I complained to TVPredictions, rofl and got a response! Options

[BrutalBlake]

I thought i'd make a strong point to swanni as to why our 20-30,000 member internet fan base was getting destroyed by about 20-30 MMA fans who don't want to leave the voting page.

RE: Complaint; Major flaws in the voting system.‏
From: swanni (swann@tvpredictions.com)
Sent: Monday, 26 May 2008 7:36:21 AM
To: 'Blake Knight' (breakingbonesblake@hotmail.com)

Thanks…swanni



From: Blake Knight [mailto:breakingbonesblake@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 11:27 AM
To: swann@tvpredictions.com
Subject: Complaint; Major flaws in the voting system.



As you may know the HDTV poll has been getting alot of activity and by that i mean the amount of abuse the system is taking, votes going up by 10-20 every second? that's abit unbelievable since both fan bases only have around 20,000 fans each if i'm correct and only 1/3 of them being active.

I investigated rumours of both sides abusing the system and was only conclusive when i found information on the HDNet Fights Fan Forum that they were infact misusing internet explorer functions to get the upper gain on the polls.

Turns out that several members of the HDNet fan base were infact using either 3rd party programs or IE logics to decieve the system and gain on Jericho, a large portion of the MMA fans were teaching one another how to clear cookies and refresh pages to hijack the system.

So i thought "I wonder how i could or infact Swann could fix the dilemma" only to find that the situation could be solved unless the poll was reset with a new poll system, so i looked around some more and turns out that CAPTCHA a bot detecting software that forces human users to enter an italic-wavey word or numbers to achieve human status due to computers not being able to read the subject and along with that the voting system used by TVPredictions isn't IP based so users can still decieve the system again and again.

To sum this complaint up i think it would be in the best interests of you to use CAPTCHA and some form of IP checking software to make your poll results reasonably correct, as i read earlier your polls are used by all forms of media and i'm not quite sure if highly incorrect facts (polls) were used in articles for reasons beyond my knowledge.

Thanks for your time.

Enjoy all my flashy words and shizzle, i love being sophisticated.. pitty i can't spell half the time.

[KrzyKitty]

Nice letter, Blake. You speak very well for your age. Would like to know if they ever respond?

[BrutalBlake]

Nice letter, Blake. You speak very well for your age. Would like to know if they ever respond?

Haha, thanks.
Well he did reply with a nice short definition of "I DON'T CARE" read up on the email.

Thanks…swanni

[Merrianne]

Nice try anyway Blake. Maybe they want to see how avidly we'll fight each other. It's an idea anyway. I'm not upset about the cookies thing cause both sides can do that equally but the bot thing isn't fair at all. Yet if the poll isn't interested in accuracy as much as the strength the of the fight there's not much we can do.

[KrzyKitty]

Sorry, Blake, the response was so short I missed it. Guess it shows the intelligence of the people running the poll if they couldn't come up with a better response.

[Zajo1]

We have a saying in Sweden - "Kasta inte sten i glashus"

Directly translated it's "Don't throw rocks in a glas house"

Fact is we are just as good cheaters as they are, if they have sorted a 3rd party program it's not unfair. Only reason we would think that is because we havn't found it yet. If we had, I am positive we would use it too.

I think it's a great thing you tried Blake, who knew, they could have shut it down and reopen it with a fool proof system. And if they had done that it would be thanks to you.

Other than that I say we all got what we deserved (said with love), we both cheated just as much and we would cheat even more if we could. We are just as bad. They only have the advantage of having a very big global fan base.

They are just better cheaters than us

It has been a few fun weeks and a couple of intense days but let's all get back to what we really should be doing. Have you all heard the radio broadcast from Shaun O'Mac with Carol Barbee? If not you should, she gives great news and she is just an amazing woman. The cast and crew of Jericho always reminds me why I love this **** show so much

Listen here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/SHAUNOMACRADI...-25-2008-1102AM

[BrutalBlake]

I agree with alot of that but when it comes to a fair voting system i don't know how we got beaten.
They have a pinned topic on their forums which has only 8,000 views yet they have 58,000 votes on an unknown poll.

It's true we cheated but if i had to justify myself i only wanted to know how to multi-vote because they were doing it along with most likely 3rd party programs (they were talking about how easy they were to use etc. on the forums).

To top this all off, if tvpredictions.com had any influence on the american public i'm sure they would have an abuse proof voting system which they don't so i'm sure when the best HDTV show is announced nobody is going to even care.

[Zajo1]

I agree with alot of that but when it comes to a fair voting system i don't know how we got beaten.
They have a pinned topic on their forums which has only 8,000 views yet they have 58,000 votes on an unknown poll.

In one of their posts I saw that they had a call to arm to help their Russian fans on a poll being held in Russia. The poster sent a translated page for everyone to use. I actually think that's how they do it. They do have a huge fan base, it's just spread all over the world. Just imagine the fan base in Asia.
Nah, we did **** good for ourseleves with all those against us. Still, good thing you tried. I would not mind a revote. Feel a bit like antiklimax when the last vote becomes a cheating vote.

[BrutalBlake]

I reckon if they had an IP based system with CAPTCHA it would be 1 vote only so the fight would have been fair because to tell you the truth Jericho only has an internet fan base of about 20-30,000 people whom aren't that active only 1/5th of them are on everyday.

The amount of MMA fans is incredible, i don't know a single person who doesn't like people fighting each other on HDTV world wide so i guess they do have what it takes to beat us in a poll but the fact of the matter is, the poll is pointless and unknown which surprises me that Jericho fans even found the website.. which just shows how it's impossible for over 60,000 MMA fans to find an unknown poll in one weekend.

But yes, we would still lose due to the huge fan base they had unless we pulled together the entire SciFi board to help vote with us, haha.

[Merrianne]

Well kiddo (and I say that with love) you said you haven't met a single person worldwide that doesn't like to watch those fights in hd. I wouldn't watch those fights in hd or any other form. So I guess you've met one. I can't think of many moms that would want that junk on their televisions in front of their children at least here in America. I wouldn't know about the rest of the world, but I would think for the most part it would be the same.

[MREinLa1]

THANKS BLAKE FOR TRYING. I HOPE THAT WE LEARN FROM THIS ~~ ITS NOT GOOD TO CHEAT, ONLY TO CALL IN REINFORCEMENTS.

[BrutalBlake]

Well kiddo (and I say that with love) you said you haven't met a single person worldwide that doesn't like to watch those fights in hd. I wouldn't watch those fights in hd or any other form. So I guess you've met one. I can't think of many moms that would want that junk on their televisions in front of their children at least here in America. I wouldn't know about the rest of the world, but I would think for the most part it would be the same.

Lol, well i guess i learnt something new today, mothers don't like buff crazy men beating each other up...

THANKS BLAKE FOR TRYING. I HOPE THAT WE LEARN FROM THIS ~~ ITS NOT GOOD TO CHEAT, ONLY TO CALL IN REINFORCEMENTS.

Yeh, i've been acting abit hypocritical during this whole situation and i'm sorry.

[MREinLa1]

Yeh, i've been acting abit hypocritical during this whole situation and i'm sorry.

Don't worry about it, I think that we all got carried away by this poll.

As a mom I like watching buff men, just don't like seeing their pretty faces messed up in a fight.

[BrutalBlake]

Don't worry about it, I think that we all got carried away by this poll.

As a mom I like watching buff men, just don't like seeing their pretty faces messed up in a fight.

BUT BLOOD IS THE BEST PART!
MMA is a great sport in my opinion, men have been fighting each other since time began and to make a sport out of it with no limitations is incredibly gnarley.

[MREinLa1]

BUT BLOOD IS THE BEST PART!
MMA is a great sport in my opinion, men have been fighting each other since time began and to make a sport out of it with no limitations is incredibly gnarley.

IT MUST BE A GUY THING. ENJOY!!

[BnBFreeman]

Nice letter, Blake. You speak very well for your age. Would like to know if they ever respond?

Kitty...did you not know Blake very well back then?