Idols and Twisted Gnostic Secrets

[aggienaut]

   Most recent LJ Idol poll is up. With 28 people remaining, its easy to read them all. I encourage doing so. And voting! (=

[Poll #1348977]

   I stared deep into the dark coils of lj, to understand its arcane inner magic, and lo, I was rewarded with gnostic secrets. Anyone can post any poll. I'm not a hacker, there is no secret. I simply questioned what I couldn't do and was rewarded.
   And I found this pleasing -- that specifically the kind of behaviour I thought most commendable (questioning your surroundings) yielded a reward of some usefulness. Personally I think the advantage gained by being able to post the poll in your entry was more deserved to those who found it and more proportional to the merits of earning it than nearly all the random "rewards" and "Special powers" that have been purposefully bandied about in this competition. In short, it made me feel like at least something was right in the world.
   However, all good things must come to an end. All too often good technology is eventually twisted, and this has happened.
   Gary became concerned and asked how it is done, and the knowledge was passed on to him. I hoped he would have the good sense to keep it under wraps, or at least would tell everyone about it all at once. Unfortunately however, he simply told two idolists, spydielives and kittenboo.
   It is no longer a slight advantage to those who have thought to question and investigate their surroundings on their own, it is now an advantage to those who asked Gary how to get advantages. That literally makes me feel sick, and I'll feel filthy until I rectify it.
   From here I'm quite clear that it will continue to spread, and until someone posts about it publicly the people who have gained the knowledge by asking others will do it under the table. Already today I'm seeing strange vote spikes NOT accompanied by a visible entry, that ARE accompanied by "last post: four hours ago," a spot I can't see an entry anywhere near.

   And so, I am levelling the playing field. I am telling each and every one of you that yes, you can post the poll. The method is shockingly, mind-blowingly simple, all you have to do is try. That or ask Gary.


PS: I thought I'd brighten your days with a visual representation of the poll standings. Please stand by, hopefully I'll have some charts converted to a postable size and form within an hour or two.

Comments

[glowy-lovers.livejournal.com]

I voted for you :)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks (=

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

Because he has fallen down on the alimony he owes me by destroying our love with his promiscuity, you should also vote for me.

[boxsofrain.livejournal.com]

Want to vote for me too? ;)

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

I was wondering why you decided to post this, as I just hinted at it's existence, and the rumor has been traveling around a bit that it's how you avoided the Vote Requests that people who abuse the English language refer to as "pimping." (I thought you could only pimp humans or your ride. Who knew?)

That next to last paragraph might get you slapped for starting shit. Or slapped by someone angry who might suggest that Gary wouldn't tell everyone, even if they did ask.

I never thought about doing it, but once someone mentioned it being done, the idea of how simple it would be came to me and I felt silly for never having considered it myself.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I did specifically tell those individuals. Because they asked.

What he didn't spell out though is that how I found out what was going on is that someone he tried to share the information with decided that they didn't like the technique. In fact they considered it to be cheating.

So I went to one of the people they said was involved(not emo)and asked them what was going on.

They told me how to do it and after looking at it I said it didn't seem to be "cheating" but if anyone asked me how to do it I would of course have to tell them and at some point (when RL calmed down a bit) I was going to add it to the FAQs.

A couple people beat me to it the other day by mentioning the technique in a public post. I was asked (by the two mentioned) about what was going on. Without naming names of who was doing it - I said how it was done.

I then, last night, told the person who gave me the information in the first place (again, not emo) exactly who had asked and how much I had told them.

My question would be why *wouldn't* information about how to post what is in essence just a fancy link to the poll be shared with anyone who asked?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Some people have suggested it is unethical. I think its just the same as posting the link ... on steroids! But really, for me, the crucial element is the fact that the knowledge of how to do it is right at everyone's fingertips. I don't know if people assumed I had cracked the code of LJ or something, but man, the closest I come to knowing computer coding is I know like five html commands I use to format my entries. I literally just thought, hey, I wonder if this works, and lo, it did.

I do expect people will be angry at being mentioned. I would just like to point out that I did nothing other than note what they did. I'm not the least bit ashamed of my actions and neither should they.

When did you hint at the ability? I had missed that.

As to why I posted this, as noted, it really made me feel dirty that now an advantage was being doled out on the basis of who asked Gary questions, and the fact that my hands were in it made me feel sick. Evening the playing field but telling everyone eliminates that twisted advantage.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Absolutely not.


There is a way to post the poll in your own journal, and I note that this probably provides a "small advantage" -- in that ones friends are more likely to vote in a poll that is right in front of them than follow a link to one. I haven't gathered enough data on parallel situations to be able to say what that advantage is, but I'm pretty confident it is slightly more than those who follow links.

Several people have been veritably hollering that THEY think this is unfair. I absolutely disagree. Its no different from posting a link to the polls, just more direct.

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

i know you're doing it some how with the source code, but i can't figure out which bits of it are needed and which aren't - i'm just not that html savvy.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what source code is.

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

FWIW - I knew how to embed polls back in 2001. G didn't tell me anything.

FWIW

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Emo-snal <-- is behind the times, and still doesn't know what FWIW means.

[kittenboo.livejournal.com]

actually gary didn't tell me, another contestant mentioned it as a comment to someone else's post and I simply asked who it was.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

*nods* That would actually be a more accurate statement. I used verbal short hand of saying that you knew and we had talked.

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm not reading all comments ... cliffnotes, who did what? (you can PM me if you want *G*)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Lol. You have aim?

[gratefuladdict.livejournal.com]

P.S. I also just noticed something else. I view my gmail on my cell phone, and it converts things to plain text but retains the html tags. If I'd ever tracked a poll post, I would've figured out the code for it myself!

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

The comments here are so boring. I was expecting more from them. I have to conclude that you kids today don't know anything about real drama starting. Now if you'd done this in the green room, then insisted that everyone else was cheating and there was a conspiracy...now that would have been great.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Bahaha. Dammit. I tried to up the drama like I said yesterday. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow. ::sigh::

[tigrkittn.livejournal.com]

I am so totally not reading 104 comments just to see if there's something I should be paying attention to. Feel free to nudge me if I really really need to read this. Since I'm out of the game I figured there's nothing I can do except vote anyway...

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

Really, it was an attempt to stir up drama.

[memeworrywort.livejournal.com]

There's your LJ Drama when you need it!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I'm told we're still WAY below quota as compared to last year in this thing :D

[rapidrabbit.livejournal.com]

Damn.

As someone who dropped out after a few weeks, I can appreciate the entertainment value of the drama. But that's because I have the freedom of being completely uninvolved.

It's interesting.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think its actually pretty hysterical. Apparently there was even more drama last year. People get a little too wrapped up in it.

[welfy.livejournal.com]

Um...yikes?

I'm glad we barely had any drama the season that I won. :^P Crazy shit, yo.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I'm told it was even worse last year. I daresay though its too early to say this is the last of the drama, there's been rumblings all week (starting with a withdrawel accompanied by statements about the polling being fishy). There wasn't drama Season 3? I was about to ask you what season you won but then I realized it was in your icon, lol.

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

: )

emo_snal,

Since I don't know you I can't really know what went behind posting this, so what's the use speculating? You've revealed some interesting information in a way that seems to have created some difficulty for people, though and that concerns me. I think that your post was sort of instigative and I wanted to let you know that the energy of feeling as though someone was trying to "start" something - be it intentional or not - rubbed me wrong. I hope that other people do not feel bad that I speak for them and say also that more than just me felt this.

Now that everything has been clarified for me that I didn't understand, and I slept and took a break from it and ate and all, I look at this in a detached way and think well, this is interesting info and I don't really agree with how it's presented, but I certainly don't hold how you presented it against you because you did it in your own authentic way which I can't mess with no matter how hard I try and I say to you what I'd say to anyone: don't let anyone mess with who you are and never feel as though you must apologize for who you are because who you are is one thing you can be sure of.

I have held out very long in saying so publicly for reasons that anyone reading this can infer on their own, but because I have told some, I may as well tell all that English is not my first language. So, sarcasm, some snark (intentional or not) and slang tend to confuse me as a general rule (as you may recall the meta thing). Because of my sometimes poor ability to understand English, I misread it and acted foolish because I react to things pretty impassioned sometimes which I think is my personality who knows.

The only other things I would like to share with you are things you can do with what you like. Just things I think you might like to know. First, it seems that it would be nice of you to consider putting an edit at the bottom of your poll (edit: I meant post) clarifying (as spydie suggested) what you meant. I did read your comment and understand that you are probably against it, but I just wanted to back up spydie and vote "yes" for an edit for clarity. Second, I feel inclined to share with you that as a result of reading this and thinking too hard on this (and this is my reaction and not in any way your fault), at one point I did cry and shook as if in a panic attack (though it wasn't that) and simultaneously was confused and saddened to think that perhaps I couldn't trust some people who I had come to grow extremely fond of (spydie, kittenboo, as well as one other who I did talk with). I tell you this so that you understand the power of your words on one person and can do with that what you like. : )

That said, again interesting information. Please consider my words. They might not be as powerful to you as your words are to me, but I hope that they reach you in showing you something more about yourself or revealing dynamics that were previously hidden.

- brightflashes

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your careful consideration and understanding.

As to the edit remark, well you already saw what I said to spydie but I'll try to elaborate on that. My personal background is strongly influenced by that until recently I was the Chief Justice of the student government at my University. What this meant is when people had impassioned conflicts with one another, they came to me. I learned the hard way that ANY assumptions would tend to make things worse. So I don't make them. I state facts simply as I know them. What I knew in this situation was only this: that I'd been informed Gary had informed the two mentioned people. I state that. I do not agree that what I wrote was badly worded. It was worded exactly as I intended it and I wouldn't rewrite it. The problem, however, arose when Spydie felt sensitive to being mentioned. While it is true that she gained the information, and it is true that I stated alarm and concern over anyone being told the information, it is an unwarranted jump to say that I was concerned about her specifically; or to say I thought she specifically had done something with the information. That is not true and not stated. However, as mentioned, I don't know her motives either way, and I don't know that they were entirely good either, which is why I don't speculate on her motives. And despite her assurances and your assurances and she could bring me fifty signed affadavits I'm still not going to make a judgement on the goodness of her motives because that is simply unknowable to me (and I don't want to get involved in judging her).

And so, I think that addresses everything. In conclusion, I can understand her wish to be specifically cleared, but that would be an assumption for me and I simply am not in the habit and do not as a policy make assumptions.

[cartoonmayhem.livejournal.com]

Hey, friended you back!

[mermaidkween.livejournal.com]

People who are considering this real drama have clearly never read Encyclopedia Dramatica.

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

I never have.

[kenakeri.livejournal.com]

262 comments? Just by looking at the number ...there must be drama in here. :-)

Drama

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Remember that recent movie "There Will Be Blood?" Well this is the sequel, "There Will Be Drama"