Fair warning about vote manipulation

a year ago by jerry to c/infosecpub

I have no idea why this is a thing, but it’s come to my attention that there are several accounts here that are engaging in vote manipulation. This is fair warning that if it continues, I’ll be suspending the accounts involved.

solarvector 20 points a year ago

Why not immediate ban instead of fair warning? Fair warning is more for a mistake in good faith, vote manipulation is kinda the opposite by definition.

save

path: 0 16859058, hotness: undefined, score: 20, children: 2

Zachariah 6 points a year ago

Or message the accounts directly?

save

path: 0 16859058 16859186, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 1

jerry 16 points a year ago

I have messaged them directly. At least the ones I am aware of. This is a warning to others that I may not be aware of or people who decide to try it in the future.

save

path: 0 16859058 16859186 16859278, hotness: undefined, score: 16, children: 0

lurch 2 points a year ago

did they use multiple accounts to vote multiple times?

save

path: 0 16865350, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1

jerry 4 points a year ago

Yes, that’s correct

save

path: 0 16865350 16869615, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 0

redfox 2 points a year ago

Can anyone explain why people care about votes on Lemmy? Isnt it like winning a contest no one's play, or am I missing something?

save

path: 0 18206731, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1

activistPnk 1 point a year ago

Down votes have a suppressive effect. Views and engagement drop when the votes are <1. The initial votes are important because they influence the votes that follow. My Tyranny of voting thread gives some detail.

save

path: 0 18206731 19656327, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

activistPnk 1 point a year ago

Seems like it could be a non-stop game of whack-a-mole. Even if you ban accounts they can just create more. If you do a good job of the baby sitting, they can use even more accounts to mask patterns. I don’t see how an admin can prevail.

Disabling down votes would prevent the practice of down voting to suppress. But probably the most effective is to disable voting entirely.

save

path: 0 19656554, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0