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
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Hysterics7787 ago
Can't help but notice u/FrostyPuppy on that list, but not the other accounts associated with whoever that user was? There were at least eight accounts that were associated with FrostyPuppy. @PeaceSeeker did an amazing job of highlighting those various accounts. https://voat.co/v/ReportSpammers/2941895
I'm also noticing that several of those accounts seemed to post in the same subverses, specifically the various "Shitposter" accounts were posting to subverses that seemed to be used only by @ExpertShitposter and his friends, specifically v/ShitpostersTavern and while that's not exactly evidence of anything, it's interesting to note either way.
I'm assuming that banning their alts was more or less a warning to the actual users? Because it's pretty clear from where I'm standing who operates these accounts. What, nearly 25% - 50% of all banned accounts today have some variety of association to v/SoapBoxBanHammer and that's just a coincidence?
Honestly though, I'm really glad to see this. I've had a lot of doubts about Voat over the years because I've seen a lot of strange behavior allowed to go on with hardly anyone calling it out. It's nice to see A.) Some of my suspicions substantiated and B.) Something being done about it. I genuinely feel like I owe you an apology @Puttitout for having questioned you fairly consistently in my time spent here -- however like I always try to explain, questioning someone doesn't necessarily indicate lack of respect. I think skepticism is a good default, especially in our current society where people can have their lives ruined for saying fairly mild stuff. I've always tried to express that if everything is as you say it is, Putt, that you've done a damned good job.
PuttItOut ago
You don't have to apologize to me for anything. Ever. I don't hold grudges and my memory is short. :)
This pass was the low hanging fruit. We will be examining the more sofisticated manipulation soon.