Score sockpuppetry, user sockpuppetry.

Recently, when I was checking posts posted by me, I looked at the scores.

I noticed a trend similar to what happened yesterday. post #437898 was voted down to -50 within the span of four hours (and is ongoing as I type this). Odd since it wasn't incredibly horrible, and the other pictures by that artist (mekabu) were voted down similarly (only the ones that I posted, the rest are normal scores). I brushed this off as annoying sockpuppetry, whatever, right?

Today I noticed that quite a few posts under user:granola order:score_asc were voted as much as -50 as well. This happened in one day, I remember not seeing this yesterday or even this morning. All of the posts marked down are explicit.

I don't know if this happened to other users, but its pretty ridiculous to see the score system abused this way. I know I am not the most popular user on the internet but this is kind of ridiculous. Instead of letting the same IP vote a random number of times per hour, why not once in forever?

And if the scores can be reset to the original, it would be nice too, but that might be too hard.

Yeah, I was watching. First you had 3 or 4 (unusually) downvoted posts, then suddenly 4 pages.

However...

albert said:
Keeping track of every voter's IP address is a huge waste of space and is of very little use. And even if I did, it's still easy to game the system as sites like Digg have shown us. So I'm doing the simplest thing possible to discourage casual users from voting multiple times, and to that end it works well enough. If you want to abuse this loophole then oh well? I'll survive if the Popular pages are inundated with Potemayo porn.

A) Who gives a flying fart about scores?

B) Gratuitous sockpuppetry and score manipulation should be discouraged

I've noticed this done to at least one other user some time ago, though most of their down-voted posts are back to normal by now.

Also the voting system is not "a random number of times per hour", but I don't want to explain it completely, as it might aide those seeking to exploit the system.

Changing the voting system has been discussed in the past and done once, to no good result. Albert stated once a long time ago that he wasn't interested in hack-proofing the voting system, as basically any system can be gamed with enough determination, (the fact that there are sock puppets to begin with should tell you this), and the current system is space efficient DB-wise.

I'm not sure what the best way to remedy this is, but probably being more polite when debating and not drawing the ire of the would-be sock-puppeteers is probably a good solution.

EDIT: RaisingK's quote is the one I was alluding to

I'm not going to say that I've been the friendliest, but I think that my content should be separate from my personality. I also know that nothing is fair.

It just seems to ruin the point of the score system.

EDIT:

Shinjidude said:
I'm not sure what the best way to remedy this is, but probably being more polite when debating and not drawing the ire of the would-be sock-puppeteers is probably a good solution.

Conversely it also could be used to raise posts to be on popular. As to why I care about scores, I think they're just as important as tags/posts/notes and vandalizing them is just as serious.

When its doing what its supposed to the score system is very useful both for the uploader (who can see if his gigantic penis pictures are being accepted by the community) and the browser (who can see what a "good" picture for that tag is).

I'm not sure what the best way to remedy this is, but probably being more polite when debating and not drawing the ire of the would-be sock-puppeteers is probably a good solution.

Bah. First of all if someone's going to do this, they'll probably take any criticism as a mortal insult, and secondly, I want someone to do this to one of the posts I've uploaded so I can laugh in their face for thinking I give a flying fuck.

(I would actually support the removal of the score system entirely, but thats a different discussion entirely)

Ah, so you're supposed to be able to vote for an image more than once. I've noticed that on post I know I'd upvoted in the past, but never got around to asking if it was a bug or not (maybe I didn't want to know?).

T5J8F8 said:
Ah, so you're supposed to be able to vote for an image more than once. I've noticed that on post I know I'd upvoted in the past, but never got around to asking if it was a bug or not (maybe I didn't want to know?).

I noticed a long time ago that I was able to vote again on older images I'd uploaded that I know I voted on previously. I always thought it was due to an IP change though, I didn't realize that that's how it's supposed to work.

T5J8F8 said:
Ah, so you're supposed to be able to vote for an image more than once.

I don't think you are supposed to vote multiple times, but yes, the implementation allows it.

Fencedude said:
Bah. First of all if someone's going to do this, they'll probably take any criticism as a mortal insult.

I don't know, I try to be at least somewhat congenial when I argue against somebody, and I haven't been adversely hit yet. (Maybe I'm jinxing myself by saying this)

Fencedude said:
(I would actually support the removal of the score system entirely, but thats a different discussion entirely)

I'm not for it's removal, since rating is an important way of finding relatively good or relatively bad content. The system is however being made useless by the divide between (giant breasts + dicks = good) voters who overwhelm people who actually vote based on quality. At least using Safebooru can mitigate this somewhat.

Granola said:
EDIT: Conversely it also could be used to raise posts to be on popular. As to why I care about scores, I think they're just as important as tags/posts/notes and vandalizing them is just as serious.

It certainly can. In fact that is the circumstance that lead to the previous quote by Albert. It was some ridiculous hentai image that got bumped to 137 (and first place) in a day or so. I believe it's since been deleted.

I guess all I can ask for is a rollback, or request them to be set at 0 again...

Or you can just ignore them.

Or that.

Ive been noticing this a lot as well lately. It's hilarious that people would go to that extent. Simply ignore votes all together and use your own judgment to ascertain quality.

Shinjidude said:
I'm not sure what the best way to remedy this is,

I have an idea:

- You can only vote on a picture once
- Members only get a limited amount of votes a day (Eight votes) after wards you have to wait 24 hours to vote again.
- Members need a certain amount of approved posts before they can even access the voting system (fifty approved posts)

This system I outlined has been used on other forums like Fakku and Naruto fan forums and they've been successful in helping control rating system abuse.

Edit: I'm overthinking this, I'll just forget about it.

Scalar said:

- Members need a certain amount of approved posts before they can even access the voting system

This. It would be easy to implement, no? Just hide Upvote/downvote links for users until they reach a certain number of approved posts, or something along those lines.

Anyways, back to downvoting Granola's posts.

STOP SUGGESTING LIMITING MEMBER ACCOUNTS TO X THINGS IN Y HOURS.

If you do this again, I'll find you and punch you in the face. Scalar gets extra negative points redeemable in punches for being fucking dumb and failing to comprehend even the most basic English, again and again. And Granola, just chill the fuck out.

What we really need is just more vigorous smacking down of repeat-offender morons.

Granted for rating spam this is hard, but we really should police comments better.

(that being said, the comment moderation queue scares the bejeezus out of me)

葉月 said:
And Granola, just chill the fuck out.

I don't really see why you have to be so confrontational every time you post for absolutely no reason.

Is it funny or cool?

葉月 said:
STOP SUGGESTING LIMITING MEMBER ACCOUNTS TO X THINGS IN Y HOURS.

Why? Common sense you give people a privilege and they abuse it, what do you do? You restrict that freedom, that's the most basic of judgment calls when it comes to matters like this. And I don't want to hear this criticism from you seeing as you're the one who proposed overhauling the entire deletion/approval system just because of one off handed remark. Kettle, black etc etc.

If you do this again, I'll find you and punch you in the face. Scalar gets extra negative points redeemable in punches for being fucking dumb and failing to comprehend even the most basic English, again and again. And Granola, just chill the fuck out.

Well this came out of fucking nowhere. Who shat in your cornflakes this morning.

Granola said:
Is it funny or cool?

Yes it makes him cool and edgy.

Although I do agree with 葉月 about suggestions on limiting things based on time, I do think Scalar's suggestion about hiding the voting tool until one gets a certain # of approved posts is a good idea.