Today we banned vote manipulators and reset their votes. As cache expires, the accounts targeted will have their point totals adjusted appropriately.
You will likely recognize many of the names now on the ban list. Some I have mixed feelings about as I considered them fun to have around or an asset to Voat as a whole, but objectively, there was no question as to their abuse and manipulation, and for this reason we had no choice but to respond to all abuse with the ban hammer.
@Cynabuns and I have finalized a new system for more efficient processing of vote manipulation bans and going forward we will be reviewing manipulation more regularly. We don't plan on allowing the hammer to gather dust any longer.
We did not send warnings today like we usually do for those in the gray area. If we come across your name again, you will be banned. Fair warning. It's not worth it.
If you feel you have been targeted by vote manipulation please PM me so I can research as we are dealing with a mountain of data when reviewing bans.
To those banned:
I personally don't judge your actions, but you know as well as I do what you were doing. Vote manipulation can not continue going unchecked and for the sake of integrity you got the hammer. If you want to create a new account and forgo the manipulation, you are welcome back. If not, I'll ban you again (and again and again). The thing you don't realize is when I ban you, I am resetting your votes against your target(s), so there is no point in continuing with these ways.
P.S. Now vote manipulators get a shiny new badge so everyone knows that they've been bad little goats. :)
P.P.S. The ban reasons in the ban log are wonky because if a user had multiple infractions, we only used the first description. In addition, the target in the description may be the banned user (which doesn't make sense) as many of these bans resulted in both users (vote farmers) being banned and the code simply reused the same description for each ban.
Banned user log:
https://voat.co/log/banned/user
view the rest of the comments →
kneo24 ago
Disappoimted to see @draaaak on the list, but it is what it is.
ExpertShitposter ago
Same. Didn't expect that.
Nosferatjew ago
I'm disappointed too, as I never violated the rules of the site.
kneo24 ago
SGIS was hit with this a while back. It appears Putt just targeted low hanging fruit that looked like anything SGIS was doing. I would like to believe you didn't engage in any of that. Maybe it might be helpful to ping Putt or send him a message.
Nosferatjew ago
I've sent Putt a message. I'll send you more on that privately.
MadWorld ago
It is hard to play fair, when you know shills have numerous accounts that are used to manipulate vote and create narrative. Your use of multiple accounts to target specific user is, in a very limited way, a form consensus.
I believe that we should not use multiple accounts to manipulate votes. What we should do is expose those accounts, archive the evidence, if possible, and report them for further investigation. If it is found guilty, then those accounts will be banned. Another way to look at this situation is, instead of going through someone's comment history and downvoting all those comments, you only need to catch a fragment of reasonable proof and report it :-).
Sometimes it helps to define the boundaries that you are not willing to cross and stick to those boundaries when your thought process is unclear...
Welcome back!
kneo24 ago
The one thing that causes users to retaliate against the shills is poor administrative over sight. If you're not going to be around to run the prison, expect the prisoners to run it. This doesn't make anyone's actions right, but it should hardly be surprising that it happens at all.
If this just ends up being a one time deal of account bannings, it's going to happen again and again.
redpilldessert ago
Perhaps you can be allowed a second chance if you ask nicely?
ratsmack ago
And what unwritten rule would that be?
Nosferatjew ago
The site rules are posted clearly in the user agreement, linked In the footer of every page of the site, and none of those rules have anything to do with "voat manipulation".
ratsmack ago
Read this slowly and carefully:
Do you see the "... or for any other reason we choose ..." statement... just pay attention next time.
Nosferatjew ago
Yup, I've always known about that. Still no mention of "voat manipulation" or alt usage.
ratsmack ago
It doesn't need to be mentioned, just play fair.
Nosferatjew ago
Fair would be warning users before banning them when they're in violation of unposted rules.
ratsmack ago
I believe no warning is the best choice for Putt... you knew what you were doing, and you knew it cheating the system.
Nosferatjew ago
That's where you're wrong. I followed the posted rules of the site, 100%.
Laurentius_the_pyro ago
You 100% knew that what you were doing was wrong.
Wahaha ago
Which doesn't matter. If it's not explicitly forbidden it's allowed. I don't even think making alts to upvoat farm or whatever is morally wrong or whatever. I don't do it because it's annyoing work not worth the effort.
Nosferatjew ago
Nothing I did violated the posted site rules. So, no, I didn't do anything wrong... I bet you don't even know what I did with those accounts.
ratsmack ago
All you can do at this point is cry in your pillow while trying to justify what you were doing... for all the good that will do.
Nosferatjew ago
Still didn't break the rules. And don't expect me to go anywhere, I'm still going to expose and eliminate the shills on this site. Banning 3 of my accounts won't stop me from hunting them.
ratsmack ago
I hope you don't go anywhere... just continue coming and joining in on the fun with the rest of us here. :)
Nosferatjew ago
That's all I ever did.... that and helping to solve the shill problem so that we could all continue having said fun.
zyklon_b ago
follow me around and i will upvote u