h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm annoyed. For two weeks now the voting for our game box art contest at HF has been going on. Thirty-odd submissions, but it's been clear for the past week which artwork people think of as the best (although it's a race to see if art #1 or #2 will win because they're separated by no more than one or two votes at any given time), especially because all the people who voted for them have sung praises for the submissions.

And then this morning, for the hell of it, I check the poll results (I know I'm not going to win anytime soon; I'm in 4th place, but I'm happy enough about it)... and I find that this one boxart called 'Logo', which no more than two people have voted for in the past week and a half, has suddenly acquired a grand total of *44* votes (which is more than 20% of the total number of votes). WTF??? Of course I know - and I suppose anybody who's been following the poll would as well - that there's been some kind of vote- rigging going on. I checked the members directory and bingo, there's a whole slew of new members on the board, who have not posted so much as a single message at the forum; what's more, they all have short usernames that make absolutely no sense (like 'abc', 'zxz' and 'rul'), which infers that the person or persons (I'm very sure it's 'person') who created the names wasn't bothered to choose a decent one .... because the account would only serve ONE PURPOSE. Namely - to boost the number of votes for that particular submission. Sure, I'd suspend my disbelief and allow for people who have been holding back until the eleventh hour and who have only just made up their minds to make last minute votes... but that submission, while not exactly a complete piece of horse excrement (well, actually I think it was; very little effort had certainly gone into it), was *far* from being one of the best. And certainly nobody had commented positively on it for the past week.

So. Vote-rigging. Of course, our administrators are smarter than that, and an IP check would reveal that all the accounts were spawned by one, or only a couple of people; even if the person had been smart enough to use different computers at different locations, well... it's still obvious that his?her? work was in no way popular, and had mysteriously acquired over 40 votes overnight, which just about screams, 'I'm cheating!!!'. The question is why anybody would attempt something so stupid that (1) is a blatantly obvious attempt to cheat one's way into winning, (2) screams, 'I want attention!' and (3) is only going to make him/her vastly unpopular (or very likely result in suspension or a ban) the minute their identity is revealed after the voting ends. FFS, is winning that limited Japanese edition of the last game all that important? or is it just winning for the sake of winning? Does he really think that his work is so great, even in the absence of votes to support this, that he feels justified in rallying for support or voting for his own submission? or is this some kind of twisted compensation for an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy?

Down to vote-riggers!

Amen to that. At least when it is so blatant you might be able to do something about it. You will find all kinds on the Net.

Sometimes it can be quite funny, though. Ireland has a history of messing up BBC polls like "who is the greatest sportsman of the 20th Century" (A lesser known Irish footballer got that prize), or "What was the greatest song of the 20th Century" (Won by the execrable Wolfe Tone song "A nation once again").

Well, is there any way to get the, I dunno, the judges to check into this? This is BS at it's ugliest!

Oh yeah...come play RS sometime soon. I've upped my levels quite a bit lately and got into the White Knights! And I can bake potatoes now! Haha! And make cream, butter, and cheese!

What's annoying me even more is that the idea seems to have spread. There seems to be another vote-rigger messing around with the poll, to the extent that those who really deserve to win (those top two guys - they really did excellent work) are now in third and fourth place). While Guy #1's artwork was mediocre, Guy #2's is utterly execrable, with no discernible merit. And what's more... that vote-rigging thing seems to be working for Guy #1 because it's been gathering new votes. Although, of course, I don't know if they're from phony accounts or if people came in, saw the number of votes it had 'gotten' and thought, okay I'll vote for the most popular one.

Reprehensible. Utterly reprehensible.

@Madman: Um... you know... I'm giving up that game. What with the language project and Thief (I just bought it), I barely have any non-music time left.

For the love of Magrathea....you've been playing with that anagram maker a tad too long.
Anyway...YOU CAN NEVER GIVE UP RUNESCAPE!! You know it is an addiction!
But....if you really don't want to play, can I use your account? If anything I can up your stats a bit and if you decide to play again, tada! Level 87 with dragon armour!

I've recently become addicted to an RPG. I haven't played a MUD type since the old BBS days. When a friend told me about this one I had to try it.

Have you heard of Kingdom of Loathing?

I've just started this last week and am still learning the ropes.

Since I haven't started in CHAT and just dabbled on the forums it hasn't been too time devouring yet.

So far I think it's brilliant.

Dale, I was gonna *give* you my account anyway. The password is the name of my computer, followed by the last five digits of my cellphone number. No spaces in between. And yes, I can give up Runescape. You just watch me. 'Thief' RULEZ!!!

(@CZ)

You know, I was wondering just who in space 'Fred Calimari' was... until I went to the userpage and saw that it was Count Zero's. Ya got me there. You dressing up for Halloween, or is this gonna be permanent? Sorry... but I keep thinking - squid.

(Back to Dale)

I've been playing with the anagram generator for too long, huh? Well, we'll see about that.

Anagrams based on your name:

Psychoanal mud jerk
Joy and much sparkle
Jumpy, naked scholar
Napalm-shocked jury
Junk alarmed psycho!
Joy! hacker and lumps
Damn! Lousy chap. Jerk!
Moldy junk, sharp ace
Joy! Dump clean shark
Jokes and lumpy char
Oh my! jackals up nerd!
Joy! naked rump. Clash!
J-shaped... lucky Roman!
Joy, lame chap's drunk
Plucky, sad major hen
Roach jumps nakedly


...You were saying, Dale?

I don't remember your mobile number.

I'll, er, just email ya about that. (Jump naked scholar? WTF?)