Emergency Poll Termination

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

In Idol history, this has only happened once.

It's something that I hope will never happen again.

A contestant contacted me, asking me to look at their votes. Nothing big, just a routine, "could you check this out?"

So, I started doing that, in the process figured that I would take a look at the rest of them as well - and discovered *a bunch* of brand new accounts voting. I've contacted the person they were voting for, and it only affected one of the four polls. But several of these accounts have also voted during the two previous polls. In the first one, they came close to impacting the results, but did not. In the second, they did. I have contacted the person who was eliminated that week and offered them a place back in the game.

I do not believe the contestant was involved in this.

Pretend that I increased the font on that to a million, and wrote it 50 times.

Heck, there is a chance that all of the accounts are "real people". However, it was a number that made me uncomfortable accepting the results.

It could have very well been one friend who got overly excited, wanting to help. It doesn't matter. If it effects the results, then something has to be done.

I do believe in the integrity of the poll, and it was compromised. Which is why I made the decision to shut down the Week 14 poll and void the affected elimination from Week 13.

I am very sorry. Week 15 will start with 8 contestants as of tomorrow. Perhaps 9 if the person negatively impacted accepts the invitation to return.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled, whatever, already in progress.

Comments

[dreamsreflected.livejournal.com]

and they said you were an evil dictator! This seems down right humane to me.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I'm still an evil dictator.

This impacts the integrity of the poll, and is something that I take extremely personally, and seriously.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

And we are all very glad that you do! You're Lawful Evil, and we love it, and love you for it.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's sad when something like that happens. It's good to know that the contestant wasn't to blame.

I think the only person technically eliminated in Week 13 was favoritebean, since the other was a sacrifice?

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

*affected.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

*giggle*

[acalculatedname.livejournal.com]

and *affects

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

This is something I've always admired about you, Gary, and something that takes a lot of time and effort that people don't think about, is how seriously you take the voting and watching the voting.

I mean, we have our brouhahas and our grousing and whatever, but seriously, props for handling this the way you do.

And, I know you take voting shenanigans personally, and rightfully so, so, hugs and warm fuzzies and all that hippie shit to you.

We'll balance it out with more bitching and complaining later.

Or you can kick me. Whichever.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. Gary may be an Evil Overlord, but he's a Lawful Evil Overlord!

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm relieved, for obvious reasons unrelated to why the poll was closed.

I do appreciate that you look at the "who" on the votes, and are prepared to catch something like this-- rare though it is, it would be awful to have it go through.

I felt a little weird letting you know that my husband had finally gotten an account last week, but I figured you'd want to know!

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

I asked Gary first if it was okay for my bf to make an account, but Gary told me to just have him log in with Facebook so at least he'd know who it was right away. As long as he knows, it's fine, so he knows there's actual people behind it.

Given how "paranoid" (okay not really paranoid but I want it to happen honestly) I've been with votes, and I've asked Gary to check votes in the past for me, I always run such things by him.

[sweeny-todd.livejournal.com]

You are so on the ball Gary! I really appreciate all the effort that goes into this - thank you!

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

I'm also relieved, and didn't realize how much fucking stress I was carrying around due to this poll until I felt it suddenly dissipate.

Like Venus said, relieved for obvious reasons unrelated to why the poll was closed, but... oh dear god.

And Gary, thank you for putting the integrity of the game above your plan to see this week's evil twist through. I know how much sadistic delight you were taking in this particular masterpiece of yours, and while I'm never glad to see someone jacking with Idol, I'm glad this poll is history, and I'm also glad this game is what it is, and that you're dedicated to torturing us all fairly and equally.

[michikatinski.livejournal.com]

Wow.

[acalculatedname.livejournal.com]

...Huh.

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

Must be some of those hippies you were yelling at?
Or those durn kids that were on your lawn?

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

What a bummer. Hopefully, it won't happen again.

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

If the poll last week was affected, doesn't that mean two people could potentially come back?
Plus, there's also the "promotional aspect", where people would go an extra mile for votes when they see they are in trouble (but not when they aren't - the whole vote withdrawal thing was based on that premise I believe), doesn't that affect the results as well then?

This is the only decision you could've taken, I am quite upset something like this happened again but kudos to you for staying on top of this, especially considering you were enjoying a long weekend with your family.

[acalculatedname.livejournal.com]

Agreed with the first-sentence sentiment. Based on the poll numbers, it looks like the self-sacrifice in W13 should also be allowed to return if she so desires.


edit: ...but then it occurs to me as this ungodly pre-coffee hour that it would be more complicated than that with the four-way tie for second-last.

[x-disturbed-x.livejournal.com]

Yeah it was me.

I agree that it is too early. I had to comprehend this information way to early. Ugh. I need some coffee myself.

And I said the world early twice. I'm going back to bed.

[acalculatedname.livejournal.com]

I knew it was you, of course, but... I was trying to maintain the general they-who-shall-remain-nameless tone of things. :)

Sleep well. Once I'm up, I'm pretty much screwed for more sleep. Thanks, wife's new job.

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

Oh man! AW

[sircaliban.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I understand. Way back when I was a constestant, (that makes me sound old, doesn't it?) I suspected this kind of voting was going on.

I mean, unless you start requiring photo ids and registering voters ahead of time, how can you prevent this in the future?

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

If there was no action taken, and no one came out and said "I was doing this, I am sacrificing" then it wasn't happening. Or not to an extent where results were being affected.

(from time to time there is a stray vote, but it's rare when it happens more than once - and it's far more rare when - like this time - it actually impacts the results)

You prevent it by being very clear that it's not tolerated, and taking action when it happens. It's one of those things where you can't stop it (and no, community only voting just means that they take the extra step of having those accounts join the community - and contestant only is setting up a popularity contest within the ranks.) but you can make it clear that it's not permitted and that the culture of the group does not tolerate it. Which is a far more effective means of dealing with the situation.

[sircaliban.livejournal.com]

So, you expected someone to be honest and stand up and say they were creating fake accounts to slant the vote a certain way and then sacrifice themselves?

I do not think it is as rare as you say it is.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

People have theories and can believe what they convince themselves to believe.

I actually know and can speak on what I actually see and have experienced.

I see every single vote and can look at every account.


The times where it has happened that the person involved has been a contestant, that is EXACTLY what happened. When they were called on it, they admitted what happened, and took responsibility for their actions.

The times when it has been a friend who got overzealous, that friend has been chastized by the person they put at risk, and the accounts have been banned. (In this particular case, the friend in question felt bad enough to delete all of the accounts before I actually could get in to ban them)

People are basically decent, and I think the actual track record speaks for itself.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

As a newbie in 8, I can say the culture when I joined seemed very clearly based on honesty and that votes were not just blindly accepted without some oversight.

I don't remember anything specifically said about shenanigans, but I must have gotten the message, because I made a point of telling Gary "When you get three votes today from the same IP address, that's my co-workers and I on restaurant wifi, I'm reading them the piece and then we're all voting on my computer before getting back on the road."

It wouldn't feel good to win with fake votes.

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't either. And I've done the same thing with Gary: told him when my sister was voting from an account she rarely posts to, because I knew that she was reading and is, in fact, a real person. :)

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Saw this last night, couldn't really process it.
Saw it this morning after coffee ... still can't really process it.