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]

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.

[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.

[glowy-lovers.livejournal.com]

Oh dear my votes have been used now :(

[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]

My only correction to your comment is the person who considered it cheating I had never attempted to share it with.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what source code is.

Other Polling Secrets

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh one deep dark secret I CAN tell you ( ;D ) is you can always go back and add or change votes. Click on the "Poll # xxxxx" above the poll, and go to "fill out poll" :D

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

It's a fancy link.

Or a remote polling place at the worst.

The only part I don't like is that by not coming directly to the community people will be missing out on interacting with everyone else. Which is part of the fun IMO.

(and for anyone following *my* LJ looking for posts. I just tried to make sure that I repeated it right - and I left out a "-" oops!)

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

So noted.

In which case someone you shared the knowledge with must have shared it with them.

Because they knew. I stand by the idea that it's not (in fact it was noted that LJ had apparently said that it *fixed* the glitch that let people do it. So apparently it's something well known to the poll posting crowd, but people just didn't think it could be done anymore.)

Re: Other Polling Secrets

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Isn't that deep dark secret in the FAQs or do I have to add that?

I know it's pretty much standard poll info though.

Re: Other Polling Secrets

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I don't know, I haven't checked the FAQs lately. On any account I don't really regard it as a secret, I was trying to poke fun at the whole situation. The ability to go back and add votes is definitely something I think everyone ought to be aware of.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

As I said - to the person who obviously told you - the idea of spydielives or kittenboo going "OMG a way to get more votes!!" when let's face it, if they wanted to play that sort of game they certainly didn't have to be curious enough about a comment to ask me anything is kind of silly.

It would be like rm using it.

End of the day though I don't see it making much of a long term impact on votes. A little here and there. But you've been about where I've expected you to be (same with the others when it was used) - and vote totals are down across the board compared to where they were in the final couple weeks last season (and expect them to be in the coming weeks as more people start "tuning in" and picking a favorite.

Re: Other Polling Secrets

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Seriously they should know. But some people don't I guess. (What do you mean not everyone lives on LJ!!!!*G*)

I guess I need to go back and make sure it is. . . although that really seems like more of an "LJ FAQ" than an Idol one.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I follow your first sentence.

Re: Other Polling Secrets

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Maybe remind people at the top of a future vote post? I think most people do understand it, but there's a few that don't. I try to inform them when I catch it. I forget if my friend above was in Idol, but there's presumably people from people's friends lists who won't be familiar with the faq and may later decide to vote for more people and run into this misconception.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I was just informed you might have comment notification disabled, is this true?

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

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

Proliferation

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

My very major concern was that if everyone was doing it there'd be far too much claiming of "this is just a popularity contest!!" However everyone knowing is better than it being whispered under the table throughout the competition.

FWIW

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

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

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

used? people can always be added!