The Voting System (FACTS)

I was visiting an online game website a few days ago. It was an online football game. On the website is a forum, and within that forum I noticed that the webmaster was vigorously defending the games system. Persons using the website had complained continually about how the game was cheating them. In particular the tactics stating that the 3D game screen was all random and whatever tactic or players they chose would make any difference to the game itself.

The webmaster who had remained silent on the topic was eventually forced to speak and defend the system stating that the players and the tactics did make a difference and proved his point beyond any doubt. However a simple case of in one ear and out the other from the website visitors and they still ranted on about it.

So where does this story lead in relation to the voting system at remix64? Well quite simply it’s down to the scepticism that was evident on the football website and how the same scepticism is being shown right here at remix64. I’ve also found myself justifying and defending the voting system that our visitors constantly pre-judge and examine without knowing what is really happening. I’ve found many times that our visitors have said what they think is happening within the voting system and often getting themselves tied up into knots when often what they think is happening is far from the realistic truth.

So lets just take a look at it for a moment and try to believe what I say. Remix64 has always based itself on fairness and honesty. So if I say there isn’t a problem, then there really isn’t… ok?

Now at the present time we allow self-voting. Many of the musicians who vote for themselves do it honestly and fairly, some even are very critical of themselves are actually vote there tunes lower than many of the listeners of their work. Very admirable practice I think. Over rating your own work is the biggest problem within the voting system at remix64. Though these votes make little if any difference to the outcome and the overall rating. So at remix64 we don’t take this to be a problem as it really makes no difference to the overall vote. Although on a personal level I feel that people who over rated their own work are only fooling themselves and not fooling anyone else, especially not the system.

I like this musician, he could release shit on a stick and I’d still give it an outstanding vote….Well it may happen from time to time, but that’s life isn’t it. A favourite musician or a close friend may get a vote that is higher than what they deserve. It’s a rare practice, but one we take seriously. If there is a continual pattern and proven pro voting then ofcourse we’ll remove these votes and warn the voter about his activities. We have indeed noticed a case of this once before when we noticed that IP’s came from a similar source. On investigation it was found that votes were being cast by the musicians friends in a 30+ strong company. We acted and we warned the perpetrator that this must stop and his votes and the other votes we subsequently removed.

Personally this is the most annoying type of vote. Fortunately I have yet to witness any vote of this nature, or at least a proven pattern of anti votes. I can with all honesty quash any persons concerned on this matter. If it would happen then we would act and remove his membership of remix64 instantly.

So how do we know if someone is abusing his vote?

Well we have two tools to help us do this…

This allows us to see how a person as voted and his history of voting, what he’s voted for, and how he’s voted. It’s a very good tool for picking up cheaters.

The Detailed voting tool allows us to how the votes we cast for a particular tune, which voted for it, how, they voted. This is very good for picking up strange votes. If we then use the voting behaviour tool in conjunction with this tool we can summarise patterns of voting and see if there is anything suspicious.

Depending on what severity of abuse we may just remove the vote/votes cast by a cheater. Firstly we’d always contact the voter to give him a chance to defend himself. In the most severe of cases then we’d remove his account and prevent him from voting on remix64 again. We haven’t to this day removed one persons account.

Yes, before you come up with any unrealistic notions about our system please contact us at remix64. If you feel something that isn’t right then you can help yourself and us by talking to us, we will investigate the matter and act if needed.

Remix64 is proud to have the voting system; it’s all part of the fun. We pride ourselves in the way we run not just the voting system, but the website in itself. We also pride ourselves in keeping any abusers out of the picture before it becomes a problem. The voting system is fair; we make sure of it. Also remember how votes can change percentages quite drastically in the early days of voting. As more votes come through it does begin to even itself out more realistically. Just 10 votes normally paints a good picture.

Remember if you have a problem, talk to us. We are here to help 😊