Contest "stuffing" Cheater Revealed!

TreeBay

My point is that removing the votes and explaining was done in such a way that it would not be possible to identify the trees in question or the voters, so as to limit the possiblilty of controversy. I didn't even post a public notice about what I had done until you took issue with it in your complaint PM of April 28th.

This position was a change from your original position on April 28th, when you complained about the removal of votes, which led to the posting of the public notification thread, which you've found objectionable as well, although it sought to protect the identity of everyone involved. I think your representation above would lead people to believe that you had always agreed with my decision and that is not so.
Will, I am confused as to why you are trying to suggest that the votes were on one hand, not statistically significant, or suggesting that the judgment was made or supported by knowledge about the relationship of the voters that was provided by you? Was the decision wrong? Was my response to your complaint wrong? I don't know what you're trying to say here Will. It would have been quite simple to say, "I am withdrawing from the contest for personal reasons." I would have to say that taking the route you did is practically a recipe for controversy.
Votes were made against the top six entrants, in sequence from the same IP, voted the same way, in conflict with the statistical mean, Voting five of six trees down and one tree up. Same way for both voters an all trees. The top five trees advance. I really didn't need to know any more.

On April 28th you suggested in PM that removal of BOTH votes was wrong. I still have the PM.

It is not plain to me at all. I don't know who besides yourself, the voters and the original complaintant would attach your name to the the trees or votes cast or the allegations of cheating and ballot box stuffing, and all those people knew. Your identity and the identity of other contestants and the voters was as protected as is possible. We did everything we could to protect that.

You are welcome to bring any matter to my attention, I have already explained the reasons for the withdrawal of the votes, the response to your complaint, etc. You keep saying the decision was right while taking every opportunity to chip away at the fairness of how it was applied.

Yes it is in debate, Will, you wrote in your first post, "sure they helped but wouldn't have taken me past fifth place at that time," This is a preliminary voting round and a contestant don't need to get past fifth place to qualify for the final voting round.. The issue is not so much how high in th top five a tree places but whether the votes affect the outcome. These votes did. When you accept that, then we won't be in debate.

No stuffing involves the practice of placing multiple votes. Historically the practice of vote stuffing involved trolling for votes, encouraging others by words, tortion or bribes to vote in a certain way, voting en masse. When votes are made simulataneously in time, specific to certain entries, geographically from a similar region, these are all suggestive of "ballot stuffing"

Now I am confused. You said pulling the votes was a good decision and the right thing to do, but it's clear from what you post above, that you don't accept it.

I don't believe anyone has ever suggested that you did or attempted to cheat. I am certain, however, that your words in this thread will create more controversy about your entry than anything that had gone before. They also seem to me, to create a controversy about the judging, too.
As I wrote before, you are fully entitled to withdraw. But if you post statements that are in my view inaccurate or paint the judging in questionable light, I may respond to them. We took great pains to protect the identity of the voters and the entrants and keep the contest as fair as possible.

I am just so glad that you are not also involved in the judging of this contest in addition to being an entrant. I remember quite well the controversy over that decision. I hope you will come to understand that it was the right one.

Regards

Matt

P.S.
I see before posting this that you have added to your post above. I attempted to quote it in context, but I can't do that any longer, so I am just going to leave it as is.

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TreeBay

Thank you for being specific, Carl.
I am sure you don't have all the facts and the reality is otherwise.

On April 26th this issue was reported to me by PM. I did an analysis and pulled the votes and warned the voter(s). I didn't post any public threads.

On April 28th, two days later, Will came back to me in a PM and complained about my decision. He didn't understand why I disallowed both votes

THEN

In response to the complaint, I posted the public thread explaining my actions, but preserving the identities of everyone involved.

HOWEVER,

I do remain convinced that the intent of these two voters was to advance one entry at the expense of the other five.

Regards,

Matt

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Will_Heath

This is correct, I took issue in a PM and informed you at the time that it was not one user from the same IP voting twice, that it was in fact two separte users. At the time you then informed me of the manner in which they cast their votes for other trees, A fact I did not know at the time.


Also true, The dual votes from one IP but two users names and two people that are still active being rejected threw me. You then explained that their voting was outside the normal averages and in fact that they voted very low on a few trees. I said at the the time that I did not know that, this was correct.



I tried to explain the situation to quell the whispers of contraversy running though the forum. Yes, Matt you tried to protect identies but another person spread rumors, in fact my decision was made because of one member here telling me that the story was being blown out of proportion in chat. What I am trying to say, maybe poorly is simply that I did not attempt to cheat and the mere thought of being thought of as a cheater was enough for me to say, screw it and withdraw from the contest.

If I simply said I'm withdrawing, then people may have thought I did because the rumors are true, I got caught cheating. I was not asked to withdraw, I chose to withdraw of my own free will.


I have nothing to hide.


On that we agree. Last years contest was fun for me and by running the contest and entering too, I managed to wrangle my way all the way to 11th place.