Is this contest being gamed or am I just being silly?

June 12, 2009 11:40 AM

How can I tell if someone is gaming an online vote? And what should I do about it? This is definitely not a life and death thing, it is just more of a "hmm, something seems shaky here". Details below.

I am trying to phrase this so that it does not seem like a Pepsi Blue but that might not be possible given the circumstances and I apologize in advance if it seems that way because it is not my intention.

Basically, my wife's blog (cooking for monkeys) was nominated out of the blue as one of Nickelodeon's Parent's Picks Best Local Blogs in Atlanta and she is doing pretty well which is nice.

The odd thing is that there is another blog that is constantly tied or 1% ahead of her.

At first, I just assumed that the vote was going that way and that we would just have to get out the vote a little more. Eventually I noticed that the two were always neck and neck and nothing we did seemed to change that. It is a vote once a day over a month type thing and no matter how many people I get to vote on any given day, they are tied at 40%.

What first made me first wonder if something was up is that her sister and I posted the vote to Facebook and had a ton of people go vote with the space of an hour or so. During that time, I could watch my wife's blog go up by a percent and then, as soon as i refreshed again, the other blog would go up to be equal to or 1% higher. This has now happened a bunch of times over the course of the last month or so. My wife will get ahead by 1% and then as soon as you go back to the page, she will be behind or tied again.

I also thought that maybe a bunch of people just happened to be voting for the other blog and that was that but, we just went on vacation and I doubt many people actually voted for my wife for a week and when we came back, the vote was still tied. If they had that many people voting for them, they should have shot far ahead.

None of the other categories has this same type of thing going on - there is usually one clear leader - so it does not seem to be something that was set up by the site.

It just feels fishy and, while I know that in the grand scheme of things it does not matter, it has made me feel like I should do something about it. I just don't know what (let alone if doing anything is worth it).

So, I guess my questions are whether I am just crazy for suspecting anything and then, is it worth doing anything about it. I guess I could email the contest site but the complaint seems so petty...

posted by GrumpyMonkey to computers & internet (14 comments total)

Its an unscientific poll. Its not going to be accurate. If youre worried contact the poll's administrator and tell him what you are telling us. Try [e-mail].
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:43 AM on June 12

I understand that it is unscientific and will not be accurate. This was more of a question about whether I am just off base in thinking that something seems off.
posted by GrumpyMonkey at 11:49 AM on June 12

Seconding damn dirty ape... contact the administrators and express your concern.

I often have to assist with online contests and the standard line we give stakeholders is that online polls are game-able, and people who care enough to beat the system can and will do so. Often contest rules will state something like, "items with the highest votes will be submitted to the editorial team/sponsor/site administrator, who will make the final decision". Do the rules say anything like that?
posted by juliplease at 11:50 AM on June 12

Sorry, missed your response on the preview - if someone came to me/my team with a question like your's, I'd think it was a reasonable question and look into it.
posted by juliplease at 11:52 AM on June 12

I am just off base in thinking that something seems off.

Thats impossible for us to determine without the logs or capturing some traffic. Life is full of crazy coincidences.
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:58 AM on June 12

Please note: Posted results are estimated based on the total number of votes received and may not reflect the most current voting result
posted by trueluk at 12:18 PM on June 12

Check the results now, you're up to 42%. Then say thanks Trueluk.
posted by trueluk at 12:39 PM on June 12 [1 favorite]

lol, thanks trueluk. I am curious to see how long that lasts - I guess that will be my little test for today.

This is just one of those things that has become a preoccupation so I am looking to the hive mind to help me keep it in perspective.
posted by GrumpyMonkey at 12:54 PM on June 12

If the other site was gaming the contest, and the rules allow them to do so, wouldn't they just slam dunk the competition, rather than just coasting along next to you?
posted by nomisxid at 1:00 PM on June 12

Maybe the poll administrators, or sponsors, are gaming the results themselves (i.e. keeping the top contenders neck-and-neck on purpose) to compel voters to keep coming back and clicking every day.
posted by amyms at 1:09 PM on June 12

GrumpyMonkey - your wife does some amazing stuff! I am truly inspired to start doing more exciting things with the kids' meals. I voted too and she's at 42% still...
posted by widdershins at 2:06 PM on June 12

thanks widdershins, i will pass that on. The kids do love it and i actually occasionally get my own box to take to the office so I am totally on board with what she is doing.
posted by GrumpyMonkey at 5:05 PM on June 12

amyms - that is what i thought for a while too but none of the other pages seem to have the same neck and neck type thing going on.

Interestingly, the 42% seems to be sticking so maybe it is just me being overly protective or skeptical about people's honesty when it comes to things like this.
posted by GrumpyMonkey at 5:14 PM on June 12

I voted too. I like cooked Monkeys.

I think you will be declared the winner in the end. With no actual vote totals being posted though, the contest sponsors can do anything they want pretty much.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:41 PM on June 12