like "Sufferin' Succotash" one hundred times.
Mar 22, 2008. 5:09 AMLabot2001
says:
Tool Using Animal and fungus amungus were discussing this the other day on a contest forum. Fungus assured us that Instructables has ways of detecting this. If you're noticing it, you should bring it to his attention to help out.
Mar 21, 2008. 5:36 PMdsman195276
says:
check the ip address of the accounts. admins should be able to do that, they probely would have made them at the same time and with the same ip. also they would need lots of email address.
Mar 21, 2008. 5:49 PMGunk on Floor (author)
says:
ahh, the magic of yahoo. Multiple addresses, multiple accounts. I just don't want things to become unfair to the point of no return.
Mar 21, 2008. 5:53 PMdsman195276
says:
yea, but most of them will probely be around the same. lets just look at the names of the commenters and see if we can find anything in common.
Mar 21, 2008. 6:02 PMGunk on Floor (author)
says:
also look at the dates, because there would have been no need to make so many accounts at any other time. So most of the dates of creation should be within the same couple of days.
Mar 21, 2008. 9:14 PMGunk on Floor (author)
says:
I would rather not say who, but one of the top competitors on the pocket contest.
With hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc and etc. out there the email thing isn't hard. Someone on dialup could also have a "range" of IP's.
...I don't want it ruining a perfectly good contest.
Nor do we want it to ruin the fact we even have contests. I mean, I have a heap of things I want to post, contests or no, but it sure helps to get more instructables out there in the fray. :-)
Nor do we want it to ruin the fact we even have contests. I mean, I have a heap of things I want to post, contests or no, but it sure helps to get more instructables out there in the fray. :-)
Mar 21, 2008. 6:51 PMtech-king
says:
i know. i actually am working on one for the Christmastime instructables contest, and i think its a winner. not just because i have 24 hotmail accounts though j/k.
I actually DO have 4 gmail accounts (only one used here though), one for techie stuff, one for personal stuff (relatives etc.), one for health related stuff, one for my white hat persona. It is too confusing having all the stuff I get that is legit, all in one gmail account.
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