02-01-12 – Go Out and Get Some Strange

LOL! Congarats Yoyo. I was really pleased with how I did this week too even if I didn’t win. I really need to get out and do the street photography thing more often.

And now for a bit of mystery tinged with controversy. Last night between the 11:30pm and 11:45pm (Farkistan time) scans, 85 votes were removed. For those who may not have noticed, when Fark moved to the Best and Funny voting system, it also turned the vote buttons into toggles, so even long after you’ved voted for an entry, you can come back any time before the contest closes and remove your vote.

You can see it in the voting charts; at 11:30 there were 1449 total votes and at 11:45 there were 1367. But that’s only 82 votes difference, those math whizzes among you are saying, and you’re right, but that reflects 85 votes removed and 3 votes added. Yes, the 3 votes added all went to the same person and I’m not naming names because A) I have no idea if this is the result of a glitch in the voting system, an intentional attempt at manipulation, or just merely coincidence; B) I don’t want to muddy the otherwise friendly waters here; and C) even if intentional, there’s nothing technically illegal about it per the current voting system.

So I did some research to see if this has happened before since moving to the new system. It happened twice to two people during contest #347, 3 times to two people during contest #349, twice to the same person in contest #350, 7 times to three people in contest #351, and of course 85 times across almost everyone in this contest, #352.

Is it an attempt by someone(s) to manipulate the contests? Is it a glitch on Fark’s side? Is it just an absent minded voter who forgot they already voted and isn’t paying attention to that fact that they’re now unvoting instead of voting again? Who knows.

What I do know is that it’s possible, and like I said even legal technically, to cast votes for everyone early in the contest and then come back later at the end of the contest and selectively unvote. What I also know is that I absolutely do not care for this feature of the new voting system, even above and beyond the issue of Funny votes vs Best votes.

Thanks y’all.

I have two pretty good ones for the coming week but I saw a preview one of rav’s and I think he’s bringin’ the stuff. I look forward to what is created.

Congrats to U-Man on the sweep of both individual and combined. The Weekly Reports post has been updated with the latest stats.

Congrats Yoyo on the funny win and to loki on your overall performance. That’s your best combined finish in a while, and here you were just recently feeling down about your entries! Even tho the Love Life guy placed ahead, my favorite was the cowboy.

Yeah I really love that Cowboy shot also. Thanks.

Interesting. I think that’s about the same time that I voted, but I swear it wasn’t me. I’m sure your data could probably identify involved parties, both gaining and losing, but I’d rather not know names at this point. Just another reason to go back to the old ways before we become farkbook.

CISS, I initially missed your message to which orionid refers. I don’t want to know either – but if the data over the several themes point to a single person upvoting at the general time that others are getting down voted perhaps a Private Message to that person would help. I don’t think you can absolutely prove anything. And I’m not asking you to be a cop, but a “here are the facts I have noticed” type message might help.

Also, is there any indicator for how I have voted that I can see. I mean, let’s say I really like a pic and vote for it and then I came back a couple days later and still really like it but can’t remember if I voted for it or not. If I click “Best”, I am actually inadvertently removing my vote.

Interesting. I think that’s about the same time that I voted, but I swear it wasn’t me. I’m sure your data could probably identify involved parties, both gaining and losing, but I’d rather not know names at this point. Just another reason to go back to the old ways before we become farkbook.

CISS, I initially missed your message to which orionid refers. I don’t want to know either – but if the data over the several themes point to a single person upvoting at the general time that others are getting down voted perhaps a Private Message to that person would help. I don’t think you can absolutely prove anything. And I’m not asking you to be a cop, but a “here are the facts I have noticed” type message might help.

Also, is there any indicator for how I have voted that I can see. I mean, let’s say I really like a pic and vote for it and then I came back a couple days later and still really like it but can’t remember if I voted for it or not. If I click “Best”, I am actually inadvertently removing my vote.

When you vote, it should end up being highlighted as “Best” or “Funniest” to my understanding, so if you clicked it again it’d be un-highlighted.

Interesting. I think that’s about the same time that I voted, but I swear it wasn’t me.

I will confirm that that’s true. All 3 of yours took a hit like most everyone else.